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H. E. Baber's avatar

Complex and compelling. Thinking about this in the American context lack of trust is both a symptom and a driver and poor urbanization is fundamental.

Now zipping up my asbestos suit...it's because Americans recognize this that they oppose unrestricted immigration. Underclass immigrants to urban areas create ghettos that may become no go areas and 'diversity', where ethnic communities form, undermines social capital. Americans who are vulnerable, because they can't afford to live in posh suburbs, don't want neighborhoods turned into favillas or casbahs.

They don't seriously believe that immigrants eat cats or that or that they will take their jobs. But they're too embarrassed to say we don't want them here because they socialize and do business in the streets at high volume at all hours of the day and night and because walking through neighborhoods they've colonized is like walking through someone's living room, because they harass women, because they dump garbage into public spaces, because they're loud, dirty and obnoxious--because they're a nuisance. To justify their wanting immigrants out people have to make out that the problem is more serious.

I lived in an immigrant neighborhood. In the tenement where I lived other tenants regularly dumped their garbage into the courtyard onto which my kitchen faced. One Saturday night the local youths burned a care in a schoolyard for fun. They're brutal, violent, disgusting people but, I believe, they can be fixed, enabled to assimilate and behave themselves. That is what the US needs to do.

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Arnold Kling's avatar

Surprised not to see anything about honor culture (or honour culture, as you would write it)

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