Collective or individuality: the challenge of diversity from the perspective of liberalism

Western societies are witnessing the exponential growth of social demands aimed at empowering discriminated groups or minorities. From feminism to LGBTI to anti-racist movements, these struggles defend diversity as the only way to advance civil liberties. But is diversity the ability to find one's identity within a collective or, on the contrary, to transcend such margins and enhance one's own individuality? 

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation has no doubts about this. For the organisation, the answer lies in "bringing people's intrinsic individual diversity into the conversation", i.e. in unleashing individual potential to "break away from the labels associated with collectives". An unmistakable part of its liberal idiosyncrasy. But this idea, like any other, must pass through the filter of debate and confrontation from different perspectives.

For this reason, on Tuesday the Friedrich Naumann Foundation organised 'Personal Diversity', a round table focused on discussing liberalism's approach to the question of identity. The event was attended by the entrepreneur and CEO of Shapping New Humans, Eva Díaz, the journalist Esther Paniagua, the councillor of the Madrid City Council and delegate of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Ángel Niño, and the general director of the Diversity and Inclusion area of Accenture, Gabriel Martín. The deputy director of the Madrid Food Innovation Hub and adjunct professor at IE University, Valentín Garal, was in charge of moderating the conversation.

Earlier, the German ambassador to Spain, Wolfgang Dold, accompanied the director of the Madrid office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, David Henneberger, to present the space organised by a foundation that acts as a beacon for political movements of liberal tendencies in more than 60 countries. The German think tank, the third largest in the country and based in Potsdam, also promotes classical liberalism from Madrid, where it opened its headquarters in September 2019.

The Teutonic diplomat laid the groundwork: "Diversity is a prerequisite for democracy. In Europe, we have made rapid progress despite all the setbacks of recent decades. For the ambassador, Europe is characterised as "a continent of immigrants" and open to the outside world, a vision that certain political currents that defend a uniform historical and cultural legacy reject. Nothing could be further from the truth. Europe has been and is a heterogeneous continent. A hodgepodge that tends to be even more pronounced in the future. Dold was adamant about "fighting discrimination in order to promote diversity", as his country has long been "a country of immigrants".

The director of the Foundation in Madrid reproached both sides of the political chessboard for their "erroneous" interpretation of diversity: "The right does not want diversity per se, and the left often attacks certain groups it claims to defend, as long as they do not agree with its postulates". Henneberger does not share the politicisation of the issue of diversity. A view shared by Ambassador Dold, who argued that "identitarianism denies the very concept of diversity, and therefore that of freedom".

"If we need to debate this, it is because we are facing something that we have not managed to solve", Esther Paniagua said at the beginning. The journalist, included by Forbes among the 100 most creative people in the business world, considers that currently "we continue to use labels" which, although they are necessary to understand and sift through reality, bring with them the stereotype "which is also usually something negative".

Eva Díaz, one of Spain's most recognised businesswomen, shared her personal experience as a transgender woman: "It is absurd to reduce diversity to the watertight compartments that are collectives, we have to start to dissolve these barriers that generate confrontation and isolation". Díaz shared Paniagua's starting point, focusing on the problem of labelling, as in this way "we forget that underneath we are individuals". "You can't laminate my identity under prescriptions".

Gabriel Martín questioned this pejorative perception of collectives: "There are groups that are diverse and groups that are not diverse. There are elements that make us homogeneous. The question is: can collectives be heterogeneous? For the General Manager of Accenture's Diversity and Inclusion area, within groups there is a certain "recognition of identity". This is not insignificant because, as Díaz pointed out, we all want to be in a group, we are social animals. "But we prefer to be in several," he said.

Martin insisted that labelling is the first step. "Giving names to people and invisible diversities is important because "when I label, I am recognising". Although he admitted that we run the risk of remaining with the label and not going deeper into the individual. "Labels are necessary, but the important thing is that I don't have one label. I have several. The problem there is respect", said the CEO of Shapping New Humans.

For the councillor of the Madrid City Council, Ángel Niño, belonging to a group "already excludes you from certain characteristics". "We are devolving into collectives and losing identity", he warned. In this sense, Niño considers the barriers to access to collectives to be walls that are difficult to overcome, since you cannot form part of them "if you do not share all their dogmas". The person in charge of Innovation and Entrepreneurship would have given as an example the expulsion of his party, Ciudadanos, from the 8M feminist demonstration held two years ago. "There is a politicisation of the collective. And that is what fosters stereotypes," she said.

"In Spain it is still very difficult to defend pure liberal ideology. There is still no established central framework", said the Madrid councillor. The Friedrich Naumann Foundation, which is trying to inoculate classical liberalism in a large number of societies, including Spain, is immersed in this task. Linked to the Free Democratic Party (FDP), the organisation is committed to generating debate and manufacturing ideas that disassociate the ideology from exacerbated capitalism and strengthen its social vision, making liberalism one of the banners of diversity.