One of the great unanswered questions of our age is why Western rulers are obsessed with importing tens of millions of unassimilable foreigners into their lands. In the US, the conventional wisdom among immigration patriots is that one side of the political class wants cheap votes, while the other side wants cheap labor. In Europe, the theories range from female hysteria to poorly conceived economics. The one common thread is that across the West, the ruling elites appear to be trying to crash their cultures.
The trouble with these reductionist theories is they do not make much sense at the individual level, so they cannot very well scale up. For example, the cheap labor argument does not hold up very well when you examine it. Helot labor is great for the business owner, just as long as he is the only guy doing it. When every landscaper is using Aztec workers, there’s little benefit to the landscaping companies. That is not to say there is no benefit, but does it warrant the suicidal drive to import Mexico into the US?
In Europe, the cheap labor argument makes less sense. Depending upon who is counting, between 80% and 90% of migrants are on public assistance. Even if these migrants wanted to work, there is little demand for low-IQ unskilled workers. Even if there was some demand, the labor laws in Europe would make it impossible to hire them. One of the vexing problems the Euros have are restricted labor markets, which prevent the sort of labor mobility we have in the US. There’s just little demand for cheap foreign labor.
The cheap voter argument is a better one, but even so, the returns are spotty. In the US, Latin voters have been unreliable. They have low turnout numbers, relative to other groups. Unlike blacks, they are not easily agitated into rushing out to stage big protests or shoot white people. There is also the fact that they tend to cause the white vote to coalesce around white candidates regardless of party. That or it results in white flight, as we see in California. So far, open borders have been a disaster for white Democrats.
A similar result has been seen in Europe. The Brits are the example closest to the US for obvious reasons. Open borders have destroyed the party that advocated for it. On the continent, the anti-Euro movements are entirely driven by the immigration waves triggered by Merkel. Even docile countries run by cat ladies and cucks are starting to see the rise of nationalism and anti-immigrant parties. Exactly no where is immigration helping the political class. Yet, the ruling class is universally in favor of open borders.
The fact is, there are no good political or economic arguments in favor of mass immigration. In some places, the arguments have some plausibility, but even the best nuts and bolts arguments in favor of elevated immigration levels do not justify the high political and cultural costs. Yet, our political classes have an unshakable loyalty to foreign migrants. In every Western nation, the smart political play is to oppose high immigration levels. In many countries, banning all immigration is overwhelmingly popular.
There must be something else at work, beyond money and power. Even if we extend the bounds of the ruling class beyond the elected class and their attendants, there is no upside for the elites. Why is Mark Zuckerberg berserk for high immigration? He is even in favor of importing Muslims. The same is true for Hollywood people. They get nothing from open borders, other than fewer job opportunities. Ditto the mass media. About the only thing the self-actualizing classes get from open borders is domestic labor.
That may be the key to it. I’ve pointed out before that the self-actualizing class may prefer Spanish landscapers, as it avoids them having to see blacks raking leaves, while singing old fashioned negro work songs. It also avoids seeing downscale whites, who remind them of the tenuousness of their position. Asian and Caribbean domestics not only avoid those problems, but everyone can pretend they make better workers in those roles. The Korean nanny is like a tiger mom for hire. It makes the deception more palatable.
The underlying cause here may be narcissistic altruism. It is generally assumed that altruism is selfless, while narcissism is selfish. That may not be the correct framing, as lots of people do charity work because it makes them feel good. Similarly, lots of self-absorbed people commit public acts of piety because it makes them look good and elevates their status. The guy funding the museum and demanding his name be over the front door is not acting from pure selflessness. He wants glory too.
It has always been known that men often become more religious as they grow older, often returning to the religion of their youth in a serious way. The pattern is not as obvious with women as they are much more likely to stay in their church as young adults. Young mothers will often get involved with their church for family services and socializing with other mothers. Men, on the other hand, often have a religious awakening in their middle years and not only return to their religion but do so with vigor.
George Vaillant was a researcher at Harvard and did a 50 year study on men, tracking them from their teens to old age. One of the areas he studied was altruism and he found that as the men aged, their altruism increased significantly. This was not simply due to selflessness. Helping others becomes increasing rewarding as we age. Neuroimaging has revealed that helping others brings pleasure to the person providing the help. Altruism activates brain centers that are associated with selfish pleasures like sex.
