A Ramble on Multiculturalism

One of the things that strikes me about society, pretty much all the time, is that we expect instant results. For everything. Any government policy put in to place is barely given time to adjust and steady itself before criticisms are made that it is ineffectual. And that is understandable. We all deserve the results now, whether they be less crime or better hospitals. If you think about it long enough, you end up wanting to believe in the long-term, the thorough, help for future generations, but fighting the feeling that while you very much do want the world to get better, you were kind of hoping it would happen a little quicker so you could enjoy it.

Mull it.

The reason I started with that is because I think the argument between social impatience and the long term-fix is just as applicable to the arguments we've had over violence and hatred. And the reason is this: When we looked at cock-fighting, we were looking at a successful culture with centuries of history, and in the same way, when we look at cultural groups that have had their historical traditions taken away and adjusting is causing problems, we have been singing the praises of the social cohesion of tradition, and that we now lack it as, especially in this country. What really, really irks me about this attitude is that we are forgetting that tradition, by definition, take time to develop. To me, if we say that the cosmopolitan multicultural society we have aspired to and are now criticising is lacking in tradition it is because the very concept is barely 20 or 30 years old. How can we criticize something new culturally because it has no traditions, when we seem to agree on the tenets of equality or human rights, the very thing it is based on?

(Remember, multiculturalism does not mean you can't ever publically dislike anyone again - it means that you reserve judgement on someone until you know their views and lifestyle, not just the colour of their skin or the religion they identify with, or even their musical taste. If they like killing babies, it's ok to dislike them. Even if they like doing something that they've taken from their culture or religion that you find abhorrent, it's ok to dislike them. It's that you can't judge other people who could claim the same culture or religion to have the same views. That's the point, and the end of that ramble.)

The binding point is that, just like government policy, cultural shifts need time to grow, to settle, and plan for the long term. No body, especially not me, would say that we shouldn't attempt to quell the violence and crime in this country. That's individual daily police work, taxation, and the justice system. It does not mean that we should abandon multiculturalism. The Civil Rights movement in the U.S.A saw violence and hatred directed at the black community, and then, eventually back at the white community. Some say the election of Obama is the culmination of the civil rights movement, something that started nearly fifty years ago with Rosa Parks on a bus. Few (and certainly no one I would pay attention to) would say that the civil rights movement was wrong, that the violence seen around it wasn't a worthy cost for the result. Like multiculturalism, it drew violence, but didn't encourage it as an idea. Let’s wait fifty years, and see how multiculturalism and society is faring then.

God I’m opinionated tonight.

Paul Harrison