Essay, Research Paper: To What Extent Should Cultural Diversity Within A Nation Be Promoted?

To what extent should cultural diversity within a nation be promoted?


Cultural diversity is an issue which affects every nation in the world today. A nation must decide whether to promote or discourage diversity, and by how much. Diversity is an issue which governments must not only deal with today but must plan for in the future. With diversity comes creativity and new ideas. However, also with diversity, comes conflict and hostility. Remember Hitler and the Holocaust? Hitler was strongly opposed to cultural diversity. It is up to a nation to decide upon an equilibrium, where both the pros and cons of cultural diversity can be balanced.

Many good things can come as a result of promoting cultural diversity. If people are allowed to have their own beliefs and values then they will look at problems in different ways. Therefore, allowing more obstacles to be crossed. For instance, pretend there are two people standing on one side of a river, and they both want to get to the other side. Well if they have been brought up in a society that teaches people to think and behave the same way they might both think the only way to cross a river is by building a boat. However, what will happen if there are creatures in this river that will destroy any vessel that tries to cross it. They won't be able to get to the other side. But, if they were brought up to think and behave differently, then one person might decide to build a bridge, and they can both cross safely. In countries such as Canada, cultural diversity is highly promoted. People are free to believe and worship whatever they wish. This helps to promote individualism. Individualism sparks creativity and new ideas. Without individualism far less inventions would be made. Religion is one form of cultural diversity. In Canada there is over one-hundred different ethnic groups joined together to make one great nation. All of these people are free to believe in whatever they wish. For instance, pork is a forbidden meat for some but is heavily consumed by others. Music is another form of cultural diversity. Music helps people to express their feelings, harmlessly, through lyrics. If the government was to restrict the type of music we could listen to, people would be forced to try and express their feelings in other ways. Such as protests and demonstrations. Food is another type of cultural diversity. Just think about all of the different types of foods we eat and where they originate from. People would soon become bored of hot dogs if that was all they were allowed to eat. Cultural diversity is essential in our world today, in order for people to have a variety of choices.

Cultural diversity can also spark conflict and hostility within a nation. In Quebec, many people don't like the idea of having both English and French as official languages. They also believe that the national government does not give them their due rights as Canadian citizens. They feel that they deserve special status and special attention. Some people in Quebec are even looking to separate from Canada, and form their own country where they will have full say on how they are governed. The Holocaust is an example of cultural diversity gone totally wrong. When Adolph Hitler and his Nazi party took hold of Germany, they blamed many of the countries problems on the Jewish and other minority groups. Instead of trying to solve these problems peacefully, Hitler decided to round up all of these people into huge prisons or death camps, where he killed and burned them. This genocide killed over 6,000,000 innocent men, women, and children. Many other countries have had civil wars because of two different ethnic groups differences in the tiniest of beliefs. Sometimes, it is best for countries to have a single ethnic group or religion, and not promote diversity. In order to ensure the safety of the people of that country.

Cultural diversity is not something that can be looked at in black and white. A nation must carefully examine all of the gray around the issue. In some countries, it is possible for many different cultures and ethnic groups to live in peace and harmony. In others, ethnic groups must be separated from one another to ensure that war does not break out. It is up to each individual nation to come up with a median, where the good and bad can balance themselves accordingly.