From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sun Aug 26 2001 - 03:42:10 MDT
Carlos writes
> Please humor me and my ignorance of the details involved, I will
> ask a lot of questions in trying to understand the situation.
It's really neat when someone is able to write such a statement
with total sincerity and no sarcasm.
> Yes, they live in kleptocracies. But they suffer the abuses, instead of
> benefitting from them. Given that, I can't imagine why would they feel
> inclined to create a kleptocracy in the US. They may lack a lot of
> sophisticated political ideas and practice, but they should be able to
> recognize kleptocracy is a no win game for them.
I agree that despite the annoyances with the unfamiliar, many
immigrants do appreciate the improvements in the new country
that they've chosen in contrast to the old country. It's
definitely not the case that there would be an *intention*
to create corruption or devalue the institutions of liberty.
What is of concern is that such eventualities stem from the
basic culture of a people. For example, what if the particular
kind of religiosity of a people have a great influence on the
patterns of government that develop? Libertarians systematically,
by the way, do not appreciate the hundreds of years that it took
(mostly) English speaking people to evolve democratic traditions
and the habits that support them.
> Also, how would the uneducated peasants keep you from enjoying
> cryonics?
There must be something deeply antithetical in Mexican culture
towards cryonics. While a number of Spanish (people from Spain)
eagerly embrace cryonics (for some unknown reason) there no
Mexican members of American cryonics organizations, so far as
I know. Thus Mexican voters would not be at all offended, I
fear, when other parts of the American political system decide
that the cryonicists are using up valuable resources needed by
society.
> I thought those of them that are illegals wouldn't be able to
> vote or such, and those who can, well I just can't see them
> worrying much about the issue one way or another...
Well, amnesty will be announced for all, of course, as it was
before. That's just a question of time. And votes.
> Again, this can easily become for said peasants a matter of cost-benefit:
> getting into the US seems certainly lots cheaper, both on an individual and
> group sense, than headbutting against the kleptocracy and risking all kind of
> nasties (in the worst case) or a lot of wasted time and still being dirt
> poor (in the usual case). Can you really blame them for doing so?
Certainly not in the sense that I don't understand and sympathize. Still,
the illegal ones must be blamed for not obeying the law, or law doesn't
mean anything. Of course, there should be stiff prison sentences for
coming into a country illegally, just as there is in other nations. But
again, it's a question of votes, and it may be too late for that.
> As for the political correctness issue, it is a US feature that
> I'm still unable to understand at all, so you don't need to worry
> about me thinking you can't criticise them on that account.
No :-) you are far more likely to become the victim of political
correctness than to exercise it. You'll find out soon enough what
*terms* rather than *ideas* are likely to bring out the PC crowd.
Lee
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