Multiculturalism ?

[Khandro]

Speaking largely about France but with his eye on the greater Europe, the French intellectual and writer Alain Finkielkraut in his recent book, claims that Western civilization is being ripped apart by multiculturalism.
Is he correct?

[vetuste_ennemi]

Thomas Sowell (an economist) is a fairly recent addition to the VE Christmas card list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVuLyE8ZvdI

[Khandro]

So do I take it it's multiculturalism, room 101 is it?

[agchristie]

Looks like it Khandro!

V-e's curry comment as a possible defence was hot! I liked the wit ;)

[birdie1971]

VE - Interesting video. Thanks.

[birdie1971]

The really appalling thing about multiculturalism is not that it happened and is happening, but that no one asked the indigenous population of this (or any other) country whether they wanted it to happen or not.

As usual, the politicians think they know best and you question the wisdom of policies like this at the risk of being branded a racist. Interesting that almost 20 years on since the first Blair government threw the doors open to all comers to this country, a number of members of that administration now admit that the "open door" policy was wrong and has been damaging to the UK.

[vetuste_ennemi]

Anybody see the recent documentary where Trevor Philips offered a partial recantation of the policy which made him a lot of money at the expense of his fellow citizens (many of whom are black)?
Still no show from the AB intellectual elite.

[vetuste_ennemi]

No, Mikey, I didn't mean you.

[agchristie]

Who wins this argument from exactly two years ago?

http://libertygb.org.uk/v1/index.php/news-libertygb/5992-does-multiculturalism-benefit-the-united-kingdom

v_e - note that reference to curry again!!

[Khandro]

It's pretty strong stuff from PW, and he wins the argument hands down, can't say I would go along with it in its entirety - Britain being ethnically cleansed etc. - but I love the idea of him being arrested for reading out aloud and anonymously, a Winston Churchill passage (allegedly - I haven't checked) from 1899.

[agchristie]

Yes Khandro, a formidable response from PW. I think the case is well and truly rested!

[birdie1971]

VE - "... Still no show from the AB intellectual elite."

Does AB have an intellectual elite? If it does, I've never seen it!

Admittedly there are some very clever people on here, but an 'elite'? Nah. Just people with a decent vocabulary and some strong opinions. And we all know that opinions are like the final orifice of the alimentary canal - everyone has one.

[Khandro]

In v_e's link, Thomas Sowell points to the lack of any 'multiculty' at the time of India's partition - or even now. But the divisions are not only between different religions, but are integral within individual ones themselves - Sunni v. Shia an obvious example, but I read: ' In the classic anthropological study of economic modernization From Field to Factory about building a bicycle factory in West Bengal in the 1960s, Morton Kass discovered that regardless of hiring policy, the employees would quickly reorganize themselves into departments subtly sorted according to caste, thus preserving traditional social structure within a modern economic context' !!

[whiskeryron]

http://conservativetribune.com/churchill-islam-1899-quote/

[Khandro]

Been reading a bit more on Thomas Sowell, a few quotes;

"Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it."


"Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good."


"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance."

… brilliant!!

[naomi24]

Stephen Hawking said something similar:

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”