We have quite a few people here saying "I value no cultures other than my own."
Really, this is just code for "I believe my culture is superior to all others in every way, and I have no interest in looking outside it to see if there might possibly be something to learn from other cultures."
The problem with assuming that all cultures other than one's own are inferior is that you potentially retard the development of your own culture by refusing to move with the times.
Case in point:
And actually, I value "culture" (i.e. the social customs and traditions of a people) other than my own, not one fucking bit. I don't want to learn about other cultures. I don't want to tolerate other cultures. I certainly don't want "cultural integration"! What a stupid idea that is! "Let's mix our culture with others thus blurring the identity of our own". Idiotic.
Here, the false assumption is that taking any interest in other cultures necessarily means sacrificing one's own culture - an absurd idea.
I've come to realize that I'm a xenophobe. I share that glorious trait with all of my human and non-human ancestors.
Not all humans are xenophobes.
And another:
I too value my own culture (Western Civilization) above all others. I too see multiculturalism as an idiotic affectation. But I don't see other cultures as worthless or worthy of scorn. We can learn from them, and add their biological and technological distinctiveness to our own.
It seems, madanthonywayne, that you haven't thought through your position, since you contradict yourself. If you think you might learn some things from other cultures then you value then, at least to that extent.
Your proclamation that you see no value is just empty rhetoric, then.
Powerful "cultures" assimilate weak ones.
Things are seldom that black and white. What happens when cultures collide is usually a blending, with each borrowing from the other. Total assimilation is rare.
Sometimes traits of one are adopted (consciously or unconsciously) by the other. "westerners" are, as we speak, assimilating the cultures of the world. Look at Japan, China, and the countries of south america for example. People want to live the way the "west" lives. As free and affluent as your work and ingenuity can take you. No one want's to be in the indian lower classes (I know sam, there is no "caste system"). No one wants to be an ethiopian.
You are mixing up economic prosperity with culture. Nobody wants to be poor, but being poor is not a feature of any "culture".
Baron Max makes the same mistake:
And is it also the reason that most of those you've named live in dire poverty and hunger, live in mud huts with dirt floors, and are highly suseptible to diseases? And you call that survival?
He also goes for the old canard:
And those you've named, who value their cultures highly, have actually done what in the last thousand years?
The problem here is the assumption that there was no history before Baron Max's own birth. One only has to read a history book to see what other cultures have achieved in the past 1000 years. Obviously, since the US has only existed as an entity since 1776, somebody else must have done something before the US came along.
