Does diversity make us stronger?

Diversity is a hot potato these days, with some people lauding its positive effects and others denigrating its cost to society.

I’ve always considered the pros and the cons of diversity without taking a definite stand in one direction or the other, but since I was talking about multicultural issues in my last blogs, this brought me straight into the subject of diversity.

Immediately, the subject reminded me of what happened when my French Alps ancestors lived in perfect isolation and had to intermarry in order to keep life going. This often led to inbreeding with its cortege of health and mental problems. I would have to say that more diversity did take care of that dire situation.

Then, my thinking went into “best practices” that is also the direct results of a variety of ways of doing things, resolving problems and advancing progress. This is why I have become much smarter and resourceful since I have had access to Youtube videos, to help find better ways to skin the proverbial cat.

Finally there’s the insurance that the gift of variety represents. As an investor, I do not put my eggs in one single basket and prefer to invest in an indexed financial vehicle. While I might not get filthy rich that way, I won’t risk my entire investment either.

This is precisely what is called diversification; it’s a great tool to spread the risk in all endeavors. If one element fails, the rest is likely to resist; likewise a society based on the value of the individual, rather than the value of groups is infinitely more diversified since there are far less groups than individuals.

The bottom line: We can’t survive without each other. This basic truth has nothing to do with nationality, race, political or religions affiliations. Seems pretty obvious to me that the more and more diverse we are, the better...