American Society on the Brink

Have we reached a point of no return?

Multicultural societies — from 19th-century Austria–Hungary to
contemporary Iraq, Lebanon, the former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda — have a
poor record of keeping the peace between competing tribes. They usually
end up mired in nihilistic and endemic violence.

The only hope for history’s rare multiracial, multiethnic, and
multireligious nations is to adopt a common culture, one that
artificially suppresses the natural instinct of humans to identify first
with their particular tribe. America, in the logical spirit of the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, was exceptional among
modern societies in slowly evolving from its original, largely European
immigrant population to a 21st-century assimilated, integrated, and
intermarried multiracial society, in which religious and racial
affiliations were incidental, not essential, to one’s public character
and identity.

American Society on the Brink | National Review