Posted on 09/09/2016 2:31:14 AM PDT by Jacquerie
Somewhere in the 1980s, “diversity is our strength” made its debut. At the time, I gaffed it off as another Leftist idiocy that would soon fizzle out.
How wrong I was. Their mantra, which spread to the rest of government and society, goes something like this: diversity supposedly means respect for all cultures, religions, ethnic backgrounds. Since all values and moralities are equal, the multiculturalist must deny any intrinsic superiority of free societies over slave societies. Since our national strength is derived from a multitude of cultures, Leftist ideology demands not only the importation of muslims, but retention of their culture, rather than assimilation. Doesn’t “all men are created equal” demand respect for other cultures? I say no, because behind the façade of diversity, multiculturalism seeks destruction of the individual, society, and ultimately, our republic.
Now, the Left is nothing if not adept at clothing their lies with see-through garments of truth. What they regard as deep thoughts typically have no more depth than a regular feature from Mad Magazine in my youth that was called What They Say . . . What it Really Means. When progressives say they seek national strength through multiculturalism, they actually seek our national demise.
We’ve been told that diversity as a strength goes back to our founding era. See, delegates from thirteen various backgrounds respected one another, worked together and ultimately compromised enough to design a government. The garment of truth is that yes, they compromised. Yes, they dealt with diverse traditions. The falsehood is that they compromised first principles. Through various compromises, the Constitution of September 1787 was quite different from the plan submitted in May, yet delegates to the federal convention did not compromise any principles of the Declaration of Independence. The truth is that the Left must ignore how the Framers dealt with diversity.
Without threatening the tenets of the American Revolution, their plan of government dealt with diverse cultures. A nabob from Charleston was said to be no more familiar to a Puritan in Massachusetts than a Chinaman. The key was federalism, in which thirteen republics retained that which they did not relinquish to the government of their creation in the Constitution. If actual federalism existed today, we’d have more varieties of American sub-cultures across our nation. Perhaps schools in Massachusetts would promote homosexuality, while Texans would ban the practice. THAT is diversity in a republic of republics.
The Leftist screed doesn’t stop at diversity in culture. As corollary, Leftists demand diversity among races. Social justice demands a hierarchy in which particular characteristics and behaviors are associated with skin color! Are you white? You are an oppressor. Believe it . . . or else. Are you black or muslim? You are oppressed. Without citing a Second Amendment right to self-defense, the Left justifies Black Lives Matter riots as simple social justice. The oppressed are entitled to lash out at their oppressors.
Ultimately, when Leftists say we must respect other cultures in order to work together to solve our problems, they really mean the Judeo-Christian culture of the US should be minimized and eventually eradicated. Beneath every one of their demands is a singular, ultimate goal: annihilation of the nation through destruction of American civil society.
Free government, the one designed in our Constitution of 1787, is built on the foundation of a civil society. Civil Society is the condition of living together according to reason without a common superior on earth, in mutual assistance, peace, goodwill, and preservation; it is the background against which republican, free government is understood. It tells us what government is what it does by showing us what it is not and what it does not do. It makes it possible to distinguish proper forms of government from improper ones.
Absolutist rulers in any form are inconsistent with Civil Society, and can be no form of civil government at all. When cultures hostile to our traditions are purposely imported, the intent is to upset the peace, goodwill, and tranquility of the Judeo-Christian civil society. With enough tumult, political turmoil, riots, and special privileges for select groups, the Left can ultimately destroy society. Out goes the rule of law; it will be replaced with authoritarian rulers who hold on to power by playing one interest off another, by pitting various ethnic, religious, racial groups at each other’s throats.
Society predates government. Society isn’t government. Assertions from Obama notwithstanding, we do not belong to government. Society forms free government, and a functioning republican free government absolutely depends on a civil society.
The Left’s efforts are not limited to the destruction of all effective political opposition; they work to destroy civil society, and with it, our nation. When they say diversity is our strength, they mean diversity is our demise.
