Lionel Shriver argues against the concept of "cultural appropriation," stating that no group "owns" its culture. Culture is a shared inheritance, not a discrete property with fixed boundaries. It thrives when shared and mixed, and attempts to fence it off are childish and counterproductive to art.
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Effective assimilation requires a clear, confident host culture for newcomers to integrate into. The UK's struggle with assimilation stems from a reluctance to define 'Britishness' and assert its value. This cultural vacuum makes meaningful integration impossible.
Author Lionel Shriver argues that resistance to mass immigration stems from a primitive, universal human instinct to defend one's territory. Progressive discourse often demands that people, particularly Americans, disable this deep-seated instinct, creating a fundamental and often unacknowledged societal tension.
Thriving civilizations first become masters of imitation, openly absorbing ideas and technologies from other cultures through trade and migration. This diverse pool of borrowed 'ingredients' becomes the foundation for true innovation, which is the novel combination of existing concepts.
Shriver, who is childless, reframes the "child-free" lifestyle not as a personal choice but as a fundamentally irresponsible act when adopted at a civilizational scale. She argues it is an ungenerous refusal to perpetuate the culture one inherited, thereby contributing to its decline.
Resistance to mass immigration is often mislabeled as racism when it's a defense of cultural uniqueness. The core fear is that blending all cultures creates a bland 'beige' monolith, ultimately allowing the most aggressive and cohesive incoming culture to dominate.
The famous quote attributed to Picasso is often misinterpreted as permission to copy competitors. Its true meaning is to steal from a wide variety of historical sources and disparate industries to create a unique, recombinant style, rather than simply cloning a successful trend within the tech bubble.
Immigration's success or failure is determined by values alignment, not ethnicity. The US historically integrated diverse groups because they shared a foundational ethos. Current conflicts arise when immigrant populations hold fundamentally different core values from the host nation, creating societal friction regardless of race.
The perception of cultural stagnation is flawed. While mainstream blockbusters may be worse, the overall quality and variety of culture (e.g., global cinema) is stronger than ever. Pundits miss this because quality has shifted from a shared monoculture to numerous high-quality niches that require active discovery.
While promoting tolerance, mass immigration risks erasing unique cultural differences, creating a homogenous world. In this "beige" environment, the most cohesive and aggressive culture with high birth rates and a clear agenda will inevitably become dominant.
People incorrectly attribute societal friction to race when the root cause is a lack of shared beliefs and values. The intense division between the American left and right—often within the same race—proves that assimilation into a common value system is the key to social cohesion, not ethnic homogeneity.
