Thank you Quantum, nice to be here. I found this site through some personal research I was conducting and a post you made back in 2007, but I'll leave that topic to that place.
"Culture USA," yes it's actually good to refer some sort of term, it gives us something to actually lead from, a platform on which to stand on, rather than just an empty theoretical concept. I was going to make an additional post last night, but I was tired and so I've left it til this morning (plus I didn't want to write too much on my first post here).
Anyway, something not said at the start of this thread, an old distinction, would be the two immigration models of intergration vs assimilation. The US originally adopted a program of assimilation where upon emigrating to the US one would drop the culture of origin and adopt the new culture of destination. Australia instead adopted a program of intergration where one would instead embrace the culture of origin and intergrate said culture in to the new one of destination. Theorectically speaking, assimilation can be seen as a good thing, especially if one originates from an economic situation of extreme hardship, for example, to completely forget about one's past and turn over a new leaf. The problem with such is is that even at all possible? Can one seriously forget one's entire life up to a certain point, one's upbringing, cultural nuances, experiences good and bad, mistakes, successes etc? And the main question here is should one forget their past? What good would it really do, not to mention that I don't think it's even possible, so why bother trying. Should one really forget all the good and bad of one's past? The process of integration is in fact to embrace the entirety of one's past and bring all that to the dinner table. I believe the US has more or less adopted such a stance, regardless of it's official position, as assimilation is basically impossible, not practical and, in my opinion, unhealthy to boot.
France recently rejected the concept of integration during the recent influx of refugees, after a couple of years of trial. But they don't seem to realise that it's taken Australia 20-30-40 years to get it right, and we're still figuring it out, it takes time.
Getting back to the point Quantum was originally making though, does the term multicultural infer a sense of division, a non-united nation of separatedness and lean towards an identity which has no common ground? Perhaps our whole concept of "nation" itself is that which is starting to change, be it for better or worse, but perhaps it's an inevitible process of social maturation. Can we really change or dictate the direction or strength of the tide or should we just follow, coaxing it here and there and reaping it's benefits? My father always used to tell me, "language is what people speak," not what they should or shouldn't speak. Being a bit of a grammar nazi and looking at where our written language today, it can be a little frustrating, but I can't discount the truth of my father's statement. In this light the term "multicultural" may actually be pretty spot on, perhaps our other terms with which the term may come in to conflict with are that which may need to change... perhaps.
I'll end with a little bit of history I hold dear. In the mid to late nineties, the "Republic" debate was in full swing here in Australia, we even had a referendom to decide on this issue (the result of which apparently really surprised the Queen, but it was a political game at the end of the day, something we see a lot of today). Anyway, The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney's main newspaper at the time) published 20 proposals for a flag change based on official surveys conducted publically. One of the flag proposals was essentially a picture of a bowl of spaghetti. Many people rang the newspaper apalled, disgusted and downright flabergasted that the paper would publish such a thing. But the Herald defended it's actions explaining that the surveys' outcomes had already been decided to be published before the results of the surveys were known. The "spaghetti" result was based on a survey which asked Australians, "What is your favourite food?" The answer was Spagehetti Bolognaise (French spelling of Spaghetti Bolognese) or commonly referred to in modern, Australian culture, "Spag Bol." Australia's favourite drink was also asked and the result was, "Cappuccino," (not the semi bald monk but the coffee drink lol). With what I've been hearing and seeing so much from the States lately, I'm wondering whether the next American flag will a picture of a yummy Taco
