Wednesday, November 01, 2006

DIVERSITY DOUBLESPEAK

Diversity is another word battered beyond recognition by liberals and progressives. Orwellian NewSpeak has made the word diversity into a bangalore torpedo to undermine the defenses guarding civilized society. Liberal-socialists, with our educational system in the vanguard, have made diversity into an end in itself, a principle of materialistic social justice.

In education, for example, the goal of diversity is elevated to a higher status than providing the best possible education for students. Diversity is, not an educational principle, but a correlate to Lenin's program to create the New Soviet Man via material factors imposed by intellectuals. Students are somehow to be made better by the corruption of a system that supposedly is devoted to academic excellence.

As economist Thomas Sowell has so articulately observed many times, poorly prepared students, of whatever race, gain nothing by being admitted to colleges with academic standards beyond their reach. Either the better students are held back, or the poorly prepared students are discouraged and eventually drop out. Nothing is gained by the mendacity of liberal-progressive educators giving every student a minimum grade of B. Victims of grade-inflation have simply been set up for failure and embittered cynicism in real-world job competition.

Less well prepared students can get a good education at colleges with less stringent academic standards. Students who earn Bs and As in those colleges can have the priceless gift of real self-respect based on their own hard work.

Diversity of the liberal-progressive stripe has disastrous consequences for the survival of the United States. Economically we see its results in the widening gap between linguistic, mathematical, and scientific competence of average American graduates and their overseas counterparts. In an increasingly technical world, the United States is suffering, not only from inflated production costs arising from the welfare state and unionism, but from falling behind in the innovation curve.

We can celebrate the diversity of our student bodies, but at the cost of fewer and fewer Nobel Prizes for science awarded to Americans in the future, along with more and more manufacturing transferred overseas.

At a more fundamental level, diversity is moral relativism masquerading as virtue. Liberal-progressives paint diversity as a democratic principle of equality. It is, in fact, the opposite. Rather than supporting an equal opportunity on the basis of merit, the doctrine of diversity confers special privileges based on non-essential factors such race and ethnicity.

Morality, a unifying factor essential for social survival, is replaced by the selfishness implicit in diversity, which subtly teaches the view that gratifying personal desires is more important than voluntarily working with others for the common good.

If any culture, and any set of moral standards (except, of course, for those of Judeo-Christianity), is as good as the next, why should we be surprised when business executives behave as they did in Enron and Tyco? If highly-qualified students are passed over in the college admission process for manifestly less qualified students, only for reasons of diversity, how can qualified students avoid cynicism about society's rules?

The Latin roots of the word diversity mean to bend apart, to diverge, in other words the opposite of unity. In that sense, diversity is opposed to the concept of the United States itself: e pluribus unum, i.e., one nation from many colonies and many peoples. Had diversity in the liberal-progressive sense been the order of the day, there would have been no War of Independence in 1776 and no Constitution in 1787-89. The colonies would have remained independent units, relishing their diversity, but unable to resist the tyranny imposed by Parliament and George III.

How did we fall off the tracks? In the early decades of the 20th century, Columbia University sociologist Franz Boas and his acolytes Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead sold the modernist intellectuals in Greenwich Village the socialistic hypothesis that cultures and human behavior standards are relativistic and merely the product of their surrounding material circumstances of economy and geography. Materialistic factors - government regulation, income redistribution, and education - were theoretically capable of perfecting society, but only if society's common cultural standards could first be removed. The unifying characteristics that Tocqueville observed in Democracy in America in 1833 - the Christian religion and respect for tradition and the rule of law - had to give way to the intellectual vision of a Brave New World. Along with diversity, we got the doctrine of multi-cultural education in the 1970s.

Diversity as an iconic end in itself leaves us defenseless against La Raza's Reconquista movement to impose Hispanic culture and the Spanish language upon the Southwestern and Western states and, ultimately, to separate them from the United States and incorporate them into Mexico.

Worse, the doctrine of diversity supports the anti-Americanism rampant on American college campuses. Making diversity an educational goal leaves students convinced that 9/11 was our fault, that al Queda was merely redressing justifiable grievances against the feeble vestiges of Judaism and Christianity in our nation.

