True North

I am getting a great lesson in what people on the left and some with weak knees on the right would teach our children today. I posted a strongly worded opinion piece on Native Americans and if I were a kid, these are the messages I would take from the responses I have received.

   1. Don’t speak up. It’s best to be quiet for fear you might offend someone.
   2. Do not have strong opinions.
   3. Don’t openly state your opinions nor should you ask anyone to debate them you.
   4. As no one can be an expert on everything, so you should defer to other people’s opinions regularly.
   5. It is better to be quiet than risk offending anyone.
   6. It doesn’t matter if your criticism is true or honest.
   7. Don’t be honest.

There are more but you get my drift. We supposedly live in a country that values free speech and the open exchange of ideas, but the reality is anything but that.

I recently committed the sin of admitting that I don’t respect Native American culture. In today’s world we are told to do the impossible and respect all cultures, regardless.

If the culture commits a disproportionate amount of crime, mostly killing members of their own culture, we are not to mention this. If a culture open admits that they want to kill all the Jews and homosexuals and has a very low opinion of women we should pretend that we didn’t hear what they said and we should ignore what they do. If there is a group that has had a long history of problems with alcoholism and drug abuse and is struggling to succeed in 2007, please ignore that and pretend that nothing is wrong.

The most insulting part is that we are supposed to suppress our personal opinions and preferences completely. If I were required to pick another culture for specific things you’d see a wide variety of preferences that just reflect my own personal opinion.

If I had to pick another culture for food and wine, it would most likely be French. If I had to pick a favorite art, it would be Russian Faberge. My cars and clothes would be Italian, my booze would be Scottish and my chocolate would be Swiss. The point is that each culture has its strong points and conversely weak points. British governance and law are excellent, their food not so much.

The other personal variable is how you value the strengths and weaknesses of a culture. I love Chinese fireworks and Japanese sushi. I am indifferent about Tibetan Buddhism and Thai food, I want no part of Cuban government, but I love their cigars.

So when I point out the flaws in a culture it doesn’t mean that the entire culture is worthless or that the proponents are racially inferior. There is no genetic trigger than makes some men and women perform ritual genital mutilation while repulsing others. Acts like this are purely a custom passed from generation to generation. There was no slave owner gene in America, no Apartheid gene in South Africa and no polygamy gene in Utah. These were cultural customs that had nothing to do with race. These customs were eliminated because the culture changed.

So when I state that not only do I see problems in a culture, but I am also indifferent to parts that others might find exciting or important, don’t dismiss it as racism or provincialism. We should all be free to say that we don’t see the same value in everything. If you have faith in independence and the individual, then you have to accept that that will include individual taste and opinion.