Scott Adams and the Casual Disclosure of Social Change

Sometimes large cultural change is encapsulated in the most casual disclosures. Scott Adams (Dilbert) noted in a WSJ story, that he was twice turned down for promotions on the ground that he was well qualified, but a White male. Instead, the jobs were reserved for minorities.

Now, that is a remarkable thing. Adams dismisses it, of course, with the idea that every White male will become like him, a wealthy cartoonist, or something. But for most White males, the ability to become some wealthy entrepreneur is limited. Moreover, the social cost for companies getting (inevitably) substandard efforts out of unqualified non-Whites and the resentful White guys passed over for promotion inhibits innovation. Innovation rarely being some out-of-the-ether astonishment and mostly being putting disparate pieces together for a better whole.


Can a society sustain itself when the men of its largest racial group have no real hope of promotion and upward mobility within any organization of any size? It is the very casualness, the lack of any real passion other than sarcasm, that is shocking about Adam's disclosure:

One day, a position opened above me, and I was the most obvious candidate to fill it. My boss called me into her office and said she had some bad news. She explained that the media was giving our company a lot of heat because almost all of our managers and executives were white males. Promoting me, she explained, would only make things worse. I asked how long I might need to wait for all of this to blow over. My boss was vague, but she said the timeline involved smoothing out the effects of two centuries of corporate discrimination.
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One day my boss called me into his office and explained that the media was giving the phone company a lot of heat because almost all of the managers and executives were white males. So, he explained, promoting me would only make things worse.

For better or for worse, Corporate America has turned over everything but lower level positions to non-Whites, and perhaps some White women. Coca-Cola is run by Muhtar Kent, of Turkish-American descent educated in the UK. Indra Nooyi is the Indian born CEO of Pepsi. This is pretty remarkable. Two major companies in America, famous for their American heritage, neither run by anyone connected to it.

If anything, it is much worse at lower levels. Can a largely "White male free" zone of upper and middle management produce world beating products and services? So far, the answer by America's corporate citizens is no. They cannot. Diversity has its price.

The first is promoting the least, not the most, qualified candidates (as Adams admits) to meet diversity goals, not find the best and most motivated candidates for upward promotion. If one wants to know why Corporate America is so hostile to White males, it is because so few work in management positions. A Carly Fiorina can easily fire lots of HP engineers, and boast that Americans don't "deserve" jobs in comparison with Indian (cheaper) engineers. Corporate America will therefore be hostile to White males as long as it has the same promotion preference (anyone but them). That those promoted have the right skin color or gender rather than talent is of course another cost. Second-ratism at best, if not outright shoddiness.

But it is the other issue that deserves the most attention. America has largely pushed White males out of upward mobility in every sphere except the military, where few want to enlist, due to the hardships and danger. This won't end well.

One group, and one group alone, has no investment and no desire to protect the current system. And every reason to overthrow the culture and elites that run it. PC and the diversity preference is very powerful, but it is not everything. From South Park to Scott Adams, the mere disclosure has its own undeniable power. There will be a great deal of men, not as Adams suggests starting their own business or being famous cartoonists, but willing to burn down the corporate structure and American businesses along with politics and the larger culture. In this the sheer stupidity of making those alien in culture and background corporate leaders (and their lack of producing good paying jobs in America) will aid the burn-to-the-ground mentality.

Everything has its price. Punishing generations of White guys for bad things long-dead White guys did fifty years ago (or more) has its own. One just beginning to be felt.




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