sep 07 VFR
Mark Steyn touches on the most consequential fact of the modern world: that Western nations no longer discriminate among prospective immigrants on the basis of national origin, race, and religion. He writes:
Forty years ago, it was accepted in Canada, the United States and Australia that sovereign nations had the right to operate discretionary immigration policies--that's to say, being under no obligation to admit anyone, they could pick and choose whom they did. Today, it's equally widely accepted that discretionary immigration policies are discriminatory and indefensible: if you're going to let people in, then all 200 or so nations on the face of the earth are equally valid--Slovenes and Saudis, Japanese and Jamaicans. To orient immigration policy to favour certain sources would be racist.At issue is not just Canada's immigration policy but America's, which under the 1965 Immigration Reform Act accepts immigrants on an equal basis from every nation on earth. It is a policy which tacitly assumes that America has no cultural, ethnic, religious, racial, or civilizational character worth preserving--a policy which ultimately means that society itself does not matter, that only the autonomous individual matters.I wonder how long these pieties can endure....
