Selling snake oil is shameful, but so is buying it

Prize for Stupid of the Week goes to Lockheed Martin, for paying good money to hire some woke grifters to train their senior executives in “unlearning white male privilege.” According to the article in National Review,

The consulting firm claims that the “roots of white male culture” include traits such as “rugged individualism,” “a can-do attitude,” “hard work,” “operating from principles,” and “striving towards success”—which are “devastating” to women and minorities.

Rugged individualism? Can-do attitude? Hard work? Operating from principles? Striving for success? Sign me up.

But really, though we admire these attitudes and behaviors, are they so tied to “white male culture” that women and minorities are oppressed by them? Are they not, rather, the means by which women and minorities can succeed against great odds, even as white men have succeeded at times against great odds? Are these not universals, rather than particulars?

To test this notion, let’s take a look at an Ur-white-male, one Daniel Boone, frontiersman. Here is a little paragraph describing Boone as we meet him in history.

Daniel Boone was a person of great courage and self-confidence. Boone relied on his own judgment, and others came to rely on his judgment, too. Boone went into dangerous places, finding his way by skill, sneaking past enemy outposts, facing the dangers of the wilderness. Boone was very strong and used to hardship. Though Boone was loath to fight, he knew how to fight, and he carried weapons that he knew well how to use. Boone took it upon himself to guide others from their former places of residence through many dangers to reach new homes. Some of those on the trail became frightened and wanted to turn back, but Boone urged them on. In the presence of those who would have killed them if they could have found them, the others followed Boone’s orders, and he brought them safely through.

Daniel Boone takes pride of place in the Awokened's Legion of Shame. But, soft! Are Boone and the other white males of his day the only ones to make use of these “roots of white male culture?” Here is another paragraph, identical to the first. Only the subject’s name and personal pronouns have been changed.

Harriet Tubman was a person of great courage and self-confidence. Tubman relied on her own judgment, and others came to rely on her judgment, too. Tubman went into dangerous places, finding her way by skill, sneaking past enemy outposts, facing the dangers of the wilderness. Tubman was very strong and used to hardship. Though Tubman was loath to fight, she knew how to fight, and she carried weapons that she knew well how to use. Tubman took it upon herself to guide others from their former places of residence through many dangers to reach new homes. Some of those on the trail became frightened and wanted to turn back, but Tubman urged them on. In the presence of those who would have killed them if they could have found them, the others followed Tubman’s orders, and she brought them safely through.

Is Harriet Tubman a white male, to be acting so? Or is she guity of false consciousness for adopting the values of her oppressors? Baloney. Harriet Tubman is a heroic figure, even as Daniel Boone is a heroic figure. And the attributes that enabled both of them to do things that others marveled at they have in common.

There are many kinds of greatness. Many ways to be wise. Many kinds of courage. The particular gifts Boone and Tubman demonstrate belong to no one sex or race, and their contributions are balanced by those of their own and other sex and race who have different gifts. But at least, let us admire them for what they were, not deride the very qualities that made them so important to so many others. And let us not be swindled by the rent-seeking sophistries of the peddlers of wokery.