As the Worm Turns...

We are all born with blinders on, and over time, though we fight to see peripherally, we are largely unsuccessful in doing so. Some few people try to invite us to embrace the task of seeing more comprehensively, but each generation, it seems, remains largely unable to accept that cultural spirals are inevitable. So what is the point? We are currently, in the US, dealing with myriad issues, not all of them political/economic, which serve as parallels to situation that have played themselves out in the not-so-distant past. For instance, I have recently received emails regarding our current immigration policies where the point of reference is a quote from Teddy Roosevelt. In said email, Teddy focuses on assimilation as the aim and condition of continued acceptance of all the huddled masses yearning to be free. Teddy was commenting on a situation that was then current - over 100 years ago. Yet the contemporary position seems to be that what we are currently experiencing is new and more serious than the issue that Teddy was responding to a century ago. It is the same issue, and we should respoind to it similarly, though of course, we may not. If we do, we will most likely gather some sense of control over the situation, and then wait for its return in a few generations. If we do not follow something of the same series of reactions, then the cycle will alter dramatically. However, even under these circumstances, the result will likely bear more resemblance to the past than we ever let on. You see, were are bounded and confined by a world-view that is very constrained. At the risk of sending a 'so what?' message, perhaps I can suggest that we make a stronger effort to be evaluative and reflective. I don't know the answer to our current immigration dilemma. On the one hand, we have millions of people here illegally, and many of them are gainfully employed and operating outside the purview of the IRS. On the other hand, we have millions of illegals who are contributing nothing to the economy, and are literally going one step further and robbing the US citizenry by gaining access to perks and privileges granted by the government to try to prevent them from being a drain on society. If that sound convoluted to you, I apologize. I know of no way to simplufy it. The gainfully employed illegals are hurting the US by not paying their fair share of taxes, but the truth is that their tax contribution would be very small anyway. They are largely the working poor that we hear about often. Worse yet, we have trained a subset of the illegal population to rely upon the charity that exists already. They do not work because they can't find work, or because they have learned that they don't have to; they will be able to access food, shelter, and clothing through the various assistance programs. Worse yet, we have created a subculture of illegals who are here to earn money that will go directly to their families in their home country. Worse yet, we have allowed a subculture of illegals who 'live' here only to participate in criminal activities of one sort or another. The ultimate worst is that embedded in each of the above statements is the acknowledgment that we have created or allow all of these things to happen. We have in fact encouraged them to happen because we don't want to use common sense. We don't want people to go hungry and cold, so we create safety nets to prevent this from happening. Then we provide access to the safety nets to people who don't need them, thereby ensuring that the resouces will be depleted, guaranteeing that people will go hungry and cold.