Organized religion, obviously, provides a ready made structure into which this selfish desire to help others can flow. Not only does organized religion have structured charity, but it also comes with a spiritually rewarding purpose and generations of others who have followed the same path. The female desire to provide charity is funneled into activities that support the community the church serves. The late onset male altruism follows on providing money and intellectual capital to society-strengthening altruism.
Again, this is not pure selflessness. When you volunteer at your church, you feel good about it, because the pleasure centers of your brain are stimulated. It could simply be that as we age, the vanity of youth is no longer effective. To get the same pleasure from life, that desire for selfish pleasure (sex, wealth, status), is redirected into other areas like church participation and charitable giving. Doing good makes the person feel good for having voluntarily done a good work on behalf of their fellows.
The collapse of organized religion, particularly among the Cloud People, is leaving them with no structured outlet for this normal human impulse. The reason a Lyndsay Graham cares more about Dreamers, than his fellow South Carolinians is he feels like he is helping those who need help. It is why John McCain spent the last three decades chanting about “causes greater than yourself.” Without a structure into which his narcissistic altruism could flow, he searched around for causes and purposes, most of which were destructive.
It has been written in many places that the urban globalist elite feels more kinship with other urban elites in foreign countries than the do with the non-urban people in their own countries. To these people, their own countrymen are just as much “the other” as immigrants are. In addition, immigrants aren’t in competition for power with the urban elite the same way flyover country is, which is why flyover country is the enemy while immigrants are not
your post is self-negating.
Why is it self-negating?
I think it is a combination of all of these factors with different players all getting something a little different out of it.
Part of the problem of Europe, and increasingly here in the USA, is that social democracy doesn’t create enough of an increase in population to keep the benefits flowing and lowering benefits is political suicide. So gradual societal suicide is the answer. And you can feel good about it while gassing your own country.
True, but the political class has a clear choice. Even if there is no immediate downside to going along with high rates of immigration, there is no upside. If tomorrow the Democrats did an about face and embraced restrictionism, they would sweep the 2018 elections. They can’t even bring themselves to like about it and they will lie about anything.
Theirs is an emotional position, purely emotional.
Wholeheartedly agree. Modern progressivism is all about feelings. It’s going to get worse with schools teaching kids that feeling bad is likely because the person who beat you beat you only because of privilege. They have it. You don’t. Then add on to that the whole micro-aggression culture and it only goes downhill from there.
Matt you are spot on my lefty friends when asked can’t describe what Pres Trump has done to make them “hate” him. They say he has “made people feel bad for who they are.” Feminization in action – I feel bad so it must be someone else’s fault.
The Dems are playing the long game. Coming out for restrictions may help them in 2018, but new free-stuff voters in 10-20 years helps them even more.
Sorry, this is probably TL;DR The ruling elite is made up of strivers and non-strivers. The strivers unquestioningly adopt whatever opinions and ploys entry and position require of them. They are purely mercenary (or easily persuaded true believers). The non-strivers have position, power, wealth, influence, and can distribute largess to strivers. Most have attained positions or wealth that no longer challenge their spirit or have particularly growing scope. George Soros lives for what purpose? To see his vision of the Open Society come to pass? He’ll be dead, and he knows it. So what tickles his endorphins? Clearly, not religion… Read more »
I don’t believe politicians or voters know/care about a Social Security deficit that will manifest itself in 20-30 years.
I often wonder whether the political and media firestorm we live in, is actually cover for the systematic looting of the system by certain politically and economically powerful entities. They could care less about the next 20 years, or even the next 20 months. Getting while the getting is good, from their perspective.
Yes I found it hilarious that Michelle Bachmann, when retiring from Congress, arranged Swiss passports for all of her family (N.Z. would have been better). She obviously knew what is coming in a few years in the U.S., but waited to get her own bailout until she no longer had to worry about offending voters with her “treachery,” etc.
Much calculation went into that decision and I am not at all sure NZ would have been a better choice, The Kiwis have far more immigration than is commonly realized.
At least, the Bachmans will be reliable voters for Christoph Blocher! Her children’s claim to Swiss citizenship came through her Swiss-American husband. Michelle herself is basically Norwegian.
It is going to manifest itself (to all but the blindest politicians) a lot sooner than 20-30 years.
