This was my reply to a well known blogger a few weeks ago. I just re-read it and thought it’d be worth sharing here. It came up in a discussion at dinner with friends last night.
In short, I think it’s ok to change your mind and see the world from a different perspective now and then to challenge your outlook or bias. In fact, I think it’s a sign of strength. Consider how warped or blurry your lens *might* be.
Give it a whirl and a spring clean. As a simple yet personal thought experiment in name only.
——— My Reply ———
I've likely travelled across the same arc as you. Inherently left-wing in outlook, I've come to realise that at its essence, the "right-wing" stance on immigration has in large part been about community. We know through Harvard studies that a healthy community essential to a happy life, longevity, and good behaviour.
I signal good behaviour here, because I think that's what this boils down to. I don't think multiculturalism is a bad thing at all. I think it's wonderful. I think many different religions and racial communities can live side by side and it's really cool to see it work well. I'd say this only works when people are respectful to one another. The same respect that has to exist in an all white Christian community. As you say, it's important to integrate people properly, and I think that may only be possible after the first generation of kids who are naturalised in the country. There's an obvious idealistic versus realistic tension here. This harmony seems hard to reach in reality.
I like to think of a country like a party. Different groups of friends that haven't mixed or met yet. There's a natural stand off at first. Then comes the ice breaker. The different groups mix, and have a great night. The opposite can occur too, if either group is badly behaved well...it gets messy.
I made a similar fun realisation in a co-working in Barcelona. It's called Norrsken, an amazing facility by the W Hotel with now over 2,000 eager like-minded professionals. When it started things were quiet and cosy. There were less people, it was peaceful. The ocean view was serene, everyone was having a ball. However, when it started getting busier, to an uncomfortable level, the familiar phrase came out: "they're letting way too many people in". I laughed when I first heard it, drawing the comparison with immigration. I played it back to my left-leaning complaining colleagues and they laughed too. The revealing of truth is always a dead cert giggle.
Going back to the party analogy, when the social ice breaks, you realise that the "others" are just like you at the core. They just live their life in a different peaceful way. You can learn new customs, expand your horizons, add richness to your life. The utopian view surely isn't a monoculture. It's a peaceful harmonious collection of people from different community, mixing together, having a laugh. Because that's the human race, we're a mixture of everything and I think that's great. You only have to travel the world to see this. Multiculturalism is beautiful and rich, and it can be on your doorstep too. That's why cities can be fun as you can travel the world via a few tube stops.
However, what can degrade in this respect is national culture and identity. Isn't culture a moving target though? Why is the current culture worse than the previous one? Surely, it's more a question of a degradation in culture, or perhaps worse, a lack of it. How do countries iterate on their culture instead of an attempt a rollback to a 40-year-old backup drive?
In short, I think it’s ok to change your mind and see the world from a different perspective now and then to challenge your outlook or bias. In fact, I think it’s a sign of strength. Consider how warped or blurry your lens *might* be.
Give it a whirl and a spring clean. As a simple yet personal thought experiment in name only.
——— My Reply ———
I've likely travelled across the same arc as you. Inherently left-wing in outlook, I've come to realise that at its essence, the "right-wing" stance on immigration has in large part been about community. We know through Harvard studies that a healthy community essential to a happy life, longevity, and good behaviour.
I signal good behaviour here, because I think that's what this boils down to. I don't think multiculturalism is a bad thing at all. I think it's wonderful. I think many different religions and racial communities can live side by side and it's really cool to see it work well. I'd say this only works when people are respectful to one another. The same respect that has to exist in an all white Christian community. As you say, it's important to integrate people properly, and I think that may only be possible after the first generation of kids who are naturalised in the country. There's an obvious idealistic versus realistic tension here. This harmony seems hard to reach in reality.
I like to think of a country like a party. Different groups of friends that haven't mixed or met yet. There's a natural stand off at first. Then comes the ice breaker. The different groups mix, and have a great night. The opposite can occur too, if either group is badly behaved well...it gets messy.
I made a similar fun realisation in a co-working in Barcelona. It's called Norrsken, an amazing facility by the W Hotel with now over 2,000 eager like-minded professionals. When it started things were quiet and cosy. There were less people, it was peaceful. The ocean view was serene, everyone was having a ball. However, when it started getting busier, to an uncomfortable level, the familiar phrase came out: "they're letting way too many people in". I laughed when I first heard it, drawing the comparison with immigration. I played it back to my left-leaning complaining colleagues and they laughed too. The revealing of truth is always a dead cert giggle.
Going back to the party analogy, when the social ice breaks, you realise that the "others" are just like you at the core. They just live their life in a different peaceful way. You can learn new customs, expand your horizons, add richness to your life. The utopian view surely isn't a monoculture. It's a peaceful harmonious collection of people from different community, mixing together, having a laugh. Because that's the human race, we're a mixture of everything and I think that's great. You only have to travel the world to see this. Multiculturalism is beautiful and rich, and it can be on your doorstep too. That's why cities can be fun as you can travel the world via a few tube stops.
However, what can degrade in this respect is national culture and identity. Isn't culture a moving target though? Why is the current culture worse than the previous one? Surely, it's more a question of a degradation in culture, or perhaps worse, a lack of it. How do countries iterate on their culture instead of an attempt a rollback to a 40-year-old backup drive?