Multiculturalism in Crisis

On NPR's On Point the host, Tom Ashbrook, is currently interviewing Robert Putnam, the sociologist who wrote Bowling Alone, a work  anatomizing the retreat from public life that characterized the late decades of the twentieth century. He's just published an article that finds that the more ethnically diverse a neighborhood is, the less likely its denizens are properly to trust others, to vote, to engage in public discourse, to place faith the government, and the like. In fact, as Prof. Putnam so pithily pointed out a moment ago, the only things that increase are "protest marches and TV watching."

Alarming stuff. And Prof. Putnam, if his voice is any indication, seems exceedingly uncomfortable making his assertions; he keeps protesting his staunch liberalism, but his stammering manner suggests that he's well aware his remarks cast such bona fides in doubt — and having Pat Buchanan, also invited to the table today, in his corner has certainly not put him at ease. After all, the phenomena Prof. Putnam describes certainly lend force to the conspiracy theorists' argument that Leftism in the US and elsewhere, as underwritten and inspired by such things as the Communist International, was really cultural warfare intended to undermine the bastions of Western democracy — and thus Western culture.