Rob
that chinese philosopical idea explains in part why Asians (most of whom are chinese) are reluctant to call a spade a spade in our faces.
They prefer the quiet, discreet, indirect method.

More on the 'Pendulum' effect on culture change in our society.

It seems to me that we have cycles like this (as one example)

1/ Status quo.
2/ Migration
3/ Increasing resentment
4/ Backlash (Lambing flat riots etc)
5/ (Belated) Law changes to fix things.

Now..when we add to this these days, commercial news media which depends on 'controversy' to sell advertizing space, clearly it is in the interests of said Media to promote or emphasize any discord in the community.
They are like the Stock market investor who makes money on the rise AND the decline in stocks by some skillful manipulation.

One minute they are railing against 'unfettered immigration'....
Then when some backlash occurs its against 'Racist tragedy in Cronulla'
Then its... and so it goes on.

CONCLUSION.
As I've been trying to advocate all along. We need policy which is based on sound social/anthropological foundations rather than polls and newsprint and knee jerk reactions.

My hobby horse being Immigration/Resettlement policy, is one such area.

1/ Limited numbers.
2/ Quota's from ethno religious backgrounds. (to avoid imbalance or the excessive build up of one particular ethno/religious/cultural group)
3/ Scrutiny and assessment of cultural compatibility.

In short...our immigration policy should be overtly discriminatory but in a socially positive way. It would deny immigration, but would accept it in the best possible controlled terms based on social harmony and national goals.

Boaz: "A 'counsellor' and a chaplain can both guide by saying 'Well, this group believes such and such, and that group suggests thus and so' but only the born again Chaplain can impart the inner reality of the belief of his group."

You mean like this guy? http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20737970-2702,00.html

Some "inner reality"!!

On topic: Rob's interesting question about historical "polar shifts in cultural norms" lends itself to analysis via Hegel's dialectic - in fact, I understand it was this kind of phenomenon that originally prompted him to formulate it. Of course, this was the very device that was modified by another great historian and thinker in his own extremely influential analysis of cultural history :)

C.J. oh.. that 'great' man would not be Marx would it ?
I need to send you to a re-education camp doing manual labour mate... "Marx" ? eeeuuuwww *cringe*....

Chaplains "Like this bloke" ? no, not like that bloke. Nor like the many people like him who don't happen to be curates or whatever.
Police checks AND recommendation from referees is a sound policy.

By the way, the problem referred to in the Australian is one of the reasons I never gravitated to 'organized' religious groups such as RC or Anglicans or any like that. I prefer a loose fellowship of autonomous congregations. No heirachy. The only 'governing' body we have is a Trust set up to 'own' all property, to avoid the problem of disputes if a local congregation splits and tries to dispose of assets in favor of one faction.

I refer you to my last post, regarding the important issue of taking up the reigns of policy actively to avoid the polar shifts referred to.
It does not 'have' to be that way. The only reason it does, is laziness and lack of vision. There is a verse in the bible "If there is no vision, the people perish" and thats so true. They just swing from one side to the other. Action.....reaction... re-re action.
(C.J. for your sake insert the words 'counter revolutionaries' and 'reactionaries' in there as appropriate. :)

Boazy, you don't realise it but you're making precisely the same 'fundamental' error that Marx did: that of advocating the imposition of authoritarian structures to try and control socio-historic processes that have been discussed by philosophers since at least Socrates.

One of the reasons that I'm neither a Marxist nor a Christian is that history demonstrates time and again the inevitable failure of authoritarian regimes, whether or not these are founded on secular or religious ideologies. Unlike you, however, I'm not blinkered by blind faith, and can acknowledge the 'greatness' of historical figures like Marx and Jesus, despite the flaws in the social movements they each inspired.