Merkel: Multiculturalism has 'utterly failed'

[Mindflayer]

Op-ed piece from CNN about immigration, crime, and welfare.

Washington (CNN) -- The Germans, for obvious reasons, prefer their politicians dull. The current German chancellor, Angela Merkel, more than meets local expectations. So on the rare occasion when Merkel says something vivid, something important must be going on.
It is.
Speaking in Potsdam on Saturday, Chancellor Merkel told a gathering of young Christian Democrats that multiculturalism has failed.
That might seem to be saying the obvious.

[VBshooter]

A very sound reason that PC does not work,,Here or in Europe,,Throw the bastards out!!!!!!!

[GS78]

now,now, lets not be hasty.... we need to allow these seperate communities to develop into their own cultures in order to teach our children tolerance and diversity. If we don't, our American kids will grow into extremists and racists.

One needs only look to the prosperity of Europe to see how well multi-culturalism has benefited those host nations........


....like a cancer, the Muslims are infecting the core of the host until it dies...and like cancer, it will be a disgusting and extremely painful death.

[zephyp]

So no Germany jumps on the train. Hope its not too late for them or France...

[user]

Interesting that U.S. law, including the Constitution, recognizes "national origin" and "religion" as protected classes, while "culture" is not. But it seems to me that "culture" is kind of like the operating system running in a human node. Some folks are Macs, some are PC's (Windows), some are penguins (Linux). And what always amazes me is precisely what Merkel said: multiculturalism does not work. No one who has one culture running in his head can really understand the culture running in another person's head. There are too many assumptions, axioms, and principles of operation that are just plain impossible to translate unless you've been raised with it. E.g., I know how really alien Catholic culture is to my way of seeing things, because from the age of three up to the age of seven, I was raised with a Catholic family. I got enough of the inculcation and indoctrination to be able to grasp that there's a big difference. Most folks are oblivious. Because it walks like a human, talks like a human, eats like a human, and pulls its pants on one leg at a time, just like a human, it must be a human (that is, just like ME). But it ain't - or rather neither of us is, in the sense of being members of the same group. We make assumptions, use the principle of completion, and ignore differences, in order to categorize things generally as quickly as possible. None of us has the time or inclination to get to know another person that deeply (unless we've been married to that other person for at least twenty years or so); we don't have time to do that. We accept other people who don't do anything to jar our sensibilities too much. Like someone who really insists on practicing his Judaism in a serious way. Or wears the Muslim veil/shawl thing in places we'd normally think of as inappropriate. See, we operate according to the termite method: as the termites crawl through their tunnels, they ask each other, "one of us? one of us?", by touching antennae and exchanging the unique protein that identifies their specific colony. When the foreign termite from the colony next door gets confused and wanders in by mistake, they ask, "one of us?", to which he responds, "uhhh, nope." Then they all join into the uniform response, "KILL!" We're a lot like that - it's a binary choice, "one of us" or "nope". We don't try to really understand the "other software".

But, as culture is a manifestation of both national origin and religion, I suggest that we try, for legal reasons if no other. Especially when making comments on someone else's website, which could get that other person into trouble as a "publisher". Or which could get one's friends castigated as whacko extremists with guns.

Multiculturalism will never work. That's why we had that "melting pot" idea - the notion that as foreigners get here, they'll drop their own culture and get to be "one of us". It isn't really true, and it never will be. But we can put up with the differences that don't really threaten us. When he pulls a gun out and fixes to aim it at you, then you shoot him; until there's a threat, keep it in your pants, as it were.

[Taggure]

@user

SO the moral to your story is what ( In 20 words or less )

I can't tell if you are being helpfull or not in all of that.

Vern

[chfaunce]

User seems to be making a valid observation:

"Multiculturalism will never work. That's why we had that "melting pot" idea - the notion that as foreigners get here, they'll drop their own culture and get to be "one of us". It isn't really true, and it never will be. But we can put up with the differences that don't really threaten us."

