Ask The NeoCon, Part VI

Reacting to yesterday's post about Illinois parents protesting public school English-language testing, reader OBloodyHell commented (emphasis in original):

I think you actually dodge the real issue here, Carl. The reality is, this is an Hispanic-driven issue, I believe.

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but my perception is that this is driven almost entirely by people who speak Spanish as a native language -- not Germans, not Italians, not French (I . . .ignore Quebec in that, this is about the issue in the USA, not Canada).

This is about people who have come here, often either chased out of their own country (as Cuban refugees, mostly in south Florida) or voluntarily and often illegally, as much of Texas and the Southwest. . .

The PC crap has unfortunately taught many of them that the land was "stolen" from them by the Americans -- as though Mexico really belonged to the Spanish there, instead of the native populations, by this reasoning. Uh-huh. . .

America's future economy depends on its ability to continue creating IP for the rest of the world. It's one thing we are damned effective at -- and there is not a nation on earth that can hope to challenge us for supremacy at that -- precisely because of this melting pot quality -- we freely accept other cultures into our own, and adopt the best parts of those adopted cultures into the whole. This is the heart and soul of our dominance in IP -- because if it plays here -- to our polyglot culture -- Then it will play *anywhere*.

If the USA breaks itself apart, then there will be a long, hard time ahead as each of those parts finds out what they are good at... because it's not likely to be IP creation, and that is where an awful lot of future wealth is going to come from for humanity as a whole.

Guilty. I dodged it deliberately. In drafting the post, I considered at great length whether to finger Hispanics in particular. Ultimately, I chose not to do so--and elided that portion of Burt Prelutsky's quote that did.

Why? A few reasons:

1. As you say, the problem isn't immigration, it's illegal immigration. So right away, one would have to narrow "Hispanic" to the awkward phrase "illegally-immigrated Hispanics."



2. Much of the problem is the way of the modern world. When I was young, there were delis and konditorei in the Yorkville section of Manhattan where one could be understood more quickly when ordering in German. But that community assimilated quickly; few German-speakers, and none of those stores, remain. Today's values downplay a commitment to rapid assimilation in favor of greater self-expression--a factor not limited to Hispanics.



3. The PC "crap" isn't confined to "illegally-immigrated Hispanics." Put differently, the left will enable multi-culti bilingualism regardless of the language spoken--note, for example, that Illinois translated its recent ELL pronouncement into Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Urdu, Vietnamese and Gujarati, whatever that is.



4. I have some experience with Asian communities in the DC area--Korean and Vietnamese--and have encountered some similar assimilation resistance . . . although nothing like the insularity of some Hispanics in, say, Miami, where I spent last weekend.



5. I'm no racist. But conservatives, especially, those trying to debate in the public space, have to be careful of being pigeon-holed by progressives. Rather than being tasked by an editor, I have the luxury of selecting my own topics--and so avoid what I don't know and what could be mis-characterized. Call it self-censorship; I prefer to think I'm choosing my battles. And I'm no expert on immigration or Hispanics.



6. I agree completely about IP and its role in America's economy and competitiveness, as I wrote three years ago:

   America doesn't have all the answers. Instead we minimize central planning and account for incentives, thereby unleashing 280 million possible solutions. Because we began as a relatively classless society, Americans can more easily advance income levels. And, as The Economist observed, unlike Europe where "bankruptcy is stigmatised; in some countries it disqualifies people from starting another company," America's consumer-oriented bankruptcy laws (despite the current Bankruptcy reform bill) mean that Americans can try, fail, and try again.

   [Though it's a decade old, I recommend The Economist article linked above.]
   
   I'm too lazy to track down the cite, but I once read that the national statistic best correlated with the health of the computer industry was not eduction level or income but the strength of a country's bankruptcy law. And, as you said, present and future global wealth depend on the uninterrupted flow of new ideas. But that truth applies equally to Hispanics, illegal immigrants or not.

Conclusion: My favorite Mexican joke, about the old Don who bitterly resents the 19th Century loss of so much territory to the United States. "And the worst part," he says, "is that you Gringos stole the half with all the paved roads."