I am (sometimes)

Thanks to Sara for pointing this one out. This type of thing has bugged me a lot about the education system. Too often were (are?) we bombarded with trivialities that make other cultures better than ours. Diversity is not important in merely coming from a different culture, but it is important in how it contributes to thoughts and actions. Having a different perspective can bring answers to questions not fully understood before, and can bring new questions to light. To be fair to the schooling though, growing up I didn't feel like I was being told anyone was supperior to anyone else. Though I suppose highlighting the good parts of one civilization and the bad parts of another would be doing that. Other cultures are interesting, and could be fun to learn about, but that is not the point of the history classes we have as children. The point is to educate us as about from what it is we came, and to where we may go. The study of the past can teach us about addressing the future. These are what we should take from our schooling of history. There is some use in knowing about different forms of thought and different art, but that is the extend to which multiculturalism is important. A more immediately relevant application of this multiculturalism nonsense is the "diversity" which various organizations stems from Affirmative Action. This is giving the advantage to one individual purely for the circumstance of the color of their skin instead of their qualifications as an intellectual in admition to what is supposed to be a haven for intellectuals (in the case of colleges and universities). If you want to think that people from unfortunate circumstances could be capable of more than their test scores show because they were in those unfortunate circumstances, then please base decisions on merit and those unfortunate circumstances. I think one would be hard pressed to find a black person who would say that the color of his skin constituted intellectually-limitting circumstances. Asians a the best counter example to this matter of "promoting-minorities-for-no-reason = better culture for everyone" doctrine. First generation Asians still manage to be successful here in America, many even owning their own businesses and not speaking English. Yet blacks and mexicans (anyone else I'm missing here? Native Americans I shall skip over), many of whom have been here for several generations (blacks at least), have failed to progress out of the inner-cities. Is our society still whipping and beating them to return to their holes? No? Perhaps we just don't like them so discriminate to WASPs? Tell me then, how do you explain successful and high ranking blacks? Surely Clarence Thomas would not have been appointed if the decision were because he was black. "But wait! Those cases are just because the elitist white man wants us to feel like nothing's actually happening, but I won't fall for it!" Wait, maybe you're all just lazy bastards who would prefer to leech from the rest of society dry, constantly demanding what isn't yours.

Wheew. What a rant. For more rants, see the ARI's opinions.

"But while it was their opportunities that made these men fortunate, it was their own merit that enabled them to recognize these opportunities and turn them to account, to the glory and prosperity of their country." - Machiavelli, The Prince