Guest Post by Jeff Thomas
A half-century ago, the US was the envy of the world – the Land of the Free, where virtually anyone could prosper, if he were willing to roll up his sleeves and work.
America was made great through the immigration of those who wished to pursue the American dream of “work = personal success.” It’s important for us to remember that those who were less ambitious remained in their homelands and helped their countries stagnate, whilst their worker-bee counterparts colonised America for generations.
An important lesson here: America was not built on immigration per se; it was built on immigrants with a strong work ethic.
Not so, today. Whilst there are certainly those who move to the US to pursue the original American dream, far more go there due to the promise of governmental largesse. Welfare, free health care, free education, etc., now attract those very same people that stayed behind in previous generations – those who made little or no contribution to the economy.
This, of course, degrades the economy itself, as citizens, new and old, are encouraged to consume entitlements rather than work.
Of course, the critical ingredient in the Land of the Free was the Free Market – the system under which individuals and companies had the ability to make their business decisions based upon what was most profitable.
The 1960s brought about increased racial enlightenment in the US, resulting in the growth of greater opportunities for minorities in the workforce. At about the same time, women were increasingly receiving better educations and were seeing greater opportunities as leaders in business.
Again, this was all a part of the free market. A free market will invariably benefit from those who are the most capable, regardless of race, gender or ethnicity.
What a free market does not thrive on is governmental force. Force is the antithesis of freedom, and the more force, the less the freedom, until, eventually, the free market collapses under the weight of governmental interference.
In recent decades, political correctness arrived on the scene. It has done a fair bit to degrade the free market in the US, but it should not be mis-defined as force. It has functioned through coercion. Coercion is not force, but it’s often a precursor of force.
Historically, whenever a coercive social trend can be firmly established, it’s likely, at some point, to morph into legislated force.
So, will “diversity” grow legs and become enforced under law?
Well, right on cue, the Illinois State Legislature has passed a bill that mandates that all publicly traded companies have a woman and an African American on their board of directors.
Of course, in the modern world, it’s quite common to see boards of directors with both women and minorities, so why would this be a problem?
Well, here we go back to that word, “force.” To force a board of directors to have a woman on it is clear gender discrimination. To force it to have an African American is clear racism. The law dictates gender discrimination and racism by forcing companies to make decisions based upon gender and race.
Just as Jim Crow laws sought to suppress individuals based upon race, Senate Bill 76 seeks to favour individuals based upon race.
And if the “one woman, one African American” on corporate boards smacks of legislated tokenism, it is not. In creating the legislation, committee members expressed the goal to increase the mandatory number of women on any board to half within a few years. This reveals that the objective is to control the entire board, based upon forced diversity.
And in order to make clear to corporations that the State has taken over the power to determine the makeup of boards, the fine for failure has been set at $300,000 per infraction.
As yet, there’s no demand as to broader political correctness on boards, but the passage of this bill invites lobbying by others seeking political correctness. It can therefore be expected that other minorities (Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, etc.) take their “rightful place” in corporate America. And the LGBT lobby can be expected to make their own demands for equality on company boards at some point.
Of course, natural diversity can only be healthy. The best and brightest, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation should always be sought by corporate boards. This ensures future profitability. The more diversity, the greater the scope of the board.
Again, the problem here is not diversity, it’s forced diversity. Forced diversity puts the emphasis on those aspects of an individual that are not related to ability or experience. That, in turn, increases the likelihood of business failure by forcing companies to regard political correctness more highly than businesslike choices. And in doing so, it additionally violates the property rights of the shareholders.
In diversity there is strength. In coerced or forced diversity there is weakness.
Is Illinois Bill 76 an announcement that corporate freedom in the US has come to an end? No, but it’s certainly more than just a symptom of a problematic future for American business. It’s one of many building blocks for a collectivist ideal – the concept that “Government must control the means of production.” In this regard, the bill is only one of many that are being passed.
Of course, it’s understood that a liberal government will lean toward collectivism and a conservative government should theoretically lean toward a free market. But this is not what we’re witnessing. Both principle political parties in the US are contributing to the move toward collectivism. The former liberal and conservative parties have morphed into the liberal and liberal-lite parties. As Judge Andrew Napolitano has said, the Democrat and Republican parties are merely “two wings of the same bird of prey.”
At this point, those who are hoping that, in the future, collectivist liberal-driven legislature will be countered by free-market conservative-driven legislature will be disappointed. The overall trend of legislation is firmly toward collectivism.
Roughly half of Americans will regard this new law as an advancement of cultural diversity. But corporate boards are not petting zoos, in which the objective is to collect one of every possible variety of people. An effective board is made up of the best and brightest regardless of similarities or differences.
The US is quickly moving away from that principle and, as such, will pay the price it has been paying for several decades, as productivity continues to exit the US. The country that was once the world’s greatest supplier of goods will, increasingly, fall under the domination of those countries that retain productivity as their central goal.
Editor’s Note: Economically, politically, and socially, the United States seems to be headed down a path that’s not only inconsistent with the founding principles of the country but accelerating quickly toward boundless decay.
It’s contributing to a growing wave of misguided socialist ideas.
That’s exactly why Doug Casey and his team just released this new video outlining what it’s all about and what comes next. Click here to watch it now.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
The F.S.A. – Free Shit Army grow by the day
The cemetery is full of suckers who.busted their ass for nothing.
Everyone busts their ass for nothing then, you can’t take it with you. Many have tried none have succeeded. The best you can do is leave it for you heirs, and many of them want you dead because of that.
Let them wallow in their own filth.
courtesy of and a big, big thank you to the half-blood prince
The entire point of diversity is the removal of Whites from society.
Citizenship was originally restricted to White people of good character, and it was restricted to them for good reason.
It’s exactly what the democrat party represents …..
I stand for straight Americanism unconditioned and unqualified, and I stand against every form of hyphenated Americanism. I do not speak of the hyphen when it is employed as a mere convenience, although personally, I like to avoid its use even in such manner. I speak and condemn its use whenever it represents an effort to form political parties along racial lines or to bring pressure to bear on parties and politicians, not for American purposes, but in the interest of some group of voters of a certain national origin, or of the country from which they or their fathers came.
Americanism is not a matter of creed, birthplace or national descent, but of the soul and of the spirit. If the American has the right stuff in him, I care not a snap of my fingers whether he is Jew or Gentile, Catholic or Protestant. I care not a snap of my fingers whether his ancestors came over in the Mayflower, or whether he was born, or his parents were born, in Germany, Ireland, France, England, Scandinavia, Russia or Italy or any other country. All I ask of the immigrant is that he shall be physically and intellectually fit, of sound character, and eager in good faith to become an American citizen. If the immigrant is of the right kind I am for him, and if the native American* is of the wrong kind I am against him….
….Now for our own citizens. We represent many different race strains. Our ancestors came from many different Old World nationalities. It will spell ruin to this nation if these nationalities remain separated from one another instead of being assimilated to the new and larger American life.
The children and our children’s children of all of us have to live here in this land together. Our children’s children will intermarry, one another, your children’s children, friends, and mine. Even if they wished, they could not remain citizens of foreign countries….The effort to keep our citizenship divided against itself by the use of the hyphen and along the lines of national origin is certain to breed a spirit of bitterness and prejudice and dislike between great bodies of our citizens.
..Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of America.
“Roosevelt secured several major accomplishments — the construction of the Panama Canal, the creation of the Forest Service, and others. He’s one of only four U.S. presidents to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize — his for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War. Roosevelt was thought of as extremely progressive, to the point he formed his own Progressive Party.
https://www.grunge.com/247661/the-dark-truth-about-teddy-roosevelt/