Ideology is so convenient. With the right ideology we don't need to think about anything. To some of us God-doubters, ideology is a supposedly perfectly worked out system to answer all questions. It usually starts in the political realm. Political belief beckons most to people fascinated by power.
Ideology itself is simply a secular form of religion. The major ideologies in place today all started 100-150 years ago as organized religion began exiting the public square. Political philosophy is simply thinking about what government should exist. Ideology is an all-encompassing system to organize all or most aspects of society based on one political philosophy or another.
But a comment: as I search for my next gig, I'm just not participating in DEI statements. I cannot answer the question honestly, and would be run out for failing to pass a purity test of some sort.
The beauty of the American idea is that it is focused on INDIVIDUAL self-empowerment. Any form of group identitarianism or mass social control is at odds with that founding idea. The question is whether such things can be imposed from above over the long term. Since we do not have a shared ethnic or cultural identity in this country, the loss of our founding idea would likely result in a catastrophe of global dimensions as we implode.
This is excellent. I went through a PhD program and also taught as an adjunct at a large, state research college in the US. I also worked in the US military. This analysis fits with what I saw in both institutions and is a reason I did not continue on to find a tenure track job somewhere or continue military service beyond retirement age. The pendulum is welcomely coming back in the US, but we must be careful it doesn't swing back too far the other way. From my travels to Europe, I can tell you that the pendulum hasn't stopped there yet. Energy and immigration issues are the physics that are even starting to slow the pendulum there, but there is also a larger threat of it swinging back too far since this pendulum has gone so far to the left.
Excellent. I once saw an interview with Diane Sawyer in which she said, "I read once, which I'd love so much that this great physicist who won a Nobel Prize said that every day when he got home, his dad asked him not what he'd learned in school, but his dad said, 'Did you ask any great questions today?' I've always thought, What a beautiful way to educate kids that we're excited by their questions, not by our answers, and whether they can repeat our answers." She went on to talk about belief in curiosity and ultimately our individual pursuits of meaning. It's stuck with me, and I refer back to it often. Thanks for putting so much work into articulating your thoughts and encapsulating, pretty succinctly considering the complexity, (and with great resources), much of the way I feel about our current circumstance, but cannot articulate nearly as well.
Honestly, we've argued about this kind of piece before and the lack of any logical thread to hold it all together. This one is a bit worse as it jumps to conclusions that aren't true:
- Our schools are not indoctrination centers. Any of us that have actually been in a school see that they aren't very different than when we went. You keep claiming this but clearly haven't visited yourself.
- There is no clear connection between schools/DEI and the rise of anti-semitism, and in fact the strongest anti-semitism is coming from conservative circles who never supported DEI and now support actual Nazis.
- You assume that the more diverse staffs that replaced the white/male dominated teams were somehow less qualified than the white/male people they would have replaced. Instead, the inverse is mostly true and the discrimination kept more qualified folks who were not white/male out of those teams.
I'm not going to go through every point as it's exhausting, but once again I'm encouraging you to go deeper, do research and build actual arguments instead of this kind of vibe-centric rant about what you like and don't like. You link to anecdotes and treat them as data, instead of doing the hard work of doing analysis.
Yes we still don't agree on this topic but that's okay, we can still debate, and I'm happy to. Just brief reply, maybe this is better over coffee or perhaps one day a culture podcast which I definitely want to launch at some point.
On schools ...
Not *all* of them of course but many of them definitely have. There's plenty documentation, stories in the media, even lawsuits by parents. Not everywhere but more than enough to be noticeable. Where I think we differ is that I see a pattern in policies, training materials, and public controversies that shows a real tilt, even if many day‑to‑day classrooms look similar to what we grew up with.
Re, anti-semitism
You’re right there are strong antisemitic currents on the right; the far‑right / white‑nationalist stuff is real and dangerous. The argument isn’t “it’s only the left,” it’s that a particular kind of identitarian framing on the left has made it easier to rationalize or excuse antisemitism in mainstream-ish institutions that claim to be anti‑racist. The post Oct 7 congressional testimony and fallout was very illuminating to me. Analyses from across the political spectrum note frameworks dividing society into oppressor/oppressed bins, often used in DEI training, tend to code Jews (especially Israelis or American Jews perceived as “white”) as oppressors, which interacts badly with longstanding antisemitic tropes.
Re: diverse staff
I don’t believe more diverse staffs are inherently less qualified. In plenty of cases the new hires are qualified. The issue is that when institutions publicly commit to hitting demographic targets, and when internal documents openly discuss filtering or disadvantaging certain groups, it both creates resentment and muddies perceptions of merit for everyone, including the diverse hires.
I agree that vibes aren’t enough, where I think we differ is that I see a mix of data, institutional behavior, and personal accounts that add up to a pattern worth worrying about. I’m trying to stitch those into a coherent argument, not just complain about feelings.
There's plenty of links to explore here btw, I'll pull out 2 I'd very much recommend:
Of note I feel like I'm still far more empathetic and balanced on this topic than you'll get from many people. Unlike the doomers I don't think any of what we've done is necessarily the end of our society and institutions. There is more much nihilistic commentary from many, many people on what this all means. I don't share that pessimism. I think we can easily right the ship if we choose to.
Ideology is so convenient. With the right ideology we don't need to think about anything. To some of us God-doubters, ideology is a supposedly perfectly worked out system to answer all questions. It usually starts in the political realm. Political belief beckons most to people fascinated by power.
