Mundane Multiculturalism

Canada is a multicultural nation. Multiculturalism is all over the place. We have a multiculturalism day, we have black history as well as asian heritage months. We're diverse, 'cosmopolitian' and damn proud of it. Heritage months for other races available while supplies last.

Canada's first big plunge into the multiculturalism began after buddies of people like John Cabot, Jacques Cartier, Simon Fraser, Alexander Mackenzie and George Vancouver started showing up on the shores of North America. The development of North America from that point on basically mirrored that of Europe. Today, we have a British-styled political system and our official head of state is the Queen. Nevermind what things books like 1491 may say about the native populations or what interesting things could have happened on the continent if the Europeans just stayed at home, it's really, really wonderful that the New World became the New Europe, right? It's wonderfully exciting. Right?

In any case, Canada's cultural imports do indeed create a great, varied social landscape unmatched by most places in the world. We've got Hutterites, Doukhobors and Cambodians living under the same roof with little conflict. Of course, all these factions hold few political cards compared to the WASP overlords, but we'll somehow directly compare our situation to a mideast style clash of cultures and put a big smile on for the rest of the world. Just look at all the fun France is having with their cultural mosaic.

Also, multiculturalism does seem to come off sounding segregationist ("Want to preserve your culture? Go over there - we call those 'reservations' " or "You stay away from our daughters and we'll stay away from yours!") snobbish ("What is Canada? Little bits of everyone else, but better! Mwahaha! Lowly Old World Monocultures!") and negating of the value of any laissez-faire cultural evolution that may occur.

Some more busted reasoning comes with the implication that culture is both vulnerable and valuable. In the town of Bountiful , there exists a Mormon fundamentalist commune accused of condoning polygamy and child abuse. But we aren't here to judge cultures, no matter how far alcoholism, polygamy, rape and incest may exist within them. The polygamist family structure may be better than a broken home or it may be the definition of dysfunction.

As Canadians, we must "preserve and enhance" ( 2 ) cultural heterogeneity in Canada. Thats a lot of verbs for a government document. Verbs mean spending somewhere. But oh well.

The real tedium brought by multiculturalism however is not spawned from Canada's cultural imports, or issues that may or may not exist with the entire concept.

It is the success of western culture that has raised the level of monotony around the world. Faster than we could ever pick up a culture to add to our roster, western cultural contributions are covering the planet.

For example, if you were to go to Shenyang, China, you will notice they have an Irish pub, run by Russians, (or at least, it was a Russian band, maybe? Too many beers.) with a tiny Bavarian flag on the bar.

Travelling from country to country, one change you might notice is the nation-specific facade of the local McDonalds. McDonalds also has a few changes of the menu in every region its in, to cater to different tastes in the area. You may bitch and complain about globalization, and how McDonalds is Americanizing the world, but an interesting fact is put forward in this article:

"Thomas Friedman suggested that no countries with McDonald's had gone to war with each other. His theory ("Golden Arches" theory) seemed to have been disproved when NATO bombed Serbia in 1999, although it was pointed out in The Economist that NATO itself has no McDonald's. McDonald's remains a target of anti-globalization protesters worldwide."

Basically, the world is adopting western culture faster than you can catch avian flu, and we are sadly left with fewer and fewer reasons to bomb anybody.

How could we bomb a country that shares our love for fast food and Irish pubs, even if they are Communist and incredibly armed? World War III may not happen at all, and we will have companies like McDonalds to thank for it.

Yes, our new multicultural world will eventually become something incredibly homogenous. It's a diverse plate, but everybody is eating the same meal. All nations will have an array of cultures and what not, but so will everyone else. Then, will our society be any different at all? No.

Everybody will all just get along, in time. No wars. Ever. We will all die of boredom.

The end is near.