“>Prime Minister Tony Blair has long hinted that he harbours doubts about the ideology of multi-culturalism that has done so much to divide one British person from another. Recently, he finally expressed those doubts – plainly enough to infuriate both professional multi-culturalists in the public sector and the Muslim Association of Britain, which described his remarks as “alarming”.
One of the distinctions many of us are learning about Iraq is that it seems that most people there are more loyal to their sect or clan than they are to their Nation. It feels like the dynamic there is for things to spin apart rather than draw together. The people there seem to define themselves more by how they are different from each other than by how they are the same.
One of the dynamics that allowed the US to flourish has been that immigrants from all over the world tend to identify with the American meritocracy and rule of law a bit more than their personal heritage. We are more the same than we are different.
What I think PM Blair is lamenting is that the celebration of multi-culturalism is teetering towards celebrating our differences more than our sameness. It is a recipe for the growth of factions and sects and the kinds of divisions that make a diverse civil society more difficult.
The challenge for us is to build consensus that while we respect personal beliefs and rituals we must first give allegiance to behaviors that promote mutual respect, facilitate a common mode of communication and transaction, and commitment to our accepted rules of law.
This is why I come down on the side of English as the national language that is required for all public business. And that when in public, faces are not covered as a way to announce that one is not part of this community, and that one doesn’t inconvenience or intrude on the public with your mode of prayer.
For me, the path to embracing multi-culturalism is agreeing to a minimum standard of public behavior that emphasizes what we share in common.
Born 1950, Married, Living in Austin Texas, Semi
Retired Small Business owner and investor. My political interest
evolved out of his business experience that the best decisions come out of an objective gathering of information and a pragmatic consideration of costs and benefits. I am interested in promoting Centrist candidates and Policies. My posts are mostly about people and policies that I believe are part of the solution rather the problem.