In my last posting I suggested there is no such thing as a fully integrated society. I further suggested we would be better employed in considering how people function in our society rather than bothering about how well they are integrated into it. In a speech to the Munich Security Conference on 11/02/11 David Cameron argued,
“We have allowed the weakening of our collective identity. Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and apart from the mainstream. We’ve failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong. We’ve even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run completely counter to our values.” He suggested we have done this separation by encouraging organisations which believe in separation rather than integration, see http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/speeches-and-transcripts/2011/02/pms-speech-at-munich-security-conference-60293 . In this posting I want once more to consider the idea of a fully integrated society. I also want to consider which beliefs groups within a society must share in order to function adequately in a flourishing society.
What exactly is meant by a fully integrated society? Is it one in which people share a set of common beliefs or is it one in which people have only a set of some common beliefs? Let us assume a fully integrated society is one in which people share a set of common beliefs. Mill famously argued,
“Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each others to live as good seems to themselves than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.” (Mill, 1859, On Liberty, quote from Pelican Books 1974 page 72.)
If it is accepted we can replace the word “mankind” by “society” then I would suggest Mill is arguing a fully integrated society is an impoverished society. I believe we should accept Mill’s argument for two reasons. Firstly if we were to pressurise some members of society to live as the majority see fit by sharing the majority’s beliefs we would diminish these peoples happiness and probably also diminish the overall happiness present in society. Secondly I would suggest any such society becomes closed to new ideas. Any society closed to new ideas becomes a stagnant society and a stagnant society is an impoverished society. It follows if people aim for a fully integrated society as defined above we must accept that they are creating an impoverished society. In what follows it will be assumed people want a flourishing society. The question now becomes can we really think of a society in which people only share some common beliefs as a fully integrated society?
An objector might object the above question only arises because I am talking about integration in totally the wrong way. She might suggest that we should not be considering a fully integrated society but rather simply an integrated one. She might further suggest that when considering integration we should consider whether people feel at home in that society or alienated from it. Intuitively her last suggestion seems to carry a lot of weight. Nevertheless I am reluctant to accept this last suggestion for two reasons. Firstly if we consider whether people feel at home in a society or alienated from that society, which is not fully integrated, it would appear this society is one in which people only share a set of some common beliefs. Intuitively any society in which people only share some common beliefs does not appear to be an integrated society. If our intuitions clash we have grounds not to trust these intuitions.
Secondly how do we judge whether someone is at home in a society or alienated by it? Perhaps we should simply ask them. We might conduct surveys to answer the question. But surveys are expensive to carry out and it is by no means certain that someone’s answers to questions about integration would always reflect how she actually acts in society. Let us assume that if someone identifies with the society she lives in that she must be reasonably well integrated into that society. I believe if someone identifies with something this means she must be wholehearted about or satisfied with what she identifies with. This is a common theme of this blog, see some of my previous postings or (Frankfurt, 1988, The Importance of What We Care About, Cambridge University Press, chapter 12.) If I am correct if someone identifies with the society she lives in then she must be satisfied with that society. I would now suggest that whether someone is satisfied with the society she lives in depends on how well she functions in it. If someone is unable to function in a society it would seem to be hard to for her to be satisfied with that society. Conversely if someone functions well in a society it is hard to see what grounds she has to be dissatisfied with that society. Rhetoric about integration into society seems meaningless if we have no means of gauging this integration. In the light of the above we can gauge how well a group is integrated into society by considering how they function in society. However in the light of the above the question, as to whether we can we really think of a society in which people only share some common beliefs as a fully integrated society, seems irrelevant. It follows rhetoric about integration becomes superfluous and we should simply concern ourselves with how different groups function in our society.
If any society is to function it must have some common beliefs. If any community is to function within that society it must share these basic beliefs. Of course some community might theoretically thrive in a society without sharing any of its beliefs but such a community would be parasitic on that society and does not function within it. The question now naturally arises what common beliefs must people share in a flourishing society? The answer according to David Cameron is,
“Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, democracy, the rule of law, equal rights regardless of race, sex or sexuality.”
I believe David Cameron is right and that any flourishing society must share these values. At this point I am going to assume that in the context of our discussion the words “belief” and “value” are interchangeable. My objector might claim at this point even if David Cameron is correct about these being the values our society values that I am wrong to suggest that any flourishing society must share these values. She might point out that China is a flourishing society. I would disagree and whilst I accept a non-democratic country such as China may flourish economically I do not accept such countries are genuinely flourishing, China for instance has changed little politically since the Tiananmen Square massacre. Even if we accept David Cameron’s view as the right one we must nonetheless remain aware that the domain of shared values is limited. Mill argued that,
“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others, to do so would be wise, or even right.” (Page 68)
If we accept Mill’s view, as I do, then we may not compel others to do things even if we think it is right that they should do so. For example some people believe Muslim women should be banned from wearing the burka in western society; Nicolas Sarkozy in France for instance. I personally do not approve of the burka but nonetheless believe that provided Muslim women freely choose to wear it they should be perfectly free to do so except in certain circumstances in which personal recognition matters; passport control for instance. Accepting this freedom does not mean we must remain passive in respect to the wearing of the burka. Following Mill we may of course criticise, reason with and attempt to persuade Muslim women not to wear the burka but we may not use compulsion which rules out legislation. It follows the only basic belief all must share in a flourishing society is that each of us should be free to do as seems best for herself provided that by so doing she does not harm others. I believe the values David Cameron mentioned come down to this basic belief. Unfortunately for David Cameron it follows we should accept partially integrated communities which behave in ways that run counter to many of our other values. Fortunately for him however this acceptance does not mean we should encourage such communities which already exist, or the immigration of further such communities. Indeed I would argue we should help and persuade such existing communities to function more fully in our society. Nevertheless we must be prepared to accept these communities provided they do not affect our freedom, or the freedom of some their own members, provided their actions do not harm others. In conclusion it seems to me that rhetoric about how well some ethnic communities integrate into our society is irrelevant and all that matters is that these communities function and not prevent others from functioning in society.
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