The Corrupt Nature of DEI
Once it is averred that inequality is wrong and the government ought to do “something” to make people more equal, tyranny is always around the corner. Equalization methods and strategies may vary, but some degree of coercion is guaranteed once it is decided to equalize human beings. The philosopher Antony Flew characterized egalitarianism as a procrustean ideal—some must be stretched to breaking point, while others must be cut down to size, in order to ensure that all are enjoying equal life opportunities. As David Gordon often reminds us, this is why Murray Rothbard regarded “equality of opportunity” as an absurd and anti-human ideal.
Egalitarian ideology currently marches under the banner of “diversity, equity and inclusiveness.” Jordan Peterson refers to DEI as “the great ideological lie,” and pointedly reverses the acronym from DEI to DIE to emphasize the inevitable outcome of diversity enforcement. Commenting on diversity policies in Canadian higher education, Peterson wrote:
All my craven colleagues must craft DIE statements to obtain a research grant. They all lie (excepting the minority of true believers) and they teach their students to do the same. And they do it constantly, with various rationalizations and justifications, further corrupting what is already a stunningly corrupt enterprise. Some of my colleagues even allow themselves to undergo so-called anti-bias training, conducted by supremely unqualified Human Resources personnel, lecturing inanely and blithely and in an accusatory manner about theoretically all-pervasive racist/sexist/heterosexist attitudes.
In the United States, Christopher Caldwell traces diversity policies to the Supreme Court interpretation of the Civil Rights Act 1964 in the case of Regents of Univ. of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978). In his book Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties, he describes affirmative action as “the main avenue through which civil rights law was changing the country’s public and private institutions.” Describing university programs that reserved a number of places for African Americans, Caldwell explains: “That such programs discriminated, by reallocating opportunities from whites to blacks and other minorities, was obvious. It was their whole point.” It was not disputed at the time that these programs were discriminatory; the question was not whether they were discriminatory, but whether they were justified as a means of correcting inequality. Caldwell adds that, “The justices were concerned with how the programs discriminated, and on what grounds.”
Caldwell explains that the “new definition of “diversity” provided a rationale for four judges in Bakke who approved of this pro-black discrimination. These judges “accepted Lyndon Johnson’s description of American society as a footrace to which
Article from LewRockwell
LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
