Pericles

I think you are trying to pick a fight with me for what might be called "traditional reasons".

I asked whether multicultural societies could be robust. Clearly, from the context of my post, I actually do mean:

>>any place in the world where more than one culture/religion/ethnicity live together>>

(Quoting Pericles)

I am asking whether such polities can survive a stress test.

I don't know the answer. But clearly many such societies have struggled and continue to struggle. One society that is struggling is the US.

BTW if any multi / cultural / ethnic / religoius / racial / polity can survive a stress test it's probably Australia.

I agree that my comment about appeasement was in line wth the author's position. I also said, agreeing with mac, that he was simply restating the rights of every citizen in a secular liberal democracy. We can all do what we like provided we don't break the law.

But I questioned whether that was really what the protagonists of multiculturalism had in mind. Do we, for example, really need to replace "AD" with "CE" when quoting a year. After all what is the meaning of "current era". Era of what?

I suggest we replace CE with SMWAGF (Since Melbourne Won a Grand Final) This is the year 47 SMWAGF. It has the advantage of being precise. In theory it would have to be reset every time Melbourne won a grand final but the danger is negligible. I think SMWAGF is good for at least three millennia.

From the time of Grassby to Howard, any official national statements on mutliculturalism have placed it in the context of the rule of law and democratic values (ie, our British heritage going back to Magna Carta, the later beheading of Charles 1st, the 1688 Bill of Rights and of course the C19th Chartism that was imported and applied to Australian conditions by officers, convicts and free settlers).

The problem is not so much multiculturalism as the failure of the education system and media to educate and inform about this revolutionary and radical tradition and context.

Most people in this country have had enough of multiculturalism. We have seen the good side, but the bad is too much to tolerate.

Morrison's comment were worthy and needed to be said. The pathetic overseeing of this country by feckless politicians of all colours indulging themselves by being excessive in such things, even legislating against normal human behaviour such as restrictions on freedom of speech where Australians can be called anything by people of foreign extraction, criticised, ridiculed, but are restricted to return the compliment under threat of prosecution.

All for the "ethnic vote"

This erosion of free speech (and be assured that is what it i), is part of the excesses that are pursued by governments, particularly this compromised Prime Minister who is under the misapprehension that flying here and there, shedding the occasional tear and courting the sycophantic media on a daily basis, is what will keep her in power. There never has been a more incapable and irresponsible 'leader' or government team than we are experiencing at the moment, equalled only by the opposition.
Future government accounting will show the funds she is throwing at everything, anything, anywhere that moves.

We see policy being made that will affect the future of this country for decades as they fly along by their seat of their pants, day after day with no resolutions for boat people, no courage to send them all back and falling for the old trick that they are all "refugees" from other lands, having just paid up to $12,000 for the journey, knowing that they receive thousands of Australian dollars for accomodation, medical support , food, thousands for re-settlement, all from a government trying to curry favour from the Australian voters, backmailed by the Greens.
No papers, all predominantly Muslim and all fully aware of the procedures to manipulate a weak and indecisive government. It is common knowledge everywhere that these "refugees" pass through six other safe countries to get here.

The beginning of Australia's approach to multiculturalism? From here is goes downhill, fast.

As with all other countries, it just doesn't work

rexw:

I wrote in my earlier post,
"newcomers, especially if they have come to Australia in linguistic or ethnically distinct groups have always had a hard time at first. But past streams of migration gave Australia its reputation as a country of diverse peoples that is all the better for it."

Our Greek and Italian communities are the largest groups and are fully integrated. Melbourne is famously claimed to be the largest Greek city outside of Greece. Vietnamese Australians experienced intense racism and hostility when they first arrived in the late 70s and early 80s, but time, and the entry of increasing numbers of Vietnamese-Australians into public life, have eroded that prejudice.
Today's expressed hostility towards people of Middle-Eastern appearance undoes more than a century of successful migration and settlement and polarizes people afresh. Several important events in recent Australian political and social life have made this particular eruption of racism and xenophobia different from the past. While denying even that racism exists, our politicians have given tacit approval and support for it through policies, whether they were policies on refugees, or security. Past and current governments have benefited and continue to benefit from the fear of Muslims and Arabs, rather than working to educate and lead Australians beyond it.

I stated in my previous post, "If contemporary Australians are to live at ease with ourselves, we need more education, less fear mongering, and not least, greater honesty about the culture of racism that is so damaging..."

By the way - for your information - you've probably been taught that when, "The First Fleet arrived. It brought 1000 English convicts.
It didn't. It brought 1000 convicts who came from a dozen different countries. "English jails were no respectors of nationality." The first Italian arrived on January 26, 1788 - Giuseppe Tuso. There were people from Ceylon, from India, from Spain, from Portugal, from Hungary. So when people say, "Do you believe Australia should become a multi-racial society?" The reply is, "It doesn't matter what I think, I can tell you what it is, which is a society of tremendous diversity."

stevenlmeyer,

"But is this really what the multi-culti crowd have in mind?" Indeed, sometimes I wonder(at 3 am) what the agenda for some of those very loud multiculturalists really is, not, I hope the imposition of their particular superstitions on the rest of us. For example, I will not accept the requirement that non-Moslems adopt Islamic dress codes at municipial swimming pools, in the name of 'inclusion', this is a violation of others' civil rights. The conflation of race, religion and ethnicity and the easy assumption of the moral high ground by members of ethnic communities is counterproductive as well, as this is basically a racist attitude in itself. However, we must not call it by its true name.

'Multiculturalism' seems to be a solution to a problem that really doesn't exist in liberal democracies.

Lexi,

There are cultures and there are cultures. The fact is that Muslims - all Muslims - accept an ideology that is contrary to the ideals of Western civilization. If you don't understand this, you haven't read the Quran and ahadith.

Yes there are good Muslims, but collectively their presence in large numbers in a Western society is a big minus. If you doubt this you need to look at the news and consider the situation in Europe. The US, Canada and Downunder are next.

As to hostility and racism against Muslims, you might also want to consider the hostility, anger and violence of Muslims against all non-Muslims, particularly where Islam dominates. Let me tell you that Islam says some vile things against non-Muslims and teaches that Muslims are better than us. Anybody that says “Praise be upon him” after the name of Mohammad obvious is either ignorant, or has little moral competence. Muslims have “submitted” to Islam and its values, just like the word means. There is nothing racist about condemning the theory and practice of Islam. It is a vile, violent, supremacist ideology that is incompatible with the notions of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, equality and separation of religion and state - or haven't you noticed?

Stop making excuses for intolerance, hate and violence. Instead of blaming everybody but Muslims for the things that Muslims and believe, try do apply the same standards to everybody.