Two Californias
A major theme of the European right, exemplified by Geert Wilders, is that Islam does not mesh with European values—that it promotes political despotism based on fear, the subjugation of women, and a fatalistic world view that is inimical to economic progress. (Wilders’ essay on Islam is well worth reading. I was particularly struck by his description of the arrival of the Egyptian President Mubarak at Sharm-el-Sheikh in 1982: “I remember the fear which suddenly engulfed the town when it was announced that Mubarak was coming on an unexpected visit; I can still see the cavalcade of black cars on the day of his visit and feel the almost physical awareness of fear, like a cold chill on that very hot day in Summer.” Political despotism indeed.)
I thought of that when reading Victor Davis Hansen’s National Review article “Two Californias.” He describes a rural California that exists in a parallel universe to the coastal cities—indeed to all of White America. Decades of immigration and White dispossession have resulted in a Mexican sub-culture that has simply transplanted itself from Mexico to California. Spanish is the first language, and the schools (among the worst in the state) are almost completely Mexican. The small White farmers have been displaced by mechanized agriculture and the White working class has seen their manufacturing jobs shipped overseas. Read more