Cultural Imperialism

hmm i think you missed an island. i was sure it was in the northern area so i looked into it more and there is a small island right close to newfoundland. the Saint Pierre and Miquelon islands.

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

 

Not that I would ever do anything so heinous as to go against the status quo, but it seems to me there's a seriously overlooked silver lining. Cultural homogeniety, among other things, is a sign of progress. In primitive times people were divided and had their own disperate culture language, and customs. As society has grown the world has gotten smaller, we've become more interconnected. First there were villages, then feudal kingdoms, then massive empires, then modern nation states. (With neo-imperialism.) I'd posit that cultural fusion is symptomatic of this integration, and, perhaps of a movement beyond this doomed notion of nation states, to regional group identification, and ultimately, hopefully, a global community.

 

Hmmm, so are nuclear bombs, taxes, and capitalism. assimiliation is bullshit, people shouldn't be forced to look or act a certain way just for immigrating to a country that is supposedly 'free' anyways. Destroying so called lesser cultures to create a master culture is as bad as trying to create a master race or language. What gives anone the right to say they must learn to speak english and look american is they want to live in the usa?

 

This however is an aggressive Revolution instead of a more fluid Evolution, to which NGNM is referring, methinks.

 

i guess the point i was trying to make is just because we make so called progressions in history doesn't mean they are good for humanity. Progress is an overrated term.

 

[quote="NGNM85"Cultural homogeniety, among other things, is a sign of progress.[/quote]
Hate to say it but multiculturalism doesn't work (not my sentiment the sentiment of the government - see rest of post.) Here in Australia the previous government has admitted that their policies on multiculturalism have not worked. While it is great to have a society that is culturally diverse and every culture can bring something to the melting pot so to speak, here in Australia it has gone passed that. Due to the political correctness, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, racial vilification laws etc there is not a sense of homgeniety at all, many people live in their diverse groups without integration. There is a lack of national pride (not nationalism and therefore racism etc) but a lack of national identity and what happens is many of the imigrants are still concerned with the politics and ongoings in their parent countries and continue with their issues (racal tension, religious hatred etc) here.

I am having difficulty expressing myself eloquently enough to get my idea across so I apologise in advance, this is not a post to incite vitriolic response, it is more about how the government here have admitted that their policies on multiculturalism have not worked.

 

That’s not what I was saying.

Also, while I try to be open minded and respectful of people’s differences, some civilizations are superior. (Some in one way or another, others almost universally.) As un-PC as it is, it happens to be true. For example in many different societies it’s considered an appropriate response to cover your daughter in petrol and set her on fire for premarital sex and public beheadings are de rigueur. Our society isn’t just different, it’s better.

I can think of a few examples, like global warming and extinction of various animal species and so forth. However, we had to develop combustion before we could develop solar panels, hydrogen fuel, or more futuristic possibilities like nuclear fusion. It may not be paradise but frankly I’d rather live in this century than the 1800’s, 1700’s, etc. Not least of which because I would’ve died years ago because of comparatively primitive medicine.

 

"Fucking idiot", "your ideas are full of shit", "like talking with a fascist".....I think I'M gonna puke hearing those words from the mouth of a so-called anarchist to another anarchist. Treat people with respect Ungovernable, sure you should debate...but stop with the insults for crying out loud.

 

Then he'd have nothing left to say.

 

I don't think it should be allowed in any culture.

However, I don't feel that this global culture should stomp out other cultures. So many cultural practices are being discouraged and even criminalized, just because they are different from the group imposing control over them. Look back to my story about the Russian community of reindeer herders, they're being encouraged to leave traditional life and move to Russian cities to become a part of capitalist global culture. Yet, they culture is definitely not inferior to any other.[/quote]

In some cases, I see you're point. This issues of indigenous rights is a thorny one. Of course the bigger issue I think is that Russia happens to be a police state. I will admit, some beautiful things may be lost. However, I'm not a primativist so I embrace technological progress, and if we're going to continue to progress technologically and socially the world is only going to become more integrated. .....Well, unless humanity reaches the point where we spread to other planets and solar systems, (Best case scenario.) providing we're still fundamentally analagous to what we are today... Sorry. I get lost in thought. Anyhow, I thought it was important that someone at least mention that there actually are positive implications.

