Divided by Law: the disguise of diversity

Friday, January 23, 2009

the disguise of diversity

This is short because if i start to rant it might be misinterpreted.

A white middle class male approached me today. He attends an institution which is famed for its ethnic and national diversity. It boasts its status as the most diverse institution where people from every corner of the globe, from every minority, are welcome to come and unite. The male told me that these people come and form societies based on their ethnic origins or nationalities. Consequently these societies cut themselves off slightly by being a united group in themselves. To be in the societies you have to fit the criteria. The institution is proud because they have hundreds of societies representing hundreds of minorities. Not only does the male have no society to which he fits but the societies have also segregated themselves from the others. They do not need to open themselves up to diversity or blending. So the institution is not a compound but a mixture. And it is not the role model of multiculturalism it says it is.

2 comments:

CLGFebruary 11, 2009 at 1:04 AM
Aargh! I know the institution in question, and this did my head in while I was there!!!

One exception to this though: The Drama Society there was brilliant, and absolutely welcomed everyone. Not sure what it's like this year, but last year there were loads of people of all nationalities and backgrounds involved with their productions and activities.
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.C.February 11, 2009 at 10:19 AM
Thanks for the comment! But yes you're right about the drama soc, I'd imagine working for the uni paper is pretty good too - I used to work there and, when processing the society applications, I would say that 90% are societies based on nationality, ethnicity, religion or political opinion. I think this is normal for universities - but at other institutions membership to such societies is arbitrary and the sports socs, social socs and activity socs prevail because they are built for inclusive fun rather than exclusivity. So I guess that it is actually because of the accentuated diversity at this university that the divisions are more apparent! :]
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Divided by Law:

We justify our insecurities by saying that we are unique, idiomatic or individual: but in the desperate search to define who we are we have separated ourselves from each other: geneology and short sighted bloodlines have been the proof that we are something different, something which we suggest is special: society is broken - so we turn to the government or the regulators of society to ask why we have become such a divided world. They say it's because of intolerance or fear or conservatism or genetics or class or race or culture. We demand a solution to the problem we have created! So they give us laws: laws which, because of a need for certainty and fairness are forced to define intangible differences. We enhance the differences to try and equalise them - and all we get is this broken synthetic multiculturalism which is failing our minorities and ostracising our majorities. Plus ça change.

a word on the faith you put in words

The media, our window into the outside world, is an indistinguishable pile of opinion and fact and opinion posing as fact. This blog is one such example. There are lies that you believe and facts that you cant believe. But it is not unreasonable to suggest that, because information is never perfect, opinion must be taken as fact for the sake of clarity. So opinion is fact because fact is just what we think it is, or need it to be: science creates proofs but the words of proof are dangerously misleading. You read the newspaper for facts on the world but their words manipulate your opinion. You become a liberal left, a neo-conservative, a liberal fascist, a racialist, a semantic pedant, a polemicist. So we call out for a neutrality; an impossibility when facts are so thin. People say we are a slaves to the media but we are slaves out of necessity - in a twisted dichotomy of fact and opinion - you are reading these words! You read as if they are profound: But they are being typed by a monkey! Or a fat middle-aged paedophile behind the glossy shield of the internet, waxing lyrical with the idioms of a political activist or a childish teenager. So who do you trust! Do you wait until history has judged it? When you see it through the red or blue tinted glasses of opinionated politically tinged historians? Maybe you wait until science has proved why our minds are so polarised. Maybe there is no answer: so you may as well be ignorant to it all and curl up in a corner to write a blog that no one will ever read.

Divided by Law

Friday, January 23, 2009

the disguise of diversity

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Divided by Law:

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