Peggy Noonan’s latest Wall Street Journal article (published 8/12/2016 first link below) attempts to explain what the world’s elites have done to those they rule. She references Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and her stance on refugees, which brought 200,000 more than the 800,000 she had said her country would accept. Ms. Noonan identifies a contradiction between an ideal and the reality, the latter of which Ms. Merkel will likely never have to visit first hand except for a CDU party photo shoot.
At the same time, I recall that nearly five years ago, Chancellor Merkel repudiated multiculturalism as a failure. I could not find the initial article, but came upon a recent Washington Post op-ed that provided the quote and the context (second link below).
Either the Chancellor of Germany sees no connection between multiculturalism and the recent flow of refugees, or she is a cynic who sees in the present predicament the inevitable proof of her pronouncements of years ago, and a jaundiced view of Germany’s reaction. If the current situation in Germany bears no connection with multiculturalism, then maybe there is something more intrinsically wrong in Germany.
How Global Elites Forsake Their Countrymen (you may need to click through to the article)
Multiculturalism is a sham, says Angela Merkel
From the August 6th edition of The Economist, this article is a worthy companion to the Merkel article about multiculturalism, and supports Noonan’s picture about the global elites (in this case in the Arab world) and their failure to sense what is happening “on the ground”. In the 20th Century, Hitler Youth Corps, Mao’s Cultural Revolution, and Ho Chi Minh’s fervent army show us what post-adolescent youths can do when they have the time to go with their fervor.
