Quote:
Originally Posted by Zevo
But don't you think the onus should be on the immigrants to adapt to thier new homeland and not the other way around?
I agree they should be allowed to practice thier religion and such, but there should be some give and take both ways, and some times it seems to me they want to have thier cake and eat it too.
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My point is that it's to a large degree an artificially manufactured problem. The idea that as a group they're not trying to adapt is a complete and utter lie. No one apart from extremists on both sides disagrees that where there is some potential for clashing cultural practices, there's going to have to be some give and take within the limits of the country's laws and general values. And the potential for that clash is not within some domain of essentialized general cultures that are logically incompatable, but within manageable concrete practices. That's something societies have been negotiating all through the history of human civilization.
It's cheap and cowardly to point at the supposed evils of others when there's too little good faith and honest willingness to understand in the dominant culture that dictates the terms of the entire discourse. Now we can already hear the usual protestations - but take it slow and consider whether or not having good faith and understanding really means having to give up some valuable part of our own culture. Plainly it doesn't, we're not asked to give up anything at all, but such is the power of ideas that many people assume that's the case. And then consider whether or not we can trust those who with apparent best intentions try so very hard to convince us that the two civilizations can't possibly co-exist, like it's cat and dogs, the Big Clash is inevitable.