Caution and Control

Dear Madam,

According to Kevin Myers (26/07/05) the standard liberal way of discussing immigration in Britain is to misrepresent the arguments of those who counsel caution and control, and then triumphantly to denounce the disingenuous caricature of their own devising as bigoted or racist. Notwithstanding the obvious fact Mr. Myers has resorted to the same 'undergraduate name-calling' he derides in Ronaldo Munck's claim of reactionary nonsense, the 'standard liberal argument' becomes quite understandable in light of the remainder of this apparent counsel of caution and control. Mr. Myers controlled caution informs us as to the goals of Islamic extremists, "Would the train-bombers of London not have resorted to an Auschwitz if they could," to be facilitated by "ignoble and doctrinaire multiculturalism" championed by Mr. Munck and other seemingly ignorant students of 'Surrender Studies'. If one creates the argument that multiculturalism supports extremism, is it fair to be critical of someone who points out the obvious absurdity of your assertion? He concludes that we should learn from other people's experiences. Why change the habit of a life time, Mr. Myers hasn't.

yours etc...


An Irishman's Diary

The standard liberal way of discussing immigration in Britain is to misrepresent the arguments of those who counsel caution and control, and then triumphantly to denounce the disingenuous caricature of their own devising as bigoted or racist, writes Kevin Myers.

I am therefore intensely grateful to Ronaldo Munck of Dublin City University for providing me with a little jewel of intellectually grubby misrepresentation of a column I wrote a couple of months ago. He replied in this newspaper as follows:

"Kevin Myers writes that: 'The present good relations and general harmony are typical of the early days of immigration', but he sees this as only a 'honeymoon period'. Diversity policies lead to fundamentalism: 'Jews are attacked in the streets of Antwerp by Islamic militants expressing their own form of diversity". Ahead of us lies the spectre of Rotterdam that 'will shortly be the first European city with a racially and culturally non-indigenous majority'. Diversity for him leads to murder and national identity surrender.

"This is reactionary nonsense, but it also reflects the confusion in Ireland today over migration and multiculturalism."

Well, thank you Ronaldo for that intellectual guano, culminating in that classic piece of undergraduate name-calling, the r-word. God, I remember doing that in UCD: categorising an entire argument as "reactionary", and dismissing it as nonsense; and then exiting with a supercilious smirk on my odiously smug little face. To judge from your powers of logic and ratiocination, you are probably in first year Ronaldo; but with time and patience, there might be hope for you yet.

continued... The Irish Times