John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE ON CBC NEWS
Maxime Bernier criticizes Liberals for 'extreme multiculturalism'
'Trudeau's ... cult of diversity will divide us into little tribes'
'extreme multiculturalism' is used like a code word.
Unfortunately, the western world is experiencing a great deal of political discontent over large populations of refugees and migrants, especially ones who look different or who practice a different religion.
People are not happy with the feeling that "outsiders" are changing what they have always known.
Our entire western history is full of such change, but it is the speed and volume of the current situation which are bothering people.
Any situation causing discontent is just waiting to be exploited by ambitious politicians. This is exactly one of the things that has happened in the United States and parts of Europe.
It really is the duty of our leaders to oppose this kind of thing and of our press to investigate and expose it.
If you think Trump can only happen in America, you are wrong.
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Just a further note.
The very language we speak reflects centuries of waves of population change in Britain.
The Celts, the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings, the Norman French, and still other bits and pieces.
It is a dynamic history, not the static picture of Winston Churchill with his bowler and cigar and umbrella.
But we all become attached to the seemingly static pictures of our societies.
But such pictures are not our destiny.Owing to Demographic Transition in advanced societies, they do not replace their own populations. Modern couples rarely want more than two children, if that, and even two children each will not replace our population.
So, immigration is the unalterable fate of every advanced society, and a constant flow of new and different people changes things. There's no avoiding it, any more than you can avoid other great changes, as those brought on by the increasing waves of technology.
Now, add to that the constant rampage of wars we now see, wars which automatically generate millions of refugees, and great political unrest in many places, and the effects of climate change, and you have a giant engine at work generating migrants, and I believe that engine is only going to increase in power.
Politicians like Bernier - remember, this is the careless guy who, when he had a cabinet position, once left top secret NATO papers at his biker-girlfriend's house for many days - are always going to seek to exploit the dynamics of this emerging human population situation.
We must be very careful about letting that happen, but maybe, sadly, it is just as unavoidable as the population changes. If so, we face a fairly dark future in the West with strains of 1930s stuff gaining hold.
