by Benjamin Myers
ABC Religion<\/p>\n
Contemporary western societies have witnessed the emergence of a new tribalism, fuelled by the logic of capitalism with its proliferation of niche identities and by the politics of multiculturalism with its advocacy of mere \u201cdifference,\u201d while lacking the language to articulate any vision of a common good.<\/p>\n
Such multicultural pluralism is a mirror image of the postmodern ethics of difference, where each person is assumed to be absolutely \u201cother.\u201d<\/p>\n
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams argues that, once this doctrine of otherness has taken hold of political imagination, we are left with the depressing prospect of \u201ca world in which there aren\u2019t and couldn\u2019t be any real discussion of the goals and destiny of human beings as such.\u201d<\/p>\n