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Diversity.

O

OinkBoink

Senior member
Firstly, when I say diversity, I mean diversity on the basis of ethnicity, language, culture, nationality etc.

So, there's one school of thought that says that diversity is a good thing for many reasons.

There's another school of thought that says that the notion of diversity being something wonderful is a myth and it's only wishful thinking. Proponents of this school of thought say that diversity is a source of tension and conflict.

What are your thoughts on this?
 
The longer you're here, Diverse it gets.

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I think Diversity is an admirable goal... But IMHO, People Are People. And regardless of their outward appearance, they possess the same personality traits, same foibles, and same urge to compete for the same limited resources as everyone else. Just that the ideas and methodologies will differ based on how they learned to express themselves within the boundaries of the culture they were raised in. The needs are the same. The Urges are the same.

Therefore the idea that having lots of different ones around would somehow "Improve Quality Of Life" for everyone is... Naive, at best.
 
Diversity doesn't bring world peace or end hunger or make us into perfect people. It's not "wonderful" and often it makes things difficult, at least in the short term.

Diversity is to be valued for one reason - it brings us perspective and challenges our assumptions. That is generally a good thing.
 
Rio Rebel said:
Diversity doesn't bring world peace or end hunger or make us into perfect people. It's not "wonderful" and often it makes things difficult, at least in the short term.

Diversity is to be valued for one reason - it brings us perspective and challenges our assumptions. That is generally a good thing.
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This is the correct answer.

Now if our brain makes the connections is another thing all together.
 
The real problem with human beings is that for the most part our orientations are local. We are more likely to read and care about local news and events than things that happen far away. Deep down this is a way of saying that at some level you value people in your family, peer group, community, country, etc. more than people outside those groups.

What diversity does is pulls those different peoples and cultures into your local community so that you can care about them and their issues more.

The problem is that once a community gets large enough that it encompases a truly diverse set of people, then it is so large that those in the community begin to sub-divide the community into more palatable sizes to care about (aka only care about their neighborhood and not the whole city).

I think the answer is that humans need to evolve to look beyond the horizon, or we need technology to shrink the world into what feels like a smaller place.
 
Diversity for diversity's sake is worth nothing.

Diversity with mudering drug addicts and drug runners does no good at all.
 
Rio Rebel said:
Diversity doesn't bring world peace or end hunger or make us into perfect people. It's not "wonderful" and often it makes things difficult, at least in the short term.

Diversity is to be valued for one reason - it brings us perspective and challenges our assumptions. That is generally a good thing.
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Pretty much.
 
Diversity is nothing more than rebranded racism, sexism, etc.

It is nothing more than an excuse to assign preference to women and minorities. Being black, white, a woman, etc does not grant you some kind of magically relevant perspective.

I guess white supremacists should have just said they wanted "cohesion".
 
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/08/05/the_downside_of_diversity/?page=full

But a massive new study, based on detailed interviews of nearly 30,000 people across America, has concluded just the opposite. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam -- famous for "Bowling Alone," his 2000 book on declining civic engagement -- has found that the greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects. In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings. The study, the largest ever on civic engagement in America, found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings.

"The extent of the effect is shocking," says Scott Page, a University of Michigan political scientist.
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I believe diversity of talents and viewpoints can be beneficial.

I do not believe ethnic/linguistic diversity has any positive sides at all. I believe the only reason there is a meme that it does, is people trying to convince themselves of it because they feel they're saddled with it.

Reminds me of parents who have a criminal son and are attempting to focus on the positives about him, ignore the negatives... it's denial, plain and simple.
 
Diversity is the beginning of our journey, but a Union is the destination.

America's strength was to take diversity and unify it with a melting pot. To create a better country through that process. Divisions, if left unchecked, would risk Balkanization. It risks a return to tribalism.
 
Jaskalas said:
Diversity is the beginning of our journey, but a Union is the destination.

America's strength was to take diversity and unify it with a melting pot. To create a better country through that process. Divisions, if left unchecked, would risk Balkanization. It risks a return to tribalism.
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Yes, and some differences are easier to overcome than others.

If you give me a nation of Lutherans and Baptists I'm going to have an easier time getting them to unify or get along and coexist than if you give me a nation of Lutherans and Catholics, and I'm probably going to have an easier time with a nation of French and Belgians than French and Australian aborigines.

There is a level of diversity which may not be able to be overcome. Or not be worth the amount of effort required.
 
I think diversity is a very good thing. Its interesting having other cultures to learn from and different languages to hear. If the whole world was the same how boring would that be?
 
Cultural diversity is great provided it's coupled with tolerance and respect. It's not so great without them, as Europe is finally figuring out with it's Islamic problem.
 
Diversity is just a synonym for variation. You could have a diversity of opinions just like this discussion board here. It is something that is natural and it can't be helped because it is something that will always BE. It is silly to pay so much attention to the word as if it was taboo. Our world is diverse. My closet is diverse. I'm sure you may have a diverse group of dishes. SO what? Is any dish not a dish because it doesn't look like the other dish? Is any person, place or thing not as such because it is different from the other? Diversity should be embraced and appreciated and nothing out of the norm. Humanity should be the main focus. Yes, we have established one person is different from the next...congrats on such a big observation.......Is there still a war going on or something? Aren't there bigger observations to make?
 
