The Forum > Article Comments > Has Multiculturalism Failed? > Comments
Has Multiculturalism Failed? : Comments
By John Töns, published 22/10/2010Multiculturalism properly separates private from public, but within shared community values.
- Pages:
- ‹
- 1
- 2
- Page 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- ...
- 9
- 10
- 11
- ›
- All
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.