Lawrence Auster on "Root Causes"

"We need to recognize the terrifying reality that there is not a single person in a leadership position in the contemporary West who is capable of thinking truthfully and coherently about the facts of human existence--and particularly about that part of human existence called Islam. This is because Western elites are, to a man and woman, liberals. It doesn't matter whether they're Democrat or Republican, Tory or New Labor, UMP or Socialist. They're all liberals, meaning that they believe in universal human equality as the fundamental reality of this world, which, if it is not manifested at this moment, is nevertheless readily achievable by human action. Therefore they believe that there are no differences between human groups that really matter. If some foreign or minority group has an irreconcilable difference with us, the elites will not see it. They will believe the difference stems from some factor that is extrinsic to the group itself, and thus fixable, not from a factor that intrinsic to the group and thus not fixable.

The general term for such extrinsic, fixable problems is "root cause."

continued: VFR