 

Hmm, quotes such as...

and...

are not the opinions of an Anarchist, but rather that of racist scum

 

Further, such middle class, coke swilling, maccas eating, ecologically suicidal, native language banning, cultural homogeneity has, and continues, to smash resistance to Capitalism and the State.
We must resist this bullshit Capitalist socio-cultural hegemony at all costs.

The working class has always shown solidarity across race, gender or cultural boundaries. Just look at the IWW in the US, the anti-conscription fight by the IWW (and the broader working class) during WW1 in Australia, the wharfies support for Indigenous workers in the Pilbara, or the working class solidarity between African slaves and white workers in the US.

The ruling class has always attempted to smash alternative forms of social relationships, whether through wholesale mass murder (the Americas, Australasia, Asia, fucking anywhere Capitalist colonisation has touched); dislocation from land and resources (continuing and intensifying) ; 'breeding out' the local population (the Stolen Generation in Australia); the relatively modern phenomenon of cultural assimilation (the banning of teaching language to Indigenous kids, building nuclear waste dumps on sacred sites, setting 'citizenship tests', 'no child left behind' operating to make teachers encourage latino students to drop out to raise the schools' grades, gentrification, et al.); or the attacks on wages and workplaces conditions through casualisation and 'austerity' in these so-called 'tough economic times'.
The ruling class often stir up racial and ethic tensions in order to further their own interests. Howard Zinn states that racial tensions in the US were created largely in order to undermine slave labour and white workers who had begun to organise together as a class. They did so through giving middle class concessions to white workers.

The homogenisation of culture is not fucking social progress, it is a systematic attack on our class by the ruling class and must be resisted.

 

It may be better phrased that the Australian Government's policies of assimilation have not worked. It shouldn't come as any suprise that ppl desire to maintain a sense of identity distinct from that of the sanctified middle-class (& British) consumer. This is not necessarily a bad thing, although it can at times lead to diversionary intra-class fights along ethnic lines (we should be fighting the rich!), however, ethnic tension is played up a lot in the media (it hasn't played out in my experiences).

This follows on to my next point. It it rather odd for the Government to make such claims about the 'failures' of multiculturalism, considering its, and the mainstream media's, active role in whipping up fears of the Other. Islamophobia, fear of Australian 'asianisation', and the so-called 'boat people invasion' (at the current rate of 'illegal' boat people entering Australia it would take 30 years to fill the MCG) are notions we are bombarded with whenever we watch the news or listen to some politician wanker. Is it any wonder that in such an environment new immigrants aren't exactly welcomed with open arms? Or that they would stay relatively self-enclosed for their safety of mind?

Finally, Nationalism and National Pride (the two are interchangeable, they are premised on the existence of the Nation State) are little more then substitutes for community. Capitalism isolates and alienates us not only from our work, but from each other. We are social beings, we need to feel connected to a community. National pride is thus a faux community sold to us, when we are allowed neither the time nor energy (as dictated by our economic circumstances) to exist within a real one.

 

Nothing I said there qualifies as 'racist.'

 

Welcome.

No, I just don't see much chance for indigenous rights in a country where nobody has rights.

I'm not sure about this. It depends what that means. If it means using treating their children with incantations or some kind of faith healing instead of medicine. (Resulting in a lot of dead children.) I'd say that's bad. If it involves some sort of religious extremism or fundamentalism, I'd say that's bad. I also think it should be a choice. I think everyone should have a chance at the kind of life modern technology can offer them, if they don't want it, then that's something else. However, I think most would not make that choice.

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Even kalahari bushmen have cell phones, now. I think that's great. I also don't think that what we're calling capitalism, which is really a sort of upside-down socialism, is intrinsically linked to modern technology. That's just the way the world is right now. We can change that.