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The Forum > Article Comments > Has Multiculturalism Failed? > Comments

Has Multiculturalism Failed? : Comments

By John Töns, published 22/10/2010

Multiculturalism properly separates private from public, but within shared community values.

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Baygon, you have absolutely nailed it when you wrote "the idea of a monocultural society has always been a myth".

I disagree when you write that the notion of minorities having to adapt to the majority has now been reversed .......... with respect I think that is urban myth. It's myth because the "truth" is that the overall ground rules have altered, but have NOT been totally reversed. There's TREMENDOUS pressure on new arrivals in Australia to adapt to many of our core values, keeping in mind that those core values have NEVER been static, and have NEVER been "only" the values of white residents. Right from the very beginning (even amongst the original settlers, the aboriginal people) a monoculture has not existed. Our values have always been diverse, sometimes more so than at other times.

The MYTH that the majority has to adapt to the minority is a myth that panders to the fears of people who don't understand change, and who don't understand that change has ALWAYS existed. Change is part of Australia's social landscape. It's easy to pander to this fear, because it's soooooo easy to pick specific circumstances of specific people or groups where they don't conform 100% to some other group's assertion of what being Aussie means. Even amongst the most rabid of rednecks there's disagreement of what is and isn't Aussie culture.

Aussie culture has always been diverse.

I can remember when some white Aussies were totally freaked out by the post war "invasion" of Greeks and Italians. They were convinced we were doomed and the "wogs" would "force" their culture on us.

Some Aussies basically desire a monoculture. They are a minority, but often a noisy minority with constant letters to the editor, phone calls to radio shock jocks, not to mention the modern version of countless posts on internet forums.

Our entire country has been multicultural right from the very beginning. It's been a marvelous success and our land had profited handsomely.

We are not, and have never been, a monoculture.
Posted by samsung, Friday, 22 October 2010 8:42:40 PM
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Pericles,

Yes, but in that case, Caesar,came, saw, didn't conquer and left. I'm sure some Roman soldiers left their DNA behind, but the Roman settlement of Britain did not occur until the invasion of 43 AD. So you can refer to that De Bellico thingy as much as you like, however, it's irrelevant.

You're making straw man arguments and offensive ad hominem attacks---my objection is not to foreigners, smelly or otherwise, but to ideologies, I hope you don't equate religion and race.

Your namesake presented much more persuasive arguments.
Posted by mac, Friday, 22 October 2010 10:20:47 PM
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really it is secular dogmatism that has failed rather than multiculturalism. David f's little rant is a good example of that and he demonstrates his intolerance and blindness to anything that exposes secularism for the failed system it is. With the massive failures in the State education system all he can do is complain about Christian Chaplains and the fact that any decent school worth its salt does not push the evolution fantasy. Just like secularist twist their observations to fit their little warped theory they do the same when it comes to immigration. If we were a little more selective about who came here then many of our problems would be non existent. Go to any thriving church in Aussie (of which their are many) and you will need people from many nations getting along just fine.
Posted by runner, Saturday, 23 October 2010 9:46:50 AM
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Dear runner,

People who follow your superstition do not always get along fine. There were many wars while Europe was almost all Christian. the wars of the Reformation where different branches of the superstition did their best to kill each other and those who completely rejected the superstition were horrible. In your topsy turvy world science is fantasy, and irrational belief is truth.
Posted by david f, Saturday, 23 October 2010 10:56:42 AM
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I invite people to read runner's last post, then read my post.

Really it is christian dogmatism that has failed rather than multiculturalism. David F's contribution demonstrates runner's intolerance and blindness to anything that exposes religion for the failed system it is. With the massive failures in the religious education system all runner can do is complain about secularism in education and the fact that any decent school worth it's salt does not push the creationism fantasy. Just like fundamentalist christians twist their observations to fit their little warped theory, they do the same when it comes to immigration. If we were a little more selective about letting christians come here then many of our problems would be non existent. Go to any church in Aussie ( despite their rapidly dwindling numbers) and you will see people who heartily disagree with, and disapprove of, the beliefs of the people who attend the other different denomination across the road.
Posted by samsung, Saturday, 23 October 2010 12:57:10 PM
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Angela Merkel's meeting with Turkish Prime Minister in Berlin was about the integration of Muslims into Germany society - they're not doing it, something we all know - Muslims don't integrate - period. How can you expect people to integrate if their kids don't go to the schools of their adopted country? They dont because it ensures their whole way of thinking is reinforced down to the next generation and so on. It will take forever before their kids become Aussified and it makes me very angry. There are 2.5 million Turkish Muslims in Germany and they refuse to integrate. Now she's actually come out and said it - good for her, it's about time someone did!

But Multi-culturalism has succeeded in Australia. When the Europeans arrived in the 50's, their decendants are now 100% Aussie, they went to our schools and suffered the wog insults and we now realize how lucky we are to have these fine people among us today.
Posted by annamaria, Saturday, 23 October 2010 2:29:07 PM
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