Paris, anyone?

[mercia]

Btw, can't help feeling that you could have come up with that definition yourself.

possibly. I think as long as the definition satisfies you (since it was you who asked some 8 hours ago), that is the main thing.

[Ian]

I wonder if there's any nexus between my statement right there and Merkel's 2010 pronouncement about the "failures" of multi-culturalism?

I don’t really know what Merkel has in mind. By my definition her phrasing doesn’t make sense. For me it would only be meaningful to talk about a failure to achieve a multi-cultural society.

[Serial_Apologist]

Of or relating to a society consisting of a number of cultural groups, esp. in which the distinctive cultural identity of each group is maintained.

I can't name a single country in which distinctive group cultural identities are wholly maintained.

There was once the good old white British tradition of cultural chauvinism towards all other ethnicities, and that has thankfully taken a hammering as people have become accepting of others. Then there are such cultural practices as polygamy and polyandry. Whether reformed or not, it would seem that host countries always retain hegemonic sanction.

[MrGongGong]

2 is definitely a number. There is some argument as to whether zero is a number. Of course the real question is, is 1 a number?

I think if you are after the origins of mathematics you better look further east than Dagenham

[Richard Barrett]

The late Christopher Hitchens was powerful and eloquent when describing Islamofascism

Really? What about “I don't think the war in Afghanistan was ruthlessly enough waged.” Or “Will an Iraq war make our Al Qaeda problem worse? Not likely.” Or “The death toll is not nearly high enough... too many [jihadists] have escaped.” To me he sounds rather like a jihadi himself.

[teamsaint]

I think if you are after the origins of mathematics you better look further east than Dagenham

TALK OF Patrick Mcgooghan seems more apt than ever, especially with Teresa Mays dulcet tones still ringing in our ears.....

[Beef Oven!]

I think if you are after the origins of mathematics you better look further east than Dagenham

Dagenham? That's gone over my head

[JFLL]

A multicultural society would be one where people of different cultures are allowed ... to live according to whatever traditions and laws that constitute that particular culture.

Wouldn't that be unworkable? What about actions which would consitute a crime to one of the parties but not to the other? For the sake of argument, say one party whose laws allowed him to kill someone who blasphemed against his god did in fact kill someone of another persuasion. Whose law would be applied? There has to be a law of the land to which everyone is subject. It's quite rightly one of the cornerstones of civil society. The alternative is anarchy.

[ahinton]

Never mind about 'deserve', you must pay attention.

I did as I said I did.

You don't live in a multicultural area.

According to you, but you don;t live here; I do, so ought to (and do) know.

All straw man arguments are hypothetical

Best not to make them, then...

It's a silly racial stereo-type that adds nothing to our understanding of anything

In your view, perhaps; self-evidently not in the view of those who use it when they choose to do so.

All posts must be read the way they are written. I think that's how forums like this work. People post, people read the posts and some reply. And so on.

I do know that!

I can't get to the meaning because of the babble you write

Repetition!

Would what presume total racial segregation........? What are you on about?

Please go back and read the posts in context.

If you find this tedious and want to get back to the thread topic, don't play to the audience, just stop posting great long replies.

Don't make out that I have written something that I have not!

[Ian]

Wouldn't that be unworkable?

I’m sure it probably would be unworkable - but ‘multiculturism’ is an idea - it can exist as a concept if not a practical reality.

However, just for the sake of idle speculation, the ‘universal agreement‘ that would be needed to make such a society work would obviously have to cover situations like the one you mention. I don’t think it’s too hard to outline how it might do that. However, as I’m not actually proposing such a society I don’t feel the need to .

[ahinton]

A multicultural society would be one where people of different cultures are allowed (by universal agreement among all the cultures present) to live according to whatever traditions and laws that constitute that particular culture.

It isn't and couldn't be; I agree with M. Leboeuf here. Each country, if it's to be a country, has to have laws for all, otherwise it would never work; imagine what would happen for mixed race couples whose origins are in countries with quite different laws...

[MrGongGong]

The alternative is anarchy.

Point of information.

Anarchy is not chaos.

[ahinton]

Point of information.

Anarchy is not chaos.

They are not inherently synonymous, sure, but they can occur simultaneously.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

They are not inherently synonymous, sure, but they can occur simultaneously.

"Chaos" can occur simultaneously with many things - "parliamentary democracy" included.

[JFLL]

I’m sure it probably would be unworkable - but ‘multiculturism’ is an idea - it can exist as a concept if not a practical reality.

However, just for the sake of idle speculation, the ‘universal agreement‘ that would be needed to make such a society work would obviously have to cover situations like the one you mention. I don’t think it’s too hard to outline how it might do that. However, as I’m not actually proposing such a society I don’t feel the need to .

Yes, I'm sorry, I thought you were talking about the real world. It would be difficult, in my view, to devise a system of laws which attempted to reconcile irreconcilables -- unless one were only imagining it.