They know but there is nothing that will be done, Take The perfect example, the affordable care act . The Republicans are happy all day and night to vote to repeal so long as President Obama was in office and nothing would happen but once they have a President who supports repeal and you know, maybe something better, well he thinks so anyway , suddenly they just can’t do it nope nope Same with every other tough call, mostly they just want to get the goodies with as little work as possible It also doesn’t help that the average member… Read more »
I think you’re bang on that much of it is altruism looking for an outlet in the absence of religion. But supporting that is a section of the population who absolutely detest the society they are from and wish it destroyed, and remade to their satisfaction with them in charge. This is exactly what the communists tried to do, but communism failed and so they turned to whatever weapon they could lay their hands on – and mass immigration is one way to go about it. So the behaviour we are seeing might be as much to do with the… Read more »
Altruism coupled with rage.
I’d love to know what brain center lights up when revenge is achieved. An emotionally stunted, leftist wet-brain dream?
Pat myself on the back AND get revenge on those I hate.
Or am I overthinking this?
I think overwhelming and destroying native / western culture has more to do with it. It may damage the pro-immigration in the short-run. In the long-run it annihilates conservatives.
Z Man; Yours is as good an explanation as I’ve seen. As you say, once you look at the phenomenon dispassionately, the madness of it jumps right out. Hence it’s time to look at the evidence that it’s largely emotionally driven. But you seem to be ignoring stupidity as a driving factor. I.e., you may be overestimating the intelligence many of the open boarders crowd, particularly their economic intelligence. Based on the ‘refugee resettlement’ folks at our church, I’d vote for both. They really enjoy the good feelings from helping individuals and brush off any and all concerns about the… Read more »
I have to say I think the main impulse motivating our lovely SJWs is not a burst of altruistic pleasure, but good old fashioned hate. They hate the other with unrefined passion, and in case you hadn’t noticed, readers of this blog are part of the other. They want to replace and crush their enemies. Tim
Yup, all emotions, no rational thinking involved.
Looking at my own situation, I think the male return to church in later years has many roots. You get the kids raised and the financial house in order, and you step away from the work treadmill just a bit. You come to realize how hard it is to accomplish positive change in large and abstract ways, and how easy it is to do in the small and specific things. You also have a practical skill set that may not be particularly valuable any more in the workplace, but that can do wonders with the bevy of small skilled tasks… Read more »
The leftists could have achieved the same ego-boost by importing paupers from busted southern countries like Greece and Italy, with almost no backlash. Many of us northern Europeans have a real soft spot for the feckless but always cheerful Latin who spends his days tending goats and lounging on the beautiful square in Tuscany. No, there is something really poisonous going on.
“No Marxist can deny that the interests of socialism are higher than the interests of the right of nations to self-determination.” Vladimir Lenin “Divide the world into regional groups as a transitional stage to world government. Populations will more readily abandon their national loyalty to a vague regional loyalty than they will for a world authority. Later the regions can be brought together all the way into a single world dictatorship.” Joseph Stalin I do not think that it’s a coincidence that just about all open border zealots are lefties, liberal progressives or communists. Their goals are not economic nor… Read more »
This altruistic impulse would most naturally towards family. Many of the leaders in the West, and many of their supporters, are barren. Ipso facto.
Then how come places like Japan and China, which is officially atheist, have no immigration?
They are tribal for lack of a better definition. Tribal people put their people first and foremost. Or maybe a high ethnic cohesion co-efficient. IOW they stick together. ‘ll give you a real world example among Central Americans here in the U.S when one of them opens up a store or eatery, all the other Central Americans in town patronize it – they support each other. The Chinese ex-parts do the where ever they go as well. Oh yeah their cultures are still relatively intact compared to ours. That helps a lot. Their elites to a large extent haven’t been… Read more »
One very real explanation that has been overlooked is the unmitigated stupidity of the political and cultural elites. They see a situation, misdiagnose the problem, apply a fix to the non-problem, a fix that only makes things worse, then fail to see the problem they have created. Because they are just plain stupid.
The “elites” governing the West are merely reflecting their deeply held belief that Western Civ, and the Christian Ethic that underlies it, are the greatest threat to humanity that ever existed. We overlook this motivation due to its inherent insanity. Nevertheless, their actions, which on the surface appear illogical, are all explainable by holding this idea up to them.
Not the greatest “threat to humanity”; but the greatest threat to the globalist, oligarch “New World Ordure”, and the so-called “elites'” desire for their One World Government”.
