The Reactionary Utopian

Spelling It Out

September 28, 2006

[Originally published by the Universal Press Syndicate, December 5, 1996]

Another corporation has been found guilty of bigotry — that is, practicing

Today's column is "Spelling It Out" -- Read Joe's columns the day he writes them.

anthropology without a license.

American Airlines had printed a pilot-training manual in which it took candor to the point of insanity. A section of the manual titled “Survival in Latin America” cautions its pilots that Latin American passengers “expect not to depart on time. In fact, it’s rumored that they will call in a false bomb threat to delay a departure if they think they’ll be late.” Furthermore, the guide added, “They like a drink in the plane prior to takeoff. Unruly and/or intoxicated passengers are not infrequent.”

Well, wouldn’t you know. This manual fell into the hands of a lawyer, and moments later it was being broadcast on every radio station in the Western Hemisphere.

Within hours American Airlines issued an apology. “We deeply regret ... American Airlines holds our Latin customers in the highest regard ... demonstrate our commitment ...” et cetera.

Let me stress that I find the pilots’ training manual deplorable. All cultures are pretty much alike. No ethnic group gets drunk or rowdy or shows up late with any greater frequency than any other ethnic group. In fact, the whole human race is basically Swedish.

There. Am I covered? Well, just to be safe, let me add that there is nothing distinctive, let alone admirable, about the Protestant culture of North America. If there is a bad ethnic group — and of course there isn’t — but if there is, it’s white people, especially those of Northwestern European stock. They possess one ethnic trait: bigotry, racism, prejudice, whatever you want to call it.

[Breaker quote for Spelling It Out: The missing achievement]

[Breaker quote for Spelling It Out: The missing achievement]

If it weren’t for the slavery and discrimination white people practiced — invented, actually, since these crimes were unknown on earth until they came along — other peoples would also have invented automobiles, computers and moon rockets. The Aztecs, Zulus, and Eskimos would have built their own Empire State Buildings, possibly with indoor plumbing. Only the white man’s repression prevented other races (and the white man’s own women) from emulating these achievements.

Such, at any rate, is the constant implication of the constant white-bashing, alias liberalism, that has become the official creed of this country. Nobody spells it out this way, because it’s too obviously silly. But we’re invited to assume that the only reason other cultures don’t match the performance of the Protestant culture is that the Protestants won’t let them.

After all, American culture is Protestant. That’s both its strength and its weakness. The anti-authoritarian core of this culture has released tremendous scientific and technological power. But it has also prevented the culture from having strong cohesive or defensive powers. Its life span is probably destined to be as brief as it has been brilliant.

Cultural Protestants (who may profess any religion, or none) don’t believe in themselves. They believe in “mankind.” The moment you accuse them of bigotry, they fold. That’s the last sin they want to be guilty of, and they’ll go to absurd lengths to prove they aren’t prejudiced. So it’s easy to make them feel guilty even when they’re innocent. Naturally, making them feel guilty has become the nation’s No. 1 racket.

The cultural Protestant feels guilty even when he notices that other cultures are different. He is deeply embarrassed by racial differences that seem to contradict the ideal of a homogenous “mankind.” Even “mankind” has become “humankind” lately, because sexual differences are also embarrassing. Religious differences embarrass him too, so his religion becomes less and less religious and more and more “ecumenical.” He considers it arrogant to claim to possess “truth”; he deplores “dogma,” which is “divisive.”

Needless to say, the rest of “mankind” is cashing in on this naked, shivering Protestant conscience. Anti-discrimination laws, lawsuits, anti-white affirmative action programs, flood-tide immigration, and unremitting propaganda are gobbling up the fruits of Protestant culture and dispossessing its former proprietors. Whatever that culture produced is said to have been stolen. And the cultural Protestant can only plead guilty. His conscience forbids him to defend himself.

We hear that abject conscience speaking yet again in the American Airlines apology. This is a culture whose mighty achievements don’t include self-preservation

Joseph Sobran

Copyright © 2006 by the Griffin Internet Syndicate,
a division of Griffin Communications
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