{"id":4878,"date":"2018-01-12T12:59:16","date_gmt":"2018-01-12T12:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2018\/01\/12\/diversity-is-not-a-dirty-word\/"},"modified":"2018-01-12T12:59:16","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T12:59:16","slug":"diversity-is-not-a-dirty-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2018\/01\/12\/diversity-is-not-a-dirty-word\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Diversity’ is Not a Dirty Word"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contrary to what some alt-righties of my acquaintance seem to think, 'diversity' is not a dirty word. To quote from my old entry, Diversity and Divisiveness<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Liberals emphasize the value of diversity, and with some justification. Many types of diversity are good. One thinks of culinary diversity, musical diversity, artistic diversity generally. Biodiversity is good, and so is a diversity of opinions, especially insofar as such diversity makes possible a robustly competitive marketplace of ideas wherein the best rise to the top. A diversity of testable hypotheses is conducive to scientific progress. And so on.<\/span><\/p>\n

But no reasonable person values diversity as such<\/em>. [. . .] Only some sorts of diversity are valuable. Diversity worth having presupposes a principle of unity that controls the diversity. Diversity must be checked and balanced by the competing value of unity, a value with an equal claim on our respect.<\/span><\/p>\n

[. . .] <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Diversity unchecked by the competing value of unity leads to divisiveness. For this reason, one ought not \u2018celebrate diversity\u2019 unless one is also willing to \u2018celebrate unity.\u2019 And this is precisely what too many liberals and leftists cannot, or will not, comprehend. They unreasonably emphasize diversity at the expense of unity.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Some of my interlocutors on the Alt-Right call themselves neo-reactionaries.  The trouble with reaction, however, is that it ties you to what you are reacting against in a merely oppositional way with the result that you tend toward the opposite extreme. So, recoiling from the absurdities of leftist 'inclusion,' the neo-reactionaries tend toward the view that all diversity is suspect.<\/span><\/p>\n

References to the "widening gyre" of the William Butler Yeats poem  have become a little too common recently, but I won't let that stop me from one more reference. For centrifugal forces threaten to tear the body politic asunder, not that I have any solution. I am too busy trying to understand the problem. As a citizen, I am worried. As a philosopher, I accept with equanimity that "The owl of Minerva spreads its wings at dusk." All things must pass, and if the passing brings wisdom, then therein  lies the compensation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

The Second Coming <\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
\n
BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
 <\/div>\n
Turning and turning in the widening gyre   <\/span><\/div>\n
The falcon cannot hear the falconer; <\/span><\/div>\n
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; <\/span><\/div>\n
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, <\/span><\/div>\n
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   <\/span><\/div>\n
The ceremony of innocence is drowned; <\/span><\/div>\n
The best lack all conviction, while the worst   <\/span><\/div>\n
Are full of passionate intensity. <\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Surely some revelation is at hand; <\/span><\/div>\n
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.   <\/span><\/div>\n
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out   <\/span><\/div>\n
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi<\/em> <\/span><\/div>\n
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert   <\/span><\/div>\n
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,   <\/span><\/div>\n
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,   <\/span><\/div>\n
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it   <\/span><\/div>\n
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.   <\/span><\/div>\n
The darkness drops again; but now I know   <\/span><\/div>\n
That twenty centuries of stony sleep <\/span><\/div>\n
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,   <\/span><\/div>\n
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   <\/span><\/div>\n
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? <\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats<\/em> (1989)<\/span> <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contrary to what some alt-righties of my acquaintance seem to think, 'diversity' is not a dirty word. To quote from my old entry, Diversity and Divisiveness: Liberals emphasize the value of diversity, and with some justification. Many types of diversity are good. One thinks of culinary diversity, musical diversity, artistic diversity generally. Biodiversity is good, … Continue reading “‘Diversity’ is Not a Dirty Word”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[600,180,161],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alternative-right","category-decline-of-the-west","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}