We are the many; our oppressors are the few. Be proactive. Be a Re-Founder. Join Convention of States. Sign the COS Petition.
Related post: Wading into Left-Speak: The Closing of the American Mind.
Reference: Locke, J. (2010). Two Treatises of Government, Edited by Peter Laslett. Cambridge: University Press. Page 100.
re: Somewhere in the 1980s, “diversity is our strength” made its debut.
I heard that phrase in high school in the 50s, at Wheaton College in the early 60s. When I came back from Vietnam it had gone from academic circles to Main Street.
The author’s ignorance of history is embarrassing. I thought maybe he was a millenial which would explain his ignorance of history. But his photo looks like he is 10 years older than I am.
Diversity is what could be labeled an “asset”.
The determining characteristic of a successful organization is it’s UNITY - cohesion around a central ideal.
IOW - diversity is useless without unity (E pluribus unum).
Diversity is good in the gene pool. But UNITY is the greatest asset any group can have.
The “manifesto” of the uni-bomber in his observations and comments of leftism was absolutely spot on. EXCERPT
“Leftists may claim that their activism is motivated by compassion or by moral principles, and moral principle does play a role for the leftist of the over socialized type. But compassion and moral principle cannot be the main motives for leftist activism. Hostility is too prominent a component of leftist behavior; so is the drive for power. Moreover, much leftist behavior is not rationally calculated to be of benefit to the people whom the leftists claim to be trying to help. For example, if one believes that affirmative action is good for black people, does it make sense to demand affirmative action in hostile or dogmatic terms? Obviously it would be more productive to take a diplomatic and conciliatory approach that would make at least verbal and symbolic concessions to white people who think that affirmative action discriminates against them. But leftist activists do not take such an approach because it would not satisfy their emotional needs. Helping black people is not their real goal. Instead, race problems serve as an excuse for them to express their own hostility and frustrated need for power. In doing so they actually harm black people, because the activists’ hostile attitude toward the white majority tends to intensify race hatred.
If our society had no social problems at all, the leftists would have to INVENT problems in order to provide themselves with an excuse for making a fuss.
We emphasize that the foregoing does not pretend to be an accurate description of everyone who might be considered a leftist. It is only a rough indication of a general tendency of leftism.
The people who rise to positions of power in leftist movements tend to be leftists of the most power- hungry “
His method wasn’t good as he injured many innocent people, and his choice of targets were off the wall, but genius and insanity has a blurred line. Even a stopped clock is correct twice a day.
“Diversity” is the fault line along which society shatters when it is put under stress.
<> diversity is useless without unity <>
Well said.
Just because you heard the phrase back then does not mean it had become mainstream. It may have become mainstream in your high school and college, but it probably became mainstream nationally around the time the author suggests. I was in college in the 70's, and I did not hear it as any sort of mantra. The 80's is the time in which colleges created departments of diversity and when they started using the phrase as a motto. I don't think the "author's knowledge of history is embarrassing" just because he missed some anecdotal evidence from scattered sources.
The more I hear the word diversity the more I prepare for the coming Civil War.
Because it is coming. Diversity makes it inevitable.
Diversity is division
Unity is strength
If diversity is so good, why do liberals condemn diversity of opinions in the US Congress. And why did liberals have a conniption fit when Brexit was approved by British voters.
Someone posted a motivational poster where I work. It is a list of “inspirational” tips. One of them is “Surround yourself with people different than you.” I would counter this with, “Surround yourself with people who are hard working, competent and creative....pay no attention to their color, sex or age.”
in the 1980s...made its debut -— A lie/ignorance of history.
The debut was at least the 1950s if not earlier.
In 1968-79 (after I was back from Vietnam) the term was frequently used outside of academia ... in Kraft Foods, Allstate Insurance, Mainline churches, Catholic Churches of the Msgr Egan/Msgr Baroni tilt, in social work agencies, in Alinsky organizations, in non-Alinsky organizations, in the mainstream media.
It did not debut in the 1980s.
Diversity = Lower your standards and hire the unqualified candidate who isn’t white.
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