Foxfyre, quoting others wrote:The historical scholar Seymour Lipset put it this way: 'The histories of bilingual and bi-cultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy.
Mr. Lipset's historical "scholarship" is suspect: Canada--has an amending forumula for constitutional change which requires unanimity of the provinces, the special interests of the prairie Provinces, and of the First Nations threaten that nation as much as anyone can allege that Québec does, which it the obvious contention here--the last separation vote in that province was defeated in 1995, and no separation vote has ever come close to dissolving the Confederation; Belgium--the tensions between the Flemish and the Walloons has never threatened that nation's existence as a unitary state; Malaysia--the tensions between the Muslim majority and the minority ethnic groups has never threatened that nation's existence as a unitary state; Lebanon--Lebanon's civil war was sparked by an Israeli invasion targeting Palestinian refugee camps and the PLO, all of which had been expelled from Palestine by the Israelis, Syria subsequently invaded, and the Israelis made the Maronite Christian militias their military clients in response to the Syrian invasion. There was no threat to the existence of Lebanon as a unitary state until it had been twice invaded. Pakistan--was created as a divided state in 1947; East Pakistan became Bangladesh both because of neglect and abuse by Islamabad, and the active, military interferrence of Indira Ghandi. Prior to the 1971 war in
East Pakistan, Pakistan had never been cohesive, unitary state, and was only created as it was to provide enclaves for the Muslims of India. Cyprus was divided because the Turks invaded, and the Greeks were unable to expell them. As both of those nations are members of NATO, international diplomacy was paralyzed in reaching a solution. Nigeria's majority tribe waged war against the Biafrans--it is completely false ot have characterized that as "an ethnic rebellion." France has never been threatened as a unitary state by the Basques, or the Bretons, and the Corsicans are a people of Italian descent, who became the "property" of France as the result of the transfer of the island from Genoa to France. The Corsicans fought the Genoese, and when France took over, they fought the French. Corsicans have never threatened France's stability as a unitary nation (unless you count Napoleon, which would be a hell of a stretch).
Quote:Third, "We could make the United States a 'Hispanic Quebec' without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity
.
This is another canard, based upon a false contention that the province of Québec threatens the Canadian confederation. Once again, no vote in Québec has ever endorsed separatism.
Quote:Look at the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common language and literature; and they worshiped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic Games.
A common enemy Persia threatened their liberty. Yet all these bonds were not strong enough to over come two factors: local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions. Greece fell.
This is disingenous, and finishes with a bald-faced lie. Greece was never a unitary nation before they rose against the Turks in the 1820s. Their "disunity" in the ancient world was no different than the "disunity" of all polities then, in an age when the concept of nationalism simply did not exist. It is a lie that "Greece fell." The Persians not only did not succeed in conquering Greece, the Greeks were a necessary ingredient in the eventual Macedonian conquest of the Persian empire. Your boy here is just lying outright to make his false claims.
Both Lamm's hateful drivel, and the lies which underpin it, are identical to the article which Fox has quoted--a hateful screed, puked up in the vilest form of propaganda.
The only redeeming feature here, if one can consider it to be that, is that Fox, for once, isn't making these things up herself, she is quoting someone else who has done so.
