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What can I know (if trust in knowledge has been lost)? | 43 instance the spread of Buddhism, Islam or the Enlightenment) of a culture has been thought to occur when a people’s topics of cultural dialogue and the symbolic frames of interpretation determining possible topics changes. Yet nothing characterises the current — mostly Western — proponents and ideologues of multiculturalism less than the desire to spread Western values. The politically correct way of speaking compulsory at universities and in the media expressly forbids anyone to claim priority for these. ‘The only idea of European origin that they demand from everyone is the extreme relativism of values (falsely) derived from the equality of freedoms and which in reality renders dialogue among cultures impossible. For substantive dialogue and mutual respect are only possible in knowledge of the differences, between parties who are equally convinced of the meaning and importance of the differences they argue for. As for “fusion”, cultures are not capable of this within a short space of time any more than languages are: a series of sounds only possesses an identifiable meaning in one particular language. The fusion of dictionaries and grammars takes centuries at the least, yet currently it appears that there is no serious attempt at either the meaningful dialogue or the unification of the various cultures. In contrast with the centuries of cultural imperialism, it seems that we do not want to baptise, secularise, democratise or enlighten the peoples whom we have convinced to adopt our way of life and technological achievements. So, what do we want from them? ‘The ruling culture is always the culture of the rulers, the connected system of certain interpretations of the world which sanction the given mode of power. In this there is no change. Multiculturalism — in contrast with its historical antecedents — is the ideology of a power which is not legitimised by an interpretation of the world but rather by the application of the means and procedures upon which the survival of the system stands or falls. The new world order and its beneficiaries are not interested in gaining acceptance for a particular cultural software, but rather merely in selling the hardware. ‘This is most likely the explanation for globalisation’s particular nature.
