Schmulticulturalism

Or stupid is as stupid does. Calgary's Asian communities seem to revolt against the latest piece of decerebrate multicultural mumbo-jumbo: an "asian mall" to be built from scratch.

In a free, democratic and business-oriented country it is your right to set up shop wherever you want selling whatever is legal. The wonks at Calgary town hall somehow think an "Asian Mall" will cater to the local community. What it will do, instead, is almost certainly deprive the local community of choice, make it feel marginalized and isolated (isn't this what multiculturalism is about?) and ghetto-ize the area.

Were the local community to demand almost exclusively Asian-imported products, any shop not selling the appropriate stuff would be bust within a month in a local mall, leaving space for Asian shops. I am convinced, differing from Calgary town hall folk, that a free market would make a mall into an "Asian" one if it were truly needed.

Big Papa planners assume everyone is as close-minded as them, ergo a strong local Asian community will only buy Asian. This kind of paternalism spells the end of multiculturalism, as those who are supposed to welcome this with open arms rebel against being classified, labeled, itemized and trumped.

Taylor's wrong, but still gets gong

The award of the so-called "Japanese Nobel" to Charles Taylor, as well as his other countless Canadian and Quebecois gongs, leaves a bittersweet aftertaste. His work is of exceptional quality both in terms of eloquence and scholarity, and he surely is a principal source of inspiration for many policymakers. He is also owed great credit for putting up with months of drivel from his fellow Quebecois jabbering nonsense on immigration and religion and actually milking something sensical out of it. Furthermore, being closely associated with McGill, Mr Taylor brings this award very close to home.

However we should take a look beyond the scholarity and dive into the case studies we can find. Without going too far, the very same multiculturalism we see in Canada and its dreadful British inspiration are heading straight to the dustbin of history or, failing that, to ignominy. Although an excellent philosophical approach in theory, in practice multiculturalism becomes synonymous with chaos, anarchy and discord. Its very approach to human relations is flawed because it defines an individual based on the culture and heritage.

Without being wrong, it isn't right either. We are what we grow up to be, defined in indeed great part by what made us the people we are today. The State and public policy, however, do not EVER enter the picture: their concern is solely the orderly administration of affairs delegated to them by a free and independent society. Multiculturalism strives to give the State an unfairly large role in determining community relations. As a libertarian in many areas, I believe that when the State intervenes it does so badly, at the wrong time and with the wrong tools.

Taylor's philosophy is impractical from a policy perspective and morally wrong. The state is a trustee of the country, not its mother. Leave our heritages alone, let us sort out our own relations with one another and don't try finding a universal formula for running a country with different cultures in it. Somehow academics just can't trust people to get along with each other without being told to do so.

"By advocating 'communitarianism' and 'multiculturalism' from the perspective of 'holistic individualism,' Dr. Taylor has developed an enlightened philosophy that allows people of different historical, traditional and cultural backgrounds to retain their multiple identities while living together peacefully," the foundation said.

There isn't an -ism they haven't tried yet.