5 Quotes by James Kalb

Inclusiveness is part of the liberal bubble, a gross overextension of a line of development assumed capable of going on forever. Bubbles burst, the dreams of youth dissipate, pride goes before destruction, and the world seems very different the morning after. Shock that the bubble burst is followed immediately by amazement that it lasted as long and went as far as it did.

Self-invention has its questionable side in any event. Fluidity of identity mostly benefits those adept at varying their self-presentation for their own purposes and getting others to accept the result, in other words, the manipulative and delusional. In a free-floating, postmodern world, the con man and psychopath accordingly become major social types.

The recent history of Russia, featuring failed socialism followed by colossal thievery and mafia rule, shows what happens upon the collapse of a sustained and determined effort to eradicate a basic social principle founded on natural human tendencies.

Hence arises the belief that traditional culture, which is always based on particular connections, identities, and meanings, is intrinsically oppressive; that “essentialism,” the belief that things have a particular nature and significance, is ignorance and bigotry; and that “discrimination”, treating one connection as more fitting than another for any non-technological reason, is irrational and wrong.

Inclusiveness tries to eliminate the social effects of important human differences. When pursued seriously, this effort very quickly becomes tyrannical.