One cheer for " diversity "

The deplorable regression to tribalism now seems to be a

    world-wide phenomenon - no doubt connected to the collapse of

    Cold War ideology which did divide the world into TWO camps -but

    not 1000 !

         The spring semester program at URI Extension here in Providence

    screams " DIVERSITY " on the front page . As if DIVERSITY was a

    self-evident  blessing. And in fact the DIVERSITY worshiped in

    the unreal academic world is often downright nasty in its

    exclusiveness. Every branch on the great tree of DIVERSITY must

    be branded PC .

            Sorry, but I still have a quaint -if pernicious - belief

    in the merits of Western Civilization . A champion of multi-

    culturalism has just E-mailed me that there is no such thing

    as Western Civilization. He must have discovered that at a university

    where once there was actually a course in it.

            People who hang around dusty old libraries might independently

    discover " The Western Tradition " - a video series. Or books

    like Bertrand Russell's " The Wisdom of the West " .

           How can people begin to get along without common reference

    points, a common culture, common CIVILIZED values ?

             Today  the gospel of DIVERSITY is being preached with

    all the fervor of Red China's crazed " Cultural Revolution ".

               Indeed it is really the opposite of UNI-VERSITY !