November 9 2007 by The Systemic Analyst.

Vladimir Putin’s statements as reported in The Moscow Times “that there were people in the world who wanted to split up Russia and…were attempting “to rule over mankind”" should come as no surprise to anyone in the West. In fact, after years of increasingly negative press in the Western media, the only thing that would be surprising is if Russia felt that countries such as the United States and Britain were her friends and allies.

The Russian system isn’t an exact replica of the American model, but should it be? It’s time that we in the West wake up. Our governance models may be better than many, but flaws still abound. Emerging democracies might not view us as exemplary and thus fall at our feet in imitation. Before impetuously leaping onto a pedestal that in the next instant we will be tossed down from, we should look inwards and assess our own weaknesses.

Leaders who will bring about positive change in this world will not be made due to an ability to judge, but rather, an ability to guide based on exemplary experience. If the West had truly been leading by example after the fall of the U.S.S.R. it would be highly unlikely that Putin would even be making such ominous statements now.

It’s time we put international relations into perspective before something worse happens.

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November 9 2007 by The Systemic Analyst.

PsyBlog has published a very interesting article covering an experiment questioning how easily social groups are formed as well as the prejudices that seem to accompany such group formations.

As humans are apparently easily led into groups, from which discrimination for others outside of such groups automatically seems to derive, questions around current Canadian approaches to social structure should be raised, particularly in the context of multiculturalism.

In a previous article we reported on the Dutch Problem of determined tolerance, which on one hand promoted (if not enforced) a sense of tolerance among the Dutch people for newcomers, but on the other hand neglected to educate both the existing population on the cultures of new immigrants as well as the newcomers on the society into which they would now be integrating. Coupled with an inability of mainstream politicians to address the issue before trouble arose, quite likely out of a fear of appearing intolerant, this lack of awareness has led to a nearly disastrous result.

As the PsyBlog article illustrates, group formation and resultant prejudices can occur due to the slightest instigation. In terms of cultures, groups are already formed and the resultant discrimination only exacerbated when leaders wilfully ignore that such social inclinations exist. Indeed, until politicians and other leaders begin to question the impact of culture on the social fabric of a country like Canada, we will continue to sit perilously on the brink of a multicultural crisis.

It truly is a very unfortunate state of affairs. Canada has the potential to create a very different model of citizenship. After all, people have relocated to the country for centuries to escape hardship and hatred as a result of such social imbalances. It’s a shame that the prevailing mentality is one of militant Liberazism preventing the raising of important questions under some blinding veil of so-called tolerance.

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