cates itself to a proposition. The Englishrnlangnage is without question a vital partrnof American national culture.” Ofrncourse, as c[uoted above, Mr. Miller earlierrnsays that our national identity’ “derivesrnnot from a common language,” butrnif the language is a “vital part” of our culture,rnthat isn’t quite true. And if the languagernis vital, why are certain other features,rnalso deeply imbedded in ourrnculture, not vital as well?rnMr. Miller thinks that multiculturalismrnsomehow denies or rejects the universalistrnproposition just as much as neonothingismrndoes. Maybe some of itsrnproponents do, but on the whole it is Mr.rnMiller’s own universalism that drivesrnnuilticulturalism. Multiculturalists arernjust a bit more logical than he, since theyrngrasp, as he does not, that (a) only if wernare a universal nation can the immigrationrnof people of many cultures be justifiedrnand (b) cultural variaHon is irrelevantrnto whether the proposition worksrnprecisely because the proposition is universal;rnit is supposed to work in any culture,rnand thus the presence of many culturesrnshould not pose a problem for it.rnMoreover, Mr. Miller never tumbles tornthe obvious truth that multiculturalism,rnwhile the product of a few academicsrnand educators, owes what influencernit possesses to the mass immigrationrnhe idolizes. He quotes Senator TedrnKennedy as justifying bilingual educationrnon the grounds that “the UnitedrnStates is the fifth largest Spanish-speakingrncountry in the world . . . surely ourrneducational system should not be designedrnso that it destroys the languagernand culture of children from Spanishspeakingrnbackgrounds.” hi the absencernof large numbers of Spanish-speakers,rnthere would be no reason to have bilingualrneducation; in the absence of manyrnimmigrant cultures, there would be nornreason to teach or push multiculturalism.rnMr. Miller concludes his book vith arnlist of measures that he believes would facilitaternassimilation: color-blind law, reducingrnillegal immigration, abolishingrnbilingual education, and so forth. I havernno objection to any of them, but neitherrnhe nor ery many of his fellow pro-immigrationrnconservatives ever do much ofrnanything to promote them, while somerngo out of their way to oppose them.rnWhat Mr. Miller never tells us is whyrnwe should have any immigration at all,rnleaving the reader to infer that his enthusiasmrnfor the alien derives from a deepseatedrnand probably not entirely consciousrnresentment of the real Americanrnnation. The multiculturalism that he denouncesrnand the decomposition of thernnation that it produces are the logicalrnand practical results of the kind of immigrationrnpolicies that he and his faction ofrnconservatism demand, while all his invocationsrnof a universalism that is nothingrnmore than the 200-year-old chatter ofrnParisian salons and an “Americanization”rnthat locks immigrants into a homogenizedrnslaven,’ to a tiansriational corporaterneconomy of mass consumptionrnwill do nothing to keep the nation and itsrnpeople intact and much to advance theirrndestruction. If and when Mr. Millerrngrows up and comes to terms with the realrnAmerican nation, he may begin to understandrnthe extent of the betrayal hernhas helped to perpetrate. What walksrnthrough the Golden Door with his blessingrnand assistance, it turns out, is stillrnBela Lugosi.rnR E G A R D I N G I M M I G R A T I O N . .rnA publication of Hie Rockford Institutern232 pp., paper, $14.95 List Price (plus $2.50 for shipping & handling)rnF! or a decade, writers in Chronicles have beenrngrappling with this elemental and nation-breaking forcernin their brilliant, often literary, sometimes histrionic,rninvariably idiosyncratic but undeniably diverse way. The presence inrnthis volume of California’s Governor Pete WOson, easily reelected sincernhis essay ‘Citizenship and Immigration’ first appeared in Chronicles^rnNovember 1993 issue and now widely mentioned as the possiblerncatalyst of the immigration issue in presidential politics, is only onernreason Chronicles’ editors can fairly say: you read it here first.”rn—Peter BrimelowrnTo order by credit card, call: 1 – 8 0 0 – 3 9 7 – 8 1 6 0rnOr send check or money order in the amount of $17.45 ($14.95+$2.50 shipping & handling) tornChronicles, P.O. Box 800, Mt. Morris, IL 61054rn*For immediate service, please list on payment or mention when ordering SOURCE CODE:rnA9509, and ITEM CODE: MGRT.rnAUGUST 1998/29rnrnrn