Is multiculturalism wanted??

AlekSmart wrote: »

The problem with folk,is that they tend to be simplistic...in so many ways,however this simplicity in Irish terms can mask a razor sharp ability to keep their own shop in good order.

John B Keane was very good at being able to show this particular trait in easily digested bites

As for "ranting",I would hold my hands up to never using one word when a dozen will do,but whether it amounts to ranting is moot,surely ?True






A bit of an oul Rant can sometimes be theraputic...;)

The issue of immigrants having to "give up all semblance of their own culture" is equally a bit disingenuous,although it does cut to the thrust in some ways.

That ability to assimilate voluntarily into the prevailing social and cultural norms can be the key to making the best use of one's new home.

Many years back I listened to an RTE Radio interview with Pat Grace of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame,where Pat outlined his early years as a young Irishman abroad.

He formed a realisation early on in London,that attempting to maintain a steely grasp of his traditional "Irishness" was getting him nowhere,except from one Irish Pub to another in search of work "On the Buildins".

When he moved elsewhere in the UK,he was directed into the same Irish haunts to meet with the same caricatures,all offering the same counsel....

Even later in the USA,it was New York and Boston to which he drifted,encountering the exact same scenarios as he had found in McAlpines UK waiting rooms.

It was'nt until he made a decision to consciously depart from the well trodden Irishness trail,that he discovered the Southern States and people who neither knew nor cared about Ireland or Irishness.

Sometimes the ingrained need to see ones own particular culture as in need of retention at all costs ends up contributing to the eventual destruction of that culture itself ?

Wibbs wrote: »

IMHO assimilation is a red herring on both sides of the argument and arguments/discussion over the degree of same tends to go in circles, from the "every culture is equally valid" to they better become [insert nationality here] or else".

On AS's property notion, it seems to have some legs. Certainly in nations where sub cultural enclaves spring up. There are many reasons for this. Wanting to be with one's own, sense of threat from the wider culture, but NIMBYism/"white flight" is a well known factor too(hence it has a catchy title). I don't see how that wouldn't apply to Ireland if or when some vague numerical tipping point occurs. There are the beginnings of it already in Dublin. North of O'Connell street is a growing area of popularity with some recent visitors to our shores. The area around the South Circular Road another. It's a small enough demographic shift of course, but one can see how such seeds are sown and can grow if larger scale demographic influx kicks off(which I doubt will happen here anyway. I reckon that high water mark has largely passed).

Again I don't think you have answered this and are still avoiding the point a little. Just on my example, under our laws and mores(and we still have some catchup to do) women are considered equal, don't have to cover up because of cultural pressure and have the same legal rights as men, so how can accept a set of cultural practices as OK, if you wouldn't accept them in your own culture? And further why should we tolerate such in our wider society for the sake of "diversity" or some such notion?

Again that's kinda avoiding the point. EG has say a "traditional" Pakistani Muslim woman living in Ireland the same practical rights, obligations and opportunities as a Galwegian woman living in Ireland? Clearly not. So why "import" that way of thinking in any number? I had this similar convo with a bloke from the Middle East and he was complaining about the westerners in his country acting the maggot and not respecting the local culture and while I don't agree with many of his cultures mores I most certainly agreed with him on that point. When in Rome etc. Indeed the Romans while oddballs at times generally pulled off the multicultural stuff pretty well. In ancient Rome what is noticeable is that there are very few ethnic enclaves. People from all over the empire and beyond lived cheek by jowl(often rich and poor did too). They may have been Spaniards or Jews or Greeks or Italians, but they were Roman first and went along with the Roman culture with flavours from their own. It can be argued one of the reasons the Christians pissed them off was that they saw themselves as somehow apart.

Wibbs wrote: »

I agree CF, but we've got shot of much of their daftness of late, so why import daftness?

And what if those in full face covering object on the grounds of vulnerability and culture? Where does a culture draw the line? Aye but there is a large, nay huge objective diff between showing hair and showing breasts. They're not equivalent except philosophically.

But we're not an immigrant nation. Historically we've had little enough immigration and what we did have didn't exactly go down too well.

Oh true enough. We've been insular and parochial for so long Ireland would not be my first choice as a place to move to if I was an outsider.

Pherekydes wrote: »

The demographic status quo is never going to happen. It's a physical impossibility, unless you want siblings breeding together?

Pick your own mate, but don't pick mine.

Nodin wrote: »

You can't arrive and claim.


Whats any of that to do with "multiculturalism"?

long range shooter wrote: »

This is the result of multiculturalism today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight

ScumLord wrote: »

Much of the technology we attribute to the Romans actually came from one of the other cultures they freely allowed to settle in early Rome. While Rome is famous for conquering it was their openness at the start that quickly made them the most powerful state in Europe.

That can be seen throughout history. Just look at the states, they sprung from nothing in a relatively short amount of time by taking in the huddled masses.

You'd have to be completely ignorant of history to presume the culture you experience one day won't be completely redundant the next. Human culture changes to meet the times and environment it's what makes us so adaptable and what leads to trade.

I don't really understand what the word multicultural is supposed to mean. There have been very few mono cultural societies in human history and it's not like multiculturalism in New York is the same as multiculturalism in London. They are two distinct cultures that unsurprisingly are made up of a lot of different cultures and ideals.