Considering that one man in the USSR Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov is the only reason there even is a Western Civilization , there is much truth in that No one else is crazy and smart enough to invent hydrogen bombs or nearly make genetic engineering for the common man or research AI and robotics that could quite literally result in human extermination And while China and others are joining in the doomsday rush , they didn’t invent it , we did. So yeah in a broader sense, we are a threat to everyone else Worse any culture we allow our Cathedral… Read more »
As to the open immigration thing, I think one element of it is that immigration, similar to unfettered abortion and “voter rights”, has become an unthinking response, not a thought-through position, for many of those who think the world is a nasty place and doesn’t need to be, if only people thought like they did. As a knee-jerk response for those in the Liberal club, the notion that they might be damaging their own lives by supporting all of this just doesn’t register. There is a big disconnect, because many supporters of unfettered immigration do not live lives that directly… Read more »
Immigration has moved into holy sacrament territory. They’re for it, because their religion is for it. And there are few things more satisfying than parading their sanctimony around.
I would probably lean towards the another concept I think disappeared with the collapse of Christianity: forgiveness. The progressive cause is devoid of forgiveness (at least as far as any ‘privileged’ class is concerned). So they find themselves sinful within a religion that is deeply intolerant of that sin. So in this situation the progressive wants to conceal his sins and do great things in the name of his religion. They want to be a ‘good white’ in a similar sense that they might consider being a ‘good Nazi’. The basic mentality is that their virtue is framed as that… Read more »
Yes, fantastic. Americans in general have a difficulty in understanding forgiveness because of our Calvinists heritage.
We tend to think of things in terms of ‘pure’ and ‘impure’ because of Calvinism’s dichotomy between the saved and unsaved: early colonies required people to present proof of salvation in order to be citizens. We’re still looking for proof of salvation!
You see the lack of forgiveness every day. It has morphed into an intolerance of anything that strays from the “party line”. I try to tell people to accept that others think differently than they do, and that is an OK thing, and that we all need to leave space for other people to find their own answers. They look at me like I have three heads or something. Finally, I tell them that people hate to be told they are wrong, that it is a human thing to hate it, and that no one’s thinking has ever been changed… Read more »
Forgiveness is revolutionary in it’s depth and simplicity. I think it’s the secret strength of the Christian mystery, why they are such a positive force. To contemplate the weighty command of forgiveness requires profound contemplation; one must truly try to walk in another’s shoes. Early training and a lifetime of this effort reinforce empathy. (Note that that genocidal mercenary, Calvin, instead advocated ‘beating the Hell out of them’. Pilgrims, appalled by Puritan abuse, sang “Spare the rod and spoil the child” as part of an anti-Puritan ditty in 1644. In the OT, the mewcar- scepter, slang for a scroll- is… Read more »
We saw this very premise on display last week, when H Weinstein vowed to redouble his efforts to bring down the evil NRA. It’s the proven escape pod for goodthinkers with big money and big connections.
Cash payment for the remission of sin… hmm, I’m thinking 16th century here. Remind you of anything that happened around 1517?
Anyone who can ask & answer this question without using the word “Jews” is being willfully stupid. Who truly & honestly wants immigrants? Jews. Why? Because nonwhite immigrants help thwart straight white male power. I don’t think it even happens consciously. I think that their outsider position creates a predisposition to support other outsiders & underdogs at an intuitive level. Who creates our nation’s moral code? Universities. Who disseminates that code to the masses? Media. Who tells politicians what to say & do? Donors. All three groups & institutions are more or less completely dominated by Jews who all share… Read more »
You make a point worth pausing over. Are there enough Jews to control journalism, Hollywood, most media and the Universities? Why don’t the gentiles, much larger in number, push back?
Whites have pushed back. Many times, in many countries. History is full of white people finally getting fed up with Jewish behavior & getting rid of them (one way or the other). The reason that the Alt-Right has gotten the Press & Universities & Politicians into such a frenzy is that it is among other things an example of whites pushing back against Jews. But as for why push-back is so rare, here are some ideas: 1) Whites are naturally universalist & individualist. It doesn’t occur to us to work as a team like it does with more clannish people.… Read more »
Very persuasive. Thanks. I don’t like feeling anti-semitic but you make a strong case.
Stop buying their framework.
I am not antisemetic.
I’m just not Semitic.
They have their group, I have mine. They are interested in doing things that benefit their group. I am interested in doing things that benefit mine.
Sometimes there is a conflict & when it is, I take my side. Just like they do.
“I’m not antisemetic”.
