History repeating

When writing, translating, communicating, trying to grasp the essence or scope of something, it's often useful and revealing to look at antonyms instead of synonyms; in other words: what that word, idea, phenomenon, or policy isn't. So. 

Antonyms for diversity: homogeneity, sameness, similarity, uniformity.
Antonyms for equity: bias, favoritism, prejudice, unfairness.
Antonyms for inclusion: deletion, discrimination, elimination, exclusion.

Since workplaces, schools, countries, are made up of people, and people are, as we all know, not the same but different, it is an odd, oppressive and questionable idea to try to squeeze a workplace, school, let alone an entire country, into one mold dictated from above while dismissing and disregarding whole segments of a society.

This kind of insular thinking leads to shrinking; the shrinking of everything that drives successful economies and societies: arts and science, innovation, investments and infrastructure, governmental and institutional stability and predictability, the quality and availability of education and the skills of your workforce, the trust of your citizens in their personal and your common future and success.

The most prosperous civilizations in history weren't based on insular thinking, on words, ideas and policies such as exclusion, prejudice or homogeneity; they owed their success to welcoming different and diverse people and ideas, daring to be inspired and influenced by them. Corruption, concentration of power and wealth, pitting citizens against one another, and sectarian violence, on the other hand, are surefire ways to destroy a flourishing country and culture.

It has happened all over the world across the ages. Who's to say it won't happen again? How far can a government go in the name of defending a nation and its values before it distorts and eventually abandons those values, destroying that nation in the process?