Hitchens on Londonistan and Multiculturalism

nice essay -- and follow-up q&a -- in the august vanity fair.

i basically agree with hitchens here (which is happening more and more now that i've been indulging my contrarian personality quite a lot). he argues that britain, in an effort to follow the law of multiculturalism and allow hateful incitements by muslim extremists, is crushing the very spirit that makes multiculturalism such a wonderful thing. all multiculturalists -- and liberals, i would argue -- should be outraged by any utterance of hate and intolerance. i've suggested many times before that a good liberal isn't someone who is tolerant of all peoples and ideas, but rather is someone who encourages and fosters the main ideas of liberalism. this may mean that i'll be called untolerant for bashing southern white folks who don't like gays, but tolerance doesn't mean allowing discriminatory and unjust acts to go unchecked.

in a similar vein (that hitchens, always copying me), hitchens argues that a liberal society should of course encourage free speech, but not at the expense of the liberal ideals of that culture. immigration is great when it adds thoughtful and interesting ideas to liberal society -- even if it challenges those ideals just a bit. but when those immigrants demand that a liberal society change its constitution to conform to the very narrow parameters of their worldview, what they're really demanding is an end to liberal society.

anyway, it's a good read.

ps - it's nice to see hitchens defend multiculturalism in its true sense, and distance himself from rightwingers who misconstrue it to mean a tolerance for terrorist words or acts.