Diversity Is Wonderful - Up To A Point
By James T. Moore (08/12/07)
Okay, let’s think for a moment about diversity in the theosophical sense. When the universe was created, if God had no plan for diversity, imagine what the world might have looked like. Maybe thousands of just one animal, say, giraffes. Maybe millions of just one kind of tree, say, oak. Maybe billions of just one kind of human being, say, white, male and/or female, one language, one emotion, one talent, one religion, and one goal.
A goofy thought? Maybe. But the point can hardly be more obvious: the world would be a singularly dull, uninviting, pointless, uninteresting place in the universe, would it not? Thank heavens, then, that we are blessed with just the opposite: many different kinds of trees, terrains, climates, animals, human beings, languages, emotions, talents, religions, goals, wants, and needs. That’s called diversity, and if diversity were not a good thing in the grand creation of the universe you can be fairly sure that God would have taken the easier route and made everybody and everything exactly like everybody and everything else.
In a recent article titled, “Adapt or Perish—welcome the challenge of diversity”, Bill Berlow, associate editor of the Tallahassee Democrat, made that very point. In his thoughtful, well-written article, Berlow says that “political disunity (diversity) has led to innovation.” And quoting Michael Jonas, acting editor of CommonWealth magazine, Berlow tells us that, “Diversity makes us uncomfortable—but discomfort, it turns out, isn’t always a bad thing. Unease with differences helps explain why teams of engineers from different cultures may be ideally suited to solve a vexing problem. Culture clashes can produce a dynamic give-and-take.”
Wrapping up his article, Berlow informs us, “Like it or not, we live in a society that will only grow more diverse. Rather than argue over the pros and cons, we’d be smart to make the most of it. In other words, adapt.”
Yes, but who should do the adapting?
To this point, Berlow and I were on the same page. In fact, any rational person could hardly disagree with his premise that diversity is a good thing. Any thinking person, however, would be quick to recognize two flaws in the premise: one minor, and one major.
The minor flaw is unmistakably evident within the article itself where Jones, hedging slightly, speaks of Robert Putnam, a political scientist, and says: “Putnam’s work adds to a growing body of research indicating that more diverse populations seem to extend themselves less on behalf of collective needs and goals.” Which indicates to this writer that diversity, as such, does not always work toward, or for, the common good. If this is true, that’s at least one strike against diversity.
The major flaw I find in “adapting to diversity and making the most of it” is severe and damaging to a sovereign nation such as America. We must never forget that the diverse people, cultures, customs, and languages which this country welcomed and assimilated when America was young, came here, not just to “add to the mix” of diverse people, but to join us, as legal immigrants, to become Americans; living with us Americans’ dream of freedom, yes, and our culture as well.
America’s founding fathers gave us more than a Constitution and a Bill of Rights. They gave us a “spiritual” diagram of what they envisioned as the ideal nation in which to live. For, you see, I say a spiritual diagram because America, in their eyes, would be more than a great and independent place to live; they also gave us an inspired foundation of principles, values, precepts, ethics, and beliefs based on the notion that these eternal verities were just as important---perhaps even more so—in the lives of human beings than the rules they followed or the laws they obeyed.
So let’s not take the idea of diversity and sanctify it. Let’s realize that diversity is only good for America to the extent that it does not obscure, nullify, replace, or override the foundation of reality our founders gave us; which is nothing less than the eternal truths that made this nation great.
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