The phrase “third world” is one of those terms that will probably fall out of usage over the next decade. The Cloud People never use it these days as it is dangerously problematic for them. It is one of those terms that is now freighted with a lot of bad thoughts and bad memories. That and the term made the most sense in the Cold War days when the civilized world and the fringes were divided between the Americans and the Soviets. Most people under 40 have no idea what the “second world” even was so having a third world today probably seems like nonsense to them.
The term was coined by a guy named Alfred Sauvy, a French demographer. He wrote an article comparing the countries no one cared much about, with the Third Estate. It was an idiotic and ridiculous comparison, but it stuck and was eventually embraced by banana republics and African potentates. It got picked up by American radicals as a cause and the term became associated with the ass-backward crap-holes almost always south of the equator. That bit of noticing is what’s now very dangerous.
The term still means something to geezers like myself and whenever I have a reason to experience the third world, I call it the third world. The thing that distinguished these societies from the advanced societies is the disorganization. Pretty much everything is a disorganized mess, especially the traffic. P.J. O’Rourke once observed that the degree of chaos in a country’s traffic correlates to the general chaos and lawlessness of its society. I no longer recall why he said it, but it has always stuck with me.
The reason, of course, is trust. Large scale social organization requires a relatively high degree of social trust. If you want to build a building, for example, you have to trust that the people in charge are not going to change the laws halfway through your project so that you capital has been wasted. You have to trust that the laws will remain pretty much the same, with regards to property and contracts. Otherwise, you are leaving your investment to chance. Contract law and private property are rooted in social trust.
Driving is one of those large scale things Westerners take for granted, but the whole enterprise relies on social trust. As a driver, you rely on the other drivers to operate their vehicle by the conventions of your culture. You assume the other drivers are going to act in a predictable manner. In low-trust societies, it is every man for himself on the roads, because no one assumes anything about anyone, other than they are out for themselves. The result is YouTube videos dedicated to insane drivers.
Anyway, I get through the airport and make it out to where I can catch a cab. The driver has one of those great Caribbean names, Vladimir Sanchez. For some crazy reason, a lot of Caribbean mothers named their kids after Tolstoy characters. There are a lot of Puerto Rican girls with German first names like “Heidi” for some reason. I once knew a Puerto Rican girl named Olga. Vlad was chatty, but I barely understood him as Caribbean Spanish is loaded with slang. But, he was cheery and helpful.
He also drove like a maniac and came close to slamming into a few cars on my short trip from the airport to the swank Miami hotel. That’s when it occurred to me, as my life flashed before me, that we will need a new term for the world that is about to be forced upon us. Calling some country south of the equator “third world” is not going to make much sense when most of American is operating much the same way. Instead, we will have terms for the “other place” and the “other people.” We’ll need a name for those not like us, but allegedly still “us” according to our masters.
For example. A Cloud Person heading to Miami for a meeting with other Cloud People will talk about being amongst the other people. Maybe Miami will just be one of the many “other places” that exist outside the fortified Cloud cities of Washington and Manhattan. Similarly, the Dirt People will talk about those almost ethereal people, who are mostly seen on their TV’s, but once in while are seen touring the favelas of America. Persians have a word, “biganeh” that literally means an unknown person or person of alien origins. We will all be biganeh to one another.
This may seem bleak, but the future always does. It is the way things are headed as the people in charge tear apart what took centuries and millions of dead to construct. When you come into a place like Miami, you see see why the Cloud People want this for everyone. They see the polyglot beef stew culture around their swank hotel and think that it is the glorious egalitarian future foretold in the prophesies. They never see Liberty City or Miami Gardens. They have no reason to care as that is an “other” problem to be managed by other people.
When Lenin and Trotsky were stirring up shit in Russia, they needed a name to go by. Communism wasn’t a unified political movement, so they chose something else. “Bolshevik”. Literally, one of the majority. And they called their opponents “Menshevik”, or one of the minority. In reality, the Mensheviks were then much larger and more powerful than the Bolsheviks, but that was the genius of Lenin and Trotsky: this was just one of the many ways they defined the terms on which they did battle, so they won. I propose we call ourselves natives and call them foreigners. Furthermore, I… Read more »
The genius of the lefties is realization that if they control the language and the meaning of the words, they can control/bamboozle the sheeple; they can control thought. Conservatives (defined as folks who actually believe in the Constitution) have never figured out a way to combat this distortion of language. True conservatives are too wrapped up in real world facts to attempt to reach the masses on an emotional level (where the lefties have world class ability). The left have mastered better than anyone the use of propaganda to deceive the citizenry; real conservatives refuse or are incapable of delivering… Read more »
“Conservatives (defined as folks who actually believe in the Constitution) have never figured out a way to combat this distortion of language. “
Sure we have. Own the Media. (Both “News” and “Entertainment”) Own Academia. That’s how you control the language.