But you are – sometimes. I suspect you don’t like feeling antisemitic either. When another group threatens your group, you become antiother. Which is perfectly natural. What is unnatural is NOT preferring your own group.
Life is competition. I like the Red Sox, you like the Yankees. When our teams play, I am antiYankee. Beating your team makes me happy. As it is in sports, so it is in sociology?
i agree with you more than i sounded. antipathy towards other groups depends both on how much they threaten my group and how much I find their characteristics disagreeable.
I like the term “countersemitic”.
The manipulation of Americans’ tendency toward Narcissistic Altruism is a means to an end. The real answer is Globalism. Of course, most (or all) globalists believe their own propaganda. Narcissistic Altruism (excellent phrase-coining, btw) is the means by which voters are induced to support this globalist open-borders policy. “Tugging on the heart-strings” of individuals with an overriding need to appear (n.b.: “appear” and not “be”) morally superior to others, is money in the bank as far as propagandizing others for support of any agenda. Fortunately for the globalists, the vast majority of Americans are just such individuals. The first step… Read more »
I think the general point of the article is the “Signal Economy”. I view it like this: in a wealthy post-Industrial society economic status signals have simply lost their value, because cheap consumer goods are easy to come by. Hence we now have an economy built around status signals. PC status signals can be purchased at other people’s expense. Open Borders proponents may only be marginally affected by mass immigration if at all, while the cost is spread across the culture or society at large. So the benefit (the status that accrues to pro-open-borders signaler) is concentrated (on the signaler),… Read more »
Good, good point
Japan does not follow the model of promoting high immigration. Yet they still have the problem of low birthrates and they are attempting to address that problem by developing robot technology. US politicians cannot even muster the will to deport criminal illegal aliens (murderers), so their motivations are more likely to be a form of psychosis rather than misguided idealism. We are not electing the brightest minds among us, we are electing people who are seriously psychotic. This death wish is of our own doing.
“We are not electing the brightest minds among us, we are electing people who are seriously psychotic. This death wish is of our own doing”.
Examples?
Read the speech that George Bush just gave in NY and then tell that he doesn’t have a loose screw in his noggin. Extreme stupidity is also know as clinical retardation.
I think it’s more that the power elite who are globalist are trying very, very hard to stem the tide of the revolt of the Dirt Peoples and can see that they are failing. Nationalism is resurgent in the Anglosphere and Europe, and they are trying desperately to fight against this. There is no doubt there is sociopathy inherent in the elite unhealthy desires to control the commoners. I think they are quite fearful of these uprisings, if the full light of day truly exposes their schemes as it seems to do more so over time and in increasing measure.
the cheap labor argument does not hold up very well when you examine it. Helot labor is great for the business owner, just as long as he is the only guy doing it. When every landscaper is using Aztec workers, there’s little benefit to the landscaping companies. Even if literally every employer hires helots, they are still made better off by continual imports of newer helots. This remains true so long as the wage that newer helots demand is lower than what older helots demand. Marx identified the “reserve army of the unemployed”; this is pretty much that. But perhaps… Read more »
Cheap labor is like slavery. It enslaves both the slaveowners/employers as well as the workers/slaves.
This is the case in medicine now, too. Try finding a hospitalist that looks like you.
Sadly true.
EB, is that bag on your head really on fire? Great avatar, BTW.
Baboso mean “idiot” in the dialect of Spanish my mom and grandma speak. I did a search for idiot and this picture came up.
I frequently set myself on fire professionally, though.
Or a factory that doesn’t look Chinese.
The mountain has gone to Mohammed.
Nail head Z Man. But I think the connection/ correlation to the diminishing influence of religion is problematic. The LDS community is a case in point. Most Mormons are well educated, financially secure and the church is almost fanatical on the concept of serving others from top to bottom. They however support immigration both morally and financially and not of the educated European variety. This drive to import low IQ morally challenged non-Mormons is certainly not do to a lack of religiosity. Amazingly they would prefer to facilitate the import of non-believers or Muslims than sponsor fellow Christians who truly… Read more »
To me Mormonism is like a Christianized Judaism. They keep themselves apart, infiltrate, subjugate, etc. The difference is in evangelization. They’ve had a lot of success in the Third World, so importing it is just another kind of missionary work.
Being in loose touch with some members of the local Mormon community, I am guessing that the discipline that they demand of their membership is assumed to be transferable to those brought in from abroad. I am skeptical. I think some of the membership may be skeptical as well, but the Mormons are tightly a “top down” organization, so if it is coming from the top, then it will be followed.
