We live in a world where we are more connected then ever. Social media, once a tool to help friends and family keep in touch with each other, has slowly morphed into a social control paradigm. Whereas in time past one could have opinions and beliefs that existed outside of the political and social positions of their employer and those could be expressed openly in non work related settings, we now live in a world where you are not only expected to contribute your time for money but you must in essence merge with the social positions ones workplace endorses as well.
When I started my career in the late 1980s it was understood that personal political opinions were not discussed in the workplace, and that the workplace itself did not promote political opinions. Now, there WERE management fads that came and went, and indeed if you wanted to rise in their bureaucracy it was always clear you needed to get on board with those ideas. Generally they were not socio-political philosophies, they were about management and/or quality techniques, etc. But no one tried to tell you what to think.
35 years later this has all changed. Pretty much every organization today (especially the ones that are not productivity oriented like academia etc) ACTIVELY attempt to tell employees what to think. That is what this DEI stuff is all about, its basically a personal opinion that the employer attempts to force onto everyone.
Its a real tragedy for society, this kind of coercion.
When I started my career in the late 1980s it was understood that personal political opinions were not discussed in the workplace, and that the workplace itself did not promote political opinions. Now, there WERE management fads that came and went, and indeed if you wanted to rise in their bureaucracy it was always clear you needed to get on board with those ideas. Generally they were not socio-political philosophies, they were about management and/or quality techniques, etc. But no one tried to tell you what to think.
35 years later this has all changed. Pretty much every organization today (especially the ones that are not productivity oriented like academia etc) ACTIVELY attempt to tell employees what to think. That is what this DEI stuff is all about, its basically a personal opinion that the employer attempts to force onto everyone.
Its a real tragedy for society, this kind of coercion.
This is an excellent article, you have comprehensively nailed what is a genuine problem.