The Blog

2021-

2021-10-21 d
[America is] GOING TO THE DOGS IV

A dialogue on Israel and Nationalism.

Fox: “As I was saying, America is a great country precisely because it takes in the chaff of the world, those folks the rest of the world views as disposable and has, as we can never forget, all too often attempted to dispose of.”

Hedgehog: “I see where you’re coming from, but I wonder if you would apply the requirement for openness to Israel?”

Fox: “Don’t be ridiculous. Israel could not survive as Israel if it accepted mass immigration.”

Hedgehog: “I agree with you. But doesn’t this logic apply to America as well? Isn’t mass immigration dissolving our traditional social patterns and destroying our traditional cultural core?”

Fox: “Now I understand why you’ve become confused. You fail to properly distinguish between two-types of nations: the universalist nation and the particularist nation. The United States, my friend, is a universalist nation. It is dedicated to a proposition creed. Ethnicity, religion, traditional social patters and culture are not important to the universalist nation. Every man may be an American if he can nod along to the Gettysburg Address. Israel, on the other hand, is a particularist nation: it is the nation of the Jewish people. As such, ethnicity, religion, habits and culture are absolutely vital to its survival.”

Hedgehog: “So America must be open because it is universalist and Israel must be closed because it is particularist? What if America decides it doesn’t want to be universalist anymore, or that universalism isn’t working out as planned?”

Fox: “These are destructive thoughts, I’m afraid. Since America is a creedal nation, rejecting the creed is the Path to National Suicide. You must remain universalist or perish.”

Hedgehog: “Uhm. Okay. But what about Germany or France or Britain or Spain? These are not universalist nations, are they? Aren’t they the nations of the Germans, French, British and Spanish? Yet you’ve told me that they too must remain open.”

Fox: “They are particularist nations, of course. But they have abused their particularism. By expelling, killing and persecuting minorities within their nations, they have lost the privileges ordinarily accorded to particularist nations. They must now become universalist nations because they have proven to be too dangerous as particularist nations.”

Hedgehog: “This is quite complex but I think I understand the rule. There is a two-prong test for being allowed to maintain a particular national identity. First, one cannot be a universalist nation. Second, one may not have misbehaved as a particularist nation.”

Fox: “You’ve got it!”

Hedgehog: “I suppose I do but I’m finding it hard to think of any nations that may be closed.”

Fox: “As I said at the start, Israel may be closed. And perhaps some islands in the south Pacific.”
(source)

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