Cultural change is a process of education, formal and informal, undergirded by an incentive structure to not only "test well", but to assimilate the lessons in earnest. Cultural change is somewhat slow, but it is erroneous to invoke centuries against the possibility of change.
One can, to some extent, note the progress of language assimilation as an outer yardstick, since languages are particularly hard to acquire. For the first generation of immigrants, vocabulary is generally limited, grammar is imperfect, and the accent is heavy. For the second generation, vocabulary is extensive, grammar is somewhat distorted by persistent patterns from the mother tongue, but there are few outright errors, and the accent is mild. For the third generation, there is little distinguishing them and native speakers, apart from a few ethnic identifiers.
The customs and vocabulary of democracy are far less demanding to learn, and the only motive need be the maintenance of peace. Iraq can progress to a democracy fairly rapidly, even if it takes awhile to get the system "debugged". If people learn democratic forms as "the way you do things", and tie it to the maintenance of peace and the orderly airing of issues, we will develop more and more people who find democracy to be second nature..... |
