A Multiculturalist Vision of a Good Society

The main argument revolves around a multiculturalist vision of a good society through the Marxist famous description of social competing classes. Marx argued that in a communist society nobody would have an exclusive sphere of activity instead people would share the activities together. Just as Marx's arguments a multicultural society would mean that a person would do everything in a day without being conformed to be a Muslim or a Christian. The author, Theodore Dalrymple, from “Reader, She Married Him—Alas” envisions a multicultural society that would be all-inclusive despite the differences and not just people sharing cuisine in a city ( Dalrymple, 1995 ). The author argues that multiculturalism does not necessarily mean that people can live together without rubbing one another in the wrong way or being discriminated against the other. According to the author, the issue of multiculturalism is much more than just sharing small bits of culture. Multiculturalism is often met with intolerance against each other, especially from a host society. People who do not come from that host society are often oppressed and subjected to discrimination. Therefore, the concept of a multicultural society needs time to be realized. 

The author argues that for multiculturalism to be realized, people need to understand that culture is more than just sharing food. Multiculturalism involves living together is different communities and respecting one another without conflicting ( Dalrymple, 1995 ). According to the author, immigration helps in building a multicultural society as it helped people from various cultures to live in other cultural settings comfortably ( Dalrymple, 1995 ). However, despite the different cultures living together, conflict is a common phenomenon, as they all bring in the distinct beliefs, standards, and expectations. These conflicts should be solved by appealing to the deep principle of the law that individuals define and how to live within the limits of those laws ( Dalrymple, 1995 ). However, the concept of individualization and tolerance which is common in the western world means that cultures living together without conflict will become a difficult and challenging thing to do. 

The concept of culture does not diminish with immigration. Most people who migrated from the cultural settings to the west often keep their culture and hold on to it more than the people who have not migrated ( Dalrymple, 1995 ). For the people who have migrated, customs and culture often become a sort of a great comfort in foreign lands. However, as their children grow up, they tend to move away from the customs in which their parents love and hold onto, which to them is quite right and natural ( Dalrymple, 1995 ). The children of immigrants are more concerned with the conflict that revolves around education careers and love. 

Cosmopolitanism is the ideology that all human beings belong to one community and that they share same morality. The author argues that human beings do not have single shared morality and are not from one single community since they all have different norms and standards based on their cultures. A cosmopolitan community is based on an inclusive morality, shared relationships and political structures from different countries. The arguments of a cosmopolitan concept are that people from various cultures can come in to live together in an inclusive cultural setting. However, the author argues that conflict is bound to happen when people from various cultures live together due to the differences in their beliefs ( Dalrymple, 1995 ). Nevertheless, living together as a cosmopolitan culture will help develop a multicultural society concept. Cosmopolitan society does not necessarily mean that people of various cultures have come together to embrace one another’s philosophy ( Dalrymple, 1995 ). All the same cosmopolitan simply means that people of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds live and interact with one another comfortably. 

Anti-cosmopolitanism argues that people often actively exclude foreigners from any consideration or discriminate foreigners who come to a host culture. Anti-cosmopolitan is common as many cultures target other cultures based on their beliefs and standards. The author of “She Married Him--Alas” clearly states that different host cultures do not necessarily welcome other cultures comfortable ( Dalrymple, 1995 ). For instance, the relationship between immigrants from the Indian subcontinent and Jamaica are awesome hostile, which is something that began a long time ago. Indian families are often distressed when they are daughters choose Jamaican lovers ( Dalrymple, 1995 ). Different cultures do not tolerate each other even the presence of religion, for example, Hindu Sikhs And Indians who are Muslims do not live together comfortably despite being from the same culture but different religion ( Dalrymple, 1995 ). This concept alone brings conflicts that may result in violence in many cases in India. 

I agree with Dalrymple’s analysis as it provides a clear indication of how people from different cultures live together. The painful part is that various cultures remain incompatible due to the different aspects of each culture. People do not respect others culture because they think that their culture is better than the other. The idea of multiculturalism when people live together without being judged is not far-fetched but needs time to be implemented. People who migrate to other countries enrich the host culture in many ways. However, being accepted by the host culture is a difficult situation as many experience discrimination and hatred. The author gives an accurate example of how cultures do not tolerate one another. Looking at the current events happening all over the world it is evident that people are not accommodating to other cultures due to various fears. 

Reference 

Dalrymple, T. (1995). Reader, She Married Him—Alas. Retrieved from https://www.city-journal.org/html/reader-she-married-him%E2%80%94alas-12347.html