Buchanan and the Pope Sept 30^th

Once again Patrick J. Buchanan has put himself firmly on the side of the exclusionists. The Pope has managed to include a variety of people who had not heretofore been well regarded by the Catholic hierarchy; of homosexuals he said, “Who am I to judge?” This attitude was not at all well received by Buchanan. Now, in a somewhat different vein, Buchanan is ranting against the attempts to provide for the enormous influx of Near Eastern refugees.

Buchanan claims that, “Behind this rising resistance to illegal and mass migration is human nature—the innate desire of peoples of one tribe or nation who share a common language , history, faith, culture and identity—to live together and apart from all the rest.” Buchanan is certainly right; it is also the innate desire of people to want what their neighbor has and to take it by force if they can. This was tribalism, a primitive form of civilization that all but a very few people, and perhaps Pat Buchanan, have now outgrown. When people become civilized they control these “innate impulses” for the common good; lacking that ability a people will relapse into bigotry. It has happened in this country when we sent citizens of Japanese ancestry to concentration camps at the outbreak of WW 2; it is happening now when we demonize Muslims.

Buchanan tells us that, “In the real world, nationalism not globalism is ascendant.” It was nationalism hat precipitated both world wars. Of course Buchanan would like to blame them both on Winston Churchill as he does in his curious history about “the unnecessary war.” The collapse of empires into nationalism produced a nationalistic Serbia that rebelled against the Austro-Hungarian Empire and finally assassinated the Austro-Hungarian Arch Duke, an event that began the First World War. Then there were the Poles, the Czechs and other nationalist splinters from empires that provided the tinder for WW 2.

It is surprising that Buchanan does not remember the signs, “No Irish need apply” that greeted his ancestors in this country when they first came here and looked for work. Those signs were the result of the tribalism that Buchanan now seems to be favoring.

The Pope has it right; the whole progress of civilization consists of overcoming a genetic inheritance that hundreds of centuries ago may have served us well but unless we overcome it now, it may destroy us.