Teaching the great classics of Western civilization and appreciating the multicultural character of human civilization are not incompatible. Humanism is precisely meaningful at this point, for it encourages the quest for universal values and truths that transcend the limits of parochial interests. On the current scene, where competing ethnic minorities are calling for autonomy, it is all the more important that the state be neutral, that it not favor one group nor seek to limit the rights of others. The separation of church and state is vital, for ethnicity is interrelated in many parts of the world with religion. One of the most destructive forces in the twentieth century is the growth of the repressive power of the state, which attempts to suppress dissident minorities.
Democracy is on the move world-wide.
And the test of a free, democratic, open society is whether it avoids imposing a particular religious or ethnic ideology on all. It is humanism that offers the world a universalistic ground for the world community. The Ethics of Humanism .