sat 08 mar 2008 23:59:20 — witte de withstraat
another orphaned concept: multiculture
i'm just tonight beginning to realize why so many people think a "multicultural" society was a bad idea. it's because the word "multiculture" means something else to them than what it's meant to mean.
here's what happened. at some point people realized it was unfair to expect everyone to integrate and homogenize. so far so good.
but then they expected the people (usually relative newcomers) to cleave to their own established cultures, and live in their own communities. maybe they expected this because people are prone to tribalism anyway.
and that's where they got it wrong. a plurality of monocultures is not multiculture. a government that says "here's some money, please go be more hindu!" is not promoting multiculturalism.
what multiculturalism is *supposed* to be, is when all different cultures live together, not separately. together in the same street, same building, or even within the same person -- as with the malagasy/french fashion student, the serbian/dutch bartender, or my yugodammer friend.
even more important, the multiplicity isn't meant to be limited to pre-existing cultures. cultures are meant to be continuously created and destroyed. multiculture was always supposed to be an extension of individuality, not some lame acceptance of tribes shrinking into their ghettos.
given the choice between "integration" and "parallel communities", it's no surprise that people prefer "integration". but integration is stifling to the soul. real multiculture is something else entirely, where nobody integrates and nobody conforms, we all just come together and *deal* with each other. this is the way life really works, when it's working.
so there goes another concept, stolen by those who couldn't understand it. it's gonna be hard for me to get it back.
as you know i'm already having that problem with the misused word "anarchy", which most people are convinced means something dreadful that you "descend" into, rather than a personal moral challenge you must rise to.
man this is frustrating.
oh, crikey, gimme some homosapiens!