Multiculturalism has failed?

German Chancellor Merkel announced yesterday that the project of multiculturalism failed in her country. Others are saying it is dead. And not just in Germany, but all over Europe.

I am a firm believer in multiculturalism, and I don't accept that it is dead. But there's no point in a knee-jerk reaction against Merkel's announcement. One has to face up to the truth, and adjust accordingly.

The premise behind multiculturalism was that most people want to live in a free society, and given the chance, they would change their own culture and make it pluralistic. This did not happen. Some immigrant cultures only exploited their freedom to maintain a sense of isolation, supremacy and hate towards other cultures, and teach it to their children. I still believe that given more time, they would eventually change, but we are running out of time. The extreme right is exploiting the matter to gain popularity and spread hate against all immigrants, and anti-Western forces are using the immigrants as a breeding ground for their views. The more enlightened people need to adjust their views and come up with a better plan.

Freedom requires responsibility, and a free society can exist only if all its participants take it upon themselves to respect the freedom of others. So for multiculturalism to work, we first need to ensure that every culture actually wants to live in a multicultural society. If there are certain cultures who are not so inclined, then they should change. And if they are unable to change on their own, then they should be forced.

There is no need to force the Western culture upon them. Every culture has the potential to change and become pluralistic, while maintaining its uniqueness and core tenets. And every culture has enough enlightened people who can realize that potential, and change their culture from within. The new plan should be to neutralize the negative elements in the group, and strengthen the positive forces in it, those who can bring about the change.

Europe still has plenty of time. I'm sure they will eventually find a formula that works.