The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Mind Your Manners

10.31.07 @ 12:01AM

(Page 5 of 5)

Lastly, calling multiculturalism and cultural relativity a "values-free" "debilitating condition", as West does, is extraordinarily immature. A nuanced view of human societies and the relations between them requires, if anything, far more maturity than does a "clash of civilizations" mentality. To reconcile a thorough, empathetic, open-minded understanding of other cultures -- no matter how strange and seemingly hostile they may be -- with a steadfast belief in your society's own principals requires serious reflection and justification of said principals. Call it contemporary anthropology, if you will. Being able to step outside your own traditions long enough to understand them in the same historical context you understand another culture's requires a great deal of sophistication. Taking refuge in received wisdom and assumed superiority is...well, I don't think I need to explain that one any further.

But if you'd prefer, by all means, just keep warning us about the barbarians and heathens storming our fragile citadel of free-market democracy. It certainly is simpler.
-- Matthew Halliday

TOO GOOD FOR SENATE
Re: The Prowler's "Dream Candidate" item in Bartlett's Connections:

Ted Olson may not want to tarnish his reputation by joining that bunch of old fools and traveling salesmen who inhabit the U.S.Senate. Better that he serve in appointive office as Attorney General or Ambassador to the United Nations.
-- Howard Lohmuller
Seabrook, Texas

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Harry Reid, Bill Clinton, Business, Religion, Catholicism, Protestantism, Abortion, Environment, Global Warming, Constitution, Law, Supreme Court, Military, United Nations, European Union, NATO, Africa, Socialism, Conservatism, Immigration