tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10094859.post8467735564878718906..comments2023-07-18T10:36:37.435-04:00Comments on To Secure Liberty: Whether you like it or not...Daniel McIntoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397896622886358394noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10094859.post-80371878850459658342007-06-29T07:21:00.000-04:002007-06-29T07:21:00.000-04:00Assimilation is the key, indeed. But I'm finding ...Assimilation is the key, indeed. But I'm finding myself deeply at odds with many other Republican-types these days in that as I see it, assimilitaing forces in America today are stronger than they've ever been. <BR/><BR/>American culture is blasted all over the world in movies, tv, music, the internet, et al. One would be hard-pressed to find an urban sub-Saharan African, let alone a Mexican, who doesn't have at least some concept of Disney or hamburgers or Nike or iPods or anything else we can call distinctly American. <BR/><BR/>They'll learn English, rudimentarily in the case of 1st gen folks, competentyly and fluently for the rest, for the same reason the Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Russians, Arabs, Indians and everyone else on the face of the planet is learning it: it's the global language of virtually every field. They'll learn it a lot better and faster in the US simply due to immersion.<BR/><BR/>Ethnic grouping will happen, inevitably, just like it did with all other major immigration waves, but just like all the others, 2nd and 3rd generations will branch out more widely. They'll do it all the more easily now because of the far greater availability of transportation, and because employment opportunities are far more widely advertised. You don't have to be living in Smallville, Wisconsin in order to see job postings there, anymore. Just browse them online, make a phone call, and go Greyhound. Mingling? Who <I>doesn't</I> shopping at Wal Mart or go to Regal or Cinemark cinemas or eating at BK or McDonald's or KFC? How many people have <I>no</I> transportation available to them? A beat-up old car bought and fixed up by some teenagers/20-somethings, or a few motorcycles... Someplace, TX might be 95% Mexican and rural, but the Starbucks and the mall are in that trendy suburb 30 miles straight-shot down the interstate, and that's where all the girls are, anyway... <BR/><BR/>Enforced segregation and lawful ethnic discrimination are things of the past... Jobs and schooling get harder and harder to deny based on skin alone... <BR/><BR/>And yes, America will also be assimilated in part by them... But is American culture facing an existential threat if 51% of people, 51% percent of the time, prefer tacos and beans over burgers and fries? If Latin-sourced Salsa music consistently beats out African-sourced Rock on the charts? Or do we get some strange new combimation of tacoburgers and Mexi-metal-hop that sells like mad to the kids and leaves everyone over 50 (or over 30, for that matter...) scratching their heads and pining for the good old days?<BR/><BR/>America is far and away the most successful, insidiously assimilating and re-packaging and re-marketing brand-name machine...<I>ever</I>. Or, for the negativists out there, the most destructive and cheapening force against 'pure' cultual aspects in history. And a lot of people just don't give her enough credit on that score.Jeremyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04117048662923083746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10094859.post-41799568963439579092007-06-15T12:48:00.000-04:002007-06-15T12:48:00.000-04:00"...building a razor wire fence to stop a tsunami...."...building a razor wire fence to stop a tsunami."<BR/><BR/>I LOVE that image. Perfect.<BR/><BR/>I want these people here. In the long run, considering the demographics, America may not be able to survive without them. I also want them to become American, rather than "guest workers" or "transients" or "cultural enclaves" (i.e., eternal ghettos). The key is assimilation. Assimilation is a dirty word in some quarters. But without it, we run the risk of two nations in one country, with all that implies.<BR/><BR/>I want these people here. I suspect that most people with a basic understanding of economics (too few people, unfortunately) realize the net effect is beneficial. But beneficial for whom? Some will suffer. There are ways to compensate for that, but there's no way to avoid it, short of either placing a force field bubble over each country or raising the standard of living of the whole world high enough that there's negligible economic pressure to migrate. In the long run, if the movement of people comes to parallel the movement of capital, the second option is possible--but the transition could be really, really rough.Daniel McIntoshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16397896622886358394noreply@blogger.com