I'm not entirely certain this is a bad idea:
European Union justice and interior ministers agreed Friday that new immigrants to the 25-nation bloc should be required to learn local languages, and to adhere to general "European values" that will guide them toward better integration.What I like about it is that it acts like an explicit social contract with newcomers to Europe. "This is what you can expect of Europe, this is what you cannot." In fact, I've often thought that the solution to the so-called "culture/value war" in America is for us to really get introspective and think about what values are essential to this country. I'm not talking about Christianity or the golden rule or anything like that - what I mean is, if we could find a minimum set of values that "make" America, and restrict the gov't to only operating on those values, there would BE no culture war. We would all realize that if there is such a war, it should not take place in politics.
So what I kinda forsee is a society where when you turn 18, you can decide whether or not you want to be a citizen. You cross the threshold from being a ward to being a free, sovereign adult. And if you want to be a citizen, you have to agree to uphold these minimum American values (I'm talking about things like tolerance, pluralism, non-violence; BASIC stuff). That way we have an explicit contract with each other about what we believe in. You're free to have beliefs above and beyond this, hell, you can believe whatever you want. But in the scope of politics, you would have to agree to honor these values. Otherwise, you can't vote. This way we could be explicit about what sorts of things gov't can do, so the left doesn't get God pushed down its throat and the right doesn't get granolla values pushed down theirs.
Thoughts?
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