Ahh…. There are so many causes to choose or to be against. Filled with passion, many leap right into these causes. “I have to have a purpose,” — many think. Be a part of something and support something “good.” Anti-immigration, communism, capitalism, white, black, patriotism, American Christianites, Democrat, Republican — this can’t be rocket science. The plethora of possibilities in the types of causes is limited by the imagination of humanity, humane or inhumane.
The anti immigration crowd’s self identity is probably statistically close to being homogenous. Their silver bullet is; stop anyone that doesn’t look like us, pray like us, and speak American like us, from the further dilution of our self identified demographic in my country! Yeah! Grab yer pitchfork and drive ‘em out!(who needed Einstein or Werner von Braun {or Obama he he he})
The Communists decry the evils of capitalist imperialism. If we could just get rid of the the greedy self serving class inducing capitalists and the nation-states they hide behind. We can kill most of the motivation for productivity and fly our own flag over the entire planet. (Wait, that doesn’t sound so good. Any questions why that failed?)
The capitalists talk on and on about creativity, productivity and producing wealth. If we could just deregulate and eliminate laws, except those that protect capital then we can all be rich! Poor people are causing us to be poor, we only have millions. I want billions and billions of dollars then I can be generous. (well we have been gifted Madoff and Wall Street, as well as Big Banker bailouts — Thanks!)
“Whites,” are those who are desperate to enjoy the possibility to mitigation the difficulties associated with access to education, and social, financial and corporate upward mobility even if the motivation doesn’t exist, and also create and assign racial demographic tags. But there is always the local KKK chapter, or Aryan Nation Neo-Nazi type of affiliation. Yeah! If it wasn’t for blacks, Jews, Mexicans, gays and commies, we would be pure! (Why not get the circular firing squads going and kill’em all, you can’t be too pure!)
“Blacks” have gleefully accepted the demographic assignment and many want exactly what “whites” gave themselves. Lets get down to the Nation of “Islam,” or the equally repellant NEW Black Panther Party. (These are not the old revolutionaries that believed “whites” and ”blacks” were to blame for the woeful economic and educational condition in the “black” community, hence the capitalization of NEW.) We can think of the NOI as the Nation of I slam; slam “whites” for crappy schools even when the schools aren’t attended, slam “whites” for not handing over power, wealth and social status. (Asians aren’t handed anything, but their parents nurture them into educational wonders, and those students are given very grudgingly; wealth, some power that can be bought, social status; they don’t even have to take it. A lot of ”whites” are the dank and vile Republicans, too intellectually lazy to compete, and helpless when capital flows away from them. Asians do it through an amazing work ethic, intelligent business practices and sacrifice in their small businesses, since they are not given a ladder to be pulled up the big corporate structure.) No one “white” or not should just hand you anything that isn’t yours to begin with, beyond equality in access to education and loans. Even though some reparations are morally and ethically responsible — get over it, if it isn’t in Title7 don’t hold your breath.
Oh the patriots; if you aren’t supporting the slaughter, murder and torture of everyone else then yer a traitor. Yeah who needs ‘em. If we could just kill’em all we would have more support. (Even cannibals don’t waste the dead. How “good” can America be with that attitude as moral guidance?)
We are special and have a covenant with God as we pray using King James for religious bearing. American Christianites – they don’t even call it a “Christian Bible” it is a King James Bible, censored and corrupted for “fundamental” literalism. Kill for God, Kill for Country and eye for an eye; vengeance is mine and that means me, don’t it! God is on my side and blesses my country and loves the death penalty and death to enemies. (Accepting Jesus instead of King James, and living like Buddha would make you a better Christian in todays world, since the idea of “christianity” has been watered down by accepting any forked tongue babble about Christ as Christian.)
The political parties; some would impale anything and everything to show allegiance to party. I don’t mean to equate the two big parties. Dems have few convictions of purpose that don’t change and those followers of count GOPula deserve more convictions than they will get for Wall Street, Iraq, torture, the economic plunge, allowing 9-11 to take place…… But, the country could sink into a hole as long as the party was in control.
