<p>What do you first think about when the topic of “diversity is discussed”? Sure we know about it in the context of college admissions but I was talking about it with some friends this weekend and well I couldn’t ignore it and wanted to discuss it even further… </p>
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<p>I read a book called [An</a> Empire Wilderness](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Wilderness-Travels-Americas-Future/dp/0679776877/ref=sr_1_3/102-4806807-3524918?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184032786&sr=8-3][u]An”>http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Wilderness-Travels-Americas-Future/dp/0679776877/ref=sr_1_3/102-4806807-3524918?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184032786&sr=8-3) during Spring Quarter. Here’s a synopsis:
[ul][<em>]When discussing the idea of “diversity” in the United States (lets not get into the debate surrounding the U.S. as a melting pot and whether that’s its something the nation strives to become) in regards to religion, socio-economic factors, sex/gender, location (especially in regards to the development of the suburbs in places such as Orange County, the idea of there existing metropods around the nation that can connect with themselves technology that opposes and lies in stark contrasts to more isolated and unconnected communities, and so forth, where do we draw a line or consider a common American community? [</em>]How is diversity different and accepted?[<em>]How do the above sections of being “diverse” reinforce each other? What are the implications? For instance, look at the statistics involving college students and who they eventually marry. In general, its people they met in college and who have the means, support, drive, and other conditions that allow them to reach that point.[</em>]How about the communities you grew up as a child? What factors influenced that? Was it predominantly of a specific class or race? Why do you think that?[<em>]How do you define something like diversity outside of the realm of things obvious such as race, sex, and religion?[</em>]How do they interact and how are they different in blanket assumptions involving ethnicities, especially in regards to social stratifications within a particular ethnicity whose conduits or percentiles aren’t as consistent to other ethnicities or groups? Where do immigration acts fit in the picture? (esp in regards to time and esp. the 20th century…)[<em>]How has the United States evolvedto where it is now? How does this relate to the concept of globalization? How is the United States different from other nations in regards to diversity and its definition? For instance, in the country of say Vietnam itself, there are enough geographical factors to consider its factionaliztion in regards to the general metro-inhabiting Vietnamese middle-class person versus those living in the mountains and who are in enclosed communities and “in-breed” and develop specific cultures.[</em>]Can we really enclose an entire set of people politically? Where does this fail? Is there a common American culture that unites its citizens? Is it fair to take a year-long American history class in high school while learning abouts it colonial prigins and its formal documents (Constitution etc.) in regards to the rights of Americans in broad, overarching terms like justice and so forth when the motives and ideas involving those terms have changed over time? How can we cite those documents so readily when they were founded on different terms? [<em>]How do we account for that and still call ourselves true Americans when there is even history and so forth that opposes “diversity”? How do the differences between classically and evolved terms such as “Conservative” and “Liberal” reflect these changes and viewpoints? How does the situation in America similar and different to other countries who do not have the same blatant diversity but still have their own factionalization?[</em>]Can we just be “American” politically, and then (secondly?) a product of firstly, your biological inclinations, and secondly your environment and how that presupposes you to something?[/ul]</p>
<p>Consider this, finally (in this post alone), how you would compare the patriotism of Americans to those of Rome in their acquiring distinct and different regions and absorbing them into their society and enlisting them as soldiers. How is it different and why?</p>