Cultural Rights

By Tom Rhodes, 7/2/2018

Anglos came to North America, the Native Nations did not stop them, and the Anglos not only didn’t assimilate into native culture but forced their culture on the Native Nations. History shows the result was the virtual destruction of the native cultures that existed in North America. Human tribes have been taking over and changing or destroying other cultures through all of history. In extreme cases killing all the men and taking the women, to genetically destroy a people. For all of history, this is not the exception but the norm of human behavior.

This raises more than a few questions:

Is there a right to cultural identity?

Are other cultures obligated to accept and protect cultures other than their own?

Is the historic norm of cultures moving in and changing or destroying the native culture wrong?

Do a people have the right to protect their culture?

What should be the measure of the quality of a culture?

Are there such things as Cultural Rights?

International bodies like the UN say there are “Cultural Rights.” The Mexico City Declaration on Cultural Policies states, inter alia, that the assertion of cultural identity contributes to the liberation of peoples. Conversely, any form of discrimination constitutes denial or impairment. Cultural identity is a treasure which vitalizes mankind's possibilities for self-fulfillment by encouraging every people and every group to seek nurture in the past, to welcome contributions from outside compatible with their own characteristics, and so to continue the process of their own creation.

Do people have the right to enjoy their own culture and to profess and practice their own religion and to use their own language?

If an outside culture is not compatible with the local culture’s characteristics, can a nation exclude people from that outside culture? This is the policy for Japan and other mono-culture societies.

Do people have the right to invade another culture and force them to stop the practice of their own religion and to not use their own language?

Do people have the right to appropriate the values, symbols, technology and art of a culture, that isn’t their own?

If people have a right to their cultural identity then: they have the right to enjoy their own culture; to profess and practice their own religion; to use their own language; to participate effectively in cultural, religious, social, economic and public life, as well as in the decision-making process concerning for their culture; to establish and monitor their own associations; to establish and maintain without any discrimination, free and peaceful contacts with other members of their group or other citizens or other States to whom they are related by national ethnic, religious or linguistic ties.

Do other cultures have the right to force another culture to change?

Do some tribes have the right to move to a nation, and live in that nation, and not assimilate and adopt that new nations culture?

Does a nation have the right to liming migration into its territory, so that the local culture is not over-run and destroyed?

When the leaders of a culture says, "Thanks to your democratic laws, we shall invade you; and thanks to our religious laws, we shall dominate you." Should they be taken seriously?

Can the native culture keep those invaders out?

Is “spreading democracy” forcing one culture on people of other cultures?

Do all peoples have the inherent right to enjoy and utilize fully and freely their natural wealth and resources?

If that is so, then there is a problem. Fossil fuels are still the cheapest, most reliable energy resources available. A developing nation cannot fight climate change and provide for their citizens.

Do other nations (cultures) have the right to force developing nations to use expensive “sustainable” energy?

Are cultures required to share and give other cultures their technology, art, music?

Does one culture have the right to dictate to another culture what changes it must make, or to dictate what changes that other culture cannot make?

Does one culture have the right to spread their values and beliefs to other cultures?

If that other culture refuses to accept the new values and beliefs can they use force to stop the spread of that foreign culture?

Clearly all cultures are not equal, even the UN recognizes that cultural relativism is an absurd concept. Cultures that accept human sacrifice, slavery, etc. are not acceptable to modern western civilization.

Who gets to force their culture on others, and what gives them that right?

History shows that the strongest and most willing to force their culture on another can and will do so.

Why do globalists insist they have the right to force what they believe is the best way for a society to live on others?

Is that any better or more righteous than the actions of the Anglos who destroyed the native nations of North America?

History has shown that Socialists can and do use force to make those in the territory they control accept socialist values and outlaw non-socialist institutions.

Do capitalists, or monarchist, anarchists, or despots, have the same right to use force to make those in territory they control accept their values?

How is the LBGT community forcing cultural change on American Christians, any different than Anglo settlers forcing Christianity on American Indians?