Over the course of the last three hundred years, the American vision of "a people embracing democracy" has become a "democracy embracing people". Today, almost anyone can become "American" regardless of their race, color, religious creed or national origin. Some may say this is what America should be about, but it is important to understand that these developments have also put Americans in jeopardy.
While a well-known terrorist may have some difficulty obtaining citizenship in the United States, those who are influenced by the same underlying motivations will not. They are just Muslims, and you cannot prioritize another population over them, because it has been decided for us that that should be illegal. But what if they approve of Sharia Law? What if they want to have as many children as possible who will be raised to agree with the view that where they have settled should be the new Caliphate?
Of course, the chance that this could happen in the U.S. is much less common than in Europe, because the Middle East is in close proximity to Europe and a source for potentially consistent immigration. A few rapidly growing communities in, say, Minnesota, as much as that may be offensive to those who picture this as a place of Swedish-American heritage, are isolated enough that the risk is contained.
On the other hand, America has a Latino population arriving en masse from its south that is susceptible to similar messages of conquest - or, as they would frame it, reclamation. We can already see members of this community encouraging others who may identify with it to fight immigration laws and create an all-Latino nation out of the Southern United States.
For years, America's economic prosperity has enabled many people to put aside their racial and religious preferences, ethno-religious spirit and bask in material comfort. Some would even argue that this legacy is what America was supposed to be all about. But what would happen to this diverse citizenry if its economic fortunes declined? What would be the glue to hold things together? And would things hold together?
Well, if the dollar continues to lose its value as the debt ceiling is shattered, if manufacture and innovation by U.S. companies continues to decline and the economy continues to slip, we may one day find out. In the meantime, history gives some pretty crisp examples of what can happen. First up: the Soviet Union, circa 1991.
Consider the events that took place prior to that year, however, and were a fundamental part of the ideological fabric that held things together. Not unlike Americans, state leaders and social planners believed they could rebuild man through ideology and overcome racial, religious and ethnic differences in the process. But when the Soviet economic experiment ended in failure, the populations within the familiar borders broke into individual nation-states, with borders that more accurately reflect the ethnic and demographic reality on the ground.
Below is a look at the demography of the Soviet Union (left) and the national borders which exist today, in the post-Soviet era (top right):
 |
| (click to enlarge) |
Of course, the Soviets had little choice but to deal with the demographic situation that existed where the movement under Lenin came to power and their ideological state could be formed; the same was true in the creation of Yugoslavia, and in nearly every moment in history where a ruler sought the advantages of an empire and, in the process, assumed control over diverse populations.
But the United States was a unique exception. Although the first citizens of the United States were immigrants, these immigrants generally came from Great Britain and, to a larger degree, Northern Europe. They shared a common Christian culture as well as the ideals and traditions of their homelands, creating the fabric for a new nation. Through carefully-monitored policies of target immigration, high birth rates and subsequent expansion across the North American continent, this nation grew larger. In the process, however, due to the lure of cheap imported labor, and an increasingly-accepted homegrown belief in the ability to integrate anyone and bypass racial and religious differences, the U.S. has slowly evolved towards what the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia began as.
What a shame it would be if the possibilities for such a vast-but-homogeneous, resource-rich country were lost because some people thought it nonsensical to no longer observe traditional concerns about national identity, language and community, opening the door for Balkanization. Many Americans would like to think that their country will not endure the same fate as every single multicultural entity throughout history if hard times descend. But time will only tell if they are right.
What a shame it would be if the possibilities for such a vast-but-homogeneous, resource-rich country were lost because some people thought it nonsensical to no longer observe traditional concerns about national identity, language and community, opening the door for Balkanization. Many Americans would like to think that their country will not endure the same fate as every single multicultural entity throughout history if hard times descend. But time will only tell if they are right.