All of these causes have elements of constructive use, but the passionate hatred serves as validation for existence of opposing hatred. Each uses one or two “silver bullets” as an explanation for a vast array of problems. Each thinks their cause is some magic potion cure the ails of the country. Each is wrong. Wrong in attitude and purpose. Few look in the mirror to see the the tailside of the problem. None of them really go into in depth types of solutions that are based on education, economics and engineered social and diplomatic solutions. Just passionate hatred and adherence to the usual orthodoxies. The anti immigrants are now environmentalists, the American Christianites are patriots, Patriots love the world, “whites” are American, “blacks” want to be American like “whites.” As for the rest………. clinging codependant social misfits wanting to be in the clique they couldn’t join in high school.
Warning to readers!
Any time you read the hackneyed “this can’t be rocket science,” read no further—unless of course you want to spend your time with sophomoric, self-important, pretentious, desperate (and in this case, fulminating) gobbledygook, then do read on.
OK Mr. Environmentalist.
Other than your use of tax dollars to house half of Mexico in prisons here, build an incomplete Maginot Line fence, and various privacy invading measures, denying healthcare to individuals that are known to be disease vectors etc. None of your gobbledygook, snowjob rubbish adheres to fundamental economics.
I may fulminate, but you are desperate. More people would support your cause if there were any economic foundation to it. Keep ranting to keep your issue alive, so you never solve it. Keep your pies to your self.
One thing missing from this debate is something it took me a long time to figure out: a body in an undeveloped country has a tiny footprint compared to one in a developed country.
Thus the burden on the environment when an immigrant, legal or not, comes to the United States increase manyfold whether we like it or not.
Just another argument to get a handle on illegal immigration before it’s too late.
Best, Michael!
Michael,
Sue is correct. The issue I have with McGarry is that I don’t believe he is really trying to solve the problem. Trying to escape into environmentalism is just garbage. There is no disagreement about the “environmental footprint” getting bigger, when almost any immigrant comes.
Since I believe many cause based movements have leaders making a living off the cause, I have an issue with the McGarrys of the world.
(Warning to readers!
Any time you read the hackneyed “this can’t be rocket science,” read no further—unless of course you want to spend your time with sophomoric, self-important, pretentious, desperate (and in this case, fulminating) gobbledygook, then do read on.)
Just for purposes of argument, lets say the above quote in it’s entirety is true. I ask; where is the solution? Would McGarry deny that people usually want to improve themselves and /or their condition, which might even include their children? Is that something that MIGHT motivate people to make a change. Is it unreasonable to think Mexicans, and others would want to come here, to make that change and improve their condition?
I recognize that McGarry, and his type (do you hear me great leaders of divisive single issue causes?) thinks there is an abundance of extra taxpayer dollars for his Band Aids to throw into the immigration issue. The simple question he refuses to answer, which I have asked him repeatedly when he was on ConGames Wednesdays is this; How do your Band Aids/”solutions”/ideas eliminate the motivation to come here in the first place? You won’t answer, at least you haven’t so far.
The solution is understanding this as an economic equilibrium problem, causing collateral environmental damage. You can continue to collaborate with bigots like Wooldridge, and yap endlessly about fences, prisons and free transportation to the border and so on to make a living/reputation ON THIS CAUSE, or you can seek to understand and you might understand that there is a solution, if you have the aptitude.
Sue I am quoting you;
(Being a Taoist I’m bound to say that there is no good or bad, right or wrong way to look at things. I just prefer it if people come right out and say what they think, rather than trying to deny their true motivation because they don’t want to appear racist. There’s really nothing wrong with being racist, as long as you don’t take it to the degree of hurting someone. Some of my favorite people, including family members are raging racists, but that doesn’t make them bad people. It’s mainly a matter of societal and parental upbringing. I’d venture to say there is a little racist attitude in all of us. )
To extrapolate your logic here; you feel that raging racists in the Nation of Islam /NEW Black Panther Party and the KKK/World Church of the Creator/Aryan Nations as well as West Bank Settlers does not make them bad people, is that correct?
