Week 7: Activity 1, Multiculturalism
by Timothy Sommerlad – Saturday, 31 December 2022, 5:51 PM
Number of replies: 0
On the relationship between multiculturalism and First Australians (Nations) culture:
I have studied the Cymraeg (Welsh in Anglo-Saxon English) language and culture for almost a year. During that time, I have considered the significance of the apparent marginalisation of Cymru (Wales) to the definite sidelining of First Australians in this country and how they compare and contrast.
As with everything, we first must define and expound our term multiculturalism.
Suppose we mean multiculturalism is the imperfect and disorganised conglomeration of cultures driven by job prospects, national security, welfare and better education. In that case, we can agree that this is, on the whole, better than nations constantly warring to alleviate poverty and otherwise living at odds with each other. And we could say more about (to borrow a term) the intersectionality of nations, cultures and religions.
And yet we may consider a hidden meaning with several layers. These are:
Atheism (apparent irrelevance of religion (theism) in the post – modern world), capitalism (ultimate value fixed at increasing profit by exploitation and dehumanisation (alienation) of labour), education (the mechanism whereby atheism and capitalism are distilled and propagated through enforced indoctrination), and social iteration (the reinforcement (maintenance) of existing structures at the level of repetitious human behaviour and intellectual stagnation). (I have written the first two, atheism and capitalism, in bold to emphasise their pre-eminence and influence over the remaining two, education and social interaction.)
For brevity and effect, I will treat atheism as the sole pillar (or the lack thereof?) of “the West” and what this means for Aboriginal nations and cultures.
Insofar as the culture of First Australians (Nations) is (or, at least, insofar as it has been) religious, tribal (familial), artistic and spiritual, the prevailing atmosphere of Australia – of the entire Western world – is necessarily and deliberately exclusive and destructive to that culture [?!]. Accordingly, I will elucidate with the following:
Atheism is prevalent everywhere – East to West – in some form. Religion of every description is commonly understood and felt to be synonymous with conservative (moral) values, obedience to some authority, and, most importantly, theism. Therefore, religion is all but disregarded and discarded – in (psychological, subjective) reality, though perhaps not entirely in social (cultural) behaviour and speech – by educated people of every culture and background. Religion is inseparable from culture, and as science and individual freedom (self-determination) continue to break down culture, religion has become defunct in public consciousness, relegated to the status of myth and ancient architecture.
This, of course, includes the religion(s) of First Nations peoples in Australia.
How can we be honestly inclusive of a world that no longer exists, at least in prevalent post-Enlightenment consciousness? In reality – and this attaches to a point I made in a previous blog post https://create.usq.edu.au/timothy-sommerlad/2022/12/20/w4-the-rainbow-alphabet-activity-2/. – to speak of a “culture” at all is to speak of nothing, for, as I pointed out, individuals are cultures unto themselves.
Richard Dawkins (Dawkins 2007) lends considerable weight to this “can’t see the trees for the forest” proposition as he unwaveringly discerns that there is, in fact, no such thing as a Christian or Muslim child or a child of faith of any description. Instead, there are only religious adults, parents, and authorities (hopefully voluntarily assenting and sincerely believing, though often merely playing the part unconsciously and socially). Likewise, there is no such thing as an American, English, Indian, Russian, Australian or FN child.
Why?
Because no child believes for themself, and every individual is always capable of transcending the language, customs, morality and myths of their people and nation of birth, pursuing whatever life they deem most desirable and liberating.
References
Dawkins, R 2007, The God Delusion, Black Swan edition, Black Swan, Transworld Publishers, Great Britain.
Week 7: Activity 2, FNC
by Timothy Sommerlad – Monday, 2 January 2023, 4:14 PM
Number of replies: 0
Australia in recent years has experienced rapid demographic change as a result of mass immigration and many of the Australian public feel as their Australian culture is being somewhat diluted.
The audience question:
“Why do we insist on promoting multiculturalism when it so clearly hinders us from a unified national identity and culture?”
1. National identity, which is synonymous with religious and cultural identity, is the next great obstacle to be overcome by a universalising philosophy and spirituality. To the degree that national identity encapsulates global consciousness, it divides it. Consequently, humanity defined and restricted by arbitrary lines of possession, power, and partisan allegiance will continue to erode and fracture into increasingly fearful, violent, closed-off boundaries.
2. Government is no less than the total realisation of human power. This realisation, regardless of form or constitution, exerts itself as military defensiveness (violence), the concentration of wealth extracted via slavery among the ruling class and financial monopolies (ultimate value fixed at unchecked accrual of material wealth), and pre-emptive hostility towards and outright exclusion of increasing contact with foreign countries (self-preservation). Together with these is the cooperation of religious, state and family authority and leadership over and against individual freedom, i.e., self-actualisation.
3. Concerning Australia today and FNC, in particular, there can be no government other than one which favours and forcibly maintains the status quo, as I have elucidated. This is the essence of Michel Foucault’s philosophy of (political) power (withDefiance 2013)* as well as the essence of my observations of the workings of power as the condition for aspiritual humanity (where I define power as anything acting over and against anything else).
*Watch from 37:44 or just before.
4. It is wholly unaware to talk of First Nations sovereignty being reclaimed in Australia. As unequivocally bloody and horrific as the conflict between the European invasion and the First Australians has been (and continues to be through intergenerational trauma and political domination), no version of that ancient culture remains except one permeated from top to bottom with the West and its ideology.
5. I, of course, agree that it will be a positive thing to continue integrating the past with the modern arts to illuminate and fulfil our future.
This necessary dissolution of nations – cultures, religions, ethnic identities – will open up the world to that glorious utopia summarised by the principles of communism as a “stateless, classless, moneyless society (Spooky Scary Socialist 2020)” and transform consciousness to realise unity not just in words and speech, but in spirit, action and truth.
References
Spooky Scary Socialist 2020, Debunking Every Anti-Communist Argument Ever, YouTube video, viewed 2 January 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjwL1mSrPLA
withDefiance 2013, Debate Noam Chomsky & Michel Foucault – On human nature [Subtitled], YouTube video, viewed 2 January 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wfNl2L0Gf8&t=241s
