RoR: Forum

Ed,

This past May, the subject of Multiculturalism came up between the Governor of Maryland, Bob Ehrlich (Republican) and his critics. Our governor had this to say about it, "Once you get into this multicultural crap, this bunk, that some folks are teaching in our college campuses and other places you run into a problem," he said on WBAL-AM. "There is no such thing as a multicultural society that can sustain itself, in my view, and I think history teaches us that." (http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleID.18044/article_detail.asp)

Unfortunately, he didn't, or to his detriment, real off a principled argument against Multiculturalism. Suffice to say, the debate veered off track; the issue of Multiculturalism became more about English only vs. non-English speakers.

Can you please haul in the governor’s critics (including the lame columnists) to you’re lecture hall and lecture them. If they don’t get it, maybe you should administer electro-convulsive shock therapy to help them clear there minds.

Regards, Tom

Post 1

Sunday, September 19, 2004 - 12:23pm

I am concerned about dishonest package dealing on both sides of the multiculturalism controversy. Under the banner of opposition to "multiculturalism," its opponents are ready to dismiss and denounce ANY "attack (on) the ideas of a common culture based on an intellectual, moral, and artistic legacy derived from the Greeks and the Bible" - even rational, well-founded opposition against bad ideas that come from the Bible and other mystical sources - as an instance of "multiculturalism," and therefore to be ignored without further consideration. There is a heavy load of intellectual collectivism in any appeal to a "common culture," as though "common culture" were a valid reason to accept as true what is merely commonly believed. Ethnocentrism, the unthinking acceptance of ideas from one's "common culture" without individual validation, is in fact an error. Multiculturalism is not a valid reason to reject that error, but epistemological individualism IS - and the article is defective in failing to make that distinction.

For example, sexual repression - a very bad idea that entered Western culture from the Roman cult of Vesta, by way of Paul of Tarsus, who incorporated it into Christianity - is something that many "Westerners" try to spread to the rest of the world. I have been attacked as a "multiculturalist" for my open rejection of that bad idea, and for suggesting that the rejection of sexual repression by traditional Japanese and other non-western cultures, and their positive endorsement of the full spectrum of human sexuality, is something that even "Westerners" can learn from. When one writes an article against a "package deal" like multiculturalism, good epistemology requires that one cut open the package, and weigh, individually, the ideas it contains.

(Edited by Adam Reed on 9/19, 12:34pm)

Post 2

Sunday, September 19, 2004 - 12:49pm

Adam Reed wrote:

...the rejection of sexual repression by traditional Japanese and other non-western cultures, and their positive endorsement of the full spectrum of human sexuality, is something that even "Westerners" can learn from.

Can you recommend any books that give an objective treatment of the benefits and detriments of practicing this view? I have heard, but not validated, that Japanese men commonly hire concubines with the full approval of their wives, and that such sex workers receive wide respect for their profession.

Luke Setzer

Post 3

Sunday, September 19, 2004 - 1:03pm

I don't have time right now to compile a reading list, but even the most "Western" psychologists today understand that repression of homosexuality manifests itself as anti-homosexual violence, including murder; that repression of sado-masochism manifests itself as rape; that repression of neotenic personality and sexual neoteny manifests itself as coercive molestation of small children, etc. Friday's Wall Street Journal had a front-page article on the open acceptance of neoteny in Japan ("The Little Girl Look is Big in Japan Now") - without any recognition of the fact that sexual abuse of children in Western societies is, for the most part, the inevitable psychological result of repressing natural neoteny. Google it from there.
(Edited by Adam Reed on 9/19, 1:10pm)

Post 4

Sunday, September 19, 2004 - 2:48pm

A wonderful article, Ed.

One of the results of multiculturalism that I find particularly offensive is the idea that "there are two sides to every question" -- the idea being that any opinion, however nonsensical, is to be weighed equally with a reasonable and justified opinion.

Barbara

Post 5

Monday, September 20, 2004 - 8:58am

Excellent article, Ed. Multi-culturalism is an odd hybrid of relativism (when it comes to other cultures) and cynicism (when it comes to the achievements of ours). It’s not just cultural relativism (as you point out) – that would lead to the suspension of judgment against ours in addition to foreign non-Western cultures. It’s not just logical criticism of our unique heritage – that would require objective standard of judgments, which could in principle be applied to others. It’s an excuse to exempt other cultures from assessment while singling out our culture – especially the virtuous aspects – for hatred and vilification. It’s an insidious form of nihilism.

I’m glad you had the patience to go into detail.

(Edited by Rick Zuma on 9/20, 10:53am)

Post 6

Monday, September 20, 2004 - 10:53pm

Yes! Wow! That was so good. Your article is so detailed, it touches on every facet of the issue. Thank you so much for articulating all that. It is nice to see it in reality, instead of having vague feelings of unease about the melting pot / salad metaphors - for those not aware, the salad metaphor, which I have often heard my multiculturalist professors advocate, is a symbol for the "different but equal" elements that make up the American "mix" - rather than the melting pot, where "different but equal" cultures lose their identity. This is nonsense: America should be a melting pot, where all the best qualities of the cultures rise to the surface.

Ick, I used to have this sort of horrid guilty feeling about being white. Probably because of 12 years of public school drilling into my head the evils of the oppressive white imperialists, and because I didn't make the intellectual effort to evaluate that feeling.

Thank you again Mr. Younkins, that was right on the money!

Meg

Post 7

Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - 4:04pm