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THE HIGH-MINDEDNESS OF THE BRITISH: NEW ZEALAND AND THE UNITED STATES

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I have to start off by saying that David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America 1 has shaped the way I see Ameri-can history and much else. He provides a compelling account of how the four main British-derived groups (Puritans, distressed Cavaliers, Quakers, and Scots-Irish borderers) differed and their struggle for dominance in America. To me as an evolutionist, a big part of the attraction is that Fischer roots these cultural differences in the distant past. Thus the tendencies of the two main groups, Puritans based in East Anglia and the Cavaliers in Southeast England, go back to the murky period of English prehistory. These types (Puritans relatively egalitarian, Cavaliers elitist and hierarchical) are very strong cultural differences and thus likely to be influenced by ethnic-genetic differences. Fairness and Freedom continues his comparative approach, this time comparing two different British-derived societies, New Zealand and the United States. The basic thesis is that New Zealand political culture is much more infused with " an abiding concern for fairness " (p. 14), while the U.S. is more focused on an ideology of individual freedom. Interestingly, until the mid-20th century and then doubtless because of Western influence, there are no words for fairness in languages apart from English, Danish, Norwegian, and Frisian. Moreover , the words for fair and fairness have no Greek or Latin roots, but are nevertheless traceable to an Indo-European origin where they appear only in the above group of Northern European languages (and 1 David Hackett Fischer, Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989). The Occidental Quarterly, vol. 12, no. 3, Fall 2012 76 notably excluding German). The original Indo-European word meant " to be content, " later giving rise to the Gothic fagrs, meaning pleasing to behold and often connoting blond hair and fair complexion. It eventually came to mean something that could be agreed on by most par-ties—e.g., a fair price. Unlike Albion's Seed, where the focus is on deep, long-lasting and quite possibly ethnic-genetic differences in explaining cultural variation , Fairness and Freedom provides an entirely cultural explanation for the development of a universalist sense of ethics in the West: In early ethical usage, [words for fairness] tended to operate within tribes of Britons and Scandinavians, where they applied to freemen in good standing. Women, slaves, and strangers from other tribes were often excluded from fair treatment, and they bitterly resented it. The tribal uses of fair. .. were full of historical irony. These ideas flourished on the far fringes of northwestern Europe among groups of proud, strong, violent, and predatory people who lived in hard environments, fought to the death for the means to life, and sometimes preyed on their own kin. Ideas of fairness and fair play developed as a way of keeping some of these habitual troublemakers from slaughtering each other even to the extinction of the tribe.. .. Something fundamental changed in a second stage, when the folk cultures of Brit-ain and Scandinavia began to grow into an ethic that embraced others beyond the tribe—and people of every rank and condition. This expansive tendency had its roots in universal values such as the Christian idea of the Golden Rule. That broader conception of fairness expanded again when it met the humanist ideas of the Renaissance, the universal spirit of the Enlightenment , the ecumenical spirit of the Evangelical Movement, and democratic revolutions in America and Europe. (pp. 16–17)

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When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 were passed, they were seen as triumphs of liberal reform applauded by the majority of Americans. But today, as Hugh Graham shows in Collision Course, affirmative action is foundering in the great waves of immigration from Asia and Latin America, leading to direct conflict for jobs, housing, education, and government preference programs. How did two such well-intended laws come to loggerheads? Graham argues that a sea change occurred in American political life in the late 1960s, when a system of split government—one party holding the White House, the other holding Congress—divided authority and enhanced the ability of interest groups to win expanded benefits. In civil rights, this led to a shift from nondiscrimination to the race-conscious remedies of hard affirmative action. In immigration, it led to a surge that by 2000 had brought 35 million immigrants to America, 26 million of them Asian or Latin American and therefore eligible, as “official minorities,” for affirmative action preferences. The policies collided when employers, acting under affirmative action plans, hired millions of immigrants while leaving high unemployment among inner-city blacks. Affirmative action for immigrants stirred wide resentment and drew new attention to policy contradictions. Graham sees a troubled future for both programs. As the economy weakens and antiterrorist border controls tighten, the competition for jobs will intensify pressure on affirmative action and invite new restrictions on immigration. Graham’s insightful interpretation of the unintended consequences of these policies is original and controversial. A short, focused, and even-handed narrative, it illuminates many of the issues that vex the United States today.
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MacDonald, The Culture of Critique, Chapter 7, " Jewish Involvement in Shaping U.S. Immigration Policy. " http://www.kevinmacdonald.net/CofCchap7.pdf 20 For the U.S., see MacDonald, The Culture of Critique, Chapter 7, " Jewish Involvement in Shaping U.S. Immigration Policy. " http://www.kevinmacdonald.net/CofCchap7.pdf 21 Brenton Sanderson, " The War on White Australia: A Case Study in the Culture of Critique, " The Occidental Observer. http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2012/08/the-war-on-white-australia-a- case-study-in-the-culture-of-critique-part-1-of-5/
The War on White Australia: A Case Study in the Culture of Critique
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