Let’s start from the goal; then reverse-plan how to get there. We’ll take into considerations the possibilities and the faults, and find alternatives to the faults that reach our goal from another direction. Finally arriving at the here and now, we will see the light at the end – and all its varied paths along the way – before ever entering the tunnel.
This is the concept behind reverse planning – the hallmark of modern effective military operations – to see the light before starting the journey. And I am going to tell you something here and now about the light of Diversity (our conversation today) that is unsettling to the point that no one who’s anyone in the public realm dare speak of it. Diversity creates discrimination from its very existence, and this discrimination is the byproduct of Political Correctness – a modern way of socially enforced liberal thinking that will become the eventual death of a society.
See… I told you it would be unsettling.
Now, the idea behind diversity is not new, nor is it necessarily bad. In fact, I agree to its purpose and inception, though, not its application as sits today. Diversity can become the idea that stands a chance at bringing the world’s cultures closer together, and this empowers us through use of the vehicle of shared ideas. But when combined with political agendas, biases, and the demands of PC culture, like feminism, a once good idea has become discriminatory by nature. You may be asking just how this is possible – or condemning me on a personal level by now through the use of framing and confirmation biases derived from secondary level thinking patterns – so I already know I will need the use of an example to illustrate the point.
Say for example, you joined the Army. Now, today’s United States Army is the most advanced Army in the world. Its force projection capabilities are considered better than all others (many combined even), and today’s force is arguably the most professional and well-developed set of services of any nation. You saw many vast number of benefits in enlisting – and reconciled to the faults of such a dedicate life to service – and joined up. After many years, you finally came up for promotion to a senior level, and your packet was sent up to a board – a panel of senior members who collectively review individual promotion packets across the service – and with scores as high as yours, you easily rank in the top 5, so you believe you will be selected.
But there is one problem… The Army only has a need for 5 people to promote within your job, and while you have been ranked as the number 4 person on the list, you are both male and white. At the end of the month, the results came out, and as it turns out, you were passed over. Instead, the number 10th and number 17th persons on the list were selected over you, despite the fact that you were far more qualified. You worked yourself to the bone to get where you were, but all your hard work was for nothing… just what happened?!
Diversity happened. That’s what.
You see, the Army is required by law to enforce diversity in consideration of all force shaping activities, and that includes promotions. The first 9 individuals on the promotion standing list were all white males. They were numbered by highest scores – which account for a large number of blind factors – and after the first 3 positions were filled, diversity standards took over. Diversity standards within the promotional process are a numbers game based on percentages… and that means you just got struck off after years of dedication and hard work. Each packet was tossed aside until a minority group individual was found. The 10th person was probably black or Hispanic, and maybe the 17th person was a female. They got the job by virtue of their minority affiliation, not because they were the best qualified. (Disclaimer: this example in no way implies that minority groups do not consistently make top scores, so just forget about that argument right now)
In a world where public announcements seek the best of the best for the team, behind closed doors, we find that being white and male equals two strikes against you from the very start. The reality is, that the Army – to maintain conformity to PC standards and avoid social, political, and legal backlash – discriminates in a way that is technically not considered discrimination. Not only did you not get that promotion you worked so very hard for, but now, the career you love is being taken away from you as you were next told you can no longer stay in the Army. What?! Oh, you have too many years of service for your current rank, and now – since you didn’t get promoted – you are subjected to Retention Control Point requirements and have to leave. Good luck finding a job in the civilian world where the majority see you as either too old or without any “skills”, look down on you as a “brain washed killer”, no one “understands you”, you find it beyond difficult to “adjust”, or simply just “enter nearly any other conceivable made up reason here”. You decide to go back to school, but sitting in a classroom with a bunch of kids far younger than you not only opens you up to whole new areas of discrimination, but makes you feel like your living a real-life version of Billy Madison… You’re broke, have no job… it only gets worse, so I’ll spare you at this point, I think you get the picture.
The latter-half of this story is the real-life story of millions of Veterans today in the United States, and that “Promotion Example” is very real as well, and not just for the military, but in every single civilian corporate job out there too. Diversity should not be a standard of enforced percentages to provide for conformity for the sake of conformity, it should be the simply term we use to describe shared life experience and camaraderie, not a law, and most certainly not the reason you get passed over or lose your job. Diversity today has been described as, “differences of color, ethnic origin, gender, sexual or religions preferences, age, and disabilities.” (Moran, Harris & Moran, 2011, p. 157). But in reality, “diversity” today actually translates to “anything but white or male or the two combined”.
Diversity was seen with an end goal of cultural integration and equality in opportunity. Yet along its journey through the tunnel, somewhere it was misguided by ill intentions. Just the same as everyone else on the planet, in our example here, you didn’t ask to be born white or male, and having zero choice in the matter should not become the determining factor in disapproval for positions just because of the past references some people demand everyone hang onto. Diversity should rightfully so stand for equality for all, not equality for everyone but this guy. The globalized world today is so much better than that. Today, we live in an unfathomably integrated and culturally diverse world, and sure, there do exist bad apples out there, there is no argument in that. However, mention of such things in argument against the proposed thesis is nothing more than a red herring, an argumentative fallacy not worthy of addressing or retort. Instead, like all equality movements of the past and present, what once began as a needed recognition, spawned a compassionate realization, and over time was corrupted into doing the very thing it vowed its purpose against. Hypocrisy is the name of the game, diversity the vehicle, and political correctness the fuel. We desired a world blind of discriminatory factors, where the best truly rise to the top. After all, would you want the guy who got a C- in political science running your nation?
…neither would I, and I couldn’t care less what that person looked like either.
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Aim High, Dive Deep, Leave No One Behind.
AJ P.
So Others May Live
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References:
Moran, R. T., Harris, P. R., & Moran, S. V. (2011). Managing cultural differences: Global leadership strategies for cross-cultural business success (8th ed.). Oxford: Routledge.
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