A great line about race and immigration

A blogger called Dulle Griet quotes my argument about John Zmirak and comments:

Yes, Mr. Zmirak, you may not be interested in race, but race is interested in you. The “people of color” now surrounding your liberal cloud-cuckoo land may not share your vision of a race-blind society. Indeed, there is no reason to suspect that they will.

“You may not be interested in race, but race is interested in you.” That is a great and original remark (I see no earlier appearances on the Web), which perfectly sums up the situation of the race-blind white West.

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Richard F. writes:

This is a paraphrase original to Trotsky with subject being “war”

Also have heard “God” inserted occasionally.

Gintas writes:

The phrase quoted sounds familiar; I’ve heard variations over the years. I searched and found that Trotsky said, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” Or maybe he said, “You may not be interested in strategy, but strategy is interested in you.”

LA replies:

I knew it was based on a famous quote, though I didn’t specifically remember that the subject was war. I think it’s been used with a variety of different replacements. But this one is really perfect. Modern whites refuse to think that race matters, or to think of themselves as white, because that is racist. Therefore, even when whites are being attacked as whites, whites refuse to recognize that this is happening and to defend themselves, because that would require them to think of themselves as white, which they think would be evil. Nothing better shows the unreality and the real evil of liberalism

Jeff W. writes:

I do not believe that Western liberal politicians live in a Cloud-Cuckoo Land. Like other human institutions, Western liberal governments have an ostensible appearance masking a quite-different reality. Ostensibly, Western liberal governments care deeply about the well-being of all and want only to provide everyone with cradle-to-grave security. In reality, these governments are selfish institutions driven by a desire to increase their own wealth and power.

Western liberal politicians have calculated that their own personal well-being, as well as the wealth and power of the state, will be improved by admitting large numbers of immigrants. Immigrants’ payroll taxes will add to the tax base. Their low pay will increase corporate profits, some of which will be recycled to politicians in form of rewards and bribes. Corporate profits can also be taxed. Votes from immigrants can be purchased reliably en masse with taxpayer funds. From the politicians’ point of view, it’s win-win-win: more tax money to ladle around, more bribes, and increased job security.

This calculation is proved mistaken when there is a political backlash from “nativists,” resulting in politicians’ removal from office, or when the immigrants prove to be a net drain to the treasury. Immigrants can drain the treasury both with their demands for services and by removing their no-go neighborhoods from the tax base. The treasury is also drained when native citizens are forced into unemployment by cheap labor.

At present, politicians like John McCain are caught in a dilemma. On one horn, resentment from immigration opponents is costing them more votes than they can buy from immigrants. On the other horn, plutocrats are still offering bribes in order to maintain a supply of cheap labor. Predictably, they are responding to this dilemma by miseading the public about their real intentions while in reality continuing to support policies favorable to those who pay them bribes.

In my view, then, liberal politicians do not live in Cloud-Cuckoo Land, but are simply selfish people acting to advance their own interests without regard for the interests of the community. Our basic problem is that the community is too weak and divided to exert control over these selfish politicians.

There are, however, innumerable liberal citizens who do indeed live in Cloud-Cuckoo Land. Such people are often merely dupes, deceived by government’s appearance. But very often these people are also, in some way, on the government payroll, in which case they have a personal stake in maintaining the appearance of government as a benign and caring institution. Also included in this category are large numbers of people who are not currently receiving any government handouts, but are hoping to receive something if, for example, Hillary or Obama are elected.

LA replies:

Jeff W. is arguing that McCain, far from being a naive white who fails to understand the importance of race, is selfishly pursing his own interests in pushing immigration.

While that argument may apply to others, I don’t think it applies to McCain, or, at any rate, to my view of McCain. I don’t say that McCain is a well meaning person who thinks that race doesn’t matter and that we can assimilate all immigrants. I say that McCain actively seeks to Hispanicize the U.S. and displace what remains of the historic people and culture of the United States.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 28, 2008 06:20 PM | Send