Dialog across difference #26: Dialog lemonade from an overload of lemons

Many places on Earth are being overcome by a flood of refugees from wars, climate chaos, economic privation, and rampant crime--many of the worst lemons of human phenomena. There is also a concomitant rise in nationalism and resultant pressure on minorities to express their own nationalistic tendencies when confronted by the majority becoming more nativist. Causation becomes harder to identify ("They started it!) but the lemons are seemingly popping up everywhere.

The Council of Europe[1] describes it: 

"Our cultural environment is changing quickly and becoming more and more diversified. Cultural diversity is an essential condition of human society, brought about by cross-border migration, the claim of national and other minorities to a distinct cultural identity, the cultural effects of globalisation, the growing interdependence between all world regions and the advances of information and communication media. More and more individuals are living in a “multicultural” normality and have to manage their own multiple cultural affiliations."

What do we do to make lemonade of all these lemons?

Few societies seem interested in cross-cultural dialog until there is destructive cross-cultural conflict; the negative aspects of multicultural societies at times seem to be "necessary" in order to generate possible interest in opening lines of dialog across cultural difference. In some cases, apparently, bad things need to happen in order to help folks be receptive to something prescriptive. Yes, prevention is always best, but seemingly not often practiced. 

With all the challenges of a multicultural environment, the Council of Europe lays out some requisite conditions to embarking on cross-cultural dialog, conditions that dialog facilitators might consider in their own efforts anywhere: 

Based on existing experience, one can propose at least six crucial conditions that must be fulfilled from the very outset, or achieved during the process, conditions that might inform all who seek progress via dialog:

·       Equal dignity of all participants;

·       Voluntary engagement in dialogue;

·       A mindset (on both sides) characterised by openness, curiosity and commitment, and the absence of a desire to “win” the dialogue;

·       A readiness to look at both cultural similarities and differences;

·       A minimum degree of knowledge about the distinguishing features of one’s own and the “other” culture;

·       The ability to find a common language for understanding and respecting cultural differences.

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[1] https://www.coe.int/t/dg4/intercultural/concept_EN.asp