'Rejecting the Anglo-Protestant values that built the American dream'...

samuel huntington seems to be convinced of his own clairvoyance. after the resurrected success of his essay 'the clash of civilisations? (1993) post 9/11, his new book deals with what he believes to be the new apocalyptic threat to american identity. a harvard academic and one-time member of the US national security council, his new book is titled: 'Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity'

his previous thesis in clash of civ? that the "fundamental source of conflict [for 21st century] will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural." He cites Islam, with it's "population bulge and transnational appeal" as the most plausible source of conflict in our time...

the content of his new book is equally controversial, addressing the question 'who are we?, (referring to americans in the white anglo-protestant tradition...) he concludes there is a new threat on the horizon - the latinos! and they're under your beds, as such... (or rather licking your toilets clean and looking after your cracker, demon spawn...)

in fact, he argues they're already here and eating away at a once proud, unified country of everything that held it together. "Will the US remain a country with a single national language and a core Anglo-Protestant culture?" he asks in an essay entitled 'the hispanic challenge', published in the journal Foreign Policy. the actual book is not available until may, but an article based on the book in Foreign Policy (a magazine, incidentally, which Huntington co-founded but which is now run by a Latino editor and a Latino managing editor - !)

"The single most immediate and most serious challenge to America's traditional identity comes from the immense and continuing immigration from Latin America, especially from Mexico, and the fertility rates of these immigrants compared to black and white natives. The assimilation successes of the past are unlikely to be duplicated with the contemporary flood of immigrants from Latin America." i.e, the latinos are over here, oversexed and will soon be overpaid as well.

in an essay bolstered with fact and figures etc (a nice four page spread of colourful charts and diagrams, think brass eye), he is eager to note that hispanics passed african-americans as the largest minority in the last US census.

all this is supposedly illustrative of an end to civilisation. he even postulates what might have happened if the conquerors of american were french, spanish or portuguese catholics, rather than white anglo-prodistant: "It would not be the United States; it would be Quebec, Mexico or Brazil," ...

it's evident from the article that huntington seems most upset by them speaking spanish: "According to a U.S. Census Bureau report, in 1990 about 95 percent of Mexican-born immigrants spoke Spanish at home; 73.6 percent of these did not speak English very well"

dan glaister in the guardian:

'It is this last quality that most irks Huntington, leading him to make some decidedly unempirical assertions. "One might suppose," he writes, "that, with the rapid expansion of the Mexican immigrant community, people of Mexican origin would have less incentive to become fluent in and to use English in 2000 than they had in 1970." Well, possibly, one might suppose that. From there it is a short, blind leap of faith to the conclusion that "Americans [the good ones, that is, not the other ones] will not be able to receive the jobs or pay they would otherwise receive because they can speak to their fellow citizens only in English."

The spread of Spanish, he argues with an impressive command of the conditional clause, "could, in due course, have significant consequences in politics and government - those aspiring to political office might have to be fluent in both languages ... government documents and forms could routinely be published in both languages ... the use of both languages could become acceptable in congressional hearings ... [and] English speakers lacking fluency in Spanish are likely to be and feel at a disadvantage in the competition for jobs."' read on in the guardian