The Immigration Dilemma
Immigration has always been a tricky issue for America. Some natives are always suspect of immigrants and are against it period. The first natives (we seem to have a series of natives)—the American Indians—ended up totally losing any control over the lands in which they lived. There is not one country in either North or South America which is their own country. Clearly immigration can be a bad thing big time for some natives. It always seemed a tad odd to me that strange people arriving in small ships could end up displacing millions of natives in a country. True, the ships had cannons and the European immigrants had guns. But the new immigrants had to get off the ships with the cannons, and live on land at some point. Look, Americans had all the modern weapons of mass destruction back in Vietnam and we still lost that war. Okay, but then European immigrants knew Indians on sight whereas American soldiers in Vietnam could never be sure who their enemy was since the North Vietnamese looked exactly like the South Vietnamese. We became easy pickings, and even though we killed far more of them than they did us, we were the ones who tired of it. It sounds a bit like our Revolutionary War. The natives, (although we weren’t natives) won in both cases. Justice sometimes does prevail.
It turns out the American Indians had a huge stacked deck against them. It involved guns, extensive wilderness, religion, and greed, all of which put the Indians at a disadvantage. The European invaders could cluster densely via a fort-like community where guns could protect them and then venture out in armed forays to kill any Indians on sight. But even here the Indians, with their overwhelming majority could have won a cat and mouse game EXCEPT—they were not a united civilization but one in which each tribe had enemy relationships with other tribes. Thus, the Europeans could, at will, help one Indian tribe fight another Indian tribe, sort of have others do the killing for them, much like we do today with our no draft mercenary armed forces. The Indian’s main priority was dominating other tribes to protect their turf. On top of this, half to two thirds of the millions of Indians living in the Americas were wiped out by diseases to which they were not immune—genetic genocide. This would swiftly decimate entire tribes. Still, there were plenty enough Indians left to have pushed the European immigrants out of their country EXCEPT many Indians came to fear that the white man’s God was behind their deaths from disease. So they fled to new wildernesses in fear. I mean, what the hell, land back then went forever. If the whites were in one place the Indians would settle elsewhere. And those who didn’t fear whites wanted the attractive modern things the Europeans could sell them like horses, liquor, clothes, cooking utensils, and so on. If they chased away these European immigrants then these things would no longer be available. By the time the Indians realized they needed a united front to get rid of the immigrants there were way too many immigrants. The window of opportunity for them to chase out European immigrants had closed. The forever wilderness was gone by the late 1800’s, thus sealing the Indian’s fate. They had no place to run or hide.
Immigration feelings are powerful forces. With the European immigrants now firmly in charge of the country, the next immigration problem rose big time. With a hodge-podge of immigrants now in charge of the country, which group or groups of immigrants would control the country? Well, it wasn’t going to be the blacks, they were slaves for the most part. It wasn’t going to be women since they didn’t have the right to vote. And it wasn’t going to be the poor since those whites who owned land would be firmly in control. Ok, sort of, as long as they were Protestant. We could justify the elimination of the Indians as simply a more civilized population replacing a more primitive civilization. This happens all the time in evolutionary history. But we now know that just how ‘civilized’ any humans are depends a lot on the environment of their formative years. We look back at history and are struck by just how violent ‘civilizations’ were in long ago years. The kind of punishments were grotesque and without mercy—burning witches, death by quartering the strung up live body, hangings—nothing seemed ever cruel enough to satisfy an angry majority. We see some of this recurring today as overpopulation and chronic stress in some communities is breeding a new wave of cruel unimaginable violence, only this time less directed at individual culprits.
The new immigrants, like the former Indians, were tribe conscious. Through various periods of American History Catholics, Jews, Irish, Italians, Chinese, Quakers, and various minor ‘cults’ had rough times getting the full benefits of citizenship. Up until the 1800’s everybody just came, there were no quotas. The notion that this was the land of the free was disingenuous. The Puritans, for example, wanted freedom alright, but freedom for themselves, not anyone else, and God have mercy if anyone in their community had any different ideas. We had plenty of witch burnings, vigilante mass murders, individual hangings and other forms of vigilante justice. If any particular family found their community hostile to them for whatever reason, they could just pack their things and ‘move west’. The Wild West was everybody’s safety net. Thomas Jefferson thought there was enough land in our vast ‘manifest destiny’ for everyone to have plenty of room for thousands of years. Instead, by the late 1800’s the frontier ceased to exist, and citizens had to learn to live somehow with each other. All sorts of immigrants were making huge contributions to American society in every aspect of our society. American culture was ‘mutt-like’, a mixture of just about everything. By the 1920’s Americans began to focus on just exactly who any new immigrants should be and there were quotas established.
