Dear editor,
Understanding the cultural diversity is the key to unlocking the closed minded and reducing the culture shocks. The differences in norms and values of each culture are the structure of each society, and the definitions of deviance, bad, and good, in most cases, are derived from the particular culture’s norms and values.
Also, the level of knowledge of the people or the social groups would have a role in establishing norms and values of the culture. It takes an effort to, if not accept, tolerate others with different cultures in the society. In order to have a peaceful multicultural society, it is necessary to be mindful and not allow the differences across the line of the other cultures.
It is challenging for those who are immigrating to different areas of the world to hold on their cultures; in some circumstances, it will result in losing the norms and the values. Culture is affected by society, such as the impact of the majority on the minority, the economy, and globalization. In each ethnicity or culture, we will see individuals advocating for the unity in order to survive and keep the norms and values that they believe.
The political systems are also factors in changing the norms and values, and it is contributing to shift the traditional beliefs and cultures, hence, the relationships between the individuals will be converted in definitions and meaning, and might some of the principles become the society’s forbidden behaviors.
Therefore, in order to avoid cultural conflict and to have multiculturalism in society, it is important to tolerate and understand the differences instead of enforcing our differences on each other. Enforcing our beliefs and ideology is a factor in creating hostility among people, the enforcement does not necessarily happen physically, it could be through a democratic system in which the elected officials enact laws that affect certain cultures and traditional beliefs of some groups in the society.
Democracy could create a minority, and a minority could become a victim of the democratic system because the majority rule that controls the minority.
- Serwan Zangana
