Sometimes I am guilty of accepting too much at face value. For example, the term DEI, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion makes a lot of sense to me. We don’t live in a perfect world, but a society where we see diversity around us certainly broadens our perspective. We are stronger when we include people from all backgrounds and all walks of life. I struggle with the equity thing, only because to achieve total equity eliminates the power of reward for individual effort.
In my book, Awake: We’re Not So Divided, I wrote about a visit to a prison, where there is probably as much equality as anywhere in society due to the circumstances of being part of an incarcerated group. The food is the same, living conditions the same, recreation the same, reward system the same, pretty damned equal. But ask any prisoner which he prefers, equality or liberty and liberty wins every time.
DEI is a political movement. In the history of this country we seem to embark on a new movement about every 20 years. Often these are justified by some kind of science. Social science is less exact than physical science, and it is used to justify movements. But history teaches us that science itself can be proven wrong. At one time science said the world was flat. In the early 1700s science said white European people were more advanced than all others. In the last 50 years, I can’t even recall how many things I like to eat that science said were bad for me before they were good for me and vice versa.
Almost all political movements, like DEI come along and replace one that came before; sometimes with unexpected results. The question is, what is DEI replacing, and what has been gained or lost. I’m thinking about this because research for my upcoming Team Walker book is at least hinting at how our nation’s enemies are manipulating the sources we use to justify political movements and even the science.