At some point in the mid 1900’s, not any clearly defined point, our planet began to feel the pressure of human overpopulation, more so in some countries than in others. The U.S., being a relatively new country, would be one of the last to feel such overpopulation pressures. We were also a prosperous country, for varied reasons, and so those struggling in poorer countries, at least a small percentage of them, risked everything to get into the United States. We kind of didn’t mind very much because illegal immigrants became our new form of slave labor. Americans always like bargains, in just about anything. The cheaper things are, the more we can buy. Most Americans are not concerned about the wages of those who make the bargains they seek. The affluent enjoyed the illegal immigrants because they could afford to hire personal attendants of varied sorts. It was prestigious to have maids, gardeners, chauffeur’s, and so on.
As time passed the quotas were too small for the number of people desperate to find someplace to live where they could find work. Not surprisingly, with modern devices and modes of transportation, it became difficult for any country to stop others from getting in, especially if once in they could work undetected. Americans tended to have competing notions that we didn’t want anyone getting in illegally in theory, but neither did we wish to know exactly who was in our country either, we valued our privacy.
So now let’s leap-frog to the present. Local community, as a significant social theatre in our lives, has pretty much gone, replaced by the internet community. People rarely communicate that much with others in their neighborhood, and are more likely to communicate constantly with their own internet network, often immediate family members, but it could be with just about anyone, just about anywhere. We are currently a very mobile nation where the average young person is projected to have like 38 different jobs in their lifetime, and for many, this means moving repeatedly. Even for those who manage to stay put for any length of time, the day often brings all of us in contact with a lot of people, albeit few in any kind of meaningful way. It is never, or seldom, a matter of good or bad, God vs the Devil, or right vs wrong——but what works best in a given environment which determines the future. When my generation laments many aspects of today’s generation we fail to realize that our generation created the environment which dictated the new lifestyles of today. We like to think we have control over the future of the evolutionary process, that we are in charge, that all other species and the natural resources are under our dominion. We can change the planetary environment, but what the consequences will be are determined by the laws which govern the evolutionary process. That is the reality. The silliest notion, widespread, is that every generation is very concerned about the future for their grandchildren. This notion is sincere enough, but every generation, for self serving reasons, creates situations in which the future will be a stormy one as varied populations—domestic or foreign—compete for dominance. Self serving greed, often in the name of family values, creates imbalances in all societies which will, by necessity, be addressed down the road, as the injustices heaped on certain segments of society will eventually cause chaos and widespread havoc. Corrections follow, but how long it takes for the corrections to occur varies in evolutionary years, not human years. It all depends on how severe the chaos. The notion that humans are not going to pay a cost for overpopulation compared to other species is absurd. The big difference is that lower level species do not comprehend what is happening to them to the extent we comprehend when the ‘shit hits the fan’.
Today, as a consequence of human overpopulation, limited natural resources, gross disparities in distribution of wealth, more and more workers being reduced to slave wages, more and more workers losing job benefits, job security, adequate pensions, more and more people are beginning to realize ‘the shit has hit the fan”—but right now everyone is focused on who is to blame for all this coming down the pike. We more and more tend to see minorities in our midst, especially immigrants, as the cause of our own situations. But even more than all this, is the sheer numbers of immigrants. More and more of these immigrants did not arrive because they chose to leave their native country as in the past. Very few people tend to ever give a high priority to leaving their own country. Last year 75 million people were displaced from their homes and forced to flee their country for various reasons. No one really wants these people to end up in their own country. This is like the stray dog who decides your home is now his/her home. We feel put upon. On the one hand we realize we should feel sorry for these displaced people or pets, but on the other hand these people are from a different culture, are different races, and often don’t even speak our language. Then we go the full route and point out they might even be terrorists. Of course, just like our own children sometimes end up being terrorists. Nobody suggests—“No more children” some of them will grow up to become terrorists. And then there are those who actually think if immigrants were eliminated, their job situation would be corrected. Actually, it is the reverse, if we were eliminated then the job situation for the immigrants would be improved. Hopefully, too many of them will not begin to see this.
It is reasonable to assume, given the violence arising across the globe, that next year more than 75 million people will be displaced from their homes and flee to other countries, one way or another. Of course more and more countries will emphatically state these refugees are not coming to their country and make it illegal to do so——just like governments make it illegal for certain drugs to gain entrance to their country. When the hell has this sort of thing ever actually happened, when illegal immigration ever really worked? And just exactly what is to be done with so many millions in refugee camps eventually becoming part of the dark environment of illegal immigrants some place? Do we let them starve? Do we pay to house, feed, and clothe them in open fields perpetually? Each year there are 131 million people born somewhere in this world. I suppose, if we kill the 75 million displaced from their homes, this helps reduce human overpopulation, but only by roughly half of the new borns in that year. Then again, 437,000 people are murdered across the globe each year. On top of that, on average, 378,000 people are killed in wars a year. Violence is becoming a major sport both for the participants and the media. Record performances in the ‘killing fields’ are replacing old ones almost every year.
