" The idea that a new culture cannot arise from the blending of extant ones is contradicted by countless examples"
I didn't imply that new cultures could not be created by the blending of others.
But it's glaringly obvious that this is mostly not what is happening in most places in the world.
What I am describing is easily demonstrated in various ways:
+ The most obvious is the lack of diversity in language, and the 'Anglicization' of many places in particular. For example, there were dozens of languages spoken across France: Nicoise was spoken in Nice, Monegasque in Monaco. This is gone now, standardized into French or Italian. The European B-school, INSEAD, used to require English/French/German - now just English.
+ Architecture: using ironically Monaco as an example, the newest area of Monaco is indistinguishable from a North American suburb, which is sublimely funny because most of the rest of Monaco has a very specific and interesting aesthetic.
+ The suburbs of Singapore, Toronto, parts of Europe - are are starting to resemble one another in ways unimaginable just a few years ago. You can be in a shopping mall in either or and it might take you a few minutes to know in which country you are in. Same stores. Nearly the same food. Same soft drinks. Same products. Similar holidays (!).
+ The globalization of brands and commercial products is a huge thing. Have you been to North Africa? They are now plastering Monoprix stores across there with the exact same merchandise that you find in France, and frankly, pretty similar to what you find here.
My father motorbkiked across North Africa in the 1970's and it was a very different place. Now - even the Tunisian youth dress effectively the same as the kids in Paris.
In storefronts across the Magrheb, Coka Cola is trying to market people away from regular Tunsian tea - this 'works' for country managers because a $2 can of coke adds more to the GDP than a 50 cent glass of tea - even of those are not good measures of intrinsic value to Tunisia.
Everyone - in every country - is now being conquered by a specific set of products band brands, representing an ever narrowing set of cultural ideals.
... and as for the UN objective - yes, it's nice that we care about people in the developed world. But
A) There is no long term economic reasoning behind the need for 'constantly more people'. This is pensioner/ponzi scheme economic problem. Pension shortfalls based on perpetual growth scenarios are obviously unsustainable ...
So ... B) Replacing one culture entirely with another is genocidal.
There is no way to replace 10's millions of Germans with people from various parts of the world, and for Germany to be German. The German culture would be extinct, and they will have bequeathed a functioning state to a nice bunch of newcomers - who might speak German - but are not otherwise German.
Were this to have happened over 100 or 200 years - possibly - this would be the evolution of culture. Sure - I get that. All cultures evolve and absorb over time.
But on the scale that the UN is proposing - this is not about 'poor people becoming Germans' - it's about 'poor people replacing Germans'. As Germans are literally replaced - well - they disappear forever. This is Orwellian.
The thing that differentiates 2017 from any period before is really one of scale. There has always been migration, there has always been movement - of course we all live in something akin to a 'compound culture'.
But that is history - what's happening now is happening 'light speed' and there is no time for cultural acclimatization. Toronto - the most diverse place on planet earth - is absolutely not developing it's own cuisine, or it's own language, or behavioural norms, musical styles. It would - over time - in a more regular scenario. But culture takes time to form, and we're moving way too fast.
Starbucks will not stop until they have 'total global saturation' - and neither will Amazon, Facebook, Coka Cola.
They will displace everything in their path, change behaviours ideas and norms to conform with their own profit motivations.
Government administrators everywhere are looking for GDP maximization and will focus on things that apparently 'increase efficiency' - like speaking English - but which mask an underlying existential cost of losing value due to lost cultural attributes - i.e. how much does the world 'lose' when people stop speaking Nicoise? And Monegasque? And various Aboriginal languages? And Slovak? It's hard to know, but it's something - and when you add it all up, it's a 'big thing'.