A few observations about diversity
Since
there is only one objective reality that we all share, there is a very
good reason why the major institution whose aim is to examine reality
is called a university. For
all the lip service paid towards diversity, most people honestly
dislike at least one type of diversity, that is, the ideological
diversity. Especially all political and otherwise ideological bloggers
prove by their very act of blogging that they want to decrease the
amount of ideological diversity in the world. The ultimate goal being,
of course, to eradicate all ideological diversity by convincing
everyone else to think the same way that the blogger him- or herself
does.
The society in general displays a similar attitude as it tries its best to discourage people from being too diverse in ways that are too annoying to be overlooked. Which is of course the very reason that we have societies and cultures in the first place, instead of everyone being totally different from each other. Certain lack of diversity is useful and in fact necessary so that when you meet new people, you can infer a lot about them from a few immediately observable attributes.
Diversity, that is, the idea that people are different, is a pretty funny thing. If we assume that individual people are significantly different in many important aspects that matter, this has the nasty side effect of guaranteeing that people will also achieve different end results, no matter now identical we attempt to make their initial conditions and how much the playing field is levelled. Celebrating diversity by definition means celebrating that life is unfair, as Daniel Mocsny once aptly put it.
The children, those natural, innocent and beautiful creatures not yet corrupted by the artificial constraints of society, are for some reason very intolerant towards any kind of diversity. God help the different kid in the kindergarten or the classroom, knowing how hostile children tend to be and act towards even the slightest hint of diversity. Untrained children also have a nasty tendency to voice out their observations and opinions about diversity, and strict conditioning and training is needed to get this honesty out of them so that they can eventually join the rest of society. A few years later, the teenagers also tend to suspicious and even hostile towards any kind of actual diversity, so any real acceptance of diversity will usually emerge only in the late adulthood.
Speaking of teenagers, one thing that keeps amazing me is that "cool" people are thought of being somehow rebellious against the mores of society. In reality, the cool people are rebellious in any objective sense, since they are the ultimate conformists. There is nothing bad with conformism, of course, if you know how to effectively use it. The cool people know exactly where the line between acceptable and unacceptable resides and take great care and pain to never actually cross this line but stand near it to collect coolness points and social admiration. If somebody really is "rebellious", that is, unafraid of losing the acceptance of the other members of his tribe, and crosses this line (and then some), he will most certainly not be considered "cool" but will be instead universally reviled. And usually for a very good reason.
The society in general displays a similar attitude as it tries its best to discourage people from being too diverse in ways that are too annoying to be overlooked. Which is of course the very reason that we have societies and cultures in the first place, instead of everyone being totally different from each other. Certain lack of diversity is useful and in fact necessary so that when you meet new people, you can infer a lot about them from a few immediately observable attributes.
Diversity, that is, the idea that people are different, is a pretty funny thing. If we assume that individual people are significantly different in many important aspects that matter, this has the nasty side effect of guaranteeing that people will also achieve different end results, no matter now identical we attempt to make their initial conditions and how much the playing field is levelled. Celebrating diversity by definition means celebrating that life is unfair, as Daniel Mocsny once aptly put it.
The children, those natural, innocent and beautiful creatures not yet corrupted by the artificial constraints of society, are for some reason very intolerant towards any kind of diversity. God help the different kid in the kindergarten or the classroom, knowing how hostile children tend to be and act towards even the slightest hint of diversity. Untrained children also have a nasty tendency to voice out their observations and opinions about diversity, and strict conditioning and training is needed to get this honesty out of them so that they can eventually join the rest of society. A few years later, the teenagers also tend to suspicious and even hostile towards any kind of actual diversity, so any real acceptance of diversity will usually emerge only in the late adulthood.
Speaking of teenagers, one thing that keeps amazing me is that "cool" people are thought of being somehow rebellious against the mores of society. In reality, the cool people are rebellious in any objective sense, since they are the ultimate conformists. There is nothing bad with conformism, of course, if you know how to effectively use it. The cool people know exactly where the line between acceptable and unacceptable resides and take great care and pain to never actually cross this line but stand near it to collect coolness points and social admiration. If somebody really is "rebellious", that is, unafraid of losing the acceptance of the other members of his tribe, and crosses this line (and then some), he will most certainly not be considered "cool" but will be instead universally reviled. And usually for a very good reason.
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