None of that is to disparage the multitudes of national, racial,ethnic, and linguistic origins of our burgeoning population. It is to say rather that those people coming here from so many different parts of the world do so to enjoy the benefits of living in a nation unified by common understandings about morality, private property rights, the rule of law, individual responsibility, and the work ethic.

Far better than the liberal-progressive worship of diversity is returning to the paradigm of the melting pot that prevailed at the beginning of the 20th century. Let every national, ethnic, and language group proudly celebrate its heritage and pass that heritage along to its children. But let all of us be unified, not divided, as one nation seeking the common good.

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TIME TO RETIRE THE RACE CARD

By Jeff Jacoby

Senator Joseph McCarthy is long gone from the American scene. No longer do political combatants try to score points by falsely accusing others of communist sympathies. But if classic McCarthyism is dead, racial McCarthyism is alive and well. No election season nowadays seems complete until someone has played the race card and maliciously charged someone else with bigotry.

Sometimes the racial slander takes the form of an ad. During the 2000 presidential campaign, the NAACP aired a vile television spot that showed a pickup truck dragging a chain; in a voiceover, the daughter of James Byrd -- who had been dragged to his death in a Texas lynching two years earlier -- said that when then-Governor George W. Bush opposed a 1999 revision in the Texas hate crime law, "it was like my father was killed all over again."

The 2006 edition of racial McCarthyism features TV ads, too. But this time it is the ads themselves -- and by extension the Republicans they are meant to benefit -- that are being falsely smeared as racist. In Tennessee, the GOP aired a commercial poking fun at Harold Ford, the black Memphis congressman who is in a battle with former Chattanooga mayor Bob Corker to succeed Bill Frist in the US Senate.

The ad parodies several of Ford's political positions through mock interviews with people defending or agreeing with him. "Terrorists need their privacy," a woman indignantly insists. "Ford's right," says a hunter wearing camouflage, "I do have too many guns." A Wilford Brimley look-alike declares, "Canada can take care of North Korea -- they're not busy." And a bare-shouldered bimbo squeals, "I met Harold at the Playboy party" -- a reference to Playboy's 2005 Super Bowl bash in Florida, which Ford attended. The ditzy blonde returns at the end to whisper, with a wink, "Harold: call me!"

It was a witty, entertaining ad -- and it promptly had liberals and Democrats and even the odd Republican screeching about how "racist" it was. The NAACP issued a press release calling it "racially charged political propaganda" akin to "The Birth of a Nation," D. W. Griffith's paean to the Ku Klux Klan. Salon described it as an "attempt to inflame white bigotry about interracial relationships and white fears of black male sexuality." Vanderbilt University professor John Geer breathlessly told AP: "I've not met any observer who didn't immediately say, 'Oh, my gosh!' It was a race card." Senator McCarthy, call your office.

Now, it is conceivable that some of the people claiming to see this inoffensive ad as racist are sincere, and not just going along with a toxic lie for political reasons. After all, some people once saw communists under every bed. And even when a cigar is just a cigar, some people can't help snickering about sex. But the plain fact is, there is nothing remotely racial about the Tennessee ad. The best proof of that is that *the ad would be just as effective if Ford were white.* The blonde party-girl isn't a coded reference to interracial dating. Her appearance in a Republican campaign commercial isn't a subliminal reminder of the Democrat's color. It is a cue that the Democrat, who campaigns as something of a goody-goody -- one of Ford's campaign spots was filmed in a church -- may be a little less straitlaced than he lets on.

The same litmus test exonerates Republican Kerry Healey's much-maligned TV commercials against Democrat Deval Patrick in the Massachusetts governor's fight. In one ad, a woman of indeterminable race is shown walking to her car in a parking garage, while a voiceover reminds viewers that Patrick has "praised a convicted rapist." Another ad shows a picture of Carl Songer, a white cop-killer Patrick represented and saved from death row. Both ads imply that Patrick is too soft on crime; both are harsh and heavy-handed. But neither one makes even a veiled reference to race, and it is disgusting to see them slandered as racist. Patrick may be black, but either ad would be precisely as effective if he were white.

