Today's word that we all should quit using: "Diversity"

I guess I'm kind of riffing here on my previous post.  Dennis Prager is like that.  He causes a number of lines of thought to form in one's mind.

It could be a fun parlor game to answer the question, "If you could ban any term from our language for the next two years, what would it be?"

What comes to mind for me is "diversity."  Hell, I'd ban it for a decade.

When did it come into its current widespread use?  I can't even remember.  I think it's an outgrowth of the whole affirmative action push.

I know it's used to indoctrinate children in public schools and left-wing churches.  Big deals are made over this one being from Singapore, this one from Bangladesh, this one from Mexico, this one from Gary.  Call me cynical, but it looks to me like a good way for classroom teachers and Sunday School teachers to eat up time that would otherwise have to be spent imparting actual knowledge of the subject matter for which everybody has ostensibly gathered.

It's everywhere now.  I recently wrote an article for a business magazine in which I profiled a company whose services / products are of a rather esoteric nature.  They do all kinds of testing on things like diesel engines, but it involves monitoring the functions of big complex gizmos (like engines) by the microsecond.  Their lab equipment bears all kinds of exotic names that go way over my head.  The CEO of the company is a lady of obviously Oriental (is that still an okay term, or am I supposed to say "Asian" now?) ethnicity. What mainly comes across about her, though, is her cut-and-dried, no-nonsense personality.  In my work as a business journalist, I run into such types occasionally (and they can be any ethnicity or either gender).  She clearly doesn't suffer fools gladly.  Her demeanor and expression clearly said, "I hope you're getting what I say the first time, because it bores me to repeat myself."  After interviewing her, I did some more research on her company, and found an article from, I kid you not, some kind of periodical journal of diversity in manufacturing.  It was about her firm having received some kind of award.  Now, as I say, I just can't imagine she found that nearly as interesting as, say, setting up a new dynamometer.

The irony of all this supposed celebration of variety in our identities is that the ultimate aim of its promoters is to wipe out all our differences, eradicate our individuality.  It is designed to attempt to remake human nature.

Culture develops organically.  People gravitate to environments where they feel comfortable.  That's why ethnic neighborhoods continue to characterize big cities.  You can't design a culture and then impose it.

Along about this point, I could see someone offering a counter-argument along these lines:  Isn't that why the legal framework of the United States strives to be so identity-blind?  Isn't that why we keep religion separate from the official governmental realm?  Isn't it why we have non-discrimination laws?  Didn't the Framers anticipate that this big, wide land would have to accomodate a variety of nationalities and faiths?  So what's wrong with hate-crime laws and speech codes ?  Don't they ensure an atmosphere of tolerance that allows us to proceed with our individual aims, obligations and lives in general?

Well, you see, there are spheres of culture.  Certainly a Polish person in, say, Chicago, is going to maneuver in a culture characterized by, for example, Sunday night bingo at his or her Catholic parish, eating stuffed cabbage, and dancing to polka music at wedding receptions.  But then there is the culture of the city at large, and then there is the culture of the entire nation.

Yes, there is an American culture.  And it is largely Christian and British in nature.  Its roots are more generally European, drawing on the philosophical lineage dating back to Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, as well as the Ten Commandments that Moses received from God, and the the Sermon on the Mount that God's only begotten son delivered a few centuries later.  It was shaped by the Magna Carta, the works of Shakespeare, the Protestant movement, the Glorious Revolution of 1688.  Jefferson, Madison et al had that heritage in their bones.

Not only is there an American culture, it is exceptional.  No other culture has made way for the openness that has led to discussions about ways in which the genders are equal, for existence (I couch it this way because the genders are so, so different that it is meaningless in many ways to talk about "equality" between them.), or why slavery is so spiritually abhorrent.

The "diverstiy" push seeks to elevate all cultures, no matter what customs and norms come with them, to the level of American culture.  This leads to such absurdities as feminists defending burkas.

The fact is that, in America - and let's hope America has a fighting chance to continue to exist in the form we've known for 200-plus years - you can be any color, speak English with the heavy accent of any other language, have any view of God you conclude to make sense, be either gender, and even have an unorthodox sex life, and, if you have something to contribute to the betterment of anybody else, thrive.  No one of any importance will stop you.  They are far more interested in engaging in an economic exchange with you.

So normal-people-type American life goes on despite the efforts of the remake-human-nature crowd to snuff it out.  You just can't keep that good old American culture down.