海角大神

Jonette and Ken 海角大神 have become a bit uneasy with the emphasis people place on the idea of diversity.

It鈥檚 a fraught subject to criticize, they say. As liberal Democrats living in Holden, Maine, they鈥檝e sometimes been frustrated that even raising concerns about the scope of immigration policy, say, is often met with charges of xenophobia or, even worse, racism.聽

鈥淚t seems that we鈥檝e been so pummeled with the 鈥榠nclusivity鈥� narrative, we can鈥檛 set any limits on diversity, or defend our own values,鈥� says Ms. 海角大神, who last month retired after decades as a child and family therapist. 鈥淥f course we have the values of America as an open, generous, inclusive, and diverse nation. But anyone questioning how diverse, or how open, or how generous, is looked at with suspicion 鈥� or as a heretic.鈥�

It鈥檚 exasperating, she feels, especially since their family has a decidedly international flavor. She chatters in Spanish with her sisters-in-law, one from Honduras and the other from Mexico. Her brother-in-law is from Poland, and her niece is Japanese.聽

鈥淏ut diversity in isolation, without universally agreed upon and unifying values such as individual rights, freedom of speech, religion, and the press, risks deteriorating into tribalism and factions,鈥� says her husband, a retired emergency room physician who works part time at an opiate addiction treatment clinic.

Even aside from legitimate policy disputes and the rough and tumble political process, the fundamental idea of diversity, they say, has become nearly impossible to critique in this era of toxic polarization, in which they feel only those on the furthest political extremes have a say.聽

鈥淣ot all diversity deserves celebration,鈥� continues Dr. 海角大神, who notes he鈥檚 voted for the Democratic candidate in every presidential election from George McGovern to Hillary Clinton. 鈥淲e obviously should not celebrate the presence of neo-Nazis, those who practice female genital mutilation, homophobes, terrorists, etc. And while diversity can enrich our culture, there can be too much of a good thing. Sheer numbers can inspire fear and misunderstanding.鈥�

Still, there has long been a general bipartisan consensus in the United States that openness to different kinds of people and different kinds of cultures is 鈥渆ssential to who we are as a nation,鈥� according to Pew Research Center. In its 2018 survey, nearly 6 in 10 Americans expressed a positive view of the country鈥檚 fast-growing racial and ethnic diversity, saying it makes the country a better place to live. Only 9% said it made it a worse place to live.聽

But last year, a growing number of people in both the U.S. and Europe began to express reservations, according to Pew. Most of the spike in the U.S. last year has come from Republican-leaning voters, the survey found, as well as older generations, but some Democrats and liberals have similar worries.

It鈥檚 been even more pronounced in countries such as Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Spain, where only about a third of their populations describe their growing diversity in positive terms. In countries such as Greece and Italy, solid majorities now describe such growth as making their countries a worse place to live.

鈥淒iversity really can be a challenge, and people actually find it very difficult,鈥� says Sally Scholz, professor and chair of the philosophy department at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

鈥淏ut I think part of what the call for diversity and the valuing of pluralism in our culture is, is a call for recognition,鈥� continues Dr. Scholz, who studies political solidarity and coalitions of those with diverse cultural and ideological perspectives. 鈥淎nd recognition is really fundamental to other liberal values, like freedom, like equality. If we can鈥檛 be equal, if we鈥檙e not recognized as equal, we can鈥檛 be recognized as rights holders.鈥�

Many who want to tap the brakes on diversity in the U.S. point to the nation鈥檚 seeming growing unrest, including acts of violence in places of worship, or the attacks on Hasidic Jews in New York over the holidays.聽

And with the U.S. in what seems to be a perfect storm of political polarization 鈥� including the challenges of algorithm-driven news feeds that foster myopic echo chambers 鈥� more people say they are starting to see the idea of diversity as one of the possible causes of the country鈥檚 dysfunction.

鈥淓 pluribus unum鈥�

Donald Mazzella thinks something has been lost in America鈥檚 motto, 鈥渆 pluribus unum,鈥� or 鈥渙ut of many, one.鈥� A longtime media professional, he recalls his years as a publisher at Essence magazine, when the New Jersey native got a lot of smiles when he called everyone 鈥減aisan.鈥澛� 聽 聽

鈥淭o just say diversity, pluralism will make us stronger is to say separating the strands of a rope will add to its strength,鈥� says Mr. Mazzella, now the chief operating officer and editorial director of Information Strategies, a business consultancy in New Jersey.聽

鈥淣o, we need to seek to find common ground and celebrate our unity,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hen I was growing up, we disagreed about everything, but in the end you were an American first and everything else second,鈥� he says, noting that even a statement like that could bring a charge of bigotry.

