Inclusive Mania

Words matter.

I applauded historians Daniel Pipes and Deirdre McCloskey earlier this year because they have attempted to bring new words into common usage that more accurately describe what is actually going on.  Pipes has been using the term “civilizationist” to describe the resistance of the former Eastern Bloc countries to massive Islamic immigration in lieu of “nationalist,” which has taken on the taint of fascism since WWII.  McCloskey has been advocating the use of the term “innovism” rather than “capitalism” since it is innovation and the freedom to innovate rather than the accumulation of capital that is responsible for the spectacular increase in wealth since the middle of the 19^th century.  Innovism is a more accurate description of what actually happened.

Unfortunately, 5-10 years ago, the words “inclusiveness” and “diversity” have infected our language from the Left.  Gradually, these terms became so ubiquitous that they became sacred in meaning.  Companies and law firms that formerly spent hours and hours agonizing over how to differentiate themselves in the marketplace now all boast in a very undifferentiated way about their commitment to diversity and inclusiveness.  

And make no mistake, when Progressives use the term “inclusiveness,” they mean that that considerations of gender, race and ethnicity are valued more highly than any other attribute.  Efficiency, effectiveness, skill and experience level are all deeply subordinated to notions of “inclusiveness.”  Even in positions in which health and safety are a priority concern.

Inclusiveness is being codified into our society in many ways.  Many large companies now even put that commitment into their vendor contracts as an obligatory term that the vendor must comply with…. on the par with on time delivery and product warranty.  In Illinois, public companies must report diversity information to the Secretary of State (an earlier version of the bill mandated that public companies must have a woman and a minority on their board).

There are reports that search firms are being told not to even talk with potential white male candidates.  One senior manager at a large financial institution intimated to me, “If you are a white male, you basically can’t get a job with us anymore.”  Skin color and gender considerations are everything in some corners.   The obsession with inclusiveness caused an Evanston school cancelled \\Halloween because the holiday celebration wasn’t deemed “inclusive” enough. 

I thought that religion and high academics could escape the worst of this absurdity.  Two years ago, I attended a program at The University of Chicago’s Becker Friedman Center, the nesting place of Nobel Prize winning economists, and the director spoke about academic excellence and the desire to attract the best PhD candidates in the world.  He said nothing about inclusiveness or diversity.  Just excellence.

But even The University of Chicago is beginning to be brought to heel.  Robert Zimmer’s Welcome Letter to incoming students devoted to entire second paragraph to “inclusiveness.” 

Today we address another critical commitment of the University: to having a community that is open and inclusive to all segments of the nation and the world, which in turn amplifies the nature of our intellectual environment. We often refer to the University as an intellectual community, and it is important to recognize both components of that expression--that we are defined by a commitment to an ambitious and challenging intellectual environment, and by a sustained effort to build a community in which this environment can take full shape. In that context, we reaffirm in the strongest terms the University's values of openness and inclusion, and our dedication to welcoming people of all backgrounds and nations.

Now, of course, Zimmer tried to redefine the term to avoid the common parlance.  But no matter. Once you start adopting the terminology of the Progressives, you are trapped into playing their game on their terms.    Sadly, the bastion of free speech and academic excellence is beginning to bend to the will of the Progressive dictates.   The University of Chicago is EXCLUSIVE by definition, not INCLUSIVE.   It does not exclude by race, gender or sexual orientation, but it certainly excludes those that are not of deeply serious intellectual depth and caliber.   Zimmer may mean one thing, though.  Progressives mean another.

Similarly, religion by definition is exclusive.  It is a club with a particular belief system that prescribes a particular set of behaviors for its adherents.   Several months ago, Pope Francis, the globalist pontiff, used the word “inclusive” to describe the Church.   Even for the leader of the Catholic Church, “inclusiveness” trumps theology. 

Progressives attempt to coerce all institutions into adopting their language and demonstrating or claiming “inclusiveness” is how you avoid their wrath.  But it is highly context dependent and in some instances—religion and high scholarship, where it is a perversion to even use that word.  Zimmer and Pope Francis were wrong to even include it in their messages.  Sometimes the situation calls for just the opposite.  The use of that term in those cases were acts of appeasement.

Business (and Law) Must Step Up--Now

The U.S. economy has been in an uninterrupted expansion for a decade.  Unemployment is at a 50 year low.  The stock market is at record levels.  Inflation is tame.  Gas prices are subdued. 

Yet American capitalism is under assault like never before.  The entire Democratic slate is promising bigger, more expensive, more intrusive government that hands out more stuff and promises more restrictions on our lifestyles (except abortion, of course).  From “Medicare for all” to the “Green New Deal” to free college and/or student loan forgiveness to a “wealth tax” and raising taxes on the “wealthy,” the Democratic platform, if implemented would mean the end of the innovative, flexible, growth oriented American capitalist model as we know it, to be replaced by something between a nanny state and out-and-out Communism.  Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Communism seams to have sprouted back up again, led by Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, despite an economy in which people are doing pretty well.  Most troubling, surveys show that young people have a positive view of socialism.