“…I propose we call ourselves natives and call them foreigners…”
That’s a brilliant idea. I’m going to use that.
I also have a litter index. Societal poverty is directly related to the amount of litter in public spaces, including miscellaneous junk and construction rubble. Based on my own travels, western Europe is on the way down, Eastern Europe is stable with the Czechs doing better than the Hungarians, who are bit sloppy, and Mexico, oddly, is on the way up. Germany used to be pristine. No more. Small town Mexico used to be a hideous shitehole, but is much improved over the last 30 years. I love watching videos or looking at photos of public venues after a lefty… Read more »
Also spitting, urinating and ‘bushman’s hankey’ on the street. If the locals view their country as a giant, open-air toilet then it probably is.
Mexico has its issues (the violent drug war is the biggest one), but they’ve really benefited from exporting their underclass north and the remittances Mexicans in the US send home. Simply stopping or heavily taxing remittances would send Mexico into a recession overnight.
Which is a perfect method of paying for that wall. Mexico is sending us a few million undocumented democraps? FINE! We’ll tax those remittances at 50% — for starters.
Considering all the overwhelmed school districts, welfare, housing & health programs — and lack of taxes paid by those foreigners – – seems fair to me. If a foreigner has a green card – no tax on the remittance.
Seems reasonable to me.
There are plenty of ways to force Mexico to pay for border security without them directly making us out a check. I think Trump’s plan involves raising fees on visas, for one. A lot of rich Mexicans want to come here to do business and shop and enjoy their houses in Texas and Miami and they will pay up.
@ Fred_Z – Czech and Hungary had the fortune of not being obliterated in WW2. Prague is a wonderful city, and Budapest is just excellent both well worth a visit for anyone heading this direction. The architecture and facades are wonderful to just sit back and enjoy and the Prague astronomical clock should be on ones bucket list. I hate to agree with you, but much of German cities have been replaced with horrible new buildings, rushed up in the 1950’s with little thought for aesthetics. Especially the industrial cities between Karlsruhe, Mannheim and Dusseldorf, things are gritty and dirty.… Read more »
In the state where I live (in flyover country) we are presently in a turmoil over ethereal vs. toxic energy sources and that discussion is centered on closing two coal-fired electrical generation plants along with the attendant loss of several hundred jobs. The local liberal fish wrap has been running a series of q&a’s with political hopefuls and the question of what to do about the loss of energy jobs is one of the topic areas. Almost to a person, the Lib hopefuls wax philosophical about how the State can spend money to create “retraining” opportunities so these poor benighted… Read more »
To add to your point re driving habits and lack of trust: another big contributing factor is lack of urgency. As far as drivers go, it’s a matter of the crazies mixed in with the lazies. We run on Miami time down here, which is essentially third-world time. Most third-worlders go their entire lives without knowing what a deadline is. It’s not like a bunch of them left stressful jobs at big white-shoe Latin-American firms to come here. A significant number of them were selling coconuts on the side of some goat-infested mountain road somewhere, and so it’s not like,… Read more »
Notably, they have moved on up to selling coconuts on the side of the road here, as well. When they aren’t selling flowers in the middle of busy intersections.
Here in Atlanta, as in much of the black community of the US, what you are referring to is what the black folks refer to as CPT, or colored people time. This is usually said in a joking manner to explain why they’re rarely on time for social engagements, but I’ve been told it is frequently used seriously, to explain lateness to an employer.
Regarding social trust, I nominate this post by Free Northerner as the best post of all time on the Internet. Well worth the time required to read.
http://freenortherner.com/2015/12/04/culture-loss/
It certainly is a contender. People from high trust societies really have a hard time wrapping their heads around all the implications of low trust.