[gunderwood]

Interesting that U.S. law, including the Constitution, recognizes "national origin" and "religion" as protected classes, while "culture" is not. But it seems to me that "culture" is kind of like the operating system running in a human node. Some folks are Macs, some are PC's (Windows), some are penguins (Linux). And what always amazes me is precisely what Merkel said: multiculturalism does not work. No one who has one culture running in his head can really understand the culture running in another person's head. There are too many assumptions, axioms, and principles of operation that are just plain impossible to translate unless you've been raised with it. E.g., I know how really alien Catholic culture is to my way of seeing things, because from the age of three up to the age of seven, I was raised with a Catholic family. I got enough of the inculcation and indoctrination to be able to grasp that there's a big difference. Most folks are oblivious. Because it walks like a human, talks like a human, eats like a human, and pulls its pants on one leg at a time, just like a human, it must be a human (that is, just like ME). But it ain't - or rather neither of us is, in the sense of being members of the same group. We make assumptions, use the principle of completion, and ignore differences, in order to categorize things generally as quickly as possible. None of us has the time or inclination to get to know another person that deeply (unless we've been married to that other person for at least twenty years or so); we don't have time to do that. We accept other people who don't do anything to jar our sensibilities too much. Like someone who really insists on practicing his Judaism in a serious way. Or wears the Muslim veil/shawl thing in places we'd normally think of as inappropriate. See, we operate according to the termite method: as the termites crawl through their tunnels, they ask each other, "one of us? one of us?", by touching antennae and exchanging the unique protein that identifies their specific colony. When the foreign termite from the colony next door gets confused and wanders in by mistake, they ask, "one of us?", to which he responds, "uhhh, nope." Then they all join into the uniform response, "KILL!" We're a lot like that - it's a binary choice, "one of us" or "nope". We don't try to really understand the "other software".

But, as culture is a manifestation of both national origin and religion, I suggest that we try, for legal reasons if no other. Especially when making comments on someone else's website, which could get that other person into trouble as a "publisher". Or which could get one's friends castigated as whacko extremists with guns.

Multiculturalism will never work. That's why we had that "melting pot" idea - the notion that as foreigners get here, they'll drop their own culture and get to be "one of us". It isn't really true, and it never will be. But we can put up with the differences that don't really threaten us. When he pulls a gun out and fixes to aim it at you, then you shoot him; until there's a threat, keep it in your pants, as it were.

Multiculturalism doesn't work, but the "melting pot" idea has a key distinction between it and MC. With the MP, it was generally assumed that the first generation would not integrate, but the second, third and so on would. The expectation was that their children and grand children would learn and be brought up as Americans, thus, no translation or conversion is required to achieve integration. MC has destroyed the American cultures foundation that pushed for integration of the second and third generations.

It really is simple. The first generation wanted the second and third to be successful here, so they pushed their children to become Americans. The second generation was raised as Americans and were part of our culture rather then immersed in it like the first. In that manner we benefited from the immigrants, but still maintained our core identity as a culture. MC teaches the opposite of the MP. I.e. Don't change.

MC sets up conflicts, particularly in cultures dominated by democratic rule. Two or more groups begin competing to have government work according to their principles and culture. Interestingly, it doesn't even take foreigners to accomplish this fatal task.

[Taggure]

User seems to be making a valid observation:

"Multiculturalism will never work. That's why we had that "melting pot" idea - the notion that as foreigners get here, they'll drop their own culture and get to be "one of us". It isn't really true, and it never will be. But we can put up with the differences that don't really threaten us."

Now I agree with that and that makes sense to me.

I just would like to see that when the immigrants come here that they respect our Traditions, Cultures and Heritage and not force us to change them to be Politically Correct! They are welcome to add their Traditions and Culture to ours and thus it becomes part of the American Heritage over time. My wife was from Scotland when I married her and over the past 24 years although she holds on to her Scottish heritage she has accepted the American traditions and culture as her own and America is her home.

It is when they refuse to become part of America and continue to try to conquer our great country from within by using our own laws against us. That is why the European countries are looking so hard at what has happened and trying to turn it around. Is it to late? It might be and then what happens? Do we all become part of a World society?

Vern

[chfaunce]

As Garrett suggested, I think the breakdown occurs when those who come here fail to encourage future generations to become 'American'. It's perfectly acceptable (at least to me) to retain tradition and history, but at some point it has to be a "When in Rome..." kind of deal. Too many people want to hold onto the "I'm an ______________-American", versus I'm an American. Does this mean that we all have to be identical? Not at all. We can be unique individuals and we can also be Americans.

[Taggure]

I could really care less where they are from I just don't want them coming here and telling me that I can't do this or that because I may offend some one. That just gets under my crawl (The Merry Christmas thing again along with other PC BS)

The bottom line for me is this:

If you are living here in the United States of America Illegal or legal I don't care, and I don't care where you come from become an American first that is why you chose to live here in the first place.

I know this is way to much to ask from some, but my question is then to those that feel this way is;
Why did you come to the USA in the first place?