Judson Cox, December 8, 2003

There has always been inequality among cultures; one culture discovers a new skill that allows it to dominate its neighbors militarily and achieve greater productivity, the other is conquered. Over time, inferior cultures adopt the ways of superior cultures and the superior cultures incorporate the redeeming qualities of others. This merging of cultures results in ever advancing societies greater than the sum of their parts. The history of human advancement has been a bloody affair.

It has become fashionable to claim that all cultures are equal. It is a romantic notion of noble savages, much like the desire to preserve endangered species. Cultures fall due to inferiority - to preserve them is to undo societal progress. When you realize how far humanity has come, and how much to the better, you quickly abandon such romanticism. When Muhammad Ali returned from his first boxing match in Africa, a reporter asked him what he thought of his ancestral homeland. Ali replied, " Thank God my grand-daddy got on that boat!" Ali had seen Africa's dehumanizing poverty, internecine war, brutal dictatorships, rampant disease and vital slave trade.

My heritage is predominately Irish. Before Saint Patrick civilized Ireland, it was a land of warring tribes, who practiced human sacrifice and slavery. It was devoid of literacy, mathematics and science. I play Celtic music and know hundreds of folk tales by memory; however, I would not wish to live in ancient Ireland. Even Saint Patrick went there, for the first time, only because he was captured as a slave! Ireland's is a sad tale of conquest by more advanced cultures, but no reasonable person would wish to undo the progress conquest brought. The same is true of my other ancestors: English, French, German and Cherokee - all have benefited from conquest by superior societies.

Western civilization found its apex in America due to our Constitutional rights. Chief among these were property rights. The individual owned himself, his land, his possessions, his means of production and the fruits of his labor; he had the right to bear arms to protect his property and with this self determination, he had religious freedom, freedom of association and a representative government. The American was not a peasant, slave or serf, ultimately owned by a king - he owned himself and could do with himself as he pleased. This unique code of law brought the ambitious, from all over the world. In America, they could realize their dreams, they could make use of the knowledge their ancestors had sacrificed to gain. Within a few generations, America had advanced the arts and sciences further than any other culture on earth.

Due to multiculturalism, Americans are taught to embrace their ancestral heritage and identify it more than with America. Americanism is portrayed as a negative force. Americans are breaking into tribes of peoples, each vying for dominance. We are forced to become multi-lingual and our arts and sciences, the culmination of thousands of years of knowledge, is derided as the worthless writings of "dead white males." This has resulted in social promotion for students who don't know the material, remedial classes in college and illiteracy rates approaching pre-Civil War levels!

Instead of aspiring to greater levels of prosperity and enlightenment, we are embracing cultures that our ancestors fled. We are moving backward toward barbarism and thugishness. Even Spike Lee and Sista Souljah (individuals who hate white/European culture) have given speeches warning of the negative values promulgated through hip hop/gangsta culture. These values encourage criminal behavior and denigrate women; the popularity of such music shows the direction we are heading as a nation. How long will it be before America follows Canada's lead in incorporating Islamic law into its legal system? How long before Americans are squatting in the dirt and practicing slavery like the Taliban?

There is no master race, no genetically superior people; there are superior cultures. There are those who practice slavery and squat in the dirt and those who build space shuttles and computers. Right now, there is a great debate over manufacturing jobs going overseas and the resulting unemployment. Companies are finding better educated people in the third world whose wages are not increased by regulations, unions and taxes levied to pay for myriad social programs. The dirt squatters and the computer makers are changing places, and we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Judson Cox is a political columnist from the mountains of North Carolina. He is quickly gaining recognition as one of the most popular and influential voices of his generation. As a college student, and a young entrepreneur, he has a unique perspective on matters of politics, economics and culture.

Copyright © 2003 Judson Cox