Principalities & Powersrnbv Samuel FrancisrnDe-AmericanizationrnAlthough the summer of 1994 producedrnno entertainments to rival the fun of lastrnyear’s Jurassic Park, let alone the previousrnsummer’s Los Angeles riots, it did yieldrnup the brief but amusing manhunt forrnO.J. Simpson and the edifying spectaclernof the wanted killer of his ex-wife and herrnpretty young companion cruising up andrndown the Los Angeles freeway whilernfleets of squad cars, helicopters, and innumerablernsympathizers and admirersrnsang him to his cell. It was my hopernduring the nationally televised paradernthat O.J. would end up being smashedrnby Rodney King driving at more thanrn100 miles an hour as the LAPD taggedrnhelplessly along behind each of them,rnbut these things never turn out the wayrnI want, and maybe it’s just as well.rnYet even more edifying for the nation’srnyouth than the O.J. melodramarnwas last summer’s arrival of global soccer,rnor, as the rest of the world insists on callingrnit, “football,” in the form of thern”Wodd Cup” matches of June and July.rnSoccer, of course, along with global freerntrade, the metric system, hot wok shops,rnsigns in Korean script outside Presbyterianrnchurches, and mass immigration, isrnone further installment in the ongoingrnand ever-accelerating de-Americanizationrnof America, and despite the factrnthat the most prominent American athletesrntoday seem to be characters whornbeat their ex-wives to death as O.J. is allegedrnto have done, rape teenage girlsrnlike Mike Tyson, contract lethal venerealrndiseases like Magic Johnson, or conspirernto win Olympic gold medals byrnhaving their rival’s legs crushed with ironrnbars like Tonya Harding, the sports theyrnplay at least have a long history in thernUnited States and in some sense can bernsaid to be an important part of our nationalrnpopular culture.rnBut hardly any American thinks muchrnabout soccer, watches it or wants tornwatch it, or plays it after he leaves highrnschool or college. Since soccer attractsrnfanatical foUowings in almost all regionsrnof the wodd outside the United States,rnits popularization in this country wouldrnrepresent a significant modification ofrnthe American character, and neglect ofrnsoccer or resistance to its adoption couldrncertainly be construed as a form of xenophobia,rnif not an actual “hate crime.”rnThe massive amount of money spent onrnits promotion last summer surely was intendedrnto make of soccer a kind of athleticrntherapy for warped nativists whorninsist that baseball and real footballrn(O.J.’s kind) were good enough for truernAmericans like Washington and Nixonrnand therefore are good enough for them.rnBut the emerging global regime cutsrnboth ways, and if it demands that SaudirnArabians eat cheeseburgers and Chinesernpeasants ogle Madonna, it also meansrnthat Americans must modify their narrow-rnminded ethnocentrism and openrntheir ears to what Bolivian PresidentrnGonzalo Sanchez de Lozada on the firstrnday of the Wodd Cup matches calledrnthe “universal language” of soccer.rnWhatever the real meaning of soccer,rnthe de-Americanization of America is arnprincipal theme of Dr. Brent A. Nelson’srnAmerica Balkanized, a monograph justrnpublished by the American ImmigrationrnControl Foundation of Monterey, Virginia,rnthough Dr. Nelson deals morernwith the ethnic fragmentation and culturalrndecomposition of the United Statesrncaused by massive immigration andrnbirthrates than with the digestion of thernnation in the belly of the New Woddrnbeast. Dr. Nelson, a Ph.D. in English literature,rnmanages to pack an amazingrnamount of learning into his monograph’srn148 pages and presents an astonishingrnrange of scholarship, reaching from recentrnsociological and historical studies ofrnthe nature of immigration into thisrncountry and others to a consideration ofrnthe sociobiological implications of allowingrndifferent human “subspecies” tornoccupy the same territory.rnA good deal of the book is devoted tornconsidering the prospect of the emergencernof ethnic separatism in the UnitedrnStates as a result of the settlement ofrnforeign ethnic and racial fragments withinrnour borders, particulady within whatrnDr. Nelson, following Joel Garreau, callsrn”MexAmerica,” the Southwestern portionrnof the United States that is increasinglyrnbeing shaved off from North Americanrncivilization and grafted onto thernLatin culture of the south. This processrnof “counter-assimilation,” as Dr. Nelsonrncalls it, is mainly due to the demographicrnand cultural drift of the region, but itrnis also deliberately promoted by Hispanicrnactivists and their political leaders.rnThus, writes Dr. Nelson:rnProperty owners in San Diego’srnMcGonigle Canyon, confrontedrnwith illegal entrants squatting onrntheir land, experienced difficultyrnin getting city authorities to enforcernthe laws against trespassing.rnCalifornia’s Assembly passed arnresolution urging the federalrngovernment to delay building arnditch along the U.S.-Mexican borderrnbecause the proposed ditchrnhad aroused protests in Mexicornwhen the governor opened thernstate’s new trade office there. Arn”Buy American-Buy Texan Bill”rnpassed in the Texas legislaturernonly after Mexico was defined inrnthe bill as American. Also approvedrnwas a bill to allow Mexicanrnnationals to pay in-state tuitionrnwhen they attend five Texas staternuniversities in the border area.rnDr. Nelson also cites articles from Excelsior,rnMexico’s leading newspaper, explicitlyrnadvocating that Mexico “recoverrnits own”—i.e., take back the Southwesternrnterritory lost to the United States inrnthe Mexican War—and an Excelsior pollrnof 1986 in which 59 percent of Mexicansrnsaid they regard the United States as anrn”enemy country.” The Mexican governmentrnitself promotes the irredentist ideologyrnthat undedies this attitude. Almostrnanyone who has traveled or lived inrn”MexAmerica” and who has more eyesrnin his head than Wall Street journal editorialrnwriters knows that the region isrnceasing to be part of America in any butrna purely legal sense, and when the culturalrnand ethnic transition is complete,rnthe legal transition cannot be far distant.rnBut the Southwest is not the only partrnof the United States being de-Americanizedrnby the lethal brew of mass immigration,rnhigh immigrant fertility coupledrnwith low native (white) birthrates, and arncompulsively suicidal bent among Americanrnpolitical leaders on both the rightrnand the left. One of Dr. Nelson’s chaptersrndeals with the problem “What Is arnSEPTEMBER 1994/9rnrnrn