nate33 wrote:sfam wrote:Perhaps you should visit the United States. Its this place they call the melting pot. Its worked rather wonderfully over 200 years. Some even refer to this as the greatest country on earth BECAUSE of its multicultural nature.
The country has not been a melting pot for 200 years. It was virtually exclusively northern European Protestants from 1600 until 1880 (with the obvious exception of slaves). From 1880-1920 we added some Catholic southern Europeans and Eastern Europeans and some Jews. So it's fair to say that 1900 or so was the start of the multiculturalism experiment. The experiment stopped again in 1920 because the cultural pressure became to great. Cities were paralyzed by ethnic nepotism, gangs, and ethnic mobs. We had two depressions and two World Wars in the meantime to help consolidate a national identity so that we were able to restart the multicultural experiment again in 1965. By 1996 or so, the balkanization reached a near critical point. Since then, government has been nearly paralyzed. There are no conservative Democrats, no liberal Republicans, and nothing can get done without supermajorities. We have state flouting federal law on issues like sanctuary cities. We've also had stagnant median wages since the 1970's. I don't think there's a ton of evidence that multiculturalism has been such an improvement for society.
Well, you could look at economic growth- visit silicon valley for instance. The entire planet comes there to study it in hopes of duplicating the innovation ecosystem. And I honestly can't remember that horrific nightmarish situation of 1996 you speak of, but whatever. That's just a pretty strange view of history. Crime was certainly on the rise, but its more likely the removal of leaded gas has done more than anything on the immigration side for solving the crime wave, which has dropped through the floor since than, and still.
For me, the evidence of its success is nearly everywhere. The homogeneous society ship has sailed long ago, like before the Constitution was signed. We have been heterogeneous since the beginning. The fact we no longer see Irish or Polish as lessor people is a good thing. That we now have new targets of hate is not a good thing.
I've been to over 20 developing countries across the globe. I know what fragile governance and inter-ethnic and inter-religious tensions look like. Myanmar, the "new democracy" has had 16 armed conflicts taking place in the country for years - still does! The US is nothing like that. The demonstrations we see point to just the opposite - just like the tea party movement, civic engagement is strong in the US.
The problem with government paralysis isn't all those rotten brown people and women wearing scarves invading our Walmart shopping experience. The problem is structural in nature - gerrymandering removes the need for representative democracy, for instance. The electoral college means republicans living in California or New York, and Democrats living in Texas or Wyoming''s vote really doesn't matter. Fix these problems and the paralysis goes away, even if women are still wearing head scarves.
