Celebrating Diversity

... can have unintended consequences when confronted on a national scale. Syndicated columnist Patrick Buchanan cites the recent history of parochial interests as an impediment to national unity.

Ethnonationalism, that relentless drive of peoples to secede and dwell apart, to establish their own nation-state, where their faith is predominant, their language spoken, their heroes and history revered, and they rule to the exclusion of all others, is rampant.

In China, Tibetans fight assimilation and the mass migration of Han Chinese into what was their country, as do the Uighurs in the west who dream of an East Turkestan breaking away and taking its place among the nations of the world.

In speaking of the rising tribalism abroad, Schlesinger added, "The ethnic upsurge in America, far from being unique, partakes of the global fever."

Indeed, separatism and secessionism seem to be in the air.

Examples from around the world, and from the last century, provide for a cautionary tale.
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