Progressives in America have always embraced the flawed concept of social engineering. Through centralized planning and manipulation, they believe they can manage social change and regulate the development and behavior of individuals in a society. They denounce individuality and social freedoms and reject equal opportunity and self-motivation as sufficient for a society’s success, instead demanding equal results for all -- a statutory per capita quality of life. Fortunately this type of faux engineering has never worked in any society in the history of man -- had it, we’d all be little more than robots. Still, progressives attempt to use it over and over again.
Reparations stands out as a grand example of this – a once failed attempt to fix the black American problem that is again on the liberal progressive agenda. The Great Society by Lyndon Baines Johnson was and still is reparations for blacks, to the current day tune of $50 billion. And blacks are no better off for it -- nay, they are worse.
Liberals would like us to believe their social engineering schemes are altruistic. Minorities, those by their definition less fortunate, must have just as much success and happiness in life as the majority and any and all forms of social engineering to that end will benefit society as a whole. Today’s Democratic candidates for the 2020 Presidential election are pushing all types of social engineering: Medicare for all, basic income, affordable housing, reparations, and climate change. But control is the central motivation behind the Progressive Wizard’s curtain.
Two other powerful examples of social engineering are affirmative action and victimization. These two are the gateway to all other forms of social engineering. They are based on an assumption that minorities, particularly black Americans, are forever discriminated against, and are and will forever be victims of said discrimination.
Back in the summer of 2015, two stories emerged in the media that were distant in results but similar in prognosis. That August, Vester Lee Flanagan, a black gay male and disgruntled former employee of a Virginia TV station, WDBJ 7 TV, shot and killed two employees of that same news station before turning the gun on himself. Days after the vicious crime, news outlets reported that Flanagan had a history of being fired for incompetence by various news stations, including WDBJ 7, but was continuously recruited to satisfy strict hiring requirements for meeting minority quotas and complying with affirmative action guidelines. Social engineering.
A month before, in July, Choeurlyne Doirin-Holder, a black female who twice failed the Fire Training Academy’s physical exam, was given preferential treatment due to her skin color and gender. A New York Post article reported that Choeurlyne had failed her way into an $81,000 desk job with the FDNY. From 2013 to 2014 she had twice attempted to pass the physical portion of the Fire Academy test but failed both times. Yet due to her "282 priority hire" status ordered by Brooklyn federal judge Nicolas Garaufis, she was given the top-paying salary for a firefighter (including overtime). Once again, a minority given preferential treatment based not on merit but on the facts of their race and gender - their "victim" status. Social engineering at work.
I have long held the belief that affirmative action and hiring quotas hurt minorities rather than help them and in actuality these policies are ultimately insulting to the supposed beneficiaries. When minorities are given jobs, not because of any particular talent or skill, but because of their gender or skin color -- or employment performance standards are lowered or disregarded -- a culture of incompetence is injected into a competent workforce and the incompetent are stigmatized as victims. And that stigma can become an open festering wound of resentment. Vester Flanagan was hired repeatedly to meet these EEO and affirmative action goals, and then fired repeatedly. And he snapped.
As for Choeurlyne Doirin-Holder, just ten days into her probationary firefighter position and she is out on medical leave for injuring herself while conducting a routine check of equipment. “While getting off a truck, she missed a step and landed on her left foot, suffering a fracture”; embarrassingly glaring evidence of her physical inadequacy to do the job.
When people who are qualified, who have spent their entire career in a particular business or field climbing the ladder of their own merit are summarily dispatched in favor of somebody with no experience or a history of being fired in order to meet some federal requirement, I guarantee you there's friction, and there's a stigma. Forcing equal results without equal merit is ultimately insulting to the supposed beneficiaries of all its intended decency and goodness and an affront to the rest of society. This is the real result of liberal progressive social engineering.
Originally published on American Thinker on Aug 16, 2019.