Victor Davis Hanson explores for National Review Online the practical impact of the modern obsession with diversity.
Diversity is a neutral term, no more positive or negative than its array of antonyms such as homogeneity and uniformity. Iraq is certainly diverse. So is Syria or the Balkans; Japan and South Korea are not. Yet uniformity seems a virtue in the latter while difference in the former has birthed tragedy.
In other words, diversity as a positive demographic idea depends on how it is manifested within a particular political landscape. In the U.S., diversity was traditionally a word less fondly used than unity. Our coins, after all, do not bear the motto E singulis plures. And the Confederacy failed in its effort to allow the states their own diverse cultures without yielding to federal unity. The German-led invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 was certainly one of the most diverse coalitions in history, the invaders eventually including, besides the Germans themselves, Finns, Hungarians, Italians, Romanians, and Spaniards, in opposition to a mostly unified Soviet Red Army. …
… Diversity is a word that the Left conjured up to escape the paradoxes of the increasingly fossilized notion of racially biased affirmative action. And since diversity was never defined, it has never had to offer an accounting for its many ironies and inconsistencies. But surely diversity must have some definition, or even the Left could not navigate its myriad manifestations?
I suggest the following are a few of its various tenets:
1. Diversity is the antithesis of white, male, Christian, conservative, and heterosexual. That combination precludes any claim on diversity, and with it any special consideration. There is no such thing as political or ideological diversity — of trying to hire professors or journalists across a spectrum of ideologies.
