The Evils of Internationalism
18th March 2014
Sarah Hoyt notices that her Bullshit Detector has gone off.
First of all there is much to be said against the concept of “cultural tolerance.” Oh, sure, there is no earthly reason to despise someone for the food they eat or the clothes they wear (unless they eat live children or wear clothes made of ditto.) There is no reason to consider some language backward (well, there are languages without verb tenses for past and future, which must be pure h*ll to manage modern life in, but that’s something else. Normal human habit in these situations is to borrow like mad.)
In fact, most of the type of thing you learn about other cultures in school aren’t something you should well… have an opinion of any sort about, unless it’s aesthetic. I hate south American decoration on fabrics. This doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s an aesthetic opinion. I’m also not particularly fond of the things Scandinavians do with furniture. Aesthetic opinion. My kid likes it. It’s… what you like. I can say “Bah, no Swedish straight lines, thanks” when shopping for a table. That doesn’t mean I despise the culture. Oh, and some African carved masks give me the holly gibbies. (Though I rather like animal carvings. Go figure.)
None of this is lack of tolerance. I like what I like. You couldn’t pay me to wear a ball cap, for instance, and that’s the culture of my adopted people.
But this is all the level they can teach in school. First of all because the units for world culture or geography or whatever start in elementary and rarely go beyond middle school. Do you really want to discuss genital mutilation with your elementary school daughter? I wouldn’t. Do you want to explain how the concepts of personhood and individual value vary across the world? Or course not.
Worse, the teachers are often fluffy internationalists, having been taught what I call “tourist multiculturalism.” They believe that “culture” is clothes and crafts and food. Or, as I kept running into when they told me to teach the kids their “culture” and I replied I was, that they were perfect “US Geek.” They got upset, and wanted me to teach them Portuguese culture. (Why this would trump the culture of their father whose family has been here since the 1600s is a mystery.) They have some vague idea culture is genetic. And they lack the historical knowledge to realize that is one of the most racist ideas ever.