Just finished reading. Holy cow.
JWM
Driving standards is a good guide to a nation. Until recently the UK only had British drivers and modest road rage was avoid (or bad) as it got. Then we imported people from the turd world and things went downhill on the roads. I recall one guy telling me some African driver bumped his car in London and instead of exchanging insurance, etc, he simply left the car in the middle of the road and ran off. So the car was either stolen, uninsured, he was an illegal or simply he was in a hurry and couldn’t wait a moment… Read more »
God, I hate iPad autocorrect (and how badly I check doesn’t help either). Avoid is ‘as good’ and breaker is ‘braker.’
Is that the ONLY reason you hate iPad?
Some call that strategy The Ghetto Lottery. The Ghetto Lottery also covers the famblies of Dindus shot by da popo when dey dindu nuttin. This pays very well indeed.
A few years my wife was in a multi-car pile-up on an Interstate Highway through no fault of her own. Her Saab was rear-ended by 2 different SUV’s and pushed into the car in front of her – which was being piloted by an uninsured illegal alien. That driver tried to sue us several times. Luckily, in New Jersey you cannot sue another driver if you are uninsured. One of her passengers did eventually sue for a neck injury and our insurance company paid him off (probably recovered that as well as the cost of our totaled car from the… Read more »
Interestingly, in Bangkok the traffic is abysmal and road rules are seen more as suggestions than actual laws – there is plenty of creative elaboration upon the themes they suggest.
And yet there is almost zero road rage. No honking horns. The organized bedlam takes place in a calm and measured manner, mediated by traffic cops at the major intersections.
All this in heat that would drive western drivers to insane distraction.
In Jerry Pournelle’s Co-Dominium series of novels there were Citizens and Taxpayers. Citizens were forced to live in Welfare Islands which were basically walled-in ghettoes. They were given free drugs and no limit to how long they could remain on welfare as long as they stayed in an Island. Taxpayers were productive members of society so they got to live pretty much where they pleased. With the talk of “guaranteed basic income” I suspect we may be headed for something like that.
Cracked me up how the PC people in TV would put a show on called “Fresh Off The Boat.” I recall FOB being a term of derision. So finding something that will be acceptable will be difficult unless blessed by the libs. But to use a Persian word? And “biganeh?” That, my friend does not simply roll of the tongue. The French demographer guy was on to something. Third world, or Turd world is very descriptive. It speaks to multiple levels of expectations regarding not only driving, but law, the way commerce is conducted, the degree of crime and punishment,… Read more »
We’re percolating with surprises worldwide. POTUS will continue to double down on every point of his agenda,no matter the results.Best part of the Club is zero accountability.
Why cut the ones who do things “the right way,’ any slack?
Just say NO to ANY new Vibrancy into your country. That way, there’s no problem discerning the good and bad.
Miami driving is insane, as a huge percentage of the drivers are foreigners and drive accordingly. Thus it is not uncommon to see a rattling rustbucket puttering along in the fast lane on the freeway at 40 mph, while others go weaving across the lanes at 70. Turning lanes at intersections are apparently just a suggestion, and if somebody to your right wants to make a left turn ahead of you while you are trying to go straight, well, it’s *your* fault for not getting out of the way fast enough. Broward County is slightly better. At least it is… Read more »
The new obstacles to driving is a minor inconvenience compared to what a low-trust culture entails: high cost of most everything because the inefficiencies in the way the society and the economy operate are mind-numbing. Prepare to be poorer.
Try negotiating your way through the lair of the Asian drivers here in the OC. Turn signoh? Watdat? Lefturh? that’s what the right lane is for. And alway drive polite slow so you can check phone.
JWM
I believe a term has already been coined for third worlders among us. An area infested with “muds” is referred to as “vibrant”, and the people could be called “vibrants.” It sounds a bit awkward but it is also just slightly amusing.
Even Hillary has referred to the “vibrant” black community.
And white suburbia is the vibrator community.
