The Cult* of "Diversity": Personal "Diversity Statements" For Academic Job Candidates
Look, even if you've been sitting on the sidelines all this time...this insanity has to be enough to get you to join the fray.
These statements are analogous to professions of religious belief and good ("good") works. Even if this weren't a way to give preferences to leftist candidates, they would be horrifying. And, of course, it's yet another sneaky (but not very sneaky) way to give advantage to groups at the top of the progressive stack.
I think you have to be horrified and outraged by this. If you're not...well, you're wrong! Your attitude is bad, and you should feel bad! This is a blow...and I'm not hyperbolizing!...right at the very heart of the university.
And look goddamn it: I'm not in favor of racial homogeneity nor any such crazy thing. I'm not even against some form of affirmative action. I'm against a crazy political cult taking over the intellectual cornerstone of Western--and human!--civilization. And also against: that cornerstone of civilization welcoming its own destruction with open arms. Also I shouldn't have to ante up with my liberal cred to be taken seriously! As if anyone were taking me seriously! Gah!
It's like goddamn invasion of the body snatchers all up in here. You go along with a group of people for decades thinking that you're all committed to some noble and rational enterprise...then suddenly it turns out that they've apparently never been committed to that project at all! Instead they're completely different people than you thought they were...they've always been on some kind of trajectory that was, apparently, perfectly consistent with welcoming in a cult that demands the subordination of truth to dogma. SO IT'S NOT REALLY MUCH LIKE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS BECAUSE THEY HAVEN'T BEEN REPLACED BY POD PEOPLE...THEY'VE BEEN POD PEOPLE ALL ALONG!!!! BUT YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!
* Incidentally, one of my (not even religious) colleagues in religion pointed out to me how messed-up it is to use the "it's like a religion!" charge as a way of insulting/criticizing/discrediting positions. I've come to think that was a really good point. Even though this stuff is, in fact, like a religion. It's not crazy because it's a religion (or maybe not, anyway). Rather, crazy politics and crazy religions and other similar crazy things are all crazy because they share certain characteristics. But religions aren't necessarily crazy, just like science (in a thin sense of the term) isn't necessarily rational.
These statements are analogous to professions of religious belief and good ("good") works. Even if this weren't a way to give preferences to leftist candidates, they would be horrifying. And, of course, it's yet another sneaky (but not very sneaky) way to give advantage to groups at the top of the progressive stack.
I think you have to be horrified and outraged by this. If you're not...well, you're wrong! Your attitude is bad, and you should feel bad! This is a blow...and I'm not hyperbolizing!...right at the very heart of the university.
And look goddamn it: I'm not in favor of racial homogeneity nor any such crazy thing. I'm not even against some form of affirmative action. I'm against a crazy political cult taking over the intellectual cornerstone of Western--and human!--civilization. And also against: that cornerstone of civilization welcoming its own destruction with open arms. Also I shouldn't have to ante up with my liberal cred to be taken seriously! As if anyone were taking me seriously! Gah!
It's like goddamn invasion of the body snatchers all up in here. You go along with a group of people for decades thinking that you're all committed to some noble and rational enterprise...then suddenly it turns out that they've apparently never been committed to that project at all! Instead they're completely different people than you thought they were...they've always been on some kind of trajectory that was, apparently, perfectly consistent with welcoming in a cult that demands the subordination of truth to dogma. SO IT'S NOT REALLY MUCH LIKE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS BECAUSE THEY HAVEN'T BEEN REPLACED BY POD PEOPLE...THEY'VE BEEN POD PEOPLE ALL ALONG!!!! BUT YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!
* Incidentally, one of my (not even religious) colleagues in religion pointed out to me how messed-up it is to use the "it's like a religion!" charge as a way of insulting/criticizing/discrediting positions. I've come to think that was a really good point. Even though this stuff is, in fact, like a religion. It's not crazy because it's a religion (or maybe not, anyway). Rather, crazy politics and crazy religions and other similar crazy things are all crazy because they share certain characteristics. But religions aren't necessarily crazy, just like science (in a thin sense of the term) isn't necessarily rational.
posted by Winston Smith at
12:05 PM
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