Disney’s Small, Small World: the root of the problem.
The downside of diversity – The Boston Globe — And people are going to be surprised by this? One thing for sure, nobody wants to talk about it.
IT HAS BECOME increasingly popular to speak of racial and ethnic diversity as a civic strength. From multicultural festivals to pronouncements from political leaders, the message is the same: our differences make us stronger.
But a massive new study, based on detailed interviews of nearly 30,000 people across America, has concluded just the opposite. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam — famous for “Bowling Alone,” his 2000 book on declining civic engagement — has found that the greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects. In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings. The study, the largest ever on civic engagement in America, found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings.
>>The reason some atheists attack ‘Christianity’ is that in it
>>they see a reflection of themselves.
Truer words were never spoken, Li.
#60 – iGW,
On this I have to agree with you, though I’m not happy about it. Much culture will be lost. But, we need to become one culture so that we stop killing each other. This will be necessary if the human species is to survive.
Unfortunately, nothing we do can increase our genetic diversity. We’re all just a bunch of inbred mutant piglets with cloven hooves to semi-quote Lou Reed. The human species went through a bottle neck 70-80,000 years ago where only 3-7,000 humans survived. We’re all really close cousins, just like cheetahs are, for the same reason.
Anyway, we’ve got at least 12 major problems we must solve in order to survive. If we miss one, we don’t get an A, we fail. Our odds aren’t looking good. We may never make it to the point where we have just one culture.
#52, iHotAir,
What you’re mentioning are the items that have been assimilated into mainstream culture, they’re no longer diverse.
That assimilation is a two way street. They give up a lot to join our society, we give up a little to have them. They gain a lot of our culture, we gain a little of theirs. In other words, we didn’t have those things until a diverse culture introduced us to them.
#60, iHotAir
I think your statement would be more true if you changed the last two words, in homogeneity for more variety.
While it used to be Meat and Potatoes, now we get a choice how to cook the meat and how to prepare the potatoes. And what kind of side dish.
#63, Scott,
On this I have to agree with you, though I’m not happy about it. Much culture will be lost.
The thing to decide is what culture is being lost. Is that loss actually a loss?
If Americans lost their fast food culture, for example, could we complain? We know how harmful that is.
Was the native Americans giving up their culture of living off the land that bad? Before white men took over, they were dependent upon the deer being there, or the buffalo herds arriving in spring, or the salmon running up the river. They were dependent that a disease, wild fire, or drought didn’t affect their lively hood. This spring, a late frost killed all the buds on my cherry, peach, apple, and grape. Luckily for me I don’t depend on them to survive.
Is a Mid-Eastern culture that keeps women clothed head to foot worth keeping? Or arraigned marriages? Or honor killings? Or polygamy?
I want to believe that any culture worth saving on its merits, will be saved.
#33 – Mr. Fusion
Excellent post.
Conservative commentators have been saying this stuff for years.
16. “Multi-culti only works with the educated and intelligent”
So that’s why the Japanese discriminate based on blood type. They all lack education and intelligence.
Seriously, as far as I’ve noticed, the only people who actually believe in multiculturalism are those who drive home to their safe suburbs where everyone looks like they do.
#65 – “I want to believe that any culture worth saving on its merits, will be saved. ”
That’s what will happen naturally. Long term, people look out for themselves. Whatever cultural assets allow the most people to have the best life, however the majority define it , will win out.
69–TGW==I wish that were true, but surely that is a statement of hope and desire rather than objectively true? or so general an outcome as to be meaningless?
Culture is too vague a term to have such specific outcomes?
In GOUSA, people do not have secure retirement, universal health coverage, good education, safe borders, responsive government, energy self sufficiency, increasing standard of living (its decreasing!), disposable income, more time with family, DRM free media and on and on.
Most cultures have a “life cycle” that can be plotted. Birth, Growth, Maturity, Death. GOUSA is in the middle Maturity Age where we take on global activities without the popular support to maintain them, ie, we are being economically bled by our own choices.
Batter up!
#65 – Mr. Fusion,
Actually, you are dependent upon a viable ecosystem. You just don’t notice it in your everyday life. This separation convinces many that we are not part of nature and can live without it. This is false.
So, yes, it is bad to lose the native american cultures (many, BTW, not just one) even though they were far from perfect and far from truly being in balance with nature. They were still closer than we are.
71. “They were still closer than we are.”
So, I’m curious how you live more in “balance with nature” than native Americans. Post some pictures of your average meal and where you sleep. This should be real interesting.
