Are all cultures equal?

No

That's the short answer. The question comes up often enough, or the topic is raised. It has become oh so trendy in recent decades to label the cultural practices of far away lands as 'different but equal' to our own.

I don't know where this particular piece of loony left dogma comes from, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the culture of the self-hating westerner. After all, anyone growing up in modern day Britian knows that to be European is nothing to be proud of. Ok, so Europe may be the birthplace of democracy, freedom, civil liberties and humanism. It may be responsible for the greatest scientific and technological discoveries in history. It may also be the place where some of the worlds best artwork and literature was produced, but never mind all that. As any so-called intellectual will tell you, collective European culture is no more superior to that of tribal people living in mud huts and worshiping the sun.

This is the one part of New Age bollocks I tolerate least. It has given us one of the prime reasons behind the fragmentation of the British state - Multiculturalism. In general, multiculturalism is based on the premise that all cultures are equally 'good' and that all should be celebrated. This I won't stand for. Western Parliamentary democracy is so much superior to Islamic theocracy. Civil liberties and respect for the human being is far more intelligent than stone age 'Holy scriptures'. The great classical muscians are without doubt infinately better than the tribal drumming of darkest Africa.

So the next time someone tells me I should be more open minded about a society which still practices ritual slaughter, 'traditional' herbal medicine, or the genital mutilation of it's own children; my first instinct will be to tell them to piss off. Secondly, i will point out that as a European, I am heir to the greatest culture to have ever existed on Earth and that it is not chauvanistic or 'rascist' to remain true to that fact. Queen Victoria once declared that she wanted Britain to 'civilise the world'

If only we'd finished that job.

Cultures are not all equal - some are just better.