A detail- the Book of Mormon purportedly details two Hebrew colonies in Central America. Oddly, it does correlate with the time of the Zapotec and Mixtec cultures. This was the original reasoning behind interest in Latin America. Every Prot then discovers the necessity of saving island paradises, the LDS are no different, excepting that Pacific Islanders are a big presence in Utah, along with Kona Gold in the 70’s. The Samoan gangs couldn’t make any money due to lack of customers, so they left. Culture matters. Utah is getting spooky again due to the Diversity. BYU and the upper crust… Read more »
Sure the separatism, evangeliztion, I don’t know about the subjugate but the question is why import the least likely to turn into good “saints”. The LDS is strong on financial independence and tithing. Muslim third worlder’s are not the pool of converts to provide church-going tithe paying members; there are other prospects. The church knows they will be a drain on the church are likely damaging to the country in toto yet they focus the import those most destructive to all. I think the church leaders envision themselves the elite (like the other cloud people) and perceive they are more… Read more »
CIA is full of Mormons. Why?
Very responsive to traditional authority structures, strong classical patriotism. Heritage of traditional modes of morality, less likely to be addicts, perverts (debatable).
Re: “There must be something else at work, beyond money and power. Even if we extend the bounds of the ruling class beyond the elected class and their attendants, there’s no upside for the elites. Why is Mark Zuckerberg berserk for high immigration? He’s even in favor of importing Muslims. The same is true for Hollywood people. They get nothing from open borders, other than fewer job opportunities. Ditto the mass media. About the only thing the self-actualizing classes get from open borders is domestic labor.” ZMan, you are certainly on the right track regarding narcissistic altruistism, at least as… Read more »
Can’t really comment in the general, but can on the local brand around here. Think they’ve latched onto immigration because in a very wealthy NYC suburb it is an abstract. I think we have exactly one, maybe two ME refugee families that all the Progs cooed over on Facebook when they showed up. But they are parked over on in the “poor” corner of town, out of daily sight. Everybody got behind a “sanctuary village” proposal because they could feel good, but not really have to worry about MS13 gangbangers roaming in their neighborhoods. Though when there was a momentary… Read more »
I truly believe that the left is currently resurrecting communism in the form of a new “radical egalitarianism” based on race rather than class. Seriously, this all ties together: their obsession with racism/sexism along with the mandatory erasing of borders and forcing you to LIKE IT. Just like Orwell pointed out, true totalitarians are not happy with merely holding all the power in the way of a garden variety authoritarian; they insist that you must OBEY and BELIEVE, you must “love Big Brother”. In our case we must love Diversity, we must import Diversity, and you must profess to bow… Read more »
Not completely OT…Spam and other canned meats are being stolen in Hawaii for quick resale by drug addicts. Hence this story:
https://cdn.relaymedia.com/amp/www.civilbeat.org/2017/10/denby-fawcett-why-spam-is-now-under-lock-and-key-at-oahu-stores/
A discussion at a board meeting last month…ladies told me that the back pack food packs being given to poor kids so they won’t go hungry over the weekends? The parents are grabbing the packs and selling the contents to heroin and meth dealers. These aren’t conservative ladies either.
How’s that for a burst of altruistic goodness?
Altruism gone astray? Perhaps, but I have a hard time imagining that politicians have an altruist bone in their bodies. They do seem to display a Santa Clause complex at times, e.g. bringing home the pork-barrel projects, but that is usually just a form of buying votes. I certainly have wondered why the enthusiasm for invasion, myself. A few other possible explanations: 1) Opposition for its own sake: if the benighted dirt people hate something, politicians must love it. This tendency is shown by feminism for example, which supports Islam even though Islam is hostile toward women. Dirt people hate… Read more »
I think the description of Narcissistic Altruism in the article is missing a few pieces. I would add that Narcissistic Altruism is solely focused on the good feelings generated by “helping” with no regard for whether or not anybody is actually helped and a callous disregard for the collateral damages caused by the so-called help. Another part would be maximizing the feeling of helping while minimizing the personal investment in that help, for example using other people’s money.
I would add the companion concept of “moral narcissism” as well. The results do not matter so long as one has good intentions.
