As we see the news of yet another appalling attack on innocents in the West I am reading a lot about anger and blame. These emotions are to be expected and are fully understood but once the time of collective mourning is over will we have moved any closer to a solution to this wicked problem? Sadly I doubt it because we will have failed to address a social engineering project which has been partially the cause of this fracture in our societies. Multiculturalism has failed.
Who says so? I do, and so do Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron for a start.
I am not talking about immigration which is the backbone of most countries. The mishmash of cultures which brings new ideas and, at the very least, new food. Without immigration a culture can stagnate and wither. Where immigration succeeds is in the sharing of a common goal, a set of ideals or sense of purpose.
Until 1956 the motto of the US was E Pluribus Unum, (Out of many, one) originally used to signify the coming together of 13 colonies into one nation. A modern adaptation suggests the idea of many cultures coming together for one common purpose. Whichever way you look at it, it perfectly describes why multiculturalism is a failed concept.
People don’t change and become a Borg like collective in a new culture. They will always retain a part of their own ancestry but must dispense with those parts that are incompatible with the country in which they now live.
There is a very long list of cultural norms which have been dispensed with in a new country and they have been dispensed with for very good reasons. Some are repugnant or even vile, restrictive or sexist. It doesn’t matter. If something no longer works it must be left behind. And that is why multiculturalism has failed.
The bringing together of cultures, the adaptation to and adoption of new cultures is what forges societies and moves them forward. Multiculturalism contends that separate cultures can live alongside but separate from each other. That is an absurdity and why the latest bombing can trace it’s roots to the failure of multiculturalism.
Multiculturalism has not created a diverse society. It has, in a very real and observable way, created a divided one. Divided into enclaves and near ghettos where radical thoughts and deeds foment and incubate, because there is no counter argument within the boundaries of the little world which had been created.
There are many stories about no-go areas in European countries where self imposed ethnic ghettos are the norm, creating societal divisions (1, 2, 3 and 4) and anything that causes a society to fracture, even a little, is wrong.
Multiculturalism has failed and it adherents have even more blood on their hands.