OinkBoink said:
Firstly, when I say diversity, I mean diversity on the basis of ethnicity, language, culture, nationality etc.

So, there's one school of thought that says that diversity is a good thing for many reasons.

There's another school of thought that says that the notion of diversity being something wonderful is a myth and it's only wishful thinking. Proponents of this school of thought say that diversity is a source of tension and conflict.

What are your thoughts on this?
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Both are true. Without tension and conflict, where are we going to come up with ideas and implementations of them that lead to progress?

Diversity for its own sake is just stupid. Using diversity that exists to further divide people, as is going on now in the U.S., is actually kind of brilliant, in an evil mastermind sort of way, but is also highly counterproductive. The goal should be utilize existing diversity to have different opinions and methods for whatever in front of you all the time. Over time, this should lessen the diversity of the aging population.

Diversity that is divisive, like tribal immigrants wanting to live in a tribal way, or political party hard-liners not wanting to associate with the other party's people, is no good for anyone. Regardless of background, we should all have enough common ground to be able to get along.
 
Cerb said:
Both are true. Without tension and conflict, where are we going to come up with ideas and implementations of them that lead to progress?
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How does adding a black person to your team increase tension and conflict?

After all I thought everyone was the same regardless of race?

Craig234 said:
Some diversity is good. Nazis add diversity, but are not good to have. 'Tolerance' is good. Tolerance is freedom.
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Aren't you basically saying diversity is wrong in that you want diversity you approve of?
 
Most people say diversity is good, and in the end we'll all end up the same race anyways. But why is that a good thing? Right now Blondes make up less than 1% of the world population. Red heads I assume are much less. Is the definition of Diversity having the one race? Or is the definition of Diversity allowing humans to be different (distinct racial boundaries) and cherishing that aspect?
 
Diversity does not add anything good unless the person that you bring in has some kind of skill technique or ability that improve or enriches our existence. However, sometimes just adding variety to the gene pool can add to the survivability of a species. For instance immigrants tend to be more eager to succeed and not held back by our societal fears and limitations. That in itself could be an advantage. If you are talking white black that is irrelevent unless you just want to find out how another person looks at a situation. i.e. you have to walk a mile in my shoes. It all depends on the context. America tends to be a melting pot. However, if people dont want to get along you are just increasing tension. My wife is Korean and I like her cooking. Koreans have a totally different way of preparing and preserving food. Variety is the spice of life.

I remember a joke about Indians or native americans. The chief says these white men will bring diversity. Next thing you know your civilization is being wiped out. The same thing could happen if we let some group like islamic militants take over. The Toltecs were wiped out by the Mayans.
 
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nehalem256 said:
How does adding a black person to your team increase tension and conflict?
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Having to deal with black people that grew up up in what amounts to a different world, despite, being only miles away from yours, will.

It's not something you do. It's something that is, and can be either accepted, ignored, or actively stamped out. You will generally choose to have people around you that are similar to yourself.
 
I dont have a problem with people that are different. That is one reason I liked being in the Military. Life is a journey and variety can make it worth living. I was watching just now a korean program about building traditional korean houses using timber frame construction with no nails. What I found interesting is their ability to build such a house with no crane to lift the timbers. Just a team of 5 or 6 guys built the entire house.

Korea has always been a country that established trade with other countries like China and later Japan, India, rome, etc. It was also invaded and attacked constantly by japan, China (Diff Dynasties), Mongols, Russia, etc. Korea however, did not allow people to migrate into their country for over 1,500 years, except by force, so they developed their own customs and eventually their own written language instead of using Chinese characters. They also developed their own unique food preparation techniques. However, they also learned to borrow and use other countries food staples like peppers from Japan and different herbs and spices like Indian Curry. In fact China has always been a big center for Trade and was considered their center for civilization.

I am watching a program right now about how Korea and China are really heavily into fish and seafood farms. They are starting to use fishing preservation to increase the amoung of seafood they can consume. This takes a careful approach to not over-pollute the water. According to the film the japanese and koreans imported so many eels from England that the eels in England are almost all gone, so they also have an eel raising program. They really love eels but it takes like 3 years to raise eels.

5 years ago they started raising King Flounder. They raised them in pools and developed a special container to ship them live. They are exporting the founder to the USA.
 
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brandonb said:
Most people say diversity is good, and in the end we'll all end up the same race anyways. But why is that a good thing? Right now Blondes make up less than 1% of the world population. Red heads I assume are much less. Is the definition of Diversity having the one race? Or is the definition of Diversity allowing humans to be different (distinct racial boundaries) and cherishing that aspect?
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Indeed. The social concept strays into doublethink when applied to biology where an uber homogeneous population would actually be perilous for mankind, as well as bland. On the plus side, conflict would likely diminish.
 
What you need, after all, is unity in diversity, and it is this oddness which makes the concept seem problematic.
 
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