More Cowbell!

In Slate, Francis Fukuyama shows he has a bit more depth than Chris Hitchens found in his "After Neoconservatism" piece. Fukuyama reviews a few American books dealing with the future of Europe and Islam, one by Pat Buchanan and another by Tony Blankley, the op-ed page editor of the Washington Times.

The problem, they say, is Europe's abandonment of Christianity and traditional values (no, really, I didn't see that one coming either). Instead, Europe has embraced all the ills of modernity, including having fewer babies. All these things have just enraged and alienated Muslims, so the answer is:

More cowbell! More tribalism, more intolerance, more alienating rhetoric, all under the guise of "reclaiming" Europe's tradition of Christian values. The fact that Europe never really figured out what assimilation meant, that it thought that, as Fukuyama says, "liberal pluralism meant respecting the rights of communities rather than individuals" should just be forgotten and not improved upon. Buchanan and Blankley's position is sly, provoking exactly the confrontation it predicts. Buchanan and his ilk relish the thought of a confrontation, so they can eject "furriners" from "The West" and close off all the borders.

Fukuyama also gets to the heart of what "The West" is for people like Buchanan: it is blood and religion, not the shared values of liberal democracy. "If it were simply a question of having the right values, he should welcome Hispanic immigrants who share his Catholicism, or Muslims who are as socially conservative as he," says Fukuyama.

Few, I think, listen to Buchanan any more, but many might share his concept of the West, especially now, in Europe. That is frightening enough.