Deborahmac09 wrote on Nov 3^rd, 2010 at 10:03am:


That is as parochial as can be expected from sentimentalist one-worlders. The Aborigines engaged in tribal warfare with each other for millenia. So did the indians of the Americas and so do the Papuans, the last of the stone-agers,  to this day.

Culture is the common, unspoken assumptions about self, others, community, the nature of human relations and the nature of the story of the community that shares these concepts.

Now, it is very obviuous even after a cursory look that there are cultural differences and that they manisfest themselves in actions and speech that is rooted in the above concepts about life and society.

For example, corrupt societies are corrupt because of the way people perceive themselves and others and the nature of the power relations in their society. That is, they are NOT just like us but sadly  mislead by their wicked leaders (or worse, corrupetd by us).

Or another example - honour societies value 'respect' above justice or personal autonomy. Our society on the other hand values justice and autonomy above accidental markers of status such as age or social position or kinship.


Assimiltaion means that incoming people should be conscious of the value differences in our culture and come into our societies with their eyes open and to accept that we do not share their ideas about the nature of human relationships. AFter all, our cultural traits make our societies desirable to come into in the first place.


Folk dancing on national feast days and using too much chilli or garlic in your cuisin is about the limit of cultural difference that can be safely allowed.  Notions of arranged marriage, honour codes, ethnic or religious special pleading, ignorance of basic notions of personal hygiene, orderly queing and honesty deserve strong rebuke, not accommodation and nurturing.

In our culture respect is earned. If a parent wants to be respected, she must be respectable. Only then does it make sense to give the kid a clip around the ears if he is disrespectful.

All this, of course, requires a degree of confidence in the values that make for respectability. However, the generation of parents that now finds itself disrespected by their children is the generation that 20-30 years ago insisted that all the values that made for 'respectability' were fuddy-duddy or oppressive and they loudly and persistently revolted against them.

Many parents and teachers are relativist gelly-backs, hand-wringing hypocrits and their children see that. These adults are inconsistent, get their moral bearings from the daly press and some even want to be friends with their children, FFS! WHat's to respect?

As I said, this society values merit, not status. Hypochrites are not in a position to expect respect and they are certainly not entitled to expect that they children will, somehow, grow into just and respectable adults.

These are the people who give in to anyone who makes loud enough demands on them. They have no sense of, much less confidence in, what they themselves may stand for.

They think, probably, that multiculturalism means that the 'other' culture is as good as their own. STraight away, they are unable to argue in any coherent way, why their own values are worth holding on to - hence their easy giving in.

The only thing they are left with is the easy, lazy relativism that justifies their readiness to surrender to every demand, whether by their children, ethnics, any other sub-culture.  But who can respect surrender monkeys?

When Multi-Culture officially started in New York in ca. 1913, it was nothing else then a Culture of Criminal activity, which was reduced not long time ago with zero tolerance. No wonder former Labour-Chancelor of Germany, Mr. Helmut Schmidt (part-Jewish) stated, that Multi-Culture does only work in a form of dictator-ship.
Only the Australia First Party will introduce an Immigration-Policy which will serve Australians and Multi-Culti will be not more neccessary. Voting for someone else is just a waste of time, like in the last 30 years.

Not always self correcting soren. Ever evolving yes, and not always for the best. THe truth is, Australians, unless they are indigenous do not have a culture specifically of their own, even some of indigenous Australians have lost their cultures.

It was said back in the 50's, by a newcomer. I forget which particular country he had come from. He said "What is this culture I am to assimulate too?"  Nobody could adequatly explain the Australian culture, yet it was expected that Newcomers and indigenous Australians would assimilate to the Australian way of life. What is the Australian way of life, if not the freedom to be ourselves, within reasonable boundries of course.

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How would anyone 'explain' any culture?  It can not be learnt from books, it has to be lived!