"it replaces meritocracy" Aha, so from your perspective very much positive discrimination it sounds, I think I see
Yes. Keep in mind that if it were not this, it would have to be nothing at all. Were DEI as is often claimed, merely an attempt at equality, there would be zero difference between it and the egalitarianism we had before its appearance. Rather, DEI comes directly from the anti-racist writings of Ibram X Kendi, which is teaching that there needs to be not a stronger move to equality, but rather past equality to a form of compensatory justice, called “reparations”. This is what Hicks explains in detail, and the force behind both calls for retribution in the form of cash awards, and discrimination in hiring. This attitude is everywhere today and it is not based upon notions of equality. See the vid.
As an aside let me also note that upon the very few occasions where the Left is still focused on equality rather than compensatory justice, they have fallen prey to ignorance concerning the issue of how the crossed purposes of equality and freedom have played out in the past. The ancient Greeks dissected this problem for us 2,400 years ago—equality and freedom are indeed at crossed purposes unless you restrain equality. If you decide equality of opportunity is not enough, but instead strive for equality of outcome, three things will happen.
First, you will reward the lazy and unskilled at the cost of the hard workers—the thing that kills communism. Second, you develop an attitude completely at odds with sober notions of merit. Third, you sacrifice freedom on the alter of equality, because the ONLY way to get equal outcomes given unequal performance is through powerful, state coercion. You have to become an oppressor. And this is the lesson played out for us all the decades of the Cold War. State oppression and coercion cannot deliver utopia. It violates freedom and delivers the inevitable collectivist conclusion which is always at complete odds with freedom.
BTW, we can see these lessons learned in Ancient Greece played out for us today, not just during the Cold War.
In Ancient Greece when pursuing equality of outcome, on many occasions the Greeks divied up lands taken in conquest and apportioned them as equally as possible, in order to have equality of outcome. The immediate result was always the same. Those who wanted to build a future purchased more land from those who merely wanted cash, and in no time at all enormous inequalities of outcome appeared out of thin air.
This exact same dynamic is playing out today in South Africa, where lands that were paid for decades ago are being illegally seized by the government and redistributed to those of African heritage. There have been three waves of this collectivist, equality of outcome oppression happen in South Africa during the last twenty years, and people are dying. In the 90’s, this land reform was equitable and voluntary to some degree, but since 2006, the government has been either seizing farms, or forcing their purchase vastly below market rate, all in the name of addressing inequalities in the past. Farmers who work the land are being stollen from so those who will not can have the farmers’ just rewards, but those who receive the land simply sell it back to the Dutch farmers families who purchased it legally over a century ago. This is breeding huge violence on both sides.
Crowds of native Africans convinced by this collectivist, anti-Western dogma of equality of outcome routinely murder Dutch farmers who’s relatives legally paid for their farm lands. Any time civilization is forced to this point, you should hunt for demons. Surely only demons can rationalize murder in this way.
This is what happened in ancient Greece, whereby we thought we’d learned our lesson. It’s what has been happening in Africa for decades. It’s where the collectivists here in the US are trying to force us through DEI and compensatory justice. It’s murder.
These lessons learned in Greece concern what is typically called “private property rights” and are part of the bed rock foundations of Western Civilization. We ought not take them for granted. These understandings are important. They probably originated in the codification of the Mosaic Law, but developed separately in Greece. We very deliberately wrote them into our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution here in the US.
“In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson changed Locke's formula of “life, liberty, and property” to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” but this modification did not diminish the strong American identification of the right to property as an essential liberty.”
“The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that "no person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
There was a time, for over 200 years, where these parts of our history were common understanding. They were taught in public schools. There was always a core requirement in Western Civ as necessary for ALL academic degrees (Bachlors, Masters and Doctorate). Indeed, The Academy was created by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle specifically to safeguard these kinds of ideas in the attempt to make self-governance possible. The Academy was not created to equip for the job market. It was created to make better citizens and part of this is to understand these lessons from the past so we don’t repeat the murder.
Think about the changes we’ve seen here as result of this entitlement version of justice. Laws now protect looters who fill garbage bags with thousands of dollars in merchandise and walk out of the most expensive stores, all in the name of equity. Colleges hire a couple hundred DEI officers while paying part time professors Burger King wages. The land is abuzz with free money and free stuff. All you need is a grievance. That’s what DEI is—the Grievance Olympics. It’s nothing like equality and nothing like justice.
