A Nazi once wrote to “think outside the box.” He has seen outside one box, then he put himself into a much worse box.
There are many boxes, and there are many ways outside of these boxes. Climbing out of a box can be a difficult task, and many people who do that are worthy of respect. What is not worthy of respect is replacing a box with a much worse box. Nazism is much worse than “conventional” American thinking. Indeed it is probably the worst thing to have ever been tried, worse even than jihadism and Communism. Its reputation is this: The bottom of the world.
William Bennett said that in most cases of power takeovers, the order that ensued was worse than the order that it replaced. Sometimes that is the case, sometimes it isn’t. Status quo can be good and it can be bad. People wanting to change it can be good and they can be bad. Certainly the current Western arrangement is much better than Nazism or jihadism; and people involved in it have every right to defend themselves against people pushing such things.
As for myself, I have seen the inside and outside of many boxes. I have looked at many ideas and many cultures that were completely different from how I have been brought up. I have come to one conclusion: That there have been many smart people all around the world in all of history, and much stands to be learned from other civilizations and other people. I have come to another conclusion: That the current arrangement is the best that has ever been tried.
I do not believe that there is a single box to climb out of. There are many boxes, and there always have been. The Chinese, the Hindus, and the Africans and Native Americans all had their own boxes. Some of these boxes were better than others. Once again, much stands to be learned from all these people. That does not mean however being ugly to one’s own people.
So that while it is valid to climb out of boxes, it is not valid to go into a worse box. There are many things worse than the contemporary status quo. I encourage more people to go outside the box of their upbringing and learn other things; I do not however encourage them to go into worse boxes than ones they have climbed out of. The current arrangement has a lot to recommend itself. And one would have to really know what he is doing to replace it with something better.