Have to strongly disagree with you - the American model is remarkable in that it works across extremely varied populations with different religious and cultural backgrounds. The core principles have stood the test of time well enough that European peasants, Laotian boat people, South and Central American immigrants, Africans who were dragged here as slaves, Middle Eastern expats, and on and on, were able to find their way and enculturate within the context of being "American".
Multiculturalism can be a successful model, as long as the basic principles of the union are adhered to.
However, it seems that our absolutely revolutionary founding documents (with whatever blind spots they contain) have been muted and their principles not shouted from the rooftops, until American has suffered a hollowing out of its soul to the extent that it became more and more of a big open-air mall of earthly delights. Consumerism, the over-emphasis of the individual over community, diminishment of faith-based institutions, all contributed to this implosion of the human spirit that those principles represented. Then you add the hazy glaze of tech, and promulgation of anything goes, which weakened us further.
It seems facile to throw the blame on the newest arrivals, when these destructive trends have been building steam over decades. They are just the latest to the party.
It is as much the fault of those titans of tech or big pharma who put their profits over the wellbeing of the humans using their products, as it is of corrupt politicians or journalists, while we are at it, who have lost all touch with the concept of morality.
"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party" - swap out party for country and it rings true. Where are the good men and women? Stand up and be counted.
Have to strongly disagree with you - the American model is remarkable in that it works across extremely varied populations with different religious and cultural backgrounds. The core principles have stood the test of time well enough that European peasants, Laotian boat people, South and Central American immigrants, Africans who were dragged here as slaves, Middle Eastern expats, and on and on, were able to find their way and enculturate within the context of being "American".
Multiculturalism can be a successful model, as long as the basic principles of the union are adhered to.
However, it seems that our absolutely revolutionary founding documents (with whatever blind spots they contain) have been muted and their principles not shouted from the rooftops, until American has suffered a hollowing out of its soul to the extent that it became more and more of a big open-air mall of earthly delights. Consumerism, the over-emphasis of the individual over community, diminishment of faith-based institutions, all contributed to this implosion of the human spirit that those principles represented. Then you add the hazy glaze of tech, and promulgation of anything goes, which weakened us further.
It seems facile to throw the blame on the newest arrivals, when these destructive trends have been building steam over decades. They are just the latest to the party.
It is as much the fault of those titans of tech or big pharma who put their profits over the wellbeing of the humans using their products, as it is of corrupt politicians or journalists, while we are at it, who have lost all touch with the concept of morality.
"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party" - swap out party for country and it rings true. Where are the good men and women? Stand up and be counted.