Diversity

Maxime Bernier has declared that the present Canadian government is guilty of “extreme multiculturalism” and “excess diversity” so I better stop listening to bagpipes of my Scottish past.  But let’s understand that Mr. Bernier undoubtedly does not include his ‘pur laine’ French Canadian flock in this condemnation.  He probably even excludes English, French, Scottish and maybe even Irish from this extremism.  No undoubtedly, he is referring to immigrants from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and maybe even South America, particularly those that don’t share his religion or culture.  However, I would confidently claim that there are citizens of Canada who represent every country in the world.  Where do we draw the line?

“Man is a credulous animal and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.”
  - Bertrand Russell

There is a chapter in James Mitchener’s book “Hawaii” titled “The Golden Men” that talks about the fourth and fifth generation people from all of the major groups that make up the Hawaiian population.  These people from America, Japan and China as well as the native Hawaiians come together, intermarry, interbreed, interact and thrive creating a new breed of people who bring out the best of their various backgrounds.  Although the book is fiction perhaps there is a lesson here of what diversity can bring us.  Many years ago, in a high school essay, I wrote that it is not the first generation of immigrants that should be the target of our efforts, but the second and third.  I still believe that today.

Some people are appalled at the thought of intermarriage.  They want ethnic purity above all else.  However, this can become the equivalent of interbreeding with a family.  It eventually exposes all of the weaknesses. So, what’s wrong with intermarriage?  People have been doing it as long a there have been differences at the family, tribal, ethnic and national level.  At the worst, it will bring no difference to the human condition, except perhaps the end of ethnic discrimination.  At best, it will produce people with strengths from different groups.  You would be very hard pressed to find anybody in North America or Western Europe who are not the product of some degree of ethnic mix.  History has moved too many people around different locations for this not to be the case.

Would I be upset if one of my children or grandchildren chose a partner from a different race or ethnic group?  Not at all.  I would welcome the diversity it would bring our family.

So, let’s embrace diversity among all races instead of wasting our time defending something that is probably not worth defending.

“At least two-thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity: idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political ideas.”
  - Aldous Huxley