BARNETT EN FUEGO
Not quite as thermonuclear as the post he once lobbed at Robert Kaplan but a rather feisty Dr. Barnett nonetheless.
Also, first newsletter in a while ( Steff Hedenkamp is now filling the large shoes of Critt in the webmastering capacity).
January 5th, 2006 at 7:30 pm
Dr. Barnett starts off strong, but he ends up being as old-thinking as those State-centric theorists he criticizes.
He says
Wow! Somebody get a lynching party together. We better hang some of them dark-skinned pagans before they start screwing our women! You there–start having some babies for Der Fatherland!
I mean, where do they get dinosaurs like this? And why, in our fear about others not like us, do we reach for such racists?
The issue isn’t skin color. It was was, Christian groups wouldn’t be agitating against the (lighter skinned) Sudanese government’s persecution of (darker skinned) Sudanese Christians. It’s not race.
Of course there is cultural agitprop. But if Barnett thinks he is fighting old-school racists, he’s just weakening himself. Racism is a modern innovation and can be dealt with one way, xenophobia is ancient and requires different weapons.
And with the fatherland reference, he may have just invoked the reductio ad hitlerum Godwin’s Law
Last, he’s right on the need for immigration, but citing obvious pro-capital special interest like the Chamber of Commerce (who I generally admire) doesn’t do the need any justice.
Dan tdaxp
January 5th, 2006 at 7:40 pm
What is his counter arguement? Calling his opponent racist? wow, that’s original. He raised no points to counter the arguements raised in the other articles. Globalization may in fact be “winning,” but it seems to me that globablization is in large part responsible for the current mess we find ourselves in.
Barnabus
January 5th, 2006 at 10:24 pm
I have to agree with Barnabus. Globalization is responsible for the present mess, because it created the present world. Just as we can thank the magic cloud of globalization for weakening states we dislike (the USSR, etc), the rise of al Qaeda would have been impossible without it.
Further, Barnett is generally sympathetic to “go slow” cries, and “the engine cannot move faster than the caboose” was one of the themes for BFA. But here you have the go-slow immigration crowd called racists.
Dan tdaxp
January 6th, 2006 at 4:28 am
All right, I thought Tom was being sarcastic and dismissive with Steyn but since Steyn’s piece was only a re-hash of Buchanan’s _The Death of the West_ I’m not sure a huge investment of time was warranted.
Europe’s basic problem is Socialism which the Europeans are immersed in and their ghetto Muslim immigrants are not ( though they accept the handouts they do not embrace the State that feeds them or its values). Junk the Socialist policies and Europe’s demographics will regain their natural curve. Immerse and assimilate the Muslim immigrants in the asinine Socialist mainstream and their birthrate will fall to European norms. Turks for example, would really like to be German citizens rather than gastarbeiters but the path to German citizenship isn’t exactly smooth.
January 8th, 2006 at 2:09 pm
Is anyone in in a position of power or influence in Germany, France, Spain, etc etc looking at these citizenship processes and suggesting some reform and streamlining?
January 8th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
Hi Eddie,
That’s a good question. I’m not sure where Merkel stands on that issue. Chirol might know. Or Collounsbury.