...And someone argued that Star Trek's prime directive (not interfering in primitive cultures) is probably the best foreign policy that western nations should adopt...
Here's my paraphrased and elaborated counter argument...
"Hmm... Are we saying that the arab, islamic, desert, or whatever you want to call it, is a primitive culture, and should therefore not interfere, and let it be?
In essence, I would agree. This also goes for most of sub-Saharan Africa, and certain rural areas in the southern United States. However...
We live in a globalised, or at least globalizing world, with common trends (Gucci is just as popular in South Africa, as it is in Japan, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, or in the Western world), a common telecommunications system (the interwebs), and trends toward the common (english globally as a 2nd language, and judging on the invention of Pinyin, the ever more prevalant usage of the latin alphabet).
What happens culturally elsewhere in the world affects me, be it economically, financially, environmentally, physically, or psychologically, especially when different cultures with different standards of what is considered "normal" collide.
So what should we do?
Multiculturalism has utterly failed, so what we need to do is take the best part of each culture and discard the rest of it.
Whatever enhances the quality of life for most people in the world should happen, and if that goes against some archaic belief, tradition or ritual that your daddy's dad before him has taught you, tough luck.
NO REALLY; get over it. Women deserve the same opportunities and freedoms as men do. Blacks can be racists and gays are people too. Democratic rule of law works better than honorrape- and vengeancekilling- autocracies and theocracies. The Death-penalty doesn't work. The Scientific method does. Global Warming is Climate Change and it's really happening. Pluto isn't a planet anymore, and alternative medicine isn't medicine.
Peace!"
Btw, the class is called Educational Sociology and Diversity...
