One of the most successful ideas ever is multiculturalism. For thousands of years it has seen an endless sequence of victories. Indeed there were a lot of temporary setbacks, but the long term historic trend is unmistakable. Multiculturalism was initially thought of by kings who conquered an empire of different peoples and wanted to rule them all. These different peoples could keep their own customs and settle most of their own affairs as long as they didn't pose a threat to the social order. This brought peace and stability, which improved trade and prosperity. For example Cyrus the Great, who ruled [the Persian Empire] around 550 BC, was one of the first to use multiculturalism to rule his vast empire. He respected the religions and traditions of the peoples he ruled....
Mr. Hegel's scheme for historical progress can be helpful. Reason overcame religion in Europe and so many social, economical and political experiments have been tried out in Europe that have not taken place anywhere else. The Europeans made more historical errors than anyone else simply because they had so many ideas they could try. In this way the Europeans had more opportunity to learn from their mistakes than anyone else. You can call that cultural superiority if you like, but it is better to call it experience. And it would be a waste of time and tears to go through all these historical processes, including all the wars, again everywhere around the globe, only to discover what you could already have learnt from studying history. So in this sense Europe can guide the world.Short and worth a read.
OpEdNews
Multiculturalism Is One Of The Greatest Successes Of All Time
Bart Klein Ikink
'Worth a read..' Yes; as reminder, what we're up against.
ReplyDelete*sigh* Paradoxical on so many levels.
ReplyDeleteThe march of time cannot be stopped, although it can be diverted for a while.
ReplyDeleteIt's always worth asking people who make statements like these whether they are happy with 2 million Han chinese moving into and taking over Tibet.
ReplyDeleteThe answers are usually illuminating as to whether they are genuinely multicultural or just racist against White Europeans.
Cor! That's interesting, Neil. I was just watching CBN YouTube video about Muslim immigration into Europe. Christian Broadcasting Network is most certainly racist by stereotyping Muslims in the way they do - which is quite surprising because A, they are christians, B, the people who run the channel are most obviously very intelligent - but I thought they had a point and Muslim immigration into Europe, a culture that doesn't fit in very well with our own.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with Gilad Atzman on lots of things, but he has a point about 'political correctness', at least on some things. In a dictatorship, he says, we are censored, but people can get together in a field and whisper about the government, but with political correctness we censor ourselves. Well, I'm sure that there are many of us on the left who hate excessive immigration into our country from Eastern Europe as well as from the ME. For one thing, there aren't enough houses here and our beautiful Greenbelt is under threat, as well as the rest of our countryside, at least because of exponential population rise.
Humans don't like change, mainly because for millenia our way of life did not change much at all - we just did as our parents did, hunting and gathering. If things changed, it meant something was wrong.
With neoliberalism tearing up the planet wrecking one society after another, change is happening far too fast for me.
If you live a nice fishing town, why would the locals be happy with a massive amount of immigrants coming into their society changing how their town has always been?
CBN portrayed the liberals as crazed, misguided people who have no understanding of tradition, culture, and 'our way of life', unless it's the immigrants culture, of course, then it needs to be preserved at all costs.
If we ever get the banking elite to stop exploiting the world, then there would be less people wanting to emigrate here. If the ruling elite had not destroyed democracies in the ME then they would have developed into liberal societies too and been wealthier.
I'm on the left so for years I felt ashamed of my feelings and kept them to myself, but then I realised they were good honourable feelings when I saw things starting to change too quickly. I haven't changed, I still hold the same values.
No mention of language. You know, people are very sensitive about language. Here in Quebec, for instance. Try talking English to a Quebec separatist and see what happens. You'd get a better reaction from them if instead of uttering an English phrase you had instead insulted their recently departed loving mother -- or even if you had asked if they'd mind if you could fornicate with their spouse on every second weekend. No hyperbole here.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it's all about scale, too -- land area and population. Let's say 100,000 Han moving into Canada or the US. It would hardly be noticeable. In Greece or some other small country? Yes, let alone 2 million Han!
The American screenwriter/author John Waters was asked in an interview if he thought immigration to the US was changing the country culturally. (Before the question was asked he had said that he had traveled extensively all of the US.) He replied that for a big country like the US, it would not have a cultural impact; the South he assured the interviewer will not change ;)
edit: forgot to add "in French" at the end of "insulted their recently departed loving mother" ... :(
ReplyDeleteBtw, don't get me wrong. I like French. And for me there is no better language in the art of seduction than French; it's beautiful to the ears. And I say this as someone whose first language is Greek. So there! ;)
" Let's say 100,000 Han moving into Canada or the US. It would hardly be noticeable"
ReplyDeleteThat's the myth. And it is one the Labour Party in the UK likes to use. Take a very large and irrelevant number and make a percentage out of it to make everything look small. Classic marketing trick.
Try again but moving most them into one small town surrounded by prairies. Or perhaps several small towns - working in the one or two factories where all the good jobs in the town used to be.
Then get them to take over the local council wards and before long control of the council as the Schelling effect start to take hold.
Rates always depend upon what number you pick as the denominator.