Diversity: Difference between revisions

Jump to navigation Jump to search

Diversity (view source)

Revision as of 10:40, 6 January 2021

1,038 bytes added ,  6 January 2021
no edit summary
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 9: Line 9:
Seeing all of us comprise, inhabit, and are immersed in [[complex system]]s ''all the time'' — merely [[complicated system|complicated]] or [[simple system]]s are highly unusual over the run of human discourse<ref>Artificial zero-sum contests like [[Chess|Games]] and sports are obvious exceptions, as is theoretical (but not practical) science.</ref> — this isn’t just airy-fairy [[yogababble]] to put out on the corporate Twitter feed on Pride Day.
Seeing all of us comprise, inhabit, and are immersed in [[complex system]]s ''all the time'' — merely [[complicated system|complicated]] or [[simple system]]s are highly unusual over the run of human discourse<ref>Artificial zero-sum contests like [[Chess|Games]] and sports are obvious exceptions, as is theoretical (but not practical) science.</ref> — this isn’t just airy-fairy [[yogababble]] to put out on the corporate Twitter feed on Pride Day.


Yet our institutions — even those with a [[Humble|humble-bragging]] D&I directorate — are singularly resistant in practice to this idea.   
Yet our institutions — even those with a [[Humble|humble-bragging]] D&I directorate — are singularly resistant in practice to this idea.  Thus, [[legal department]]s are populated not just by lawyers, but by lawyers educated at Oxbridge and Russell Group universities and trained at [[magic circle law firm|magic circle]] firms, at which they have had a singular, ''batshit crazy'', view of the world beaten into them over a period of, literally, decades, before they ascend to a position of influence. There are no [[Behavioural psychology|behavioural psychologists]], no marketers, no [[Complexity theory|complexity theorists]] among them. All of these disciplines have meaningful things to say about the management of legal and contractual relations.  
*[[Legal department]]s are populated not just by lawyers, but by lawyers educated at Oxbridge and Russell Group universities and trained at [[magic circle law firm|magic circle]] firms, at which they have had a singular, ''batshit crazy'', view of the world beaten into them.  
*There are no [[Behavioural psychology|behavioural psychologists]], no marketers, no [[Complexity theory|complexity theorists]] among them. All of these disciplines have meaningful things to say about the management of contractual relations.
*There may be a [[chief operating officer]], but she will be an accountant with an [[MBA]], a postgraduate degree singularly [[calculated]] to render an otherwise useful professional calling into an amorphous morass of hackneyed [[outsourcing]] strategies. She will fret that there are too many men in management roles, as if a few more female Oxbridge graduate, [[Allen & Overy]] alumni would make a difference.


If the chief benefit to an organisation of diversity is ''difference'' — you know, of opinion; borne of the divergent cultural and sexual perspectives of your staff<ref>And — who knows? — maybe even their varied ''professional'' experiences and background.</ref> — then you might be forgiven for expecting diversity to arrive arm-in-arm with a heightened sense of conflict, grit, chippiness — an air of [[the military school of life]], so to say. But this seems not the brand of diversity our millennial wunderkinds, bunkered in their safe spaces, are seeking.
There may be a [[chief operating officer]], but she will be an accountant with an [[MBA]], a postgraduate degree singularly [[calculated]] to render an otherwise useful professional calling into an amorphous morass of hackneyed [[outsourcing]] strategies.  


The irony is that the [[JC]] — a fellow who prides finds himself on forming diverse opinions for the sheer devil of it — find himself choosing his words even more carefully than normal, for fear of being cancelled, or whatever these youngsters do to old fogies these days, who bring offence to the neurotic tweenies.
To be sure there are far too many white, cis-gendered, London-based, middle-aged men in management roles, but the problem isn't that they are specifically white, or hetero, or male: it is that through the monstrous meat-grinding systems that shape industry — the education, the professional homogenisation, the intellectual acculturation that weeds out anyone who doesn’t fit a tight profile moulded in the image of those whose are already at the top of the industry, the people who made it to the top of the industry are ''mediocre'' and they are all the same.
 
Their homogeneity is a symptom of mediocrity that is driven by something else, not a cause. These people may be disproportionately white, straight and male, but that isn’t what makes them sappingly dull. It isn’t clear how switching the fellas out for ''other'' university-educated, north-London inhabiting, [[MBA]] alumni — only ones who are not caucasian, male or straight — but who have nonetheless been ''systematically beaten into exactly the same mental space'', would make a difference.
 
If the chief benefit to an organisation of diversity is ''difference'' — you know, of opinion; borne of the divergent cultural and sexual perspectives of your staff<ref>And — who knows? — maybe even their varied ''professional'' experiences and background.</ref> — then you might be forgiven for expecting diversity to arrive arm-in-arm with a heightened sense of conflict, grit, chippiness — an air of [[the military school of life]], so to say. That would be great. But this seems not the brand of diversity our millennial wunderkinds, bunkered in their safe spaces, are seeking.
 
The irony is that the [[JC]] — a fellow who enjoys forming diverse opinions for the sheer devil of it — find himself choosing his words even more carefully than normal, for fear of being cancelled, or whatever it is these youngsters do to old fogies these days, for bringing offence to neurotic tweenies.


===Homogeneity risks===
===Homogeneity risks===
Line 25: Line 28:
*[[Complexity]]
*[[Complexity]]
{{ref}}
{{ref}}
<references />
Retrieved from "https://jollycontrarian.com/index.php?title=Special:MobileDiff/52304"

Navigation menu