Cultural revolution or evolution

[kiryan]

A muslim imam calls for adding the crescent to the russian flag. They make up 18% of the population apparently (probably inflated). Its interesting. To some degree I agree with the imam's call... if i interpret the current flag correctlty, it seems to be littered with roman orthod symbolism and all the imam is saying is that one of the two heads should have a crescent over it and a green stripe. The current national identity is relatively new... and apparently they don't really have the notion of separation of church and state either. Imagine the unrest in Egypt coming to a country like Russia... its not unbelievable at 18% of the population being Islamic.

But what is really interesting to think about is how does society integrate a new cultural identity... or what happens when a foregin identity overtakes the established one. It'll be interesting to see what happens in Russia over the next couple decades... France has a similar problem, but with a thousand year old identity or in the US with the hispanic population and a 200 year old identity.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/04/30 ... latestnews

[Corth]

It's an interesting questions you raise about how a society or culture integrates others. My best guess is that it has to be done carefully. There is an potentially an interest, especially for a successful country, in maintaining certain values which may or may not be shared by the newcomers. However, I also I think that countries with a strong tradition of economic and personal freedom, like the US, probably have an easier time of it. A country like France, for instance, is more concerned with culture than the US. They have a strong national idea of what it means to be French. There is no such national cultural identity in the US, as we have always been a 'melting pot' with rich and diverse ways of doing things.