Exploring the Social Imagination

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

What does Diversity mean in the Social Imagination?



In Jonah Goldberg's, a New York Times Best Selling author, book - The Tyranny of Cliches, we can read on page 92, that diversity is an abracadabra word that magically makes inconvenient facts disappear and forces everyone to get in line. Diversity means differences and that means being uncomfortable in the midst of it.  The United States of America was known as a melting pot where differences could melt into a unified entity - the American.

Isn't that what the ruling elite, our politicians and educators want today... a non self segregating all around American who loves his/her country and believes that the government is for the people? It seems that is what they want but then why do they go about with diversity on their lips? Isn't it then a means to control certain groups, to label them to their own advantage? You see, they don't imagine a diverse multi cultural entity that blends and smooths things out for itself. Why? Because, then their power would be lost. Who would need them, right?

They make the claim that Diversity makes us stronger... It can make them stronger. As just stated above, if they do the labeling, they get to control what they label. Nevertheless, diversity as a plus can be argued on both sides of the coin. It does if we think about diversity in a stock report or investor portfolio but if we want to have a solid piece of steel we won't mix clay with it... they don't cleave.  But, they continue to make the argument that diversity is useful in groupthink. Ok, but How???

People can bring up different issues pertaining to their spheres of knowledge and know how, which includes their cultural data; but if we have our own spheres of knowledge and know how in a cultural context then how do we appreciate each other's differences... the different meanings that can be applied? Then we cannot really apply diversity if in that there exists different meaning for different groups. So, the agenda must be to make everyone the same but in a way that they think its all about diversity.

As Goldberg points out in his book, on page 96, there is a deeper level to the agenda of such diversity. Its about power and because of that it gives power to the social engineers. Which is true as I was kicked off the dept for stating exactly that. As Goldberg continues, and I agree, by making diversity a compelling state interest or social imperative, someone has to decide what does or does not count as beneficial diversity and that someone is invariable a social engineer like Lee Bollinger at the University of Michigan who assigned a numerical value to the race of applicants. If you oppose such narrow schemes, then you are against diversity which is in some circles code for racist [pg. 97].

The irony regarding that the popular creation of a particular student group with special events connected to that group being different. Moreover, faculty and administration thereby actually encourage differences and labeling. But, again this is their way of controlling.  Don't forget they are part of the system of elite control.

Robert Putnam a liberal sociologist from Harvard discovered that diverse communities become frayed. People end up bowling alone as social trust plummets [pg. 98].

In my own research conducted for the study of the western social imagination, the results showed that people though likely diversity being out there... they did not want it at home so to speak. They described their ideal soceity as cohesive and in solidarity via social contract and similar belief system. Not much living the diversity though having access to it would be acceptable if there was ever a need to change things up a bit.

I am sure that you have observed that pizza in America is not the same as pizza in Naples or Chinese food as we would experience in China. We like to know that there is variety if we want to add some to our own life. But, just because you put a certain sauce or spice on your food does not mean it has the same taste, or meaning in your life as it does in the place of its origin.

 * Source ~ The Tyranny of Cliches, How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas. By Jonah Goldberg:2013

1 comment :

  1. The next time some academics tell you how important diversity is, ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department. ~ Thomas Sowell

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