I would agree with that
I think you are right. The demand for more and more immigrants from ever more random locations has reached a level of hysteria that isn’t explainable by reasonability. However there is one policy reason for pro immigration that no one ever discusses. Especially the pro immigration types. That is the declining population of young people on one hand and aging dependent population on the other. The problem is that without young people the social security that old people demand won’t be paid, the companies whose shares they own won’t have employees or customers and the bonds they hold will be… Read more »
Interesting notion. I sort of buy it. But there is a very big selfish angle as well.. Take the LAUSD – if all the Hispanics who came here were removed. There would be a massive layoff of teachers and administrative personnel. The same applies to state welfare workers of various stripes. Police would be downsized as well. Hospital ER’s would become near vacant. Dialysis clinics would be shuttered all over the state, etc. The point is government loves population growth because it ensures growth of government to take care of all the new parasites. Cities love growth because it means… Read more »
IMO, it’s neither narcissism nor altruism. It’s simply Cloward-Piven: destroy the country by overloading every system until everything crashes, thus necessitating a strong government solution. They’re not sure exactly what the replacement system will be, only that (they hope) they’ll be in charge.
It has always been known that men often become more religious as they grow older, often returning to the religion of their youth in a serious way
An excellent reason not to allow Mohametans to immigrate. When a Christian returns to the faith of his youth, he resumes a relationship with Jesus Christ, King of peace.
When a Mahometan returns to the faith off his youth, he resumes a relationship with Mahomet a psychotic jew and christian-hating killer.
How long do we have before this blows up and we have real race wars?
Who knows? The only people with the balls enough to react are for the most part Leftists (Nazis and Commies) and Muslims. The Right is still clinging to stockpiling weapons and hoping we can vote our way out of mess. I won’t say the later is impossible but its increasingly unlikely In any case its going to require a clear idea of what people want and will to make it happen. Guns and gear help but aren’t a magic talisman if the Right, .Alt Right or whoever can figure out what kind of society they want, at that point they… Read more »
Other than two already going on?
Letting Hispanics cleanse blacks from neighborhoods is low grade race insurgency but unlike a real race war doesn’t actually solve the problem just move it around And as for White Genocide , we could end and reverse it by simply having 3 White kids each for a few decades. That would require learning to cooperate shutting off the fracking social media and deciding its a priority though . Its certainly not mine and as an aware person, if I’m not biting I can’t see why others would White people aren’t being killed off, they just decided they no longer wanted… Read more »
Not altruism, but pure, unadulterated self-interest. It’s all about receiving positive reinformcement from one’s reference group, which includes such “benefits” as being on boards, attending fundraisers (i.e., celebrations of self-love), riding oneself of guilt (real or imagined), and being “special.”
As for myself, the older I get, the less altruistic I become. I also feel better about myself. It’s everyone else who has a problem.
As always, this is a very well-written essay. But it doesn’t seem to increase my (admittedly poor) understanding.
I’d suggest two related things for analyzing this topic. (1) Cui bono. (2) Follow the money.
I’m guessing that at the root of cui bono, it becomes more substantial than altruistic narcissism.
How is this insanity different from all the other prog/leftist insanity? Everything they think and do is insane. Maybe modern life just produces massive amounts of human insanity, for a number of reasons.
An alternate theory. I’ve seen more than once in print that every time American pols came close to closing the valve on Mexican illegal immigration, Mexican elites would start aggressively engaging their counterparts in the executive branch, Congress, academia, etc., with some pretty focused messaging: if the U.S. didn’t continue to allow unrestricted illegal immigration, then a Marxist insurgency would brew up in Mexico and that the U.S. would be “fighting a Vietnam in its backyard.” Could the same sort of back channel/track two diplomacy be ongoing in Europe? Could the elites in MENA be whispering a similar message in… Read more »
You are writing as if the elites think as a single brain. They don’t, they need to be led. Perhaps you could consider the motivations of the small leadership element who have the ability to propagate ideas.
Great point. And funny, too. Elites are (to borrow Z man’s term) the “self-actualizing”. Yet what self-actualization is evident from a whole upper stratum of übermenschen who say exactly the same things, in the same words, with the same patterned tone of ‘outrage’? One might draw the false conclusion that shoe-shine boys like Kimmel and Matthews decide how the ‘rulers’ will express their ‘thoughts’.
Can it be that we’ve actually jumped to the Romulus Augustulus point, or beyond? Barbarian chieftains running the scam just a little longer, if you see what I mean.
