Possibility of a brain drain from the West

By Sumantra Maitra
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, August 17, 2017
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Recently, an engineer in Google, the world's largest information and communications hub in the Internet age, wrote a memo on gender divisions and ideological dogma within the company. [File photo by Li Huiru / China.org.cn]



During the 1930s-1940s, hundreds of scientists fled from Germany and Soviet Union, for somewhat differing reasons.

Biologists and geneticists never had much research scope in the Soviet Union under Lysenko, and left for United States where they could work freely. On the other hand, hundreds of academics, many of them Jewish who faced discrimination and even destruction in Germany under Goebbels, also fled largely to United States.

From nuclear physics, to computers, to international relations, they enriched the cultural and academic society of United States and left a lasting contribution.

The reason for bringing this up is because of a recent Google memo on diversity. In case readers are unaware of the fact, the West is tearing itself apart in a cultural civil war. It's only in its opening phase and there's more to come.

Recently, an engineer in Google, the world's largest information and communications hub in the Internet age, wrote a memo on gender divisions and ideological dogma within the company.

There's this latest fashion in the West called proportional representation, which means that, if women represent 50 percent of the world population, they should hold an equal amount of jobs. If 3 percent of the world population happen to be transsexuals for example, they should have matching representation.

Needless to mention this is a foolish aspiration. Men and women have often demonstrated different preferences, along with those now emerging in the transgender category. No gender is inferior, but they do make different choices naturally leading to different outcomes.

The Google memorandum writer made exactly the same statement. He further pointed out that Google is an ideologically-dogmatic zone that pays only lip service to diversity.

He was instantly ostracized, and kicked out of his job, which essentially proved the correctness of his entire memorandum. There were demonstrations, Twitter was flooded with people either supporting or disparaging him, and the stark differences emerging in Western societies; and the efforts of Western liberal elite to socially engineer the workplace were fully on display.

This isn't new, but it has gained increased significance in recent days. There's a stark cultural gap between the majority conservative masses and the stark liberal elites in the West. Conservative here doesn't mean right wing; it means those who prefer a more traditional way of life. The majority of the population in America and Europe, especially the entire central and eastern European bloc, are like that, resulting in constant clashes with elite forces in the region.

Consider this. Imagine there's a company that employs thousands of people, such as McDonalds, that is planning an expansion. Now, if there's a directive from management that, no matter what happens, it is company policy to have a 50-50 male and female ratio in the workforce in China, how would that work? Obviously, it wouldn't. And that in itself is the key to understanding post-modern Western cultural problems.

Needless to say, this is not the way of the future and cannot last; sooner or later, these two cultures will clash even more. Now, political scientists don't like predicting, and I especially stay away from that; however, on this occasion, here's a prediction.

Sooner or later this will lead to three things: companies learning that they cannot remain forever competitive while staying true to increasing the gender dogma. This will either lead to companies shifting bases to places where not such dogma exists, or employees leaving such dogmatic companies to look for jobs in places where they can work freely. In short, there will be a brain drain, this time in reverse, particular from the U.S.

Of course, that then raises the question as to whether other countries, especially China, Russia, India and those in Eastern Europe, are ready to offer positions to the engineers and scientists and academics who increasingly feel stifled in the West by post-modern gender dogma.

If they do, then mark my words, that would represent the greatest geopolitical game changer in modern history. Hundreds and thousands of academics would flee to a place where, essentially, they could receive heavy funding for their research, and work freely without their hands being tied by gender bureaucrats. Ultimately, meritocracy changed and enriched Western academia from the 1940s to the 1960s. The reverse might as well happen, now.

Ultimately, however, the biggest irony in this case relates to Google. It became notorious for stating during fights with both China and EU, regarding its product marketing, that diversity is a key corporate concept. Now, we know it's a myth.

Sumantra Maitra is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SumantraMaitra.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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