If you have a little racist attitude, it is yours not mine, not McGarry’s, not Wooldridge’s, not MLK’s or Buddha’s. I am certain I don’t have a racist attitude.
There are very few DeClerks of the world. People capable of doing the correct thing(s) even though they are racist/anti-semetic/male chauvinistic pigs/Taliban American Christianites/paranoid xenophobes, express their vulnerabilities and fears, but courageously act with moral and spiritual conviction, knowing that they better themselves by bettering others, are welcome to my home. Most bigots are too happy and content and merrily rest on the laurels of their prejudices.
I too want people to be honest. It honestly wouldn’t bother me to know crooks and thieves took advantage of their racial acceptability and left the racists blind.
{Pre-clarification; There is nothing Christian in action done by Christianites, only a spewage of phony pieties to enable lying, cheating, stealing and the screwing male prostitutes behind their wives’ back after a good hit off the meth pipe, in the name of “God”.}
I wonder how an informed and informative minded independant blogger could get sucked into any cause ridden with BS for “solutions” and led by any type of Pied Piper “leader” living off it.
Contrast that with the constructive criticisms you have for the Occupied Territories in the ME.
[To extrapolate your logic here; you feel that raging racists in the Nation of Islam /NEW Black Panther Party and the KKK/World Church of the Creator/Aryan Nations as well as West Bank Settlers does not make them bad people, is that correct?]
Yes, that’s correct. There are no bad or good people. There are only actions that can be labeled bad or good – according to the rules we as a society have agreed upon. Everyone has some good and some bad aspects.
Notice I said “there’s nothing wrong with being racist as long as you don’t take it to the degree of hurting someone.” Thinking racist thoughts doesn’t make one a bad person, especially since many have no choice as to how their parents raised them. My parents passed on some bigotry to me and I admit I’ve had racist thoughts from time to time. You are fortunate to have escaped that fate.
The difference between me and Frosty Wooldridge is that he expresses racist thoughts but doesn’t admit to racism, while I admit to thoughts of racism but keep them to myself, as well as working on eliminating them.
Wooldridge is acting upon his racism by trying to get immigrants banned from America. Still, that doesn’t make him a bad person. The act of organizing around racism like the BPP and KKK for the purpose of opposing another race’s rights doesn’t mean each individual is bad, just their purpose as a group – according to the rules we as a society have agreed upon.
Some West Bank Settlers are raging racists, mainly because that’s the way they were raised to believe. As long as they don’t hurt anyone, they can hate as much as they please. It’s only hurting themselves. But when they start throwing rocks at Palestinian children on their way to school, beating up Palestinians, tearing out hundred year old olive trees to build an apartheid wall, and stealing Palestinian land, that’s wrong – according to the rules we as a society have agreed upon.
The truth is, as long as people come in different colors, there is no eliminating racism. It’s just part of who we are as humans to divide ourselves into rival tribes according to the way we look. That’s why my solution is to intermarry. My family is doing our part. I have a Philippino sister-in-law, a Mexican/Chinese sister-in-law, a Vietnamese daughter-in-law and I married a Jew. Once everyone on the planet is a pleasing shade of brown, there won’t be any way to tell each other apart and we’ll all just be one big human tribe.
Until then we have to be tolerant of racists, just not tolerant of their actions.
Dear Mr Troy:
Please, for the sake of understanding—to say nothing about salvaging your endangered reputation—please get a good editor to go over your comments before you post them. Take this statement of yours, one of many examples needing much preliminary work:
“Other than your use of tax dollars to house half of Mexico in prisons here, build an incomplete Maginot Line fence, and various privacy invading measures, denying healthcare to individuals that are known to be disease vectors etc. None of your gobbledygook, snowjob rubbish adheres to fundamental economics.”
