[7] Cosmopolitanism and Patriotism, Boston Review 19:5 (October-November 1994).
[8] After all, there are always people like me willing to spice up a dull world literarily . . . and perhaps in other ways, too.
[9] I'm deliberately leaving out of here the cosmopolitanism which would be justified, or at least theoretically justifiable, if people did actually reincarnate. This, of course, would presuppose that upon reincarnation we cross societal lines rather than, say, my soul having to wait, a la Druze, for another Kratman baby to be born so that I can inhabit it. It also presupposes that, unlike Hinduism, where the boundaries between men are explicit in birth, reincarnation is purely random. I know of no significant form of cosmopolitanism that has its basis in reincarnation. Such a justification would, in any case, be highly speculative.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Interestingly, there's a draft declaration at the United Nations, the United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Article 7 of which decries, among other things, "cultural genocide," to include, "Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities." I'd like to see that adopted, with a couple of definitions, and some criminal liability attached. Why? Well, if we define indigenous to include native-born, as we certainly might, then we could charge and try all those people who insist on forcibly inflicting upon our children foreign culture and values in place of our own for "Cultural Genocide." Be a hoot, wouldn't it?
[12] I am indebted to Professor Sam Huntington's Who Are We, Simon and Schuster, 2004, for this little tidbit.
[13] By the way, I don't mean here to insult Juan Robles, the MS-13 drug runner and assassin, nor his organization, by invidious comparison to, say, Ford or Microsoft. At least Juan has loyalty to something beyond money and genes. And MS-13, at least, can generate loyalty that is not merely bought and paid for.
[14] "If smarts were people, Lee Harris would be China." –Jonah Goldberg
[15] Lee Harris, The Cosmopolitan Illusion, Policy Review, April/May 2003. Other things have, too: religion, region, sect and race, for example. They all draw circles that the nation has often been able to surmount.
[16] For an equally good, and perhaps better, example, consider the break-up of India following the end of the British Raj caused that that peerless cosmopolitan, Gandhi.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Though a cynical man, which of course I am not, can hardly help but note the potential for Anthropocentric (man-made) Global Warming to fill this need for an external threat to draw people together. It would be paranoid to say this is the motive. It is not paranoid to note how very convenient AGW is.
[19] See, e.g., the French. For that matter, see ,e.g. Europe.
[20] There's a lesson in there, I think, about how any form of cosmopolitanism must ultimately deal with those who do not accept its teachings.
THE END
For more great books visit
http://www.webscription.net