Furthermore, I am european. For the most of the trip that modern paleogenetics took us I find that I am very, very much part of the original population of this continent. Every time the Americans and Canadians sing praise of the melting pot I wonder: Do the Indians in your countries sing that same praise? I very much doubt it.
What does that have to do with the topic under discussion, i.e. the rise of inter-racial marriage in the U.S? Also, although I do think that the tolerance for other groups which is a hallmark of life in North America is admirable, my point has been that certain trends can be found in this society. I haven't yet seen anyone proffer any evidence to the contrary.
Epoch:And this is exactly what I referred to in my answer to LeBrok.
I'm sorry. I'm not following you here. You find it admirable that these Hindu parents are causing their son to have a nervous breakdown because they can't bear the thought of having a non-Indian daughter-in-law, even though she's a lovely, sweet, intelligent girl who seems to love their son enough that she is even willing to convert for him?
We have very different values. I am not saying that these young people are carving out the easiest path for themselves if they go forward, but from a parent's point of view why would you cause a child such anguish by making him choose? You can and should counsel your children to be cautious, to consider the consequences and strains of a marriage between people of such different cultures, but at the end of the day, they must make their own decision. I wouldn't risk losing my child over this and nor would I wish to cause him such suffering. If they love each other enough, they will make it work. (I should add that if my child gave any indication that he or she was thinking of converting to a sect of any religion which would deny human rights to women or would advocate violence or even intolerance against members of other religions, I would oppose it with any means at my disposal.)
Epoch: And that is exactly what will be the cause for trouble. See, if we all mix, we simply have to convert to whatever finds it inexcusable to convert him- or herself.
Again, I'm not sure where you are going with this. When people live only among their own "kind", these issues will not arise. If someone emigrates here, their children will encounter, on a daily basis when adult if not as a child, people from all sorts of backgrounds. These children might fall in love with someone of a different background. If religion is the difference, it can be resolved in a number of ways. Americans are much more religious than Europeans, but still, religion is not as important as it was even twenty-five years ago. For many young people, a religious ceremony is a nod to tradition, not a sacrament. So, they'll either have an "interfaith" ceremony, or a civil one. If religion is important to one of them but not to the other, the non-religious person will either convert or agree to have the children raised in the partner's faith. If both of them have strong, but different, religious beliefs, they usually don't make it to the altar. Sometimes there is heartbreak involved. What is your solution for that? A ban on all interfaith marriages as well as inter-racial marriages? This is a free society, so this is not an option.
Epoch: It seems so contradictory to laud the American melting pot and at the same time raise your children very Italian.
I raised my children Italian because that's what I am. I wouldn't have known how to raise them any other way. I identify as Italian. I read Italian books, watch Italian television, and listen to Italian music every day. I cook Italian, heck, one week back in Italy, where I go for at least a month each year and often more, and I'm even dreaming in Italian again. I am proud of my culture and heritage and I wanted my children to be proud of it too, and they are, but in ways that I will never be, they are American. That's the way it works...I know that it seems like a paradox, but precisely
because it is so inclusive and so accepting of other cultures, it is very seductive, and it's very easy for people to be absorbed and for their ties to their ancestral cultures to loosen. I made my peace with it long ago. (Plus, you have to remember that most people are not like me...they are two, three, four or more generations removed from their emigrant roots. They don't speak the ancestral languages and barely know their ancestral towns.)
I was sort of kidding about sending my daughter to Italy to find a husband, you know. Sometimes my humor seems to miss the mark. Would it be nice to have Italian children in law...more comfortable, easier on some level? Yes, it would. It would also go some way toward alleviating my anxiety, because it would mean that they might be more likely to have the kind of family values which are so important to me, although even in Italy things have changed a great deal. However, that's probably not the way it's going to turn out. At the end of the day, it's not so important. What's important to me is that each of them finds someone who is kind and compassionate, has strong family values, is intelligent, hard working, has integrity, and most importantly, someone who loves and respects them and treats them well. If they can find mates like that, I'll be very happy.
Epoch:Read the book, you'll find it at least an entertaining exercise. In it you'll find a lovely allegory by Schopenhauer on Kant and the Enlightenment, in which Kant dances with a masked beauty all night at a masked ball only to find at the end of the evening, when she reveals herself, that she is his own wife. The wife standing for Christianity.
That lovely description has now convinced me to give it a look. However, you still haven't proved to me that the desire for autonomy and greater human rights on the part of the ancient Greek women of the Lysistrata or the Gracchi or any number of other examples I could cite have anything to do with some conspiracy against traditional Christian doctrine. No human being wants to be enslaved by another or oppressed by another unless such human being has been brainwashed, and no attempt to enslave or oppress or even limit the human rights and potential of another person or group should be permitted. To use Christianity to justify any such attitude or behavior is the ultimate heresy and blasphemy. No amount of circular arguing is going to convince me to the contrary, so perhaps we should leave it there.
