Wednesday 23 February 2005

Pic of the day: Cats, humans and other mammals tend to come in various colors. (Screenshot from the anime Mamotte Shugogetten.)

This is not racism

I firmly believe that these people who come migrating from Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia etc, they have an inferior culture. Their culture is not worthy of the same respect as our own.

I can already hear the knee-jerk reaction in any civilized reader: "Racist! Fascist! Nazi baby murderer! Kill the heretic! Crucify! Crucify!" Which is pretty ironic, once you look at it.

There is only one human race. I think science has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the "races", as the word is used in most of the world, are purely decorative differences, like the patterns of colors in cows or goats. The genetic variation in the whole human race is less than in a family of chimps. In most species, a genetic similarity such as ours would cause fear of inbreeding. Insofar as some genetic subgroup has a slightly higher or lower intelligence than another, which cannot be explained by upbringing, the difference is less than between a random brother and sister inside any of those ethnic groups. You can't guess from how people look to how their brains work. Unless they bind themselves to it, which sadly happens from time to time.

***

Back when I was a kid, it was perfectly acceptable to adopt children of other colors and bring them up as good Norwegians. The kids were considered kinda exotic, but that was all. A speck of color. They behaved like other Norwegians and were, by and large, treated like other Norwegians. Well, they aren't treated that way anymore. This is because in the meantime, we have got an influx of people who were brought up in other parts of the world. They come here in search of safety or money or both of the above, and bring with them the way of thinking that made their birthplace unsafe and dirt poor.

That's the problem. The wealth (and health) of nations is not decided by a divine lottery. Not at all and not in the least. Many Norwegians believe that Norway is rich because of the oil in the North Sea. But many oil-exporting nations are poor and in a state of conflict, while our neighbors Sweden and Finland don't have a drop of oil and are nearly as prosperous as we. When a large multitude of people wander from one part of the world to another, such as from Britain to Australia, the standard of living and level of internal security remain roughly the same in both of them.

The reason why some nations are poor and in a state of chaos is that their culture does not enable safety and prosperity. Therefore, bringing their culture with them is bringing their problems with them. It is as in the Norwegian parable about the man who wanted to move away from a gnome, and brought with him all that was in his home. But in the moving van was also the gnome. That is to say, if you bring with you enough of your old luggage, you also bring with you your old problems.

Is a culture that considers women second class citizens, and refuses them education, worthy of respect and protection? It amazes me that the same people (leftists) who praise the inbound cultures, are the same that totally disagrees with the content of these cultures. You can't BOTH let people keep their culture AND expect them to adhere to our values. Is a culture that considers people of different religions worse than animals, worthy of respect and protection? No, it is a rotten apple and should be thrown out of the basket in all haste. Is a culture that places loyalty to family above loyalty to the law, worthy of respect and protection? No, it is a recipe for bloodshed and disaster. We had this here in Norway 1200 years ago, during the Viking age, and it wasn't really much of a golden age, not compared to now.

***

Culture has many components. To the best of my knowledge, the food traditions have no effect on people's ability to live peacefully together. (Well, unless excessive amounts of garlic are involved, and even then only the "together" part.) Clothes may have some effect, when used as symbols. But such things as gender roles, which people are hardly even aware of because they are considered laws of nature, these have a very big effect. Humility or lack thereof have a huge impact: Humility is simply a subset of realism, and any culture that thinks pride is a good thing is bound to cause trouble for itself and its surroundings. We certainly don't need more of that, it's bad enough as is. And so on and on.

If people come here with a culture that caused them trouble in the first place, they will be in trouble and cause trouble here. Regardless of the color of their skin and the length of their ears.