What is certain is that human overpopulation will be curtailed, one way or another. We could, of course, find a way to enforce responsible reproduction. The chances of this are nil for the immediate future. This means the deaths from people displaced (if we kill all of them), plus deaths from all the wars, and all the murders have to increase substantially. This also means, in addition to deaths from the stated causes, we need to snuff out around 300 million people a year and that would begin to reduce the population enough so that, in the absence of human overpopulation, those left could begin to share existing natural resources in ways which could theoretically allow everyone to live the kind of affluent lives many of us do right now.
Most immigration, and practically all of illegal immigration happens out of desperation. I suppose, if enough jobs move overseas, that the tide will reverse and some Americans will have to illegally migrate elsewhere to get a job. Right now, so far at least, the main strategy to reduce human overpopulation is violence and this is growing exponentially. The likelihood here is that, at some point, with this exponentially growing explosion of violence, civilized nations will topple into chaos and rapidly become another Baghdad. Most Americans seem to think we are too far developed as a society for this kind of collapse to occur. But actually, the more complicated a society, the more everything is dependent on everything else, so the more precipitous a decline will be. Many people live in suburbs or rural areas thinking they are safe. Really? Where, for example, will you get your groceries, gas for your car, maintain heat and air-conditioning for your home, and even still have your job? Well, many more of us have guns now, so we are safe. Of course, we will board ourselves up in our homes and if roaming mobs approach will we shoot them down like flies with our super-duper guns. But I suppose at some point we have to leave the house don’t we? And they too have super duper guns. Uh-oh, ‘Holy Mackerel Andy, we does got a problem here’.
Immigration is really a problem. Personally I don’t want any more people living in the U. S. than already live here. Period. Everywhere we turn, there are people, people, just everywhere, all kinds of people. There are too many people dying from senseless violence. Senseless? Not according to the laws of evolution. Mother Nature always bats last. If we refuse to practice responsible reproduction across the globe, than death will come via survival of the fittest. On the other hand, in the Orlando massacre, survival had little to do with the ‘fittest’ or ‘smartest’ or ‘the best of us’, but simply to the one who had the rapid firing weapon of war. Okay, the global human herd needs to be culled—substantially—but can’t we just find a better way to cull us? For my part I prefer limiting the birth rate before someone suggests the obvious, that the elderly are the most logically expendable. I think I will look into a Sherman tank with a turret of AK-40’s or whatever the name for that ‘Zippidy-do-dah-you’re-all-dead’ weapon is called. Nah, that will soon be replaced by drones which we can program to deliver an explosive right up a designated ass. I need to be sure my address book is up to date. The Wild West is gone, replaced by the the Violent Everywhere.
At any rate this is the wrong time to immigrate anywhere. I tried to move to Canada years back, to Victoria British Columbia. But they were in no mood to have me. Unless I had a particular skill they needed, my attempt would be dead on arrival. That just makes it worse for those who do get permission to move. It is rough for the working class to struggle and understand the best paying jobs are going to immigrants with the skills needed. We do that kind of stuff in the U. S. too. Instead of paying the tab to build enough medical schools, we let other countries train doctors and then we import them here. We don’t need to have the best education system, be can just import talent from abroad. Like most every major issue facing the planet, immigration is a hopeless quagmire.
I reckon, those who read this, expected to find out whether America should be taking in our share of these 75 million refugees or even let in any more regular immigrants. The question is moot. The real question is how is this planet going to solve human overpopulation? I am one of those who is eternally grateful for President Obama keeping the lid on as well as he has, for all those groups reaching the eruption point. He gave so many hope and he in return gave many rights which they never had before, enabled many areas of the world calm down a bit, stopped runaway economic recession, and was a perfect example of not just thriving on diversity but genuinely appreciating diversity. I suppose it is easier for some kind of genetic ‘mutt’ to fit in everywhere, whereas a pure bred is far more limited in finding their niche. Many people don’t really like that ‘everyone is my friend’ stuff. But in the end, Obama could not really change much the kind of environments in which so many people are living their formative years with unusually high levels of chronic stress. And of course, all of this originates with human overpopulation. We are now getting on each other’s nerves big time. It’s good theatre but properly filed under the category of Tragedies of Horror. Don’t buy this? Turn on your media gadgets and watch the news.
Even if I was inclined to participate in this new Sport of Senseless Violence, it would be so difficult to find group of hapless people who have not already been mown down with weapons of war. I mean, what is left? Theatre people? Been done. College campuses? Been done. Airplanes? Been done. Major high rise buildings? Been done. Kindergarten kids? Been done. Church members? Been done. Gays in a nightclub?, been done. Enough, this has now frightened me. I am not moving into any kind of senior citizen complex. I don’t think that has been done yet. Maybe I could not even get into one. Someone would likely scream, don’t let that bastard in here, someone for sure probably wants to silence him and the rest of us will just be bonus points to garner maximum attention.
“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.”
