Bringing arguments in a discussion about "protection of the feeble", rationalizing the thing, is already a sort of lack of heartfelt warmth towards the marginalized, the weak, the victims - for which anything possible should be done immediately, come what may.
Only a rightwing person would be capable of saying that "we cannot receive all the people of the third world" as immigrants, because we simply lack the ressources. A true leftwinger will never say this, it's about compassion, a matter of the heart. Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! (Martin Luther King)
I know no genuine rightwing ideologue, 200% convinced and 200% convincing. On the contrary, leftwing ideologues seem to be the ones truly in love with their ideology, with ideologic stances in general.
And this is normal. The Left being about progress, always fostering utopies, it is normal that their positions be naturally more ideological. Reducing them to the cold reality and even colder reasoning, is the rightwinger's method par excellence :)
An anti-ideology essay is by definition rightwing. So here I am, exposed! :) Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! (Martin Luther King)
Only a rightwing person would be capable of saying that "we cannot receive all the people of the third world" as immigrants, because we simply lack the ressources. A true leftwinger will never say this, it's about compassion, a matter of the heart.
Come on, this is a bad caricature!
There is a variety of views on how to deal with immigration that can broadly be considered "leftist" - but the notion that we should just invite all Africa's poor onto our shores isn't one of them. The closest you come to that is the ones (like me) who say that as long as we keep raping the third world and systematically denying it its shot at equality with the material standard of living of The West(TM), we have no moral high ground from which we can argue that they should stay in "their own countries."
As an aside, if all the hungry of Africa decided one fine day to pick up their clothes and start moving north, there'd be damn all we could do to stop them.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
I wanted to point to the compassion string in leftwing ideology.
I can agree with your statement about the moral ground, though. Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! (Martin Luther King)
I didn't say "we should invite", I said, "should not forbid".
A distinction without meaning. A clearly articulated policy of "I do not forbid you from entering my home" is not materially different from a clearly articulated policy of "I invite you into my home." The style is a bit more convoluted and a bit less polite, but materially it is the same policy.
I can agree with your statement about the moral ground, though.
Where do you see our moral high ground? The principle of sovereignty? National self-determination? Fairness?
I don't think we have a moral high ground. I didn't say we have one either. We could discuss whether our civilization is more advanced, but moral high ground?... Naah. Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! (Martin Luther King)
Preview is my friend :-P
