"Multiculturalism has run its course, and it is time to move
on." So begins Jonathan Sacks' new book on the future of British
society and the dangers facing liberal democracy.
Arguing that global communications have fragmented national
cultures and that multiculturalism, intended to reduce social
frictions, is today reinforcing them, Sacks argues for a new
approach to national identity. We cannot stay with current policies
that are producing a society of conflicting ghettoes and
non-intersecting lives, turning religious bodies into pressure
groups rather than society-building forces. Britain, he argues,
will have to construct a national narrative as a basis for
identity, reinvigorate the concept of the common good, and identify
shared interests among currently conflicting groups. It must
restore a culture of civility, protect "neutral spaces" from
politicization, and find ways of moving beyond an adversarial
culture in which the loudest voice wins. He argues for a
responsibility- rather than rights-based model of citizenship that
connects the ideas of giving and belonging.Offering a new paradigm
to replace previous models of assimilation on the one hand,
multiculturalism on the other, he argues that we should see society
as "the home we build together," bringing the distinctive gifts of
different groups to the common good. Sacks warns of the hazards
free and open societies face in the twenty-first century, and
offers an unusual religious defence of liberal democracy and the
nation state.
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