Please avoid parallelisms; they create confusion.
Also, please clarify this unintelligible sentence fragment: “…use of tax dollars to house half of Mexico in prisons here….”
Are you saying we are currently housing half of Mexico’s population in our prisons? Are you offering a projection that sometime in the future we will be housing half of Mexico’s present population in our prisons? Or are you just engaging in hyperbole in a failed attempt to disguise your syntactic shortcomings? When it comes to writing, clarity is everything.
In addition, I question your including this unparallel implied accusation: “…denying healthcare to individuals that are known to be disease vectors etc.” Please cite any reference where I or anyone else ever advocated such a position. Indeed, it is illegal and illogical to deny such health care. That’s why I was relieved when that Mexican illegal living in Santa Barbara, Ca., who had refused treatment and went on to infected 57 people, was finally isolated, confined and forced to stick to a treatment schedule.
Sir, please tell me what you meant to say with, “privacy invading measures?” What are “invading measures?” My best guess here is that you really would want to create a compound adjective to modify “measures” by inserting a hyphen between “privacy” and “measures,” to wit: “privacy-invading measures.” Again, for the sake of clarity.
As to this naked target of yours, “None of your [meaning my] gobbledygook, snowjob rubbish adheres to fundamental economics,”
I summit for your consideration, the Law of Supply and Demand. With mass unemployment and underemployment creating tent cities across the country—with Depression Era-like unemployment in some pockets across the country—bringing in more workers ipso fact flogs down wages, conditions and benefits, just as the Law of Supply and Demand would dictate. Therefore, is seems to me unconscionable that the U.S. government would be every month still be waiving in 138,000 new arrivals, giving them green cards and work permits for all levels of employment, to say nothing of the number of illegal workers still pouring in.
Another of the many considerations of the application of the Law of Supply and demand, consider the following. For every person added to the population, an acre of land is destroyed, that is, an acre is urbanized and degraded. Millions of acres have been bulldozed over the last 35 years to accommodate unprecedented mass immigration, half of which has been farm land and half of that prime farm land. That explains in large part why we are now importing 15-20 percent of our fruits and veggies. If this very disturbing trend continues, The law of Supply and Demand not only will dictate we will be hauling our meals tens-of-thousands of miles to reach us (as compared with the already boneheaded 1,500 miles), but future generations of Americans could find themselves held hostage to an OPEC-like food cartel. The Law of Supply and Demand
Dude, get some help!
Your pen pal,
The Environmentalist
I admit the need for an editor, but what is your excuse, English teacher;
{If this very disturbing trend continues, The law of Supply and Demand not only will dictate we will be hauling our meals tens-of-thousands of miles to reach us (as compared with the already boneheaded 1,500 miles), but future generations of Americans could find themselves held hostage to an OPEC-like food cartel. The Law of Supply and Demand }
Was there something about CLARITY you wanted to educate me on? It is probably incomprehensible to you, but I agree with most of the symptoms you write about, despite the lack of CLARITY. The transportation of goods, value added and otherwise, “free” health care, I throw in pathogen vectors whether you agree or not, the outsourcing of jobs, various crimes,etc.
Where we disagree is fundamentally associated with SUPPLY and DEMAND. The fact that the power elite of Mexico refuses to give parity in the various forms of compensation (pay, benefits, education, environmental standards, worker safety, transportation vehicle standards and so forth), to the levels in the USA , and the wealthy power elite in the USA wanting to hire those immigrants for less than what they would pay an American, is the reason SUPPLY and DEMAND are seeking an equilibrium — very very simple. Our capital flows out and their workers stream in. Another way to address this is to lower our standards to meet theirs, and race to the bottom of the human condition. Are you so dense that you actually refuse to aknowlege this?
