The importance of cultural diversity

There is a lot more to be found in cultural diversity (and independance) than what most believe. I am no relativist; I do not believe all paths lead to something that works. But I am no absolutist, many paths may be good, and a lot, who failed or are in the process of failing, teach us stuff.

Having a way for some people to explore other cultures is great, and another to actually cross cultures and take part in the one that works is even better, that's the only purpose I can see in an intercultural language. But having many cultures have one great advantage : many experiences, many tests, going on at the same time.

Look at biology : millions of species, trillions of individual living things, all trying something out. Some die with offsprings, some die without. Think about it : trillions of individual experiences going on at the same time. If a few fail, you still have tons of others going on.

I believe the same is true about culture. Earlier this morning, I was speaking with a friend of mine about expressways. Where I live, in Japan, all expressways are toll roads, without exception. Where I come from, Quebec, all expressways are toll-free, without exception. Two different paths that have been tried and, the fun thing. Yet, Japan isn't poor; far from it. And expressways have always been tolled. What it tells me is that tolled expressways are certainly not something that will kill the economy, far from it. (There is more reflexion about that than simply this; it would take days just to explain the basics of the idea.)

But what that means is that I believe that, if I had to choose between making people pay for hospitals services and making people pay for expressway services, I will have people pay the second one first, because I can see it causes no problem at all in Japan.

And yet, if we were all one great single culture, I would never have seen that. I could have never experienced my awesome year six years ago. I would have only seen the same thing as where I come from, because there is nothing else to compare with. And, as I said, between toll expressways and free expressways, while the free one seem a lot more convenient, the toll one is probably the best option.

So that's why, according to me, cultural diversity and, especially, autonomy ARE important.