Ideology itself is simply a secular form of religion. The major ideologies in place today all started 100-150 years ago as organized religion began exiting the public square. Political philosophy is simply thinking about what government should exist. Ideology is an all-encompassing system to organize all or most aspects of society based on one political philosophy or another.
Tremendous. No notes.
But a comment: as I search for my next gig, I'm just not participating in DEI statements. I cannot answer the question honestly, and would be run out for failing to pass a purity test of some sort.
I refuse to play along.
The beauty of the American idea is that it is focused on INDIVIDUAL self-empowerment. Any form of group identitarianism or mass social control is at odds with that founding idea. The question is whether such things can be imposed from above over the long term. Since we do not have a shared ethnic or cultural identity in this country, the loss of our founding idea would likely result in a catastrophe of global dimensions as we implode.
This is excellent. I went through a PhD program and also taught as an adjunct at a large, state research college in the US. I also worked in the US military. This analysis fits with what I saw in both institutions and is a reason I did not continue on to find a tenure track job somewhere or continue military service beyond retirement age. The pendulum is welcomely coming back in the US, but we must be careful it doesn't swing back too far the other way. From my travels to Europe, I can tell you that the pendulum hasn't stopped there yet. Energy and immigration issues are the physics that are even starting to slow the pendulum there, but there is also a larger threat of it swinging back too far since this pendulum has gone so far to the left.
Excellent. I once saw an interview with Diane Sawyer in which she said, "I read once, which I'd love so much that this great physicist who won a Nobel Prize said that every day when he got home, his dad asked him not what he'd learned in school, but his dad said, 'Did you ask any great questions today?' I've always thought, What a beautiful way to educate kids that we're excited by their questions, not by our answers, and whether they can repeat our answers." She went on to talk about belief in curiosity and ultimately our individual pursuits of meaning. It's stuck with me, and I refer back to it often. Thanks for putting so much work into articulating your thoughts and encapsulating, pretty succinctly considering the complexity, (and with great resources), much of the way I feel about our current circumstance, but cannot articulate nearly as well.
🙏
We can only hope that both sides can find a way to work together instead of tearing each other apart.
Excellent article!
Thanks Paul, I hope for better days and healthier institutions ahead, we can do this - and ultimately all of society wins
Honestly, we've argued about this kind of piece before and the lack of any logical thread to hold it all together. This one is a bit worse as it jumps to conclusions that aren't true:
- Our schools are not indoctrination centers. Any of us that have actually been in a school see that they aren't very different than when we went. You keep claiming this but clearly haven't visited yourself.
- There is no clear connection between schools/DEI and the rise of anti-semitism, and in fact the strongest anti-semitism is coming from conservative circles who never supported DEI and now support actual Nazis.
- You assume that the more diverse staffs that replaced the white/male dominated teams were somehow less qualified than the white/male people they would have replaced. Instead, the inverse is mostly true and the discrimination kept more qualified folks who were not white/male out of those teams.
I'm not going to go through every point as it's exhausting, but once again I'm encouraging you to go deeper, do research and build actual arguments instead of this kind of vibe-centric rant about what you like and don't like. You link to anecdotes and treat them as data, instead of doing the hard work of doing analysis.
We need more thoughtful discourse, not this.
Yes we still don't agree on this topic but that's okay, we can still debate, and I'm happy to. Just brief reply, maybe this is better over coffee or perhaps one day a culture podcast which I definitely want to launch at some point.
On schools ...
Not *all* of them of course but many of them definitely have. There's plenty documentation, stories in the media, even lawsuits by parents. Not everywhere but more than enough to be noticeable. Where I think we differ is that I see a pattern in policies, training materials, and public controversies that shows a real tilt, even if many day‑to‑day classrooms look similar to what we grew up with.
Re, anti-semitism
You’re right there are strong antisemitic currents on the right; the far‑right / white‑nationalist stuff is real and dangerous. The argument isn’t “it’s only the left,” it’s that a particular kind of identitarian framing on the left has made it easier to rationalize or excuse antisemitism in mainstream-ish institutions that claim to be anti‑racist. The post Oct 7 congressional testimony and fallout was very illuminating to me. Analyses from across the political spectrum note frameworks dividing society into oppressor/oppressed bins, often used in DEI training, tend to code Jews (especially Israelis or American Jews perceived as “white”) as oppressors, which interacts badly with longstanding antisemitic tropes.
Re: diverse staff
I don’t believe more diverse staffs are inherently less qualified. In plenty of cases the new hires are qualified. The issue is that when institutions publicly commit to hitting demographic targets, and when internal documents openly discuss filtering or disadvantaging certain groups, it both creates resentment and muddies perceptions of merit for everyone, including the diverse hires.
I agree that vibes aren’t enough, where I think we differ is that I see a mix of data, institutional behavior, and personal accounts that add up to a pattern worth worrying about. I’m trying to stitch those into a coherent argument, not just complain about feelings.
There's plenty of links to explore here btw, I'll pull out 2 I'd very much recommend:
https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-lost-generation/ (people openly admitted discrimination here)
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/identity-politics-isnt-working (good overview of how identity politics wasn't working, from a center-left voice)
Of note I feel like I'm still far more empathetic and balanced on this topic than you'll get from many people. Unlike the doomers I don't think any of what we've done is necessarily the end of our society and institutions. There is more much nihilistic commentary from many, many people on what this all means. I don't share that pessimism. I think we can easily right the ship if we choose to.