Multiculturalism … (a ramble)

I have been quite struck by the number of articles appearing in print over the last few weeks speaking about what appears to be the dark side of multiculturalism. What I have noticed from these is simply why have we assumed that multiculturalism is a good thing? Sure I’m quite take by the option I have to met with people from different backgrounds, or to go and have dinner at one of the many South East Asian restaurants in Kingsford / Maroubra, or be exposed to music and literature from another world.

Is this really multicultural? As I look at Australia, I wonder if we are more like a melting point within which we have elements of different cultures. Have we moved far from an intolerance of anything different? How do we handle the growing numbers of those from a different culture? (the traditional picture that comes to my mind, is not having a BBQ and invite my South East Asian friends, it’s the Australian on the train telling a group of “Australians” to speak English).

Is multiculturalism, an acceptance of all cultures as of equal value? Does that then mean we are to be tolerant of all viewpoints – perhaps this is were multiculturalism breaks down. To what point are we willing to extend our tolerance, is there a final line of tolerance. Do we, or should we, condemn practices of different cultures. Would a truly multicultural society allow dual legal systems – that is, should we try Muslims under Islamic law.

I do value all that people bring to Australia – I love the fact that I am able to watch a German, French, Iranian or Indian film. It adds to the rich fabric of life in Australia. I perhaps am concerned though, and this is as much a criticism of Australians as of those who seek to live here, in Australia we seem to have ethnic enclaves within our society. Our coldness towards other nationalities, perhaps leads them to be isolationist, and their isolationism, leads us to be cold. I’m not really sure how to deal with this. I mean within Christian circles we might foster this by having mono-cultural bibles studies, mono-cultural church congregations, surely we can learn from each other? In a sense, God has brought the mission field to us.

I wonder if this analogy works – to an extent the world is like our classroom, or perhaps my university lecture room. Its filled with about 200 people who have 200 different stories, 200 frameworks from which to look at the world. And we better understand the subject if we spend time seeking to understand these frameworks. Our world is our neighbourhood and an “us” and “them” mentality is not going to help here.

Hmm. I’ve wondered quite far from the articles, and perhaps like a yatch – all of which seem to be saying that our tolerance of others intolerance is getting us into trouble. I guess my comment here is we probably have more in common than we realise. And the differences between a group of anglo-australians 'would' potentially be greater than between say an Australian, and an Iraqi.

Another thougt I had was that perhaps we need to train ourselves not to think in categories, we have archival footage in our brain with which we associate Muslims etc, to speed up thinking. However all it really does is accentuates our error. And we need to train the media to stop doing that – to stop using archival footage, and make us think critically again.

Thinking back to 2001 - after 11 September there was a great silence – dissent was not allowed, criticism of the government was framed as disloyalty, or worse – treason.

Another thing I've read was Muslim's loyalty being to Allah, not the state, but not a word about the Christian, whose loyalty is to God above the state too.

Usual caveats apply: This opinion was posted by Duncan at 9.49pm, there is no guarantee that Duncan will think the same things at 9.50pm, or tomorrow. And I look forward to other thoughts or comments.