WITH the invention of the internet it is said we live in a global village. Others have commented on the so-called six degrees of separation to describe the interconnected world we now live in.
With the abandonment of the white Australia policy, we now live in a multiracial globally connected Australia. This also reflects the world as it is as it is not mono-cultural.
Policies that double down on our original mono-cultural roots when confronted with diversity are both bound to cause national stagnation and also to miss the opportunity to grow that comes from confronting diversity. But here is the thing
civilisations have a tendency to be us versus them. A heavy coercive law and order approach when frightened by a scary ‘other’ has been the go to enable tyrants since as long as mankind can remember.
The problem with this approach in a multicultural global village is that when we personally come face to face with the heavily vilified ‘other’, they are often not nearly as scary as you have been led to think.
As a former Mayor of Greater Dandenong, I have met people from many, many different backgrounds and from all over the globe and none of them were particularly scary.
Australia needs to work at including people who are different. If we do we will find they are both not scary, generous and often insightful. Some people think a return to the good old days ‘ie.’ a British world view is the answer. To which I say assimilation whilst perhaps superficially attractive is a form of both denial and is cruel on the ‘other’ and ultimately self-limiting.
Kevin Walsh RFD, Cape Paterson
