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Global Culture Wars

Dickson Igwe. Photo: VINO/File
By Dickson Igwe

Underlying all conflict and instability on the planet is the war of values and cultures. And even within countries, state power may pass laws protecting minority groups, always a useful thing to prevent hate based crime. However, unless there is a change of hearts and minds, change is a mountain climb.

The USA passed Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s with the intention of bringing about racial equality. This was in a country that had a culture of human slavery at its roots, and racism and racial segregation as dominant features of its social, political, and economic culture. Race remains America’s most defining social feature.

And 50 years later there is still a racial, social, and economic gulf between blacks and whites in the USA. Unjustifiable killings of young black men by white police officers is simply a symptom of an underlying racism in the USA that views black lives as less than the lives of whites. This is a clear clash of cultures: one white, the other black. However, with blacks in the minority, blacks get the short end of the stick in dealings with the dominant white culture.

In the Middle East, being a Christian remains a death sentence for a sizeable minority of human beings. Beheadings, and the ethnic cleansing of sizeable areas in the region of Christians, is an example of a new intolerance that hearkens back to the earliest days of the Ottoman Turk and the war between Christianity and Islam in the Levant and the Mediterranean that has lasted for centuries, ending in a type of cold peace riddled with terrorism and religious hatred.

Alternately, the inability of native Europeans to fully accept peaceful aspects of the religion of Islam from their Moslem citizens and migrants is a root cause of the hatred and terror that is now a great concern in countries such as Britain, France, Denmark, Spain, and numerous countries on the European continent. The result is increasing xenophobia on the European street. This is a clash of culture.

So too is the issue of Gay Rights in the west. Gay Rights and the whether or not of the Gay Lifestyle is a feature of the global clash of cultures. Globally, Gay Rights is restricted to western countries in The Americas and Europe. Massive swathes of the planet still do not accept the Gay Lifestyle. In many countries being Gay is illegal.

And even where Gay Rights are being enforced by law, Gay Rights remain a major problem for a significant number. In the USA, with its sizeable Evangelical Christian population, Gay Rights are not a slam dunk victory for supporters of Gay Rights for the simple reason that it remains an unacceptable lifestyle for millions of US citizens.

Until there is a heart change, or better stated, a culture change, gays, like blacks, and other minorities, will face a steep climb towards wider acceptability.

The recent execution of persons convicted for drug smuggling in Indonesia is another manifestation of culture wars. In the west, the executions appeared cruel, even unjustified.

Not in Indonesia. Countries in Asia and the Middle East do not view the death penalty as the evil that citizens of more tolerant western societies view. So when there is a “cruel execution”, there is uproar among the western liberal subset. In Asia things go on as if nothing happened.

Dictatorship and authoritarianism are an acceptable political culture in many countries. Russia is in love with its Strongman Vladimir Putin. China is a mix: a party dictatorship and a new and powerful capitalist culture. Both countries are expansionist and increasingly aggressive. Both believe as strongly in their own political and governance models as US citizens and citizens of Western Europe do in the “democratic ideal”.

Who is right and who is wrong is simply a matter of opinion. Again it boils down to questions of the heart and mind. It boils down to personal values.

What is acceptable in Nigeria is unacceptable in Denmark. US Democracy is anathema to the Chinese Ruling Class.

The world today is caught up in a new balance of power metric. The cultures and values of superpowers are thrust on smaller and less powerful countries. For example, Gay Rights are swiftly becoming law in overseas territories of European powers.

Tolerance is a wonderful western virtue. It is based on love and compassion. It is part of a universal western value system. It has allowed for equality between the races and sexes. It even extends to animal rights and matters of the environment.

Today tolerance in the west is most evidenced by Gay Rights and Gay Marriage.

However, tolerance is a matter of heart and mind. Like all things cultural it begins in the heart and mind of the individual. When the heart and mind are not accepting of the values of another there is an inevitable clash.

Ultimately the limits of national values and cultures are determined by state power.

When they meet up with the value system of another power, there is stalemate, even conflict and war.

Ultimately change, whatever that may mean, begins with a change of heart.

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