A belief in Diversity
Variations in appearance, backgrounds and thinking tend to enrich our lives, both individually and collectively.
Quotations
“Ancient ethnic sores belching fire”
The complications of this diversity can be overwhelming. Ancient ethnic sores are belching fire while transnational companies linked by satellites conduct their business oblivious to the feudal past below.
Don Beck and Chris Cowan, from the book Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change, 2006, © Don Edward Beck and Christopher C. Cowan
“Crosscutting Alliances”
Where a society’s political divisions are crosscutting, we line up on different sides of issues with different people at different times. We may disagree with our neighbors on abortion but agree with them on health care; we may dislike another neighbor’s views on immigration but agree with them on the need to raise the minimum wage. Such alliances help us build and sustain norms of mutual toleration. When we agree with our political rivals at least some of the time, we are less likely to view them as mortal enemies.
Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, from the book How Democracies Die, 2018, © Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
“Diversity Helps Your Business -- But Not The Way You Think”
I recently published research … that found that members of a social majority are more likely to voice unique perspectives and critically review task-relevant information when there is more social diversity present than when there is not. Moreover, this is true even when the people who are “different” don’t express any unique perspectives themselves. Our research suggests that the mere presence of social diversity makes people with independent points of view more willing to voice those points of view, and others more willing to listen.
In one of our studies, we compared homogeneous and diverse groups trying to solve a murder mystery. The diverse groups reported that they didn’t work together very effectively, and they were less confident about their decisions than the homogeneous groups, yet they consistently outperformed those homogeneous groups.
Katherine Phillips, from the article “Forbes”, 02 Jun 2009
“The Divine Gift of Purely Nonsensical Speech and Action”
Fen sighed. “We are all becoming standardized and normal, Nigel. The divine gift of purely nonsensical speech and action is in atrophy. Would you believe it, a pupil of mine had the impertinence the other day to tick me off for reading him passages regarding the Fimble Fowl and the Quangle-Wangle as an illustration of pure poetic inventiveness; I put him in his place all right.” In the semi-darkness his eye became momentarily lambent with remembered satisfaction. “But there’s no eccentricity nowadays – none at all.”
Edmund Crispin, from the book The Case of the Gilded Fly, 1944
“First they came...”
First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
“Homophobia”
An integral approach acknowledges that all views have a degree of truth, but some views are more true than others, more evolved, more developed, more adequate. And so let’s get that part out of the way right now: homophobia in any form, as far as I can tell, stems from a lower level of human development – but it is a level, it exists, and one has to make room in one’s awareness for those lower levels as well, just as one has to include third grade in any school curriculum. Just don’t, you know, put those people in charge of anything important.
Ken Wilber, from the book Collected Works of Ken Wilber, Volume 8, 2000, © Ken Wilber
“Ism-mania”
Grandpa: Penny why don’t you write a play about ism-mania?
Penny: Ism-mania?
Grandpa: Yeah, sure, you know – communism, fascism, voodooism. Everybody’s got an ism these days.
Penny: I feel like I’ve got this itch or something.
Grandpa: It’s just as catching. When things go a little bad nowadays, you go out and get yourself an ism and you’re in business.
Penny: I’ve got it! It might help Cynthia to have an ism in the monastery!
Grandpa: It might at that. Only give her Americanism. Let her know something about Americans: John Paul Jones, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, Lincoln, Grant, Lee, Edison, Mark Twain. When things got tough for those boys, they didn’t run around looking for isms. Lincoln said, “With malice toward none, with charity for all.” Nowadays they say, “Think the way I do, or I’ll bomb the daylights out of you.”
Robert Riskin, from the film You Can't Take It With You, 1938
“Model II Decision-Making”
Model II encourages the individual to maximize his uniqueness. If, in doing so, he should arrive at goals that differ from those developed by others, he will have done so under conditions of openness, trust and risk-taking. The individual would therefore feel free to discuss his differences openly with the group. Moreover, if the individual is in a subordinate power position, and if he feels he had adequate opportunity to dissuade the group and that the group publicly confronted and tested all differences, then the individual will probably be motivated to work toward the group goal but still be motivated to generate new information that may change the group’s decision. This means that one can be externally committed to a decision and internally committed to the decision-making processes that produced the decision yet simultaneously monitor the consequences of the decision thoroughly to seek new, valid information to reconfront the decision without being considered disloyal. In the model-II world, conflicts do not disappear–indeed, the illusion of conflict disappearing is more typical of the model-I world, in which conflicts are settled by power plays based on sanctions, charisma or loyalty.
Chris Argyris and Donald Schön, from the book Theory in Practice: Increasing Personal Effectiveness, 1974, © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
“A multiethnic democracy in which no particular ethnic group is in the majority”
The simple fact of the matter is that the world has never built a multiethnic democracy in which no particular ethnic group is in the majority and where political equality, social equality and economies that empower all have been achieved. We are engaged in a fight over whether to work together to build such a world.
Danielle Allen, from the essay “Charlottesville is not the continuation of an old fight. It is something new.”, 13 Aug 2017
“Postel’s Law”
Be conservative in what you do; be liberal in what you accept from others.
Jon Postel, from Transmission Control Protocol Request For Comments RFC 793, 1981
“Public morality”
Moral guidance about what is right or decent can be found both in religious teachings and in our contemporary understanding of what we owe one another as members of the same society. As I have suggested, they overlap. A public morality that protects our democratic institutions, cherishes the truth, accepts our differences, ensures equal rights and equal opportunity, and invites passionate enagement in our civic life gives our own lives deeper meaning. It enlarges our capacities for attachment and love. It informs our sense of honor and shame. It equips us to be virtuous citizens.
Robert B. Reich, from the book The Common Good, 2018, © Robert B. Reich
“A raving demagogue counseling hatred”
So next time you hear a raving demagogue counseling hatred for other, slightly different groups of humans, for a moment at least see if you can understand his problem: He is heeding an ancient call that – however dangerous, obsolete, and maladaptive it may be today – once benefitted our species.
Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, from the book Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are, 1993, © Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan
“Seeing the Bigger Picture from Multiple Angles”
He [Jeff Bezos] said people who were right a lot of the time were people who often changed their minds. He doesn’t think consistency of thought is a particularly positive trait. It’s perfectly healthy – encouraged, even – to have an idea tomorrow that contradicted your idea today.
He’s observed that the smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they’d already solved. They’re open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a well formed point of view, but it means you should consider your point of view as temporary.
What trait signified someone who was wrong a lot of the time? Someone obsessed with details that only support one point of view. If someone can’t climb out of the details, and see the bigger picture from multiple angles, they’re often wrong most of the time.
Jeff Bezos and Jason Fried, from the interview “Signal vs. Noise”, Sep 21, 2015
“Ten Commandments for Teachers”
Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavour to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent that in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.
“We don't even own suits”
When an AT&T rep suggested Jobs wear a suit to meet with AT&T’s CEO, the deputy replied, “We’re Apple. We don’t wear suits. We don’t even own suits.”
Apple, from the article “The Oft Unhappy Marriage of Apple and AT&T”, July 19, 2010, © Mansueto Ventures