Managing cultural diversity is inevitable today. Globalization, advances in communications and transportation
technology, historical and ongoing migrations, and the legacy of territorial expansion and colonization, have heightened
cultural diversity and identity differentiation. Multiculturalism offers an alternative approach to diversity management.
However, it has its theoretical and practical fault lines that require deep understanding as state policies are formulated
and implemented. Society is a melting pot of cultures and identities interacting, fusing, disengaging and evolving. The
interaction is by no means rational, devoid of ethnocentrism or free from pressures to conform, even with the most
oppressive acts against human rights. It is argued that cultures are never monolithic, immutable, good or bad. Each should
be viewed as textured – a tapestry of interwoven elements enhancing and constricting individual potentials, espousing
beliefs in peace as well as in violence. The state is strategically placed to adopt policies that maximize the strengths of each
culture, expand cultural liberty and enable cultural transcendence. Cultural transcendence is the ability of individuals and
societies to draw connecting lines between seemingly disparate identity points, instinctively rising above differences into
coherence and synergy.