From the moment Patrick won the Democratic primary, partisans angled to lob the race mudball at his Republican opponent. Just two days into the general election campaign, the state's Democratic Party chairman accused Healey of coming "close to race-baiting" by discussing illegal immigration. It was a disgraceful accusation -- and a hint of the racial McCarthyism to come. Enough. McCarthy is gone. The race card should be too. In Massachusetts, Tennessee, and every other state, don't voters of every race deserve better?

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Australia: Leftist public broadcasters under scrutiny

Liberal [party] senators have attacked SBS executives, claiming the broadcaster exhibits pro-Arab bias, broadcasts "smut" and "pornography", and fails to clearly identify and label terrorist organisations to its viewers. And SBS is not the only public broadcaster under fire. The ABC, represented by new managing director Mark Scott, also faced hours of interrogation from Liberal senators and Labor's communications spokesman, Stephen Conroy, at a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra yesterday. Subjects in contention ranged from the ABC's controversial new editorial guidelines, which come into effect in March, to allegations of bias in Middle East coverage and labelling of terrorist organisations.

ABC executives confirmed during yesterday's hearings that a new position announced by Mr Scott for policing of editorial impartiality will carry a salary of between $150,000 and $280,000. Mr Scott told senators the ABC board would have a role in the appointment, with deputy chairman John Gallagher on the selection panel. Board participation in editorial appointments was "not atypical." All ABC staff, including high-profile journalists and presenters, will be required to undergo training in the new editorial guidelines. Mr Scott rejected repeated assertions from Senator Conroy that the new guardian of editorial impartiality would act as the "chief censor" of the ABC.

Two Liberal senators, Victoria's Michael Ronaldson and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells from NSW, meanwhile, criticised SBS about its reporting of the recent Lebanon-Israel conflict. Senator Fierravanti-Wells claimed high-profile SBS presenter George Negus expressed "pro-Arab" sentiments. She also alleged that SBS had "sided" with David Hicks, the Australian held at Guantanamo Bay, and exhibited "a rather equivocal view of terrorism". In addition, she said that SBS broadcast "smut and pornography" through foreign movies and through adult animation programs such as Striperella.

SBS managing director Shaun Brown defended the broadcasters' policy of "neutrality" in the identification of terrorist organisations. He also categorically rejected the suggestion that SBS broadcast pornography. Programs such as Striperella, he said, followed "a tradition at SBS to support adult animation".

Senator Ronaldson criticised Mr Scott for failing to bring key ABC executives to Canberra to face questions, and took issue with "subjective" ABC coverage of the recent Lebanon conflict. He became increasingly frustrated with Mr Scott's answers as the estimates hearing unfolded and raised concerns about various correspondents' reporting from the Middle East. "Such a good start and now you are back with the pack, Mr Scott," Senator Ronaldson told him yesterday.

ABC television head Kim Dalton has come out in support of the Media Watch program and its presenter, Monica Attard, rejecting speculation that satire would be blunted by the new editorial policies. Mr Dalton said Media Watch would return next year with a new executive producer and he hoped Attard would remain as presenter. "I think she does a great job and has an extraordinary reputation as one of our leading, award-winning journalists," he said. The job of executive producer has been advertised nationally. Current executive producer Peter McEvoy announced his departure before the unveiling of new editorial policies aimed at removing any bias from ABC programs.

Mr Dalton said he did not want to reflect on how the program could be improved. "I think it's a really important program. I think it serves a really important purpose in our media environment in Australia at the moment. It's clearly a very entertaining and popular program, and it will remain so," he said. Mr Dalton played down suggestions that Media Watch would become a panel-style show, adding that such speculation did not come from within the ABC. The show's essential role would remain that of a watchdog that looked at "the practice of media in an increasingly complex and globalised environment", he said. Endorsing the program's its single-presenter format, he said: "It is a short program, it's 12 or 13 minutes on a Monday night . (Viewers) are looking for something that has pace and edge and I'm not sure you can achieve that through a panel show."

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