The Reactionary Utopian
                    September 28, 2006


SPELLING IT OUT
by Joe Sobran

     Another corporation has been found guilty of bigotry 
-- that is, practicing anthropology without a license.

     American Airlines had printed a pilot-training 
manual in which it took candor to the point of insanity. 
A section of the manual titled "Survival in Latin 
America" cautions its pilots that Latin American 
passengers "expect not to depart on time. In fact, it's 
rumored that they will call in a false bomb threat to 
delay a departure if they think they'll be late." 
Furthermore, the guide added, "They like a drink in the 
plane prior to takeoff. Unruly and/or intoxicated 
passengers are not infrequent."

     Well, wouldn't you know. This manual fell into the 
hands of a lawyer, and moments later it was being 
broadcast on every radio station in the Western 
Hemisphere.

     Within hours American Airlines issued an apology. 
"We deeply regret ... American Airlines holds our Latin 
customers in the highest regard ... demonstrate our 
commitment ..." et cetera.

     Let me stress that I find the pilots' training 
manual deplorable. All cultures are pretty much alike. No 
ethnic group gets drunk or rowdy or shows up late with 
any greater frequency than any other ethnic group. In 
fact, the whole human race is basically Swedish.

     There. Am I covered? Well, just to be safe, let me 
add that there is nothing distinctive, let alone 
admirable, about the Protestant culture of North America. 
If there is a bad ethnic group -- and of course there 
isn't -- but if there is, it's white people, especially 
those of Northwestern European stock. They possess one 
ethnic trait: bigotry, racism, prejudice, whatever you 
want to call it.

     If it weren't for the slavery and discrimination 
white people practiced -- invented, actually, since these 
crimes were unknown on earth until they came along -- 
other peoples would also have invented automobiles, 
computers and moon rockets. The Aztecs, Zulus, and 
Eskimos would have built their own Empire State 
Buildings, possibly with indoor plumbing. Only the white 
man's repression prevented other races (and the white 
man's own women) from emulating these achievements.

     Such, at any rate, is the constant implication of 
the constant white-bashing, alias liberalism, that has 
become the official creed of this country. Nobody spells 
it out this way, because it's too obviously silly. But 
we're invited to assume that the only reason other 
cultures don't match the performance of the Protestant 
culture is that the Protestants won't let them.

     After all, American culture is Protestant. That's 
both its strength and its weakness. The 
anti-authoritarian core of this culture has released 
tremendous scientific and technological power. But it has 
also prevented the culture from having strong cohesive or 
defensive powers. Its life span is probably destined to 
be as brief as it has been brilliant.

     Cultural Protestants (who may profess any religion, 
or none) don't believe in themselves. They believe in 
"mankind." The moment you accuse them of bigotry, they 
fold. That's the last sin they want to be guilty of, and 
they'll go to absurd lengths to prove they aren't 
prejudiced. So it's easy to make them feel guilty even 
when they're innocent. Naturally, making them feel guilty 
has become the nation's No. 1 racket.

     The cultural Protestant feels guilty even when he 
notices that other cultures are different. He is deeply 
embarrassed by racial differences that seem to contradict 
the ideal of a homogenous "mankind." Even "mankind" has 
become "humankind" lately, because sexual differences are 
also embarrassing. Religious differences embarrass him 
too, so his religion becomes less and less religious and 
more and more "ecumenical." He considers it arrogant to 
claim to possess "truth"; he deplores "dogma," which is 
"divisive."

     Needless to say, the rest of "mankind" is cashing in 
on this naked, shivering Protestant conscience. 
Anti-discrimination laws, lawsuits, anti-white 
affirmative action programs, flood-tide immigration, and 
unremitting propaganda are gobbling up the fruits of 
Protestant culture and dispossessing its former 
proprietors. Whatever that culture produced is said to 
have been stolen. And the cultural Protestant can only 
plead guilty. His conscience forbids him to defend 
himself.

     We hear that abject conscience speaking yet again in 
the American Airlines apology. This is a culture whose 
mighty achievements don't include self-preservation

[This column was originally published by Universal Press 
Syndicate August 21, 1997.]

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