Category: 
June 7, 2010
One of the many underlying issues is that of culture: it is quite clear that government policy on social integration isn’t working. Forcing the indigenous population to take on board and welcome other ethnic and religious cultures and doctrines is probably a policy hard to accept. Perhaps my own thoughts – as I’m writing this article can even be put down to intransigence but I suspect that for most people it highlights their own concerns about their own culture, and how they should integrate their children into the society that they have chosen to live?
The colour of a person’s skin is not the issue here: the real issue is the effect that foreign culture has on our social values. That is not to say that other cultures are inferior – they are simply different and reflect the whole marvel of individual culture and religion across the world; indeed humanity is gravely damaged by acts of despotic ethnic and cultural cleansing as has been witnessed in Europe and elsewhere in the world.
Extremely important is the need for toleration between differing groups of society. I suspect that many people feel that their own culture is under threat and is beginning to disintegrate – but that is probably due to a lack of understanding and acceptance of someone else’s religion and culture.
The real problem that I see regarding multiculturalism is the fact that most people – no matter which country of origin, of whatever culture or religion – prefer their own social identity and social values. To try and change these historically well established parts of the human profile is surely the gateway to anarchy and greater world unrest. We must respect religious and cultural differences – but we must also respect above all else, the ideals of human rights, irrespective of religion and culture. The problems of cultural and religious conflict become more apparent with ever-increasing ‘cross population’.
But this is only one of many issues that the government has to address. Irrespective of the influence of alien culture, there is also the extremely serious problem of the total breakdown of acceptable social behaviour and I believe that there is a link. No longer can children safely walk to school; no longer can they be assured of a safe and pleasant environment within school. They have to endure the constant threat of inducement to take drugs; they have to endure the real problem of bullying and coercement to join in with bullying under peer pressure.
Could it be that such radical change of behaviour has an underlying and deep cultural causation? Could it be that our children are reacting to a sense of loss of identity, and does the massive impact of the social internet dilute that once cohesive structure known as society, such that it is now more difficult to set “norms” of social values that have guided our children through the ages, from generation to generation?
Perhaps one of the most insidious aspects of our social culture that is without doubt having a profound and damaging effect on our society, is the CULT series of reality shows on television. These shows are distorting the norms of social values and behaviour that should be acceptable in society: values that have existed for generations are being eroded by such decadent and provocative behaviour – and such behaviour then becomes ‘acceptable’ to our children ( because it must be acceptable – it’s on TV! yes? ).
Such activity may well be acceptable to the more decadent elements of a culture, but then it may also be argued that such media exposure is also extremely provocative to other cultures – indeed even blasphemous (and I say this as a non-religious person).
The objective of reality programmers is to degrade and humiliate the contestants in front of a nation of viewers with voyeuristic tendencies: people eager to see the worst side of individuals and groups in the throes of back-stabbing, hypocrisy and foul language. Who ever has the last word on programme content has much to answer for!
If the human psyche is constantly battered by scenes of sex, violence and debased cultural activity – and graphic images of war (including gang warfare) then surely the end result has to be the very things we are witnessing in our society today; the whole scenario is self-perpetuating. We become de-sensitised to inhumane acts and subversive anti-social activity.
We constantly hear tales of teenagers, who thrive on ‘bullying’ and intimidation – preventing their peers achieving their true academic potential. This problem is endemic: teachers are absolutely powerless and there is no ‘antidote’ for such behaviour because all power has been stripped from the school regime. Our society in now swamped in a minefield of litigation that makes it almost impossible to control difficult and abusive pupils. So the question that is being constantly asked, is… ‘How do we solve the problem of anti-social behaviour?’
Perhaps far more effort is required to investigate the behavioural change in the cultural activities of our children before we can reach some sort of conclusion about the cause; certainly, in my opinion, I feel that we have to take back control from the teenage cultural soup they try to swim in – and re-assert those centuries-old values that have guided us for so long.
The removal of mild physical punishment, for example, from the control of parents I believe, has greatly damaged the ability of parents to influence their offspring in matters of social integration, social values and social responsibilities. And we do seriously need to address the implications of multiculturalism within society and how it affects the stability of society as a whole?
Until such issues are addressed there will always be a ‘knock-on-effect’ in the development of our children’s social out-look on life (as they perceive it). Could it be that the cause of deep social unrest is indeed, the misplaced, but well-intentioned, government policy/philosophy of “multiculturalism?”
I believe such philosophy does play a big part in social unrest; the under-lying problem being the disintegration of the separate cultures that make up society – and the inevitable sense of loss of identity of those cultures within the community as a whole.
Tags: Power, Social Value
Sorry, no comments yet.