We need a new story 6
Racial/Cultural Diversity - a Success Story and a Warning?
When the term “Diversity” is used today, it mainly applies to racial diversity. Again, the unspoken implication is that racial diversity is a “Good Thing”.
There is no doubt that the French Foreign Legion is a very successful organization. Success defined as being very good at its job. It is a highly refined social structure that is used in high tension, high risk situations where it is judged by its peers across the world as being one of the best units of its type.
So, let’s dig in and find out how and why this racially diverse organization functions so well.
The main cultural rule for joining the Legion are that you are not French. All are volunteers. While a few French sneak through, the Legion is composed of men who are not.
Recruits sign up for five years.
The first year of being a legionnaire is filled with shaping each man into the family that is the Legion.
The first task is to learn French. This is done by making speaking any other language an offence. Most recruits are current after three months.
The second task is to weed out the physically and mentally unfit. This is done by an unrelenting application of pressure by the Corporals in charge. As in the Paras in P Company who seek the Red Beret, the goal is that symbol of your becoming a Legionnaire, the White Kepi. Only then do you go onto to train for a speciality.
The song being played here is Le Boudin, THE song of the Legion. Here is the origin story.
Along the way the history and the culture of the Legion is drummed into all recruits. Key to this are songs. The Legion has an important repertoire of songs that are unique. Most are sung in cadence to the unique slow marching pace of the Legion. Throughout the year, important anniversaries are celebrated. Most involve remembering actions where the Legion dies to the last man.
Throughout this process, the new men are being taught by the finest graduates of the Legion. The Instructor Corporals and Sergeants have all been through this themselves and have served with distinction for years in units. These men are the embodiment of the culture and history of the Legion. The Legion is officered by the best graduates of St Cyr, the French equivalent of Sandhurst.
Beyond any skill, the paramount task of the staff is to instil a common culture into this diverse and polyglot group. The culture is partly French but is mainly the culture of the Legion itself. They do this to create coherence and resiliency.
The result is like a human rope. All the diverse strands are tightly wound into a whole larger strand that has much greater strength that any one strand or a mess of strands. In the core design of the Legion is the understanding that they have to pay attention to moulding their diverse intake into a coherent society.
In contrast, what have our political leaders done to help newcomers to our countries adjust become useful citizens?
I see no evidence of any thoughtful planning for how large numbers of newcomers can be absorbed let alone integrated into western societies. Ironically it is France that shows us the risk of not having a plan to integrate newcomers.
In the next post, we will look at the one area of human life where diversity has a strong link to success. This is where in groups, there is diversity of thinking.