Diversity + proximity = war? Then explain Switzerland. OK, so Switzerland is too bourgeois for that sort of thing. Now what about all the civil wars that have erupted in India between Muslims and Hindus since 1950 outside of Jammu and Kashmir. Ethnic strife has been rare between white Anglos and Hispanics in America, West Side Story notwithstanding. Diversity + proximity = war? Only when the divergent communities are veritable gangs. If you think that diversity + proximity = war, try Vancouver, where the disparate people differ less by skin color than anything else. That's right -- Europeans and Chinese. OK, so white Canadians and Chinese-Canadians share a desire for order, a respect for the value of education, and prosperity.
I can't discern a real difference between the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland by physiognomy, speech patterns, and surnames -- yet there has been much strife in recent decades.
Decent societies effectively repress civil strife. Their leaders do not egg it on. They see violent strife for the crime that it is and take the side of law and order. Do the crime, do the time.
The hazards of multiculturalism are myth. Most of us pick and choose in everything from cuisine to music. I don't have to be Japanese to appreciate Hokusai, I don't have to be Italian to appreciate Puccini, and I don't have to be Russian to appreciate Tolstoy. I need not be Greek to tell anyone that wise people read Plato because has says so much that had to be said by someone for the first time.
What composer wrote such soulful music, at times with powerful rhythms that nobody could surpass irrespective of genre? Need one be white to appreciate Bach, let alone have lived in his time?
Heck, I've seen cranky theories that J S Bach was really a black man. Would I care if such were so? Not in the least.
It is not until the era of jazz that people start using Bach's strange but masterful tricks of melodic lines. Example:
Unlikely pairing? Maybe. Cultural achievement and appreciation is not 'in the blood', or as we would say today, in the DNA.
I have my idea of what constitutes genius -- breaking the rules and getting something wonderful and even obvious after the fact as with J S Bach. Insanity is breaking the rules, getting bad results, and pretending that the results are wonderful, as with Donald Trump.
I can't discern a real difference between the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland by physiognomy, speech patterns, and surnames -- yet there has been much strife in recent decades.
Decent societies effectively repress civil strife. Their leaders do not egg it on. They see violent strife for the crime that it is and take the side of law and order. Do the crime, do the time.
The hazards of multiculturalism are myth. Most of us pick and choose in everything from cuisine to music. I don't have to be Japanese to appreciate Hokusai, I don't have to be Italian to appreciate Puccini, and I don't have to be Russian to appreciate Tolstoy. I need not be Greek to tell anyone that wise people read Plato because has says so much that had to be said by someone for the first time.
What composer wrote such soulful music, at times with powerful rhythms that nobody could surpass irrespective of genre? Need one be white to appreciate Bach, let alone have lived in his time?
Heck, I've seen cranky theories that J S Bach was really a black man. Would I care if such were so? Not in the least.
It is not until the era of jazz that people start using Bach's strange but masterful tricks of melodic lines. Example:
Unlikely pairing? Maybe. Cultural achievement and appreciation is not 'in the blood', or as we would say today, in the DNA.
I have my idea of what constitutes genius -- breaking the rules and getting something wonderful and even obvious after the fact as with J S Bach. Insanity is breaking the rules, getting bad results, and pretending that the results are wonderful, as with Donald Trump.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.