There are many causes for this, I believe.  The echoes of the financial collapse of ’07-’08.  Our education system and media outlets are staffed disproportionately by left leaning people.  

But business leaders and leaders in the legal profession themselves are failing us with their behavior.  At a time when we are having to re-make the case for capitalism, it seems that every day, the press is full of stories of why business cannot be trusted to function in a lightly regulated environment.

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, We Work is the poster child for why resentment toward capitalism has grown.  Ordinarily, Americans don’t care if market trend setters and disrupters get rich.  It’s the whole risk/reward formula which underpins capitalism.  But when the business fails spectacularly, and the owner still walks away with $1.7 billion (that’s billion with a “B”), there is something fundamentally flawed with the system.  The American capitalist system encourages people to try…and fail… without ruining.  But when the owner of a failed business gets rich while thousands get laid off, that’s when resentment really breeds.  Even uber-capitalist Cliff Asness (head of the hedge fund AQR Capital Management) noted that there was considerable overlap between what the Tea Party people were complaining about and what the Occupy Wall Street people are unhappy about.  A system that permits someone like Adam Neumann to get incredibly wealthy on a scheme that dissipated, rather than created, value has to be questioned.

Likewise, the airline industry is now under scrutiny and giving the mantra “profits before people” some credence.   Boeing’s debacle with the  737 Max  and Southwest’s  difficulty with the FAA over used aircraft it has acquired (Southwest cannot show the FAA that proper maintenance had been done on the aircraft acquired) raise the issue of “regulatory capture,” that the government agency charged with oversight has too cozy a relationship with those in the industry.  The upshot is that the industry players have at least given the appearance that they may be willing to cut corners and put profit ahead of safety---- directly feeding the liberal narrative.

Last week, Under Armour revealed that it was under S.E.C. investigation for pulling sales forward to pump up current quarter earnings and browbeating retailers into taking product earlier than they’d like.  Google announced that it was entering into a deal with Ascension Health under which Google would obtain patient identifiable data (exploiting a HIPAA loophole).

What was almost amusing about these instances was the public statement issued by these companies.  Southwest asserted that it was a “paperwork issue not a safety issue.”  Right.  Under Armour asserted that it was “common industry practice.”  The excuse that everybody does it usually gets worn out by the teen years.  And Google’s assertion that it was going to use the patient data to improve health care is almost laughable.  We have learned that we can’t trust the F.B.I. not to leak data.  Will you trust Google?

In the law, Gordon Caplan, co-head of Willkie Farr, a prestigious law firm, will do time in prison for his role in the college admissions scandal.   Lawyers have a special role as officers of the court.  Already, the perception is that children of wealthier professionals have a leg up in college admissions.  But when the co-head of a large law firm is caught openly bribing school officials to get a child admitted, it really feeds the narrative that the fix is in. 

These are but three egregious examples that illustrate some of the worst behavior, and they confirm the fears of average people that the deck is stacked.  Adam Neumann is laughing all the way to the bank while his company goes down in flames and people lose their jobs.  Boeing and Southwest raise suspicions that regulators are in the hip pockets of business.  That leaders in the legal profession are caught up in the college admissions scandal confirms fears that the privilege has no boundaries.

There is no guaranty that capitalism in the U.S. will survive.  Its image was sullied by the Great Recession and we are one election cycle from AOC, Bernie and Warren taking a wrecking ball to a system that has enriched us all over the past 200 years.  If it is to do so, it needs better spokespeople and a better P.R. push.  And most importantly, we need its leaders to exhibit better behavior.  Otherwise, our future may start looking more like Venezuela’s.

Just Kids

Let me tell you what I did last weekend.

On Saturday, I joined a friend of mine and attended the local high school playoff game, where Loyola beat the undefeated kids from Glenbard West in a nail-biter 28-27.   Coached by former N.F.L. player John Holecek, Loyola came back twice from 14 point deficits to prevail late in the game after intercepting a pass and then taking it in for the last score.  I marveled as the team overcame some early miscues.  Nearly dominated in the first half by a bigger team with a better record, Loyola battled back to advance in the state playoffs.  The kids wowed the crowd with crucial plays, which including a state record tying 99 yard kickoff return for a touchdown, set up perfectly and then the returner turned on the burners and outran his opponents.   Later, wide receiver Matthew  Mangan made a marvelous one handed catch along the sidelines and stayed in bounds to give Loyola a crucial first down (https://twitter.com/LAFootballAC/status/1195020189571657729?s=09).  His catch would have made the highlight reel at ESPN for any N.F.L. or Division 1 college game.  It is easy to forget that these are just 15, 16 and 17 year old kids as John Holecek routinely turns teams that lack true Division 1 scholarship talent into state champions.

