Dear Community.
I trust this post finds you all well.
I would greatly appreciate any and all feedback on the essay found below.
Thank you in advace:
Prompt: “It is better for a society to have a diversity of cultures rather than a single national culture.”
Response:
Globalization has brought about an unprecedented mixing of cultures; exposing populations to new ideas and ways of thinking. This exposure has allowed national populations to become aware of the potential flaws in their cultures, and to appreciate positive facets in a new way. However, one would be wrong in assuming that all cultures will evaluate all traditions and norms in the same way, with globalization enabling homogenization without forcing it.
In the same way a passionate nationalist may enjoy holidays in disparate cultures without losing their sense of identity, a lover of one’s national culture needn’t be averse to the introduction of foreign cultures into their country. In fact, some may find that it enables them to further appreciate their native culture by exposing them to different ways of living. That is, in the way that someone from a predominantly rainy nation tends to appreciate the sun more than someone from a sunnier nation, someone from a multicultural nation may learn to appreciate cultures, including their own, more than someone from a homogeneous nation. In this respect, the introduction of foreign cultures into a nation might, paradoxically, help preserve national traditions as exposure to diversity can help crystalize the defining features of a culture that might otherwise become blurry.
However, this is not to say that multiculturalism is not likely to bring about changes to a country’s native culture. In fact, all cultures change, even in the absence of multiculturalism. Multiculturalism may, rather, enhance the ability of a nation to change in a progressive fashion by exposing them to tried and tested cultural phenomena. That is, multiculturalism enables a more hands-on and guided evolution of a nation’s culture by offering a nation’s citizens exposure to real alternative cultural features. In this respect, concerns that multiculturalism will adulterate a nation’s culture tend to be undergirded by the Nirvana Fallacy; comparing the real change brought about by multiculturalism with a theoretical static culture postulated as enduring in its absence.
Furthermore, concerns that multiculturalism will lead to a loss of diversity through a process of conversion, fail to grasp the idea that pre-existing cultures influence one’s evaluation of alternatives. That is, in a perfectly multicultural world, the citizens of one nation will adopt features of the world’s cultures that are likely to be disparate from those adopted by the citizens of other nations. This diversity in cultural absorption is driven by the defining role that cultures play in shaping worldviews. That is, the influence of pre-existening national identities prior to the incorporation of foreign cultures leads to distinct adaptations in the face of these incorporations.
The world is an ever changing and fickle realm, with national identities not guarded from these forces. In this respect, change is inevitable to culture. Multiculturalism enables nations to undergo more informed evolutions in their practices without sublimating the beauty brought about by diversity.