Which is of course a thing, Mr. Mazzella says. And of course there are out-and-out racists, as well as white nationalists. But emphasizing the 鈥減luribus鈥� while ignoring the 鈥渦num,鈥� he says, is a sure way to tear at the country鈥檚 social fabric.

Dual impulses: altruism versus othering

On one level, human beings may have certain built-in aversions to group differences, many anthropologists say. The human species, with its unusually long gestation and child-rearing periods, develops especially close interpersonal bonds. These begin at the family level and then extend to other closely-clustered groups, fostering an instinctive group altruism and willingness to sacrifice for others within groups.聽

Even at six months, however, infants have an instinct to fear those they do not recognize, observers note, and there is a tendency to be wary of outsiders.聽In his book 鈥淭he Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion,鈥� the moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt explains how humans are not necessarily predisposed to valuing diversity and pluralism, since they make instinctive聽decisions about social life in a tenth of a second.

鈥淲hich is long before our reasoning portion of our brain 鈥� which may want to put our prejudgments aside and 鈥榣isten to alternate sides鈥櫬� 鈥� can become engaged,鈥� says the Rev. Gregory Love, professor of 海角大神 theology at the University of Redlands in California.聽

Nevertheless, humans do have the intellectual and even spiritual capacity to universalize the group instincts for altruism and direct them to all of humanity, scholars say.聽

鈥淚n their histories, the world鈥檚 religions have shown quite a mixed effect on this issue,鈥� says Dr. Love. 鈥淲e are to love all humanity, and consider all persons human, as we are.鈥�

鈥淎ll the world religions, however, also display that deep human sentiment of rejecting difference, and privileging one鈥檚 group over others,鈥� continues Dr. Love. 鈥淔requently, religion has deepened the problem.鈥�

Question of foundational principles

Similarly, the secular universalism at the heart of liberal democratic theory has also had mixed effects, some scholars say.

鈥淚 do believe that there is a thing called a culture, and certainly a culture within a political sphere,鈥� says Charlie Copeland, president of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which promotes conservative values on college campuses. 鈥淚f the populace writ large does not share a certain set of components, it鈥檚 just hard to govern.鈥�

Mr. Copeland and others express concern that the 鈥渋dentity politics鈥� of the left often dismisses the idea of foundational principles, focusing instead on their failures and hypocrisies, which he doesn鈥檛 deny are real.

鈥淏ut sometimes you also need to hold up the examples of other countries across the globe and go, you know what? Compared to how those citizens are allowed to live, we鈥檝e done more right than wrong, and certainly more right when it comes to human flourishing than any other country in the world or in the history of the world,鈥� he says.聽

People like Dr. and Ms. 海角大神 feel that the emphasis on identity politics and a focus on the nation鈥檚 obvious flaws misses the bigger picture.聽

鈥淓xpressing pride in America today is often met with endless reminders of our historic failures and hypocrisies,鈥� says Ms. 海角大神, seeing a series of 鈥渟hamings and scoldings鈥� or accusations of 鈥減rivileging Western civilization.鈥� 鈥淵es, we did make some grievous mistakes, but we have also been more willing than almost any other country to tell the truth about our mistakes and make amends.鈥�

In many ways, with such a wide bipartisan consensus on the value of diversity, some of the debate is more a matter of emphasis and the scope of diversity.

鈥淧olitical solidarity actually allows for, and really centralizes, diversity and pluralism,鈥� says Dr. Scholz. 鈥淏ecause each of us is coming to our commitment in our own individual way, we鈥檙e able to see different facets of a problem, and we鈥檙e trying to address it together.鈥澛�

It鈥檚 similar to old-fashioned coalition-building, in which diverse identities unite in solidarity to petition the government for a redress of grievances. But diverse perspectives can bring personal benefits, too.聽

鈥淲e often have our own way of looking at the world, and we encounter other people, and they show us a different way of looking at the world,鈥� Professor Scholz says.聽鈥淎nd there鈥檚 value in that. You come to see yourself as others see you. ... I think often we could even say that one of the strengths of having diversity in our solidarity is that different people show us, or open up for us, a new understanding of our own existence, or of our own world.鈥