If the anti immigration crowd can answer why someone would want to leave the land they love, and take a job in a place hostile to you for the same rate of pay/compensation, I’ll back your fences and etc.
However, I believe policies will have to eliminate the reasons (economic) for wanting to come here and work in the first place and they whoever they are, will not be as motivated to come here to work.
Sue,
by seeking to understand, I do. Your explanation is very transparent. So I hope you do not take this as an insult but;
YOU ARE GOOD! We all think “bad” thoughts. Real courage is overcoming fears, anger, and prejudices with actions to the contrary.
My experiences indicate that you are very unusual in this way. I wish you were the rule, not the exception.
Edward,
I like most of the things that I’ve read of yours. You are one of the first people that I’ve heard talking about immigration and the environment in such a similar way as me. You see a the world and its problems as everyones, much as I do. But we have completely different solutions. When you propose solutions to the worlds problems, your always seem to be thinking political or with governmental solutions. But think about what the government is and how it works. No matter what the government does, it implements it through force. Laws take enforcement, even if that enforcement is just the fear of persecution.
Before I start rambling to bad, here’s an example of what brought me to write this in the first place. Immigration Solutions: 1) Kick them all out and keep them out by whatever means possible. We both know (even if no one else does) how retarded this idea is. Not only is the physical side of it ridicules, but it would lead to bigger problems. I don’t think I need to explain that to you. 2) Get the government to help deal with the real problem, which is the poverty of immigrating countries. This is the solution I think you want. But again it leads to anger and more problems. No matter how the government would try to help it would do it through force. Even if the government spent every dollar responsibly on ethical causes with true and just intensions, which will never happen. But if somehow it did, the government would still be taking that money from people by force. As long as people disagree with how the government is spending their tax money, the government is stealing. When you steal money from people it invokes anger, even if your playing Robin Hood.
Most people don’t care about the whole world; they only care about their own world. So although you might be looking at problems at their true value, most people aren’t. You may see past ignorance and know that we need to help countries instead, so they don’t become or stop being our problem. But most people are ignorant. It would create problems by taking their money, even if it is for a good cause. That is one reason every governmental solution is bad.
My solution: Live your life wisely with good intension and passively educate people. That is the only way to change the world in a positive way. If you want to help others or the environment, then do it. But don’t force others too. By leading by example, other people will join in by their own free will. I, by no mean expect to draw you into my non-governmental ideology, but with all of your thoughtful blogs, I thought you might enjoy my perspective anyways.
Nathan,
Many of the whining diaper butts, that complain about having to pay taxes, actually think they don’t need government, while they drive on publicly funded roads, use fuel derived from public lands, enjoy the protection of their assets with public funds, living next to people who have been generally educated in public schools to not engage in criminality.
It would not be pleasant, but I don’t need anything but wood and stone to make shelter, fire, procure food and a forest to eat from. I truly don’t need government. Why should I pay any taxes or taking it a step further; pay anyone? I possess reasonable mental faculties and am physically fairly capable.
Government has me respecting laws that I don’t need, I don’t live in fear. I don’t need to pay anyone to protect me, or make bullets, guns, roads, vehicles or grow/hunt for food for me to buy. How many of these types are really ready to live under natural law — with no government. When their bullets run out, they would be food for something or even egads someone.
They want everyone else to pay for the protection of their assets and don’t want to pay for anyone else to be able to compete in this commonwealth of people organized as a democratic republic. Thus they are hypocrites.
Humanity is apparently stuck on identifying with idiotic religions and various constructs of race coalesced around odd nation states for legal identity. My suggestion is that the government of the USA get/force/ coerce/persuade/ convince the government of Mexico to pay Mexicans equal pay for equal work as in done in the USA and Canada to remove the economic arbitrage in the Supply and Demand that currently provides the motivation for immigrants to come here. Living, working and eating locally, throughout the world, is the most holistic thing people can do for the planetary environment.
I enjoy your perspectives. Keep it coming!
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