system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: The obsession with preserving cultural identities is bad for humanity

 

There's this constant fear among both the right and the left in my opinion of cultures mixing and synthesizing. To sort of boil down the argument I often hear goes something like this "French culture is beautiful Islamic culture is beautiful, but if we start mixing them then both cultures will just end up being destroyed, or one will just devour the other". 

You can see examples of this like I said allover the political spectrum. Whether its the "replacement theory" lunatics in the US, Anti immigration in Europe, The Quebecois obsession's with maintaining their French heritage, the Japanese obsession's with racial purity and their strict immigration quotas. Religious households of multiple faiths wanting to create enclaves so that their kids aren't exposed to other cultures or beliefs. 

There is some truth to this, the cultures will be destroyed, but they aren't mentioning the 2nd part, that a new culture is created that is a synthesis of both. Cultural achievements are just as real and as important as scientific achievements. Do we have "american" science or "british" science? Does calculus and Newtonian gravity belong to England, but Einstein's discoveries belong to jewish people? Science belongs to humanity. I don't see why culture is any different. Shakespeare doesn't "belong" to English people, Dostoyevsky doesn't belong to Russia, Socrates doesn't belong to Greece, Lao Tzu doesn't belong to China. They belong to humanity.

We should be encouraging as much cultural exchange as possible just like we encourage as much scientific exchange as possible. Look at how much better food got after the Columbian exchange. Italian food exists because native american culture (tomatoes) Chinese culture (Noodles) and Mediterranean culture mixed. Creole food classic french cooking with african and spanish mixing, probably my favorite type of food in the world. Music, Jazz mixing African rhythms with European classical music. Basically all modern western music stems from that mix.

Mixing makes things better not worse. We should be increasing the scope of our identities toward a more global human identity and away from provincialism. Now I do agree that one culture shouldn't erase another, which often does happen. A good example is rock music where the contributions of African Americans are significantly downplayed in relation to white stars like Elvis, the Rolling Stones, Beatles etc. When all those guys basically took most of their inspiration from black musicians (they admit it themselves most of the time). But the end product of Rock music is still good for humanity. People should get the credit they deserve obviously, but  the actual mixing still produced something great.
gpt
There's a difference between the gradual shift and melding of cultures and a culture being forcefully and willfully stripped from a people, and that is a legacy that a lot of people, like many indigenous populations, are struggling with... because their culture didn't mix or change, it was stripped away. Perhaps for those people, a cultural identity, especially when they are the victims of historical and contemporary oppression, can be a real source of strength and unity. In that light, maybe it's important for them to preserve their culture.