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I agree with you Everylady. Well said. I enjoy other cultures. I like their foods, find some of their customs, and celebrations interesting, and like experiencing different things. If there were only one kind of these things life would be boring. However, there should be common VALUES. Abiding by the law, wanting to be successful (whatever that means), supporting yourself, and your family, helping others, pride in your community, and country, being charitable, community service, etc.
I am married to a White Eastern European with a very different culture. When I visited his family and childhood friends, I ate the same food and spoke the same language. However, some families were prejudice against me for being American, forget about my skin color.
Other families tried to learn as much as possible from me. I noticed we got along because we shared the same values. This had nothing to do with culture.
It has everything to do with culture because many cultures don't share the same values.
I agree with you Everylady. Well said. I enjoy other cultures. I like their foods, find some of their customs, and celebrations interesting, and like experiencing different things. If there were only one kind of these things life would be boring. However, there should be common VALUES. Abiding by the law, wanting to be successful (whatever that means), supporting yourself, and your family, helping others, pride in your community, and country, being charitable, community service, etc.
True that there can be dysfunctional subcultures that are immensely difficult to mainstream. In the US, for example, we see that with the centuries of poverty in the Appalachia area (remnants that never fully assimilated) and in inner city ghettos (where animosity from times past still festers).
The culture of poverty, though, is found across multiple cultures and races. And the greater the economic disparity the more likely that these pockets develop and/or persist.
We are all familiar with the phrase "diversity is our strength." I would like to know what the historical basis for that is. Sure, US has always been "multi-cultural" but all of those cultures came from the same race/geographic area and were always forced to assimilate into one culture. Where did the idea that a society made up roughly equally of fiver different races would be better than a county of only one race?
I'm not trying to stir the pot here, just trying to learn. Thanks!
You have a very simplistic and shallow knowledge of history..... Europe is not and never was a harmonious group of ethnic humans. It wasn't kumbaya here in the US either amongst European ethnic groups either. I suggest you take some college level American history courses if you think Europeans all got along.
Egypt reigned for thousands of years. I don't think the US has gotten a few thousand years of rule under it's belt yet. Egypt was as multicultural as you can get. There is a nice exhibit in NYC. You should visit and take notes.
Is there even one successful homogenous society on earth?
The only ones I can come up with are Japan and South Korea, but both are in decline and are demographic time-bombs.
Basically the richest, most successful nations are the most diverse, and their relative success is strongly tied to their relative diversity.
I quickly flipped thru this thread before beginning to post but even so I may be repeating ...
Israel is an interesting study here. It's chosen to fight the demographic time bomb to maintain its Jewish ethnicity. So far, successfully I guess.
But at a tremendous cost to its population. The wars. The tension. The cost for security. The condemnation.
And even though its somewhat (still has a substantial Palestinian citizenship) homogenous there still remains tremendous diversity WITHIN the Jewish community with political and religious divisions.
I quickly flipped thru this thread before beginning to post but even so I may be repeating ...
Israel is an interesting study here. It's chosen to fight the demographic time bomb to maintain its Jewish ethnicity. So far, successfully I guess.
But at a tremendous cost to its population. The wars. The tension. The cost for security. The condemnation.
And even though its somewhat (still has a substantial Palestinian citizenship) homogenous there still remains tremendous diversity WITHIN the Jewish community with political and religious divisions.
Yeah, to me, Israel is pretty diverse. The Jews are from North Africa, all over Europe, Russia, the Middle East. United by religion and culture, to an extent, but still diverse. The Muslim population is pretty big too. And their maintenance of Jewishness has incurred massive costs.
True that there can be dysfunctional subcultures that are immensely difficult to mainstream. In the US, for example, we see that with the centuries of poverty in the Appalachia area (remnants that never fully assimilated) and in inner city ghettos (where animosity from times past still festers).
The culture of poverty, though, is found across multiple cultures and races. And the greater the economic disparity the more likely that these pockets develop and/or persist.
On both fronts I have an issue. First of all you left out the fact that both subcultures suffer from a brain drain. The best and the brightest will leave the projects and the trailer park. When is the last time you saw a PHd or MD living there? You can't build up your area or neighborhood if nobody knows how. This is why gentrification is so successful . If you inject those with the know how and brains into a failing subculture things will turn around. The best and the brightest will always leave unless there is incentive to stay.
[quote=EveryLady;49247297]I quickly flipped thru this thread before beginning to post but even so I may be repeating ...
Israel is an interesting study here. It's chosen to fight the demographic time bomb to maintain its Jewish ethnicity. So far, successfully I guess.
But at a tremendous cost to its population. The wars. The tension. The cost for security. The condemnation.
And even though its somewhat (still has a substantial Palestinian citizenship) homogenous there still remains tremendous diversity WITHIN the Jewish community with political and religious divisions.[/QUOTE
Modern Isreal is a very young country. A better example would be South Africa.
On both fronts I have an issue. First of all you left out the fact that both subcultures suffer from a brain drain. The best and the brightest will leave the projects and the trailer park. When is the last time you saw a PHd or MD living there? You can't build up your area or neighborhood if nobody knows how. This is why gentrification is so successful . If you inject those with the know how and brains into a failing subculture things will turn around. The best and the brightest will always leave unless there is incentive to stay.
So true. The "brain drain" is what maintains the subculture and why it's named a "culture of poverty." I'm fairly sure (its been decades since I read his work) the phrase was coined by Oscar Lewis who wrote of Hispanic populations.
Interesting that one of the strengths of America - its internal mobility and the economic opportunities - that made possible the escape from the projects and trailer park simultaneously led to a less desirable outcome.
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