Diversity Or Not
(Politics,Society) If you listen to a small but loud sector of our population, diversity is the reason America is the country it is today. It is nearly the sole reason for our greatness and perhaps the entire *raison d'etre* for the success of America. This is neither logically nor factually true. By that I mean, no facts support this and no reasoning from facts prove it. We did not put a man on the moon because of diversity. You can try to somehow reason forward from some dubious assumptions and somehow "prove" it's so. But any reasonable person armed with the facts will be able to overturn your reasoning in short order. We did not explore the depths of the Marianas Trench because of diversity. Same as above. We didn't develop computers, microwave ovens, automatic transmissions or any other advances in the world as a result of diversity. (I'm not saying America developed these things, either. I haven't looked into their geneology. But we had definitely advanced technology more than any other country on Earth.) No amount of diversity would or could have produced any of the three inventions above. Nor anything of any great significance in American history, except for one thing. Art. Cultural (not racial, not sexual) diversity has given us a tremendous number of branches in the tree of music. Music has benefitted greatly from the diversity of our country. And, I would add, art itself. The blending of cultures has given us an endless variety in the arts. It's interesting to listen to the world at large crow about their ancient cultures and about how the U.S. has no culture. *Au contraire, mon frere*. The United States has quite a rich culture. Just travel around, and you'll see. Visit New York, and then stop in New Orleans. Then Memphis. Then Chicago. Then Dallas. The Dakotas. Etc. The Southern states boast a vastly different culture than the North, and the East and West are almost opposite ends of the cultural spectrum. That culture is partly due to the diversity of our ancestors. So none of this talk about how the United States has no real culture. We're rich in culture. In fact, we have a far greater diversity of culture than you'll ever have. But culture is not what's made the United States what it is. The Rule of Law and the free market are what's made America great. The ability to speak and write freely, the ability to invest in our hopes and dreams. The ability to profit based on gambling that our ideas might pay off. The ability to dream a dream and then follow it up and build that dream into a reality, without interference. The ability to protect that dream from theft and destruction. Diversity didn't give us these things. And lack of it can't take these things away. Only the interference of government and/or criminals can do that. And by the way, that cultural and artistic diversity I spoke of earlier? That wouldn't be possible without the freedom to speak and express our thoughts as we like. That's the Rule of Law at work. The Rule of Law allows us to be diverse and protects our diversity where it exists or arises. People come to the United States and are desperate to get here not because we are diverse. They come here because baked into our society are the ingredients necessary to thrive and create a new and better life for ourselves and our children.