The Intellectual Poverty of Diversity (and other rants)

Friend Waldo Lydecker has a Monday Night Rant posted that covers a lot of ground (rants are good for that, if you can just get somebody to read them).

He takes on media--satellite radio and cable TV--for assuming that "the gay experience ends at about age 28 and after that you put on weight and wear sweaters that button up."

But more importantly for my current purpose, he tackles the conjoined issues of identity politics and cultural diversity, explaining that

Paradoxically ... we left Seattle- one of the gayest cities in America, [because] it was- is- too gay. People won't let you be your own kind of gay. You have to be on this team or that. If you aren't, punishments must be exacted. In our previous life as a lawyer, we lost a ton of work over a decade because we were- before the Bush regime made the position untenable- a Republican gay. We dealt with judges keen to seek the gay vote and then shiv them in court; newspapers who profess progressive views but who never effectively advocate for them, and legislators for whom tenure in office is the greatest gay contribution of all.

We, personally, prefer honest enemies to fair weather friends.

More generally, Waldo hits a critical nail right on the head:

Having reached the status of tribal elder, we have noted the transition of the rainbow tribe through many phases. And like other forms of identity politics- as we see in the time of the girl team v the black team for president- diversity isn't really lots of people who think different things. It's people who look different but all think the same thing. Like the caucus race in Alice in Wonderland, all must win, all must have a prize, but someone must win over everyone else. One identity must prevail.

Two other events made me bring this issue into clearer focus.

Liberal Geek of Delawareliberal has kindly placed Delaware Libertarian on his blogroll (a gesture I very much appreciate). My liberal friends there break their blog directory into Left, Middle, and Right--Libertarians, it seems, falling on the Right.

The Right, per se, does not upset me; The Colossus of Rhodey and Kilroy's Delaware are excellent company.

On the other hand, that Left-Middle-Right dichotomy makes less and less sense these days.

Here at Delaware Libertarian I have argued strenuously against single-payer health care, preferring market-driven solutions instead, I have opposed the Real ID program, and allowing competition rather than government regulation to resolve issues related to automobile production in India. On the other hand, regular readers of this blog also know I am a staunch advocate of gay rights, recognize the data-driven reality of global warming, and reject the idea of an aggressive, imperialist, or interventionist foreign policy.

Don't get me wrong: I don't want to be averaged out into the Middle, perpetual hang-out of those without a real opinion, but I have to wonder about political litmus tests and the true nature of diversity in modern-day America. Having rejected single-payer health insurance (which seems to be the defining issue for a lot of people here in Delaware), what would or could one do to be considered a liberal? Advocate for the marriage of prepubescent minors outside their species?

I'd better figure it out before the Web Ring Blogosphere of the Libertarian Left rules on my application.

Meanwhile, there's the discussion of teacher education programs that Hube started over at Colossus. [By the way, Hube lists this blog as belonging to the Middle.]

Wilmington University, Wesley College, Delaware State University and the University of Delaware all receive accreditation for their teacher education programs through NCATE--the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. NCATE places it highest stress on diversity, in fact censuring schools for "not seeking faculty from diverse cultural backgrounds to increase faculty diversity," and insisting that "Candidates interact in classroom settings on campus and in schools with professional education faculty, faculty in other units, and school faculty who represent diverse ethnic racial, gender, language, exceptionality, and religious groups."

So we have to have a lot of people who look different and serve different lunches on Ethnic Meal Day, BUT....

One of the key elements that suffuses the NCATE standards is that ALL course must be taught with COMPLETE CONSISTENCY as regards the NCATE-approved approach to cultural and educational diversity.

So our teacher-educators from Ghana, India, Peru, and West Virginia are all allowed to speak with different accents and wear traditional clothing, so long as they are all saying the same thing.

That intellectual fascists have redefined diversity from a free marketplace of ideas to identity politics is, at the same time, one of the greatest intellectual coups in American history and one of the greatest threats to Republican Democracy we have ever experienced. We have reached the place where ideas and individuals must be vetted by the appropriate constituency for ideological purity before they can be considered on their own merits.

And I still don't know if Libertarians have permission to be on the Right, the Left, or the Middle.

Frankly, I prefer to just be "out there."

Which is where you will find me most days.