“Maybe Miami will just be one of the many “other places” that exist outside the fortified Cloud cities of Washington and Manhattan.” Things in NYC aren’t as bad as they were in the 1970s or even the 1980s but I’m not so sure that’s going to last. That De Blasio could get elected was a bad sign. It took an unofficial revolt by the cops to reign him in but its doesn’t look like the next guy is going to be any better even if De Blasio doesn’t get reelected. There aren’t any Giuliani’s out on the horizon and Manhattan… Read more »
We’re in Queens and I feel like things have deteriorated. I started noticing it in early 2015. The subway buskers got much more aggressive. My husband got shaken down by a guy running the eyeglass scam recently in Times Square. A Canadian friend who was last here in 2013 recently visited and said Times Square is markedly dodgier.
The latest set of beggars in the subway are now honest-to-God old country gypsies! The homeless are much more noticeable and De Blasio got the idea to start seeding not-dying working class neighborhoods in the outer boroughs with shelters. It may not get to full on John Lindsey 1970s collapse but the city is on track for at least a return to the early 90s. Thats why I’m not quite on board with the idea that the country is going to split between fortified Cloud people cities and everyone else. The elites can’t even keep NYC clean for a generation… Read more »
Not really true that most “turd world” countries are south of the equator. Central America, North Africa, Middle East, Indian Subcontinent, SE Asia. South of the Tropic of Cancer would be more accurate.
I would amend that to say the “turd” world countries are roughly +/- 30 degrees lat (north and south) of the equator, except in places like Australia where da white man has established roots. There is something very wrong when the “migrant” issue is coming from the underbelly of Europe, e.g. the middle east, and the underbelly of America, e.g. Mexico.
@ LetsPlay – Agreed! I think in both our countries people who came here in the past were at least willing to assimilate and participate in our culture and learn our language. Now they expect us to assimilate to them. Talk about an upside down world. At least you have the advantage that those south of you are mostly Christians (Catholics). We don’t have any such luck. This whole concept of ‘diversity’ has been imposed on us so we have to accept everything, no matter how backwards, primitive or destructive to our societies.
Karl, you do have a point. Islam to your south, a “Catholic” Mexico and Central America to ours. But I would add that the Mexican version of Catholicism is more akin to superstition and mysticism and Biblical knowledge is probably not the norm. Their faith is archaic and based on buying their salvation with “good works” or suffering. Suffering is a national pastime. I remember when I visited Guadalajara, seeing an old woman, and I mean old, walking on her knees over cobblestone streets to the front of a church. And that is similar to the public self-flagellation in other… Read more »
@ LetsPlay – I hope you understand that despite our differences I respect your arguments. My German arrogance (…it’s a German thing) should not be mistaken for disrespect. I do hope you understand that. You and I my friend, we share a common threat. Not just the people from the south, but the people we’ve trusted to protect our way of life. Our faith in those we have entrusted with our very lives and the lives of our children has clearly been betrayed. But as Christians, we stand together knowing HIs will be done, despite the troubles around us and… Read more »
Very good Karl.
My go to verse is the one that says “Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for I am the meanest, baddest mofo … sorry, I mean, for the Lord is with me Always.
And like America’s Marine Corps, we are your Best Friend or your Worst Enemy. Devil Dogs for God and Country. Amen.
@ LetsPlay – I sincerely hope we can remain friends. Good ones are hard to find these days.
Admittedly, I’m not Catholic & may have missed certain tenets, but I’m fairly sure that the Catholicism demonstrated by our new Vibrancy from South of the border isn’t at all similar to what you think of Catholicism.
I can’t imagine that popping out babies like a Pez dispenser from age 13, signing up for welfare to fund your litter of 6-8, joining gangs, getting drunk & smoking/selling weed & hash oil, all while listening/twerking to degenerate rap music, all day, instead of working or getting an education, is very holy. But, what do I know?
@ Zeroh Tollrants – Fair point. I hear Mexico City is a nightmare and even the popular resorts like Acapulco are incredibly dangers these days. Even the European press covers the drug gang slaying, beheading and other horrors along the US border. I don’t envy those living in border states. At least you can arm and defend yourselves.
Well done. Especially insightful coming from a visitor. I’ve lived here in North Havana (I’m writing this comment in my office, which is about 3 minutes outside of Liberty City) nearly my entire life. I can surely attest: you hit the nail, sir.