On Sunday evening, I attended a performance at Northwestern’s Beinen School of Music entitled “Bach Glory,”  where I was again treated to a stunning performance of Bach’s Cantatas by some wonderful young musicians.  Now, although I love music of all types, I have an untrained musical ear.  But if I closed my eyes, I could not tell the difference between these kids and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  The geeky looking kid with the unkempt curly hair in the back filled the hall with the sonorous sound of his cello.  The gawky female violinist in the front played with pure passion.   And the beautiful young flutist in her long, black gown mesmerized the audience with a Bach Cantata.  Both the male and female vocalists filled the hall with their clear, rich voices.  The program was equal to anything I’ve seen at orchestra hall, and I was simply amazed when I considered that these musicians are only a couple of years out of high school.

For a total of $14 over the weekend, I was able to see some of the best performances that young people could give.  In the worlds of athletics and music, I saw kids play with focus and passion, and I understood the hours and hours of work and practice that went behind these performances.  I was truly amazed at what these kids could do.   Both musically and athletically, I was treated to a display of talent at a very high level.

It was weekends like this that give me a great deal of hope for the future and why I was so appalled with the Newberry Library Drag Queen Story Hour program.  The Newberry website boasts that  Drag Queen Story Hour "gives kids glamorous, positive and unabashedly queer role models."  It does nothing of the sort.  These people aren't role models for anyone.  Do you really aspire to have your child grow up to be Muffy Fishbasket?  

The young athletes at Loyola and the musicians at Beinen are the right role models for little children.  They are engaged in healthy, wholesome endeavors, toiling day after day to perfect their skills.  We need to support them and nurture them in those endeavors and those are their performances are the ones we should be taking our young children to see and emulate.  The Newberry Library and its board of trustees should be ashamed of themselves.

Leave the Kids Alone

I’ve singled out The Newberry Library as one of the cultural treasures of Chicago.   Along the The Poetry Foundation and the newly opened American Writers Museum, the institution rounds out a triad of cultural and literary importance in a city with a great literary tradition.

I have attended several programs over the past few years, including a celebration of Carl Sandburg’s poem “Chicago,” a one-act play “Back of the Yards,” a performance by the choral group Schola Antiqua, and a celebration of Melville which was kicked off by a presentation by author Nathaniel Philbrick, who wrote In The Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex—the story inspired Moby-Dick.  The Newberry followed with a 26 hour Moby-Dick read-a-thon which I participated in.

In my view, the library had successfully transformed itself from a dusty old building that housed records primarily for folks that were interested in esoteric geneology and Chicago history projects to a vibrant, relevant intellectual center that had inventive staff creating interesting programs to draw the public in.

I was ready to become a member finally, and enlarge my involvement with the institution.

But then I saw that The Newberry Library allowed itself to be hijacked by the radical end of LGBT and gender bending advocacy by allowing Drag Queen Story Hour to be presented at the library.    For those of you that are unfamiliar with it Drag Queen Story Hour is being pushed at public and private libraries all around the country, and is aimed at children aged 3 to 8 to “celebrate the ‘gender fluidity’ of childhood (I reject the notion that childhood is gender fluid), and to expose them to “role models.”  In at least one case, more was exposed than was bargained for.  In another, it was discovered that one of the drag queens was exposed as a child sex offender.  At an event in Minneapolis, a drag queen “accidentally” exposed himself.   At yet another, a drag queen sang lyrics containing profanity and provocatively began to remove clothing while dancing.   This looks more like grooming than an educational experience to me. 

I was tempted to attend the November 2 Drag Queen Story Hour just to see with my own eyes what went on and to record my observations.   But I actually exercised some judgment and assessed that the presence of an older male alone in the back of the room, I would be the one that would be viewed as the weirdo in the room.

Drag Queen Story Hour with Muffie Fishbasket at the Newberry, “captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive and unabashedly queer role models.  In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where people present as they wish, where the dress up is real.”

I challenge the premise that these gender confused readers are glamorous or positive or that they should be role models at all.  What proportion of parents would actually like their kids to grow up to be one of them? 

I want to know exactly how this all fits in with The Newberry Library’s mission as an “independent research library dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge, especially the humanities.  The Newberry acquires and preserves a broad array of special collections research materials relating to the civilizations of Europe and the Americas.”    What’s worse, is that the library is having not just one but four of these events.   Why is The Newberry having anything to do with this gender blurring and sexualization of children?  Drag Queen Story Hour represents a departure from all their other programs and speaks volumes about the judgment of the leadership of The Newberry Library and its board of trustees.  If the Newberry wanted to do a child focused program, it could have chosen to do something with Laura Ingalls Wilder, Jane Adams or E.B. White.  But no, it went with Muffy Fishbasket.

With Drag Queen Story Hour, the Newberry Library is coming dangerously close to promoting and advocating child grooming.  It has permitted its programming and premises in an entirely inappropriate way and in no way consistent with its mission to a fringe advocacy group hell bent on normalizing the abnormal.  Would the Newberry similarly expose the children to the joy of  pole dancing?   Would they entertain a pro-NRA program for pre-teens on firearms safety?  Would it permit itself to be used for a pro-life workshop?  

So, at the end of the year, my charitable checks will be mailed elsewhere and I urge my readers to object and withhold support from the Newberry. 

In the words of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, “Hey, teachers.  Leave those kids alone!.