Diversity is a Weakness Not a Strength

By John Hawkins Diversity is a strength" is one of those Orwellian maxims thats just generally accepted as truth by most Americans despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Granted if youre talking about a DIVERSITY OF IDEAS you can certainly come up with some situations where its a strength. For example in the movie World War Z Israel is saved (at least temporarily) by having a tenth man" whose job is to forcefully argue for the alternative viewpoint to a situation where everyone agrees. So instead of laughing off the idea that Israel might face a zombie invasion Israelis realized there was merit to it and were prepared in time to protect the country. Back in the real world the NFL certainly could have used someone pointing out the potential long-term downsides of allowing players to disrespect the flag when just Colin Kaepernick was doing it. Donald Trump might benefit from a diversity of opinions when hes about to tweet about Rosie ODonnell or Mark Cuban at 4 AM. The Democrat Party could certainly use the input of a few random white factory workers from flyover country about the latest rhetoric and proposals its about to pitch. On the other hand even when diversity of thought is useful its only in limited doses. The New York Yankees dont want players who think the Boston Red Sox should win the pennant. A Republican President doesnt want a Democrat in his Cabinet who will undermine him at every opportunity. Our military doesnt want soldiers hoping the other side will defeat us in a war. All that being said when most people talk about diversity" they dont mean a diversity of ideas. They believe a Hispanic guy a black guy a transsexual and a woman bring something to the table just by virtue of their race or gender. This is seldom true. For example it is true that a group of white economists working on tax policy could benefit from having Thomas Sowell come out of retirement to join their ranks but thats because hes Thomas freakin Sowell not because hes black. An all-Hispanic baseball team would benefit from adding Mike Trout to its roster but its because he can play not because of his white perspective. An all-female start-up would be lucky to get Bill Gates on board not because he can mansplain things to them but because he has lots of friends with infinite amounts of money who might invest if hes on board. In fact diversity is often a huge minus. The new black employee may claim you discriminated against him even if hes fired for legitimate reasons. The woman may sue for sexual harassment after seeing a swimsuit calendar on some random guys wall. The Satanist you hire may call it religious discrimination if you dont offer him a goat to sacrifice to Lucifer on Halloween. Diversity can work just fine but only if theres strong pressure on people to assimilate to the existing culture. Thats why our very diverse military functions so well. However we dont have those conditions in America as a whole. Instead we have liberals promoting tribalism and grievance mongering non-stop. In other words every racial sexual and religious difference is used as a way to split people further apart. Many of the same people who claim diversity is a strength will also tell you white people cant understand the concerns of black Americans men are oppressing women and women who dont want to share a bathroom with a transsexual man are bigots. Its worth noting that Americas increasing diversity is largely a product of a change to our immigration system implemented in the sixties. European-born immigrants made up 75 of American immigrants in 1960 but that percentage dropped to only 11 percent in 2014. Combine that with the cultural degradation and rise of tribalism that has occurred during the last couple of decades and we have seen a much more radical change in this country than most people realize. Furthermore as Robert Putnam noted all of this diversity in America has a lot of negative consequences IT HAS BECOME increasingly popular to speak of racial and ethnic diversity as a civic strength. From multicultural festivals to pronouncements from political leaders the message is the same: our differences make us stronger. But a massive new study based on detailed interviews of nearly 30000 people across America has concluded just the opposite. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam -- famous for Bowling Alone his 2000 book on declining civic engagement -- has found that the greater the diversity in a community the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer the less they give to charity and work on community projects. In the most diverse communities neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings. The study the largest ever on civic engagement in America found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings. The extent of the effect is shocking says Scott Page a University of Michigan political scientist. Actually its not all that shocking. We make this assumption that as people from different groups get to know each other theyll grow to like each other. Unfortunately this can only occur where people have shared values and goals. For many Americans if your neighbors are waving a Mexican flag and saying America sucks say youre part of rape culture want America to live under Sharia law or accuse you of having privilege because youre white the more you get to know them the LESS you are going to like them. Additionally if they believe those things chances are they dont like you either. We see this same pattern all over the planet. Look at the conflicts going on in Afghanistan Libya Israel and Iraq. Hows that diversity working out for them? How is diversity playing out for Russia and Chechnya? What about the Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda? How about Bosnia and Herzegovina? Even the Western part of the Roman Empire eventually fell because it became too corrupt and weak to assimilate the tribes it allowed inside its border. In the end diversity cost the Romans their empire. The only thing that ever allowed Americans to believe that diversity is a strength was our uniting culture. Without the now-destroyed Melting Pot to keep us together diversity is one of our nations great weaknesses.