Having done some business in that world, I can attest to Z Man’s insight about traffic being a pretty reliable diagnostic of a 3rd city. As a suggestion for a new term I can offer what we used to call such places, namely 3D Land. It stands for Dishonest > Disorganized > Destitute. The dishonesty in question, is of course, that of the people that matter, namely the elite, aka The Cloud People. More specifically, the corruption is among the elite that are close to but not at the center of power. This, of course, results in no rule of… Read more »
Let’s use stranger for anyone whose pappy was not born in our locality. That’s what we use in the South, and it’s worked well for a couple hundred years. If it’s a stranger, nothing else much matters, and we are wary toward them. We say, “Howdy stranger”, and not much else. Non-strangers are called us, and act like us. We say, “Howdy neighbor” to these folks.
As a resident of a third world country south of the border, I can attest to the truth of the driving observation. City driving is a nightmare and I simply refuse to do it. Even in a rural area, the mouth-breathers make things hazardous: they never signal for turns, pull out right in front of you from the shoulder, curb or driveway… As for disorganization, this evening enraged villagers (pop. 1900) are holding a meeting to boot the mayor, who has bankrupted the village. It’s all theater, though: the behind-the-scenes higher-up pols have the whole thing covered and in order… Read more »
Great points as always. However, the term “others” comes perilously close to the SJW “othering” terminology (unless, of course, the point was to be provocative, in which case carry on).
After watching the premier of Westworld last night, I think “Newcomers” might be appropriate. There are some great parallels to be drawn. There are also some pretty obvious flaws. Still thought I’d throw it out there.
I have landed on a term to use for “The Others” it is quite simply to call them by the thing they are the exact opposite of, They are: “The Delightful’s ” Or the “D-Word” if you like. Take it for a spin, try it out on the open road. You can Thank Me Later.
The Vibrant!
I use to work at the Miami airport from time to time, and I can’t remember what gate it was, but there was one section on the ground floor that had this distinct third world movie feel. It was loud and chaotic, and at any time I expected to see a goat or chicken run past me.
The author of the ‘ Camp of the Saints’ Jean Raspail call it the “Big Other”, its smartly associate the third worlders coming to the developed countries with Orwell’s Big Brother, the resulting in a dystopian society.
Well, the “beef stew” won’t get past lobby security at a Miami Beach hotel. Funny, having grown up there, recall Miami Beach used to have only two kinds of people, the old people warehoused in those now fabulously refurbished hotels and the people who came to rob them at the beginning the month when the pension and SS checks came in. Now it’s all designed to whisk people from the airport, just nicking Overtown (think Liberty City smaller scale) and onto the Cloud Islands.
Regarding the Slavic names – that’s likely a Soviet protectorate-era legacy. The Soviets had lots of their specialists helping with improving Cuban economy – doctors, engineers and so on.
I had similar experiences last week driving through Jersey City to get to a High School football game. It’s like Epcot Center. Turn one quarter and we were in Havana, the next and we were in Delhi. The drivers and pedestrians all seemed to be operating in Third World mode – which is kind of terrifying to an American driver from the suburbs who is used to order. But, I kind of assumed things were always that way. Little Italy, South Boston, and other enclaves were a good place for transitioning first and second generation immigrants. Those who don’t want… Read more »
You haven’t really lived until you’ve drive the streets of Cairo. Not that Naples, Italy is much better – where the lines on the highways are for decoration and road signs are suggestions.
With regards to a new term to replace Third World (or even “other”) might I suggest something from Ender Wiggin and his four terms for “otherness” taken from Nordic phrases.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=Ender+Wiggin
– raman
– varelse
– framling
-utlanning
Cheers
off topic: Z, as a lawyer, do you happen to know if sanctuary city protection applies to white foreigners as well?
There’s no place to hide, white man. No sanctuary for you!
@ guest and theZman – Portugal and Ireland are the last Bastians of whiteness with the lowest Muslim populations in Europe. Of the two, Portugal has better weather and has a much lower cost of living, but the language is much more of a challenge.
My parents relocated from New England to Miami Gardens in the late 50s and it was actually a decent place to grow up. I had a great childhood there. It was a typical middle class neighborhood where kids rode their bikes to school and played outside till supper time. The beginning of the end of our middle class existence occured after Fidel emptied the Cuban prisons and orchestrated the Mariel boat lift. Then the Jamaican drug-gang wars started and going outside was no longer safe. Today Miami Gardens is a turd world Caribbean crap-hole. You couldn’t pay me enough money… Read more »