Unacceptable
Here's an interesting article on the damage that political correctness, as it were, has done to Europe. Tolerance may be, in general, a good thing. But does that mean that all cultures and cultural ideas are of equal value, and should be treated as such? Aren't there any concepts a society has that may be worth preserving--free speech, the rule of law, equality of the sexes?
Ironically, once a society is committed to tolerance for all, it has to become intolerant--there becomes an official line all must take and those who don't will be stigmatized and even punished.
The deeper irony is there is that even if European culture believes tolerance is the highest virtue, there's no guarantee its new immigrants will believe the same thing--but there'll be nothing to do about it. When all cultures are equal, even requesting immigrants integrate into the larger society is wrong.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:24 AM
1 Comments:
Always felt that there was a European tendency (OK mainly a French one) was to take a solid even good idea (here, tolerance but also various religious ideas and political systems) and then push it to its logical extreme and the good old USA, or maybe a "American character" was more successful in the 20th century and beyond because it never (generally) let consistency or rationality get in the way of expedience or getting things done and the arguments have always been about how far to go with the exceptions.
Of course this what makes intense partisanship, ideological thinking, party loyalty and the evangelism of both religion and the welfare state so disheartening as it threatens traditions of flexibility, common sense and generalism.
Post a Comment
<< Home