Why Do All Progressive Ideas Turn To Crap?

RIP DEI

Is it too soon?

Why is it that all progressive ideas, once implemented, fail? Whenever one brings up communism and the fact that all communist countries eventually fail and fail spectacularly, the inevitable retort is, "yeah, but true communism has never been tried." But what never seems to enter the conversation is, is communism a good idea? The viability of successful communist countries comes down to a theory versus practice review. Thanks to the university faculty escaping the teachers’ lounge and infiltrating government, religious, and corporate institutions, communism theory has come out of the classroom and into practice in the real world. It's not just the external institutions that the "intellectual" social scientists of the university have infected, they have also taken control of their own universities’ administrations as well. Nowhere is influence more more evident than in office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI.)

Tenured professors in the social sciences are tremendous at discussing "theory." In my day, the social science departments consisted of psychology, economics, sociology, political science, and anthropology. Today, the “socials” have expanded a bit. Here is the current list of social science department listed at UC Berkley:

• African American studies

• Anthropology

• Cognitive science

• Demography

• Economics

• Ethnic studies

• Gender and women’s studies

• Geography

• Global studies

• History

• Linguistics

• Political economy

• Political science

• Psychology

• Sociology

There sure seems to be a lot of social sciencing going on in the university. To be clear, I am not talking about "the science", for that type of knowledge requires highly trained academics anointed by (who the hell really knows?)

The problem these past 20 years is that the social scientists have escaped the confines of the University and into the halls of Congress, the boardrooms of corporations and the pulpits of churches. Here, they have been given the reins of their respective institutions to test their academic theories. This is where the world gets to witness what happens when social scientists apply sketchy scientific theory to real world situations. The once coddled and protected social scientists are finding out the real world is a bitch. The real world does not care about ideas that feel good or the gender, race or religion of the leaders who propose such intersectional and relative solutions. The real-world cares about results. Dare I say, “the real-world cares about Truth!”

The examples of failed progressive ideas are far too numerous to recount here, but I will illustrate a few. In 2014, our first "academic in chief," Barack Obama, ushered in the Affordable Care Act, a progressive idea to offer medical insurance to all US citizens. Touted as a great medical reform of its time, it was supposed to save the average family $2000 a year on medical insurance while at the same time guaranteeing that they would not lose their doctor. Who wouldn't sign onto that? However, every part of that bill has turned to crap, and it has become the antithesis of every word of its namesake. It is not affordable, it fails to provide adequate care, especially preventive care, and is not an act but more of a thoughtless autocratic decree. Since its inception, as predicted, doctors have left the practice of medicine in droves, patient wait times have greatly accelerated and care has been rationed. Because the only way dollars can be derived from insurance companies into the medical profession comes from treating illnesses, the only thing the medical profession does is diagnose and prescribe treatments. Nary a word is spoken about preventative medicine and creating healthy lifestyles as there is no insurance dollars available to reimburse doctors for those efforts. Hence, hospitals and clinics are in the business of seeking customers with huge marginally treatable ailments so that they can throw the entire weight of the medical industry, with its billable practices, at that illness. The patient is not an individual to be cured but an economic unit to be harvested. But hey, that Affordable Care Act notion tested well in progressive university think tanks.

Perhaps the most devastating example of university theory running amuck in the real world was COVID. Everything about that dark chapter in our history screams total disconnect between intellectual theory versus reality practice. Scientific methods were brutally raped by COVID pushing opportunists and even the insurance huffing medical industry did not come to its rescue. Quite the opposite, the medical industry looked the other way as gobs of “science” laced COVID cures crossed our medical borders unassailed by inquisitive journalists and reasoned doctors. The COVID grift simply followed the money and all counter studies (studies that didn’t have financial benefit) were squelched. The world fell prey to "the science," the very theory that played well in university social science circles. For the first time in history, "the science" was released from captivity and tested upon the COVID indoctrinated world.

It was "the science" that thought we could alter existing viruses in a lab to test gain of function with no negative impact of an errant virus escaping the lab. It was "the science" that attempted the shield the world from the reality of their experiment gone bad and to blame it on some bat 500 miles away from Wuhan. It was "the science" that had the ears of leaders around the world and convinced them to put in to practice one of the craziest ass theories ever to escape the University. “The science” Grima Wormtongued its way into the princely halls of world leaders and convinced them to lock down the entire industrial world in an attempt to escape an inescapable aerosolized virus. It was "the science" that linked with unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies to produce ineffective vaccines that did more to cull the herd by producing myocarditis and blood clots than the virus itself. It was "the science" that convinced President Trump to issue immunity from prosecution to these pharmaceutical companies for their RNA genes juices. It was "the science" that push for COVID vaccine mandates or individuals could not work, travel, or attend mass-gathering events. It was "the science" that advised CEOs across Western countries to adopt COVID protocols and to willfully shutter their businesses and establish work from home protocols. Finally, it was "the science" that convinced legislators to go further into debt by issuing COVID related subsidies to corporations and individuals thus further shackling future generations with insurmountable debt payments.

When it comes to bad ideas, "the science" that escaped the university's social science departments and guided the world through COVID will go down in history as the greatest failure of a real-world practice, that tested well in academic theory, but failed miserably in practice. But there is another theory versus practice example for us to study. And study it quickly we must for Diversity, Equity Inclusion practices may not be long for this world.

DEI, as promoted by "the science" at the highest level of universities, economics via the World Economic Forum, and government appears to be melting down faster than an ice cream cone in July. DEI exists to ensure that institutions hire and promote individuals, not based on competencies or merit, but based solely on an individual's status as oppressed. Being able to check one of several aggrieved status boxes, not accumulating skills and knowledge, is now what qualifies an individual to assume a leadership position. DEI theory has been put into full throttle practice at our most "esteemed" institutions and the speed at which it is proving the theory wrong is preceding faster than the media can concoct false narratives to protect it.

Harvard University has certainly lost its elite luster by letting the DEI “patients run the asylum.” Read my recent post, The Cure for Education Lies Deep Within the Archives of Academic Institutions for a more detailed review of Harvard’s DEI conundrum. For me, watching DEI collapse, especially in the university from whence it came, is poetic justice. It is a long-awaited and well-deserved justice due to all institutions that praise relative and anti-ontological social "scientists," whose theories that diluted diversity could triumph over true intellectual merit.

The practical real-world failures at Harvard, as well as in corporate boardrooms, of DEI polices bumping up against financial interests is becoming well documented. As it turns out, DEI policies are cute and all, until it hits the bottom line. Bud Light did an about face in less than a year after its disastrous Dylan Mulvaney stunt tanked their stock price by 23% and Harvard is quickly learning that the one form of diversity they don’t want to promote is the diversity of a fractured endowment. What remains to be seen is, will DEI be relegated to the trash heap of history or will it, like the phoenix, arise from the ashes with a new spin on a failed concept? But until then, Rest In Peace DEI, we hardly knew you…