Libenter quibus nos vincant epulamur

By providing political influence and social recognition to an ever-broader portion of the population, liberal democracies were able to access the waxing power of middle and lower classes to an extent that more exclusionary systems could not. The nationalism that sufficed in the days of Napoleon was outmatched by the energies harnessed by more liberal societies of the twentieth century, as these stemmed from institutions incompatible with personalism, racial hierarchy, or central planning. Returning to Hegseth’s claim that “Diversity is not our strength,” we have not proved the contrary here—that diversity is necessarily a strength. Instead, from the historical record, we see—more fundamentally—that exclusion has become an unaffordable liability. As a direct result of our society’s success and prosperity, power has become diffused in such a way that it is no longer viable to base a state only on a narrow, homogenous class. To exclude individuals on the basis of sex, color, class, or creed now means to hobble the strength of the state.