America: The Superior Culture

Multiculturalism is wrong and if anything, has helped the enemies of America. Now, most people probably haven’t read this far and have already sent an angry letter to the editor, but try to reserve emotions until you finish reading the article. My intent is to show that multiculturalism is flawed and that the title of my article, however shocking it might be, is completely legitimate and (gasp) correct.

In America the biggest sin in the PC realm is to suggest superiority. In fact, the word itself brings up images of racism, arrogance and ignorance. No doubt, some readers already think this of me, but with reason and logic they might get by this to actually address my points (not likely, but I can hope).

The starting point for my argument is to define multiculturalism. I believe it’s fair to characterize the multiculturalist’s standpoint as this: all cultures are equal and there exist only differences. Also, they believe that it is not fair to impose culture/values on one another since neither is superior, only different. This approach, while giving us all a warm and fuzzy feeling of equality for all, denies reality. For example, India was ruled by the British from the mid-1800s to 1945. British rule was ruthless and included suppressing all revolts, opposition and dissent. Fortunately, it was the best thing that could have happened to India. For the next part of my argument I must cite Dinesh D’Souza (liberals, keep reading please).

You see, the British imposed their culture on many aspects of Indian life, including their civil service sector, education system, business culture, legal system, military and other areas. One example of cultural imposition was the outlawing of an Indian cultural custom called “suttee.” This was the practice of Indian widows joining their deceased husbands on the funeral pyre and being burned alive in order to join their husbands in the afterlife and fulfill their roles as a wife. The British banned the custom. Now while you might say it’s obvious that it should be banned, a multiculturist might say it’s their culture, and you can’t impose your culture on them. But Taylor, you say, obviously this rare occurrence was a violation of human rights and wasn’t central to their culture. That’s fine, but what about a culture where violation of human rights is a central and accepted condition? In some cultures, and you can guess which, gays are executed, converts away from the state religion are put to death and there is no free speech.

Now I’ve only talked about British culture, but the title of my article is about American culture. For evidence you don’t need to look anywhere but at the ports of entry to our nation. Are people leaving or coming? They are overwhelmingly immigrating. In terms of patriotism and pride in American culture you don’t need to look at conservatives for this, just look at immigrants from Africa, Southeast Asia and other places. They are fiercely proud to be Americans, where even the poorest of us are fat, people get married by falling in love instead of by arranged marriages, and we actually ask children “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Just try to think about immigration in and of itself. Immigration is literally leaving your country of origin, turning your back on your country, and living in a foreign country where you are no one and no one knows you. To me this sounds like a terrible idea, but every year thousands upon thousands do it. To a multiculturalist, immigrants don’t want to accept American culture but try to preserve their own culture as much as possible. If this is true, then what reason is there to come to America since there are plenty of other countries to immigrate to? The great thing about American culture is that you can embrace it and keep your own identity. I don’t have to stop eating haggis just because I’m American, because here you can do it all, which might create a question of what exactly American culture is. To me, it comes down to liberty. Only in America do people say “sir” to their waiters. Only in America can you wear eye makeup, dress in all black and have multiple piercings and be not only tolerated, but accepted. Only in America can you literally say anything you want and nothing will happen to you (I wouldn’t recommend that in Cuba).

Now of course American culture isn’t perfect. There are many problems that we have to deal with, but we should all feel proud that we live in the best country on Earth; regardless of our political affiliations, race, gender or age, we are the freest people in the world.

Taylor Scott is an international business senior, a conservative columnist for the Mustang Daily and a member of the Cal Poly College Republicans.