Multiculturalism or Clash of Civilizations
by Jens-Martin Eriksen and Frederick Stjernfelt.
This is an important, even a courageous book, as it challenges the now-hallowed idea of multiculturalism. It examines the history of this idea and its ultimate incompatibility with Western (liberal) norms, especially individual rights and free speech.
The book is specifically targeted at the Western political left, but will also upset many conservatives, as well as the very groups multiculturalism seeks to protect.
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How can multiculturalism be challenged? One of the authors’ solutions is restoration of classical republican government, with an emphasis on active civic engagement rather than passive noninterference (the multiculturalist position). They emphasize the most important freedoms in a republic are from arbitrary violence and persecution—so-called negative freedoms. The protection of these freedoms for every individual is defined as liberty, which is the essence of republican democracy.
But multiculturalists are not content with liberty. They desire new and special freedoms—positive freedoms. Here the authors will gain support from many conservatives, who have long criticized the growth of positive freedoms because this also means the growth of government to ensure those freedoms are properly enacted and defended. As such, cultural minorities have become important government clients (for voting, legislation, and welfare) in all Western societies.
Conservatives, especially Christians, will be less supportive of the authors’ other solution to culturalism—to eliminate all cultures. The book ends sharply with the line “Down with culture!” This obviously rhetorical statement can be understood as a desire to marginalize or privatize culture to allow liberal Enlightenment principles to be the only social norms. But in their desire to marginalize culture, the authors still use the culturalist definition of culture—in reverse. Rather than all cultures being radically different, they are radically the same.
Here the authors reveal their own ignorance of cultural differences. This is especially true with respect to religion. According to the authors, all religions are the same because all undermine Enlightenment reason and freedom. But is this a reasonable position? Are the teachings of the Koran, New Testament, and the Upanishads identical? Are the lives of Mohammed, Jesus, and the Buddha identical? As political analysts, they should also be asking the critical questions of whether the political perspectives of all religions are identical.
These political-theological questions are of utmost importance because they define human freedom. They are the essence of free speech. Unfortunately, in Western societies the art of filmmakers, novelists, and cartoonists dominates free speech. Much of this speech is at the level of the emotions, which tends to marginalize serious intellectual debate. Free speech must begin at the intellectual level, and in multicultural societies must focus on religious and political ideas of different cultures and their compatibility with host cultures. As intellectuals the authors should have developed this argument further. But they failed to do so.
By failing to analyze cultures and to make differences explicit, especially religious and political ones, the authors also allow the culturalist narrative to remain unchallenged. The continued use of the word “culture” is critical to this narrative, because the term does not point to religion, politics, or anything conflictual. It is an inoffensive term, implying something small, quaint, and exotic, which is also vulnerable to exploitation and discrimination. This is the old Boasian view of culture.
However, none of the cultural groups the book examines are small and quaint. All are representatives of the world religions—Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism. What the authors are really describing is the “clash of civilizations,” not some domestic problem over cultural assimilation. The most important critique of multiculturalism is that it is not about culture, but civilization. And the foundation of every civilization is religious and political ideas. And these are not the same in every civilization.
How can multiculturalism be challenged? One of the authors’ solutions is restoration of classical republican government, with an emphasis on active civic engagement rather than passive noninterference (the multiculturalist position). They emphasize the most important freedoms in a republic are from arbitrary violence and persecution—so-called negative freedoms. The protection of these freedoms for every individual is defined as liberty, which is the essence of republican democracy.
But multiculturalists are not content with liberty. They desire new and special freedoms—positive freedoms. Here the authors will gain support from many conservatives, who have long criticized the growth of positive freedoms because this also means the growth of government to ensure those freedoms are properly enacted and defended. As such, cultural minorities have become important government clients (for voting, legislation, and welfare) in all Western societies.
Conservatives, especially Christians, will be less supportive of the authors’ other solution to culturalism—to eliminate all cultures. The book ends sharply with the line “Down with culture!” This obviously rhetorical statement can be understood as a desire to marginalize or privatize culture to allow liberal Enlightenment principles to be the only social norms. But in their desire to marginalize culture, the authors still use the culturalist definition of culture—in reverse. Rather than all cultures being radically different, they are radically the same.
Here the authors reveal their own ignorance of cultural differences. This is especially true with respect to religion. According to the authors, all religions are the same because all undermine Enlightenment reason and freedom. But is this a reasonable position? Are the teachings of the Koran, New Testament, and the Upanishads identical? Are the lives of Mohammed, Jesus, and the Buddha identical? As political analysts, they should also be asking the critical questions of whether the political perspectives of all religions are identical.
These political-theological questions are of utmost importance because they define human freedom. They are the essence of free speech. Unfortunately, in Western societies the art of filmmakers, novelists, and cartoonists dominates free speech. Much of this speech is at the level of the emotions, which tends to marginalize serious intellectual debate. Free speech must begin at the intellectual level, and in multicultural societies must focus on religious and political ideas of different cultures and their compatibility with host cultures. As intellectuals the authors should have developed this argument further. But they failed to do so.
By failing to analyze cultures and to make differences explicit, especially religious and political ones, the authors also allow the culturalist narrative to remain unchallenged. The continued use of the word “culture” is critical to this narrative, because the term does not point to religion, politics, or anything conflictual. It is an inoffensive term, implying something small, quaint, and exotic, which is also vulnerable to exploitation and discrimination. This is the old Boasian view of culture.
However, none of the cultural groups the book examines are small and quaint. All are representatives of the world religions—Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism. What the authors are really describing is the “clash of civilizations,” not some domestic problem over cultural assimilation. The most important critique of multiculturalism is that it is not about culture, but civilization. And the foundation of every civilization is religious and political ideas. And these are not the same in every civilization.
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