From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sun Aug 26 2001 - 18:40:56 MDT
Lee Corbin wrote:
>
> 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.
>
I do not agree that people are determined by their "basic
culture". I believe in individuality and the role of individual
thinking much too much for that. Cultural determinism isn't
much better than racial determinism in my book.
- samantha
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