When Diversity Means Conformity - A Clown Show To Hide Serious Political Intent

 No rational observer takes the progressive canon on face value.  Diversity, equity, inclusion - the liturgy of social reform - is nothing more than a cover for a more serious political intent.  Who every thought that the Biden open border policy was a humanitarian gesture, a reprise of Ellis Island and multicultural early 20th Century America?  Anyone paying attention saw it for the calculated policy to engineer redistricting and ensure Democrat majorities; and to fill non-ID voter rolls with those thankful for Democrat generosity and largesse.  

 

Does any progressive who publicly champions the black man and commits to raising him atop the human pyramid, recognize his forest-sentient origins, his closeness to Nature and the Environment and his native power really believe in such cant?  The African diaspora is immured in dysfunctional urban cells - 'inner city' neighborhoods of crime, truancy, drugs, and violence; and the mother-lode, Africa itself is a failed continent on all points of the compass.  Black-love, the overrepresentation of black faces on television, cinema, political office, and public affairs, is nothing more than a convenient coverlet, a mantel of respectability to keep the black electorate in tow. 

Who in the progressive ranks actually believes that the basso profundo, ex-telephone lineman, barrel-chested femme teaching kindergarten is actually a woman? Or that late-term abortion is nothing more than removing an unwanted clot of phlegm and preserving the sanctity of women? Who, once they have returned from the barricades shouting down Wall Street and Silicon Valley billionaires in a loud endorsement of socialism has ever looked at the murderous, destructive, inhuman regimes of Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Castro and the Korean Kims?

'Idealism', say those who although in partnership with the Left, are more reserved about its current extremism.  Socialism appeals to the young because it promises equality, a communal end to unearned privileged, a utopia of good will, harmony, generosity, and compassion; and they are not expected to look further.  It is their idealism which is important for the nation, principles to guide democracy to a new, more verdant, understanding, and peaceful world. 

The same socialist ethos - assuring that every individual regardless of race, gender, or ethnicity, rich or poor is welcomed into the big tent of communalism and equality - underlies all verses of the progressive canon.  

'Stick to your own kind', the refrain from one of Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story has never been more true.  Ever since the first human settlements difference has been the rule - suspicion of the outside, the interloper, the curious.  Every society has been hierarchically defined, the most intelligent on top, the least able on the bottom and a scramble to move up and out. 

The Communists knew this like everyone else, but saw that their version of 'inclusivity' resonated particularly well after centuries of the czars.  With enough determination, will, and military power, Russian society could be re-formed into a socialist paradise.

Once American progressives achieve their goal of diversity and inclusion - i.e. all citizens espousing the same theology, singing the same hymns, and reciting the same prayers - political control will be easy.  The Soviets tried this but ruined the country, eliminated the most promising and productive of its citizens, and threatened world peace. 

Eleanor Potter who considered herself a thoughtful, reasonable person - after all, what was a Vassar education worth if not to instill the principles of analysis, objectivity, and exegesis? She had never thought of herself as liberal or progressive - at least not in the reformist way - and went through her college years and beyond acting out her own interests.  She married well, was professionally successful, and socially engaged, all of which pointed to a life of political moderation. 

Something happened along the way - perhaps a dalliance with a Fifth Avenue Jewish matron who despite her wealth and premier New York cachet, was a committed but secret socialist.  Their love affair - as quiet and closeted as Mrs. Rubenstein's politics - lasted only a summer, but the woman was as seductive about her ideas as she was about her body, and before back-to-school, Eleanor had become a believer. 

'You must come to New York again' said Mrs. Rubenstein at the train station, but of course neither woman believed in that promise; but neither regretted the affair, particularly Eleanor who had come away not only with the buds of her sexuality finally opened, but her mind as well. 

It was this fundament - the socialism so eagerly endorsed by her lover - that was at the heart of her turn to progressive politics.  As she listened to the blandishments of liberal advocates about immigration, abortion, climate change, gender fluidity, and racism, she understood what this potpourri, this grab bag of disparate causes, was all about.  Although the women who stormed the barricades in protest thought they were fighting for individual reforms, they were simply chess pieces in a much larger game. 

This was what Esther Rubenstein was all about - the fundament, the infrastructure - the need for revolutionary social change.  All the rest was just window dressing, attractive political shawls.  As Stalin knew, the state had to make the individual believe that his bit for social justice fit within the overall transformation of Russian society. 

Yes, the Jews were not well treated by the Russians, but they did defeat the Jews' worst enemy, the Nazis and for that Esther and her family would be eternally thankful; but that was now part of history, when the real struggle, the neo-socialist caliphate, was far more urgent.  And yes, Stalin overstepped his bounds with Siberia and the gulags; but his salutary vision was undimmed.  The world could simply not survive the divisive, separatist, Paleolithic world of greed and aggression. 

Esther saw the progressive potpourri - the smorgasbord of tasty bits on the reform agenda - as necessary treats for the unwitting faithful.  Let them dream of a transgender world, a mass of multiculturalism, a cooling, temperate, paradisical climate, she thought, while their efforts would eventually be stitched together into one, unified, perfect quilt. 

Eleanor, once back in Washington, never forgot Esther Rubenstein and became her political devotee and like her a secretive one.  No one in Eleanor's milieu - well-to-do McLean, Georgetown, and Great Falls matrons - would have tolerated a socialist in their group.  Progressive sympathies were as far as these women went; so Eleanor kept her own counsel.  

However, behind the scenes she supported those in the intellectual socialist underground - the Harvard, Duke, and Berkeley professors who were at the avant-garde of what they called 'revolutionary underpinnings'.  In their courses, their writings, and their public addresses, they were careful about overplaying their hand but carefully and seductively couched their revolutionary message in acceptably progressive terms. 

The movement was one of genius - the fragrant potpourri for the acolytes, the true believers in individual progressive causes; and the heady intellectual substance for those responsible for true intent.  It was a marvelously orchestrated, brilliantly conducted symphony.  The American Right simply fought battles with the minions - gender reassignment was imagined, open borders was destabilizing, climate change was fiction - but never honed in on the more insidious, seditious socialist intent which underlay all these disparate causes.  As such it was fighting a losing battle. 

Eleanor did meet Esther Rubenstein again after many years, a nostalgic reunion at the Plaza, afternoon tea of reminiscences, expressions of mutual affection; but Eleanor felt blessed that she had the opportunity to meet her benefactor, a true hero, a woman of merit.