Diversity is highly related to stability. If you have only one source for something, say, potatoes for food, then eventually you’re going to have a potato famine. If, on the other hand, you have diverse sources for food, then even if the potato blight takes all of your potatoes, then your chickens and dandelions and apples and hops and barley are still healthy, and therefore so are you. If you only have one source for electricity, then any interruption leads to instability. If, on the other hand, you have more than one source, then you are not completely destroyed when the main electrical grid goes offline for a week during the ice storm.  If you have only one source of friends, for example your job or your church, then when they fire you or shun you, you have no social network.  If, on the other hand, you have a wide variety of friend sources, who hold a wide diversity of political views, then should you be a part of a marginalized group, you’ll be protected from the worst of it.

Diversity is generally regarded to be one of those investment strategies that rich people use to hedge their bets.  Some people only invest in total stock market index funds.  Some people, on the other hand, use the barbell strategy to diversify their portfolio, with a good percentage in money market funds or treasury bonds, and a much smaller percentage in individual stocks.  Most people think it is a bad idea to only hold the stock of the corporation you work for and nothing else.

Diversity inside of a community is very important as well.  We can’t all be farmers.  We can’t all be breastfeeding mothers.  We can’t all be crotchety old geezers who tell the best moral hazard stories.  Some of us are always going to work harder than others.  In no way are we all supposed to be equal in status, equal in income, equal in work capacity, equal in tools we get to use, equal in access to the community funds, or equal in education.  Outcome based equality just isn’t something that works on a small community scale.  Equality of opportunity is better, but, still doesn’t fit the harmonious community model.  Not really.  Some people just can’t sing, and some people taught themselves to play an instrument at a young age.  There is quite the diversity of talents amongst any community.  Some people talk to the plants and get them to grow.  Some people are healers.  Some people are warriors.  A lot of people are all of these, if they chose to be, if that is what the community needed them to develop.  The community rarely needs uniformity, and it rarely needs strict conformity in language and behavior.  However, communities also need to not be completely chaotic.  The things communities don’t allow, usually come about through time and pressure.  Diversity between communities is also necessary, because climates and resources vary from place to place.