(4/8/01) I have had to spend my entire life listening to people tell me that in America the great taboo subject is race, and that no one is willing to discuss this issue or it's implications. I've also had to spend my entire life listening to people talk about race and it's implications. Very often they would start their little speeches by saying, "no one ever talks about race," and then would go on to talk about race for an hour. There exists in this country an entire industry devoted to nothing more than talking about race and yet this race industry itself insists that "no one ever talks about race."
Race is not now and has never been a taboo subject. It has always been talked about and talked about without hesitation or fear. There has never been a single period in this country's history where race was the subject of self or institutional censorship. Americans have had more freedom to discuss this subject than any other in our history and have made full use of this freedom. We always have been, and are today a society comfortable and uninhibited in our discussion of race.
The real taboo is not race, but culture. This is what is forbidden, this is what no one talks about. Specifically no one talks about the fact that culture = income. By this I mean that people are intimidated from talking about whether economic success is culturally determined. It might also seem that culture = crime rate is also taboo, but I am convinced that this a single taboo regarding whether or not culture can be better or worse, more effective or less effective. When the taboo on culture = income is lifted the taboo on culture = crime rate will simultaneously disappear.
By culture I mean the personality of a group or race. As the individual has a personality, so does the group and culture is the best word for it. Anyone who's traveled is familiar with the feeling that the great cities have their own personalities and one comes to miss these cities as one would miss a friend because it is the spirit and personality of the city which creates the longing. To reduce culture to the arts and crafts of a society is to create a castrated view of culture and humanity only suitable for the ritual activities of those who have created a new religion based on the denial of real humanity.
The taboo against speaking of culture is enforced by replacing culture as an explanation for economic success with power. The dominant ideology states that culture is irrelevant to performance and that all variations in income are due to variations in power. Anyone who denies this is not referred to as a culturalist, but as a racist who is trying to maintain white America's grip on power and therefore wealth. The rebuttal to this claim obvious: Jews and Asians make more than whites. Whites make 5% more than average and Jews and Asians make 55% and 27% more than average. This so clearly disproves the justifying ideology of the American elite that it's only response is censorship and the very mention of any fact which proves the importance of culture is met with overwhelming hostility and force.
The enforcement of this taboo is the most successful in the history of the world. It is absolutely impossible to find a society where criticism of the justifying ideology of the ruling elite was more successfully eliminated than in today's America. No communist, fascist, or dictatorial government ever eliminated dissent the way today's America has. Our society has done what Stalin, Hitler and Mao could not do.
The success of this program of mass censorship is based on it's success in promoting self-censorship and in getting the average American to support this censorship in the name of fighting racism. It is by equating the fight against the idea that cultures may be better or worse than others with the fight against the idea that races may be better or worse that the ruling elite has gotten us all to make our own chains.
White Americans hate racism more than any other group of people in world history and have made more sacrifices to end racism than any other group. The average white American has a great desire to end all racism and to end all the suffering in the world. This goodness has been used as weapon against these people by equating culturalism with racism. By insisting that culturalism is racism the ruling elite has been able to use the average American's own hatred of racism as a tool to promote racism itself. For if we state that culture is irrelevant to success than we have no choice but to demonize successful races. In a world where no two groups have the same income we must either be tolerant culturalist or intolerant racists.
The Left has used America's hatred racism to promote racism by insisting that culture and race cannot be separated. By insisting that the value placed on the culture is the value placed on the race the Left has used America's own goodness to force any discussion of culture in to the back alleys. We should consider each race of equal value as we should consider each person of equal value before God. We should not consider each culture of equal value as we should not consider the personality of a saint equal to that of a criminal. As some of us have personalities which need improving in some areas, so do some cultures. To deny this is inevitably to deny the existence of free will. This is acceptable to the ruling elite for they imagine themselves as being a small island of free will in a sea of lesser beings needing to be led. One cannot believe in universal humanity and universal free will without believing that some of us will use this freedom poorly. In order to deny that some cultures make poor choices we must deny the possibility of making any choices.
The solution is simple. We must defy the elite and speak what we know to be true. We must cease manufacturing our own chains. This means stating clearly and openly that some cultures are not as good at succeeding as others and that those groups must use their ability to choose to make their cultures better. Doing so will mean bringing down a torrent of abuse on ourselves, but the more of us who do it the lighter the burden. The facts regarding the connection between culture and success must be spoken.
In confronting the elite we must bait them into labeling us 'culturalist'. The second the Left resorts to this they've lost. The most effective tactic of the Left has been enforced silence. The second Liberals begin labeling others as culturalists they will have to admit the issue exists. Any discussion of culture at all will lead to the destruction of their ideology and no one should shy away from being called a culturalist. Each time they call you that it strikes a blow against their own system.
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The purpose of this site is to try and get the world to start dealing with the interaction between culture and success in a mature and intelligent manner. Poll: Do you believe culture influences success? Yes 69.01% No 19.5% Uncertain 11.4% - Newest Articles - Per capita income figures for the countries and regions of the world. While rarely read this is Gandhi's most important written work. The traditional explanation for the noticeable differences in income across cultures was to say that they differed in their level of civilization. - Categories - - All Articles - Per capita income figures for the countries and regions of the world. While rarely read this is Gandhi's most important written work. The traditional explanation for the noticeable differences in income across cultures was to say that they differed in their level of civilization. This 1920 work by Roger Babson is a classic with in its genre. It promotes the traditional, pre-1960s explanation for the connection between success and culture. Current events in Zimbabwe are giving us an unprecedented opportunity to measure and judge the effect of white settlement and colonization in Africa. Average US Incomes by Race, Ethnicity and Religion. Max Weber's claim that Protestantism is more conducive to success than Catholicism and that Calvinism is in particular more successful is widely repeated and rarely examined. We need to recognize that culture is the personality of a group or race and we must see culture and having seen it, make it a work of art. The moral justification for welfare is supposed to be that we are temporarily helping out our fellow man through a rough stretch of road or helping the disabled permanently. If it is to become a system for continually transferring wealth from one group to another the people behind this change owe us an explanation. The great taboo of our age is not speaking about race, but speaking about culture. Bourgeoisie is more than just a term of abuse used by the Left, it refers to a real people who led real lives. Selections from the Federal Outlook Selections from a 1960's Rhodesian newspaper. How Africa Underdeveloped Africa Africa is the poorest place in the world. Why? Will Famine Come to Zimbabwe? The end of commercial farming in Zimbabwe could plunge the country into famine. The Tragedy of the Zimbabwe Commons Communally owned property always has and always will suffer from the 'tragedy of the commons' problem. Band Aid Africa recieves $15 billion a year in aid. Is it helping? Culture is to the group what personality is to the individual. Civilization is to the group what enlightenment is to the individual. All groups have cultures, but not all cultures are civilized. If all cultures were civilized than the term would have no descriptive quality. Civilization does have a descriptive quality and it is something worth achieving and defending. Per capita income figures for the countries and regions of the world. While rarely read this is Gandhi's most important written work. The traditional explanation for the noticeable differences in income across cultures was to say that they differed in their level of civilization. This 1920 work by Roger Babson is a classic with in its genre. It promotes the traditional, pre-1960s explanation for the connection between success and culture. Average US Incomes by Race, Ethnicity and Religion. We need to recognize that culture is the personality of a group or race and we must see culture and having seen it, make it a work of art. The moral justification for welfare is supposed to be that we are temporarily helping out our fellow man through a rough stretch of road or helping the disabled permanently. If it is to become a system for continually transferring wealth from one group to another the people behind this change owe us an explanation. The great taboo of our age is not speaking about race, but speaking about culture. |