“One of the great unanswered question of our age is why Western rulers are obsessed with importing tens of millions of unassimilable foreigners into their lands.”
r/K reproductive theory. It explains everything.
http://www.anonymousconservative.com/blog
Over here in Europe it might be the economic reasons in addition to narcissism. True, migrants in Germany do not work but they still need housing and government handouts. All this is beneficial in the short term because it keeps the economy artificially growing and elderly might get some domestic help. And a lot of people have really swallowed the open border / blank slate mantra.
This goes along with my idea that it is like an IV in the arm of a dying body called social democracy.
Yes, the false ‘government economy’ is eating the real economy. Good, good catch.
I think as Christianity burns out in the West, a few half-remembered embers temporarily glow brightly before going out. Self-denial is something people vaguely remember as a good thing. Without any coherent structure to put it in its appropriate place, it takes over so that we see people doing suicidal things while congratulating themselves on their virtue. They can’t remember anything else of their old religion, so they cling to the confused idea that God is happy when we destroy ourselves.
Why don’t any of these explanations apply to Australia? The Australians understand that immigration would lead to colonization by Chinese. In the US, nobody is afraid of colonization by 5’4 Mexican immigrants. Germany fears immigrants but Poland and Hungary know that they are always in danger in being occupied (it’s happened in recent memory). So a large part is complacency mixed with the immigration illusion ie immigrants will always stay at 15% and nothing will change.
Germany *doesn’t fear the immigrants, or the leaders don’t. The East Germans do.
Ironic, then that Angela Merkel is East German.
re: “Ironic, then that Angela Merkel is East German.” Vizzini
Merkel was born in West Germany. Her family emigrated from the freer Western zone to the repressive East Germany, a rare occurrence at the time.
Dan Kurt
Wow. Didn’t know that.
That explains just about everything she has done, then 🙂 Were her parents soviet agents or something?
Weren’t they Lutheran ministry?
Curiouser and curiouser.
She got pretty high up there in the youth cadres.
There is nothing at work except money. Immigration is encouraged since the locals don’t have enough children to satisfy the demand for endless growth of the economy – Not at any rate that history got forecasters accustomed to assuming. The immigrants also, by definition, have to be poor people as well, as that is the only way to be sure that the economy has categorically grown rather than simply been expanded by importing the newcomers’ spending power from Europe, or latterly, Japan and China. As this extract illustrates, this has been going one for a long, long time. “…IN THE… Read more »
In a world that’s projected to have fewer jobs due to technology and automation, how is any immigration at all justified? What kind of consumers will low-IQ, unskilled people make? They’ll be supported by our taxes. If they work, their wages as well as the wages of most citizens may be so low as to not be taxed and therefore do not contribute to our system. So what then? How does this help businesses to even stay open, never mind grow or start new ones? Tens of millions of unemployed people who all need to eat and pay rent (many… Read more »
We conservatives are guilty of missing the key, underlying motivation of the globalists. We believe democrats are consciously trying to destroy western civilization while GOP/corporatists are trying to squeeze every last dollar out of the productive classes by importing more, cheaper versions. If you talk to these people, one on one, you’ll find both groups truly believe they are doing what is “right”. They believe their paths both lead to to a more virtuous, prosperous America. The truth is they are both wrong. Third-world immigration may have been a boon to America when we needed hands and shovels. But in… Read more »
I’m not so sure immigration does not help the Dems. I read a study after the Obama defeat of Romney that showed if the country’s demography was the same as under Reagan, Romney would have won by 3 points.
I think this is one of the few times that I’ve been unconvinced by your argument. I hear the problem about scaling down to individuals and the political class, but that doesn’t strengthen the narcissistic altruism bit which seems a stretch.
As with most problems, it’s almost certainly a confluence of several issues. Leftist votes certainly accounts for some of it. And another good direction for thought would be the “Feminine Imperative” (to put it simply, gynocentrism writ large). But this one needs a bit more time in the oven.
I think the narcissistic altruism argument is true. Progressivism as many have pointed out is a religion, and open borders is a tenant of the faith, making those who adhere to it feel morally superior. On a side note, having worked with immigrants in my profession, it is not that they are cheap, it is that they are reliable and work hard, with a respectful attitude. Ask anyone who is more reliable, an American black or a Phillipino or Indian immigrant. There is no comparison.
Where IS that line between narcissistic altruism, and NIMBY virtue signaling?
I doubt there is one.
Progressives flood the country with immigrants for the same reason Hollywood actresses collect african orphans. They are writing their own hagiographies in human flesh.