by OLD1953 » Thu Oct 14, 2010 12:35 am
I'm saddened, but not shocked, at the rise of xenophobia across the world. When things get tough, it's just very easy to blame the "other" for all your troubles. And that's just what's going on, and nobody in government is willing to stand up and fight it - at least not in Europe. Bush made extreme moves to prevent reaction against Muslims after 9-11, but Obama hasn't been able to do as much, largely because 1/3 of the US is convinced he's a secret Muslim. Even so, we aren't nearly in the state Europe has created. Of course, Europe is under a good deal more pressure from the Muslim countries, and they are reacting harder. 9-11 was a world changing event for Europe more than for the US, because the US no longer pressed Europe to accomodate their Muslim population, and when the lid was pulled off that pressure cooker, it pretty much put a hole in the ceiling.
And of course the "other side" becomes paranoid and talks of "winning" a culture war. Nobody in history has ever "won" such a thing, sans extermination of one side by the other, and that is actually very rare. Most of the "examples" of such people give simply vanish on an actual close inspection, assimilation and blending took place, because that's just how it works, total extermination is a rarity in history.
I've known a fair number of Iranians and others from the MidEast, they are different, certainly, but I'd not call them evil by any stretch. They do believe they are better than we are, we believe the same thing, it's a mirror symmetry and present just about everywhere.
And, to be upfront here, I do believe immigration got out of hand over the last 30 years, but not for the reasons most people have. The two major reasons I think it should have been controlled to be lower is because open border immigration AMPLIFIES xenophobia, and the other reason is that we've pulled so many people out of Mexico that Mexico is badly damaged - something the Mexican government is just now figuring out. And that's not going to help either.
I'm saddened, but not shocked, at the rise of xenophobia across the world. When things get tough, it's just very easy to blame the "other" for all your troubles. And that's just what's going on, and nobody in government is willing to stand up and fight it - at least not in Europe. Bush made extreme moves to prevent reaction against Muslims after 9-11, but Obama hasn't been able to do as much, largely because 1/3 of the US is convinced he's a secret Muslim. Even so, we aren't nearly in the state Europe has created. Of course, Europe is under a good deal more pressure from the Muslim countries, and they are reacting harder. 9-11 was a world changing event for Europe more than for the US, because the US no longer pressed Europe to accomodate their Muslim population, and when the lid was pulled off that pressure cooker, it pretty much put a hole in the ceiling.
And of course the "other side" becomes paranoid and talks of "winning" a culture war. Nobody in history has ever "won" such a thing, sans extermination of one side by the other, and that is actually very rare. Most of the "examples" of such people give simply vanish on an actual close inspection, assimilation and blending took place, because that's just how it works, total extermination is a rarity in history.
I've known a fair number of Iranians and others from the MidEast, they are different, certainly, but I'd not call them evil by any stretch. They do believe they are better than we are, we believe the same thing, it's a mirror symmetry and present just about everywhere.
And, to be upfront here, I do believe immigration got out of hand over the last 30 years, but not for the reasons most people have. The two major reasons I think it should have been controlled to be lower is because open border immigration AMPLIFIES xenophobia, and the other reason is that we've pulled so many people out of Mexico that Mexico is badly damaged - something the Mexican government is just now figuring out. And that's not going to help either.