End of the world as we know it: version 2

Our favorite Spanish daily, El País, also carried on Sunday an interview with Samuel Huntington. He's not worried about the melting of Greenland and the disappearance of all modern civilization (if he has thought about it all), but with something much closer to (his)home: the erosion of Anglo-Protestant dominance of the United States. Briefly, in his book and his famous and controversial article in Foreign Affairs, he argues that the Hispanics, particularly the Mexicans, are taking over, and that they are enemies of the American creed and dangers to our values of democracy, tolerance, etc. And Huntington can't tolerate anybody who is likely to be intolerant.

In the interview with the Spanish reporter, however, he retreats considerably. The Mexicans in the U.S., he allows, are not really a "threat" in the sense that the Muslim presence may be in Europe (because some are drawn into fundamentalism and al-Qaeda). He expects no violence from the Mexican immigrants, he just finds their presence irritating. He quotes Mexican authors (including Carlos Fuentes) to support his view that Mexicans are lazy (which was not really what Fuentes was saying). The reporter points out that nobody is working harder in the U.S. than the underpaid Mexican laborers, and Huntington chooses not to dispute her observation (easily documented). Instead, he goes back to his argument that the Mexicans do not share the "American creed," as described by the Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal some 60 years. I don't have the article in front of me, and it was a Spanish translation anyway, so I can't give you Myrdal's exact words as quoted by Huntington, but they all had to do with respect for individual liberties and equal opportunities for all. Fine. No Mexican immigrant I know would have any problem with that. But then SH switches to describe the creed as speaking English and practicing Christian Protestant values. Weird!

See the first item (movie about disappearing Mexicans) in the Global Information panel to the left of this screen.