Wait, I just thought about somethign. Are you one of those hypocrites who talks about how we should be acting a certain way but then acts the complete opposite?! No, not possible. Right?
Indian culture from what I have seen really SUCKS bigtime! Live off the buffalo? Every rock, tree, stream is sacred? All total BS!
or, are we honoring the indian culture when we try to be carbon neutral?
Culture?????????
Lets all not define what we are talking about, and talk about it.
#42 Lauren the Ghoti:
nice to see a kindred spirit amongst the blind, for lack of better words..:)
i’m just heading back sleep so just a quick comment.. (i usually do not do many, if any, follow up posts)
I am born and raised in NYC (still here), and like you, have had the golden opportunity to live the dream all these misguided PC types insist on cramming down everyones throat before it’s time. i’ve also lived in a few other states during an 8year “wanderlust” before i came back home..
just know that the ones i call friend come from every corner of the globe as do yours.. and sadly my old neighborhood (i’m 43) and all the neighborhoods i know have very little if any of the camaraderie they had once had due to current policies.
they are not destroyed per se, but definitely changed. not as friendly as they used to be and much less family like. less trusting. however, it’s still a fun place. -just overrun by f’n yuppies from New Jersey. ;p
-anyway.. i’m off. last thought: i think the best by product of growing up this way is that it makes you a social chameleon. able to live anywhere, amongst anyone, blend seamlessly in, and have a good time 🙂
g’night mate.
PS:
#42
quote: We’re called “independent thinkers.” We perversely refuse to be bullshitted or bullied into thinking what someone else with an agenda wants us to think. Like I said, we’re scarce on the ground these days…
lol… couldnt have said it better mate..
gn
-s
#75 – Get a room, you two.
>>It’s the PC fuckwits who insist on jamming it down everyone
>>else’s throats while themselves living in homogenous,
>>lily-white environs with a token smattering of members of
>>‘approved’ minorities.
Not sure what the dude is talking about here. I don’t jam anything down anybody’s throat, I don’t live in a lily-white environs, and the minorities who live in my neighborhood comprise both “approved” and “unapproved” variants. No approval process required.
I guess we could turn to education, enlightenment, and understanding as a way to “all just get along”, but the neocon right wing tries to block any attempts along those lines at every turn. If you think the neighborhoods of the “PC fuckwits” are lily-white bastions of racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and everything-o-phobia, you should check out where the right-wingers live sometime.
Interesting everyone has taken the article as dealing only with racial diversity. Economic diversity is what the country needs. We need to put a run down shack in between every house in Beverly Hills, then buss a few welfare recipients in to live in them. Strictly PC diversity along racial lines leads to an average functioning at the level of the lowest common denominator. Which equals easy control over the masses. The people who set the standards for the masses, they should have to live by them also.
#71, Scott,
I agree about the importance of a viable ecosystem. That was not my point however. The culture of Native Americans that lived off of the land required them to spend much of their energy searching for food. Their societies were much more primitive and fragile than were those that practiced agriculture. Their culture didn’t permit healthy societies.
None of the North American Native Americans had a written language or anything more than primitive artwork. Their buildings were flimsy and constructed of wood branches and bark or animal hides. The middle American Natives (Aztecs, Incas, Mayans) however built cities and huge stone buildings. Their societies were of hundreds of thousands. They built canals to irrigate the farms.
I think, Mr. Fusion, that this characterization says a lot about our respective opinions on what makes a great society. My idea is of a place where people have freedom of speech, thought, religion and movement; a place where no one man can gather the power to oppress from afar. You idea appears to be a place where the environment is manipulated to the will of man, and where stone monuments are built stretching to the sky, no matter how blood stained they might be.
My concern is that our nation is coming to resemble the organization and attitude of the Aztecs more than that of the Cherokee or the Hopi.
As for the North American first nations cultures, may I remind you that they regularly employed mixed crop agriculture, advanced soil fertilization techniques, and remarkably sophisticated selective breeding (one example, the tomato was bred from the poison nightshade) to produce the highest yield per acre of any other culture at that time. The buffalo culture only sprang up after they were scattered, often without chance of carrying their seed stock along. You seem to think they hunter gatherers or something, and this is simply not true. If the west had not adopted many of their farming techniques, you would have probably starved as a child.
Um, we had a man get treated almost this bad (less one slap, of course) for having the temerity of saying a Hindu prayer, here in a America, just a few weeks ago.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/12/AR2007071202007.html
Of course, that was in the US Senate, rather than the Hyderabad press club, so I can understand why it has equivalent security.
Oops, cross post: Dave, delete #80 for me, will ya? Thanks!