SC&A Vent

The time has come once more for SC&A to unload.

We don't care who we insult or who takes offense. Unlike the other brilliant therapists who regulary blog, we are dead and thus don't give a rats ass about what you think. Further, we are smarter than you, better looking than you and the object of desire of many fabulous and good looking women. For you whiny bastards out there, we concede you look nice in your pink shirt, yellow paisley tie and dress flip flop with tassels.
Onwards.

“…the US is becoming infected by Europe’s traditional defensiveness.”

From the Financial Times- a view from abroad and through a different lens:

Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and migrant workers took to the streets of America on Monday to protest against the threat of criminal action against them, and to demand the right to US citizenship.

On the same day in Europe, eight of the wealthiest countries in the European Union confirmed that they would maintain restrictions on free labour mobility within the EU, in an effort to curb migration flows from the new member states in central and eastern Europe. So far there has been no sign of popular protest.

The reality is that both western Europe and the US are facing very similar pressures of migration, and similar popular concerns about the effect on jobs and wages for the indigenous population. In the late 1990s, the rate of net migration per 1,000 inhabitants in the “old” EU actually overtook the US for the first time. Yet Europe continues to resist the idea that immigration is a necessary and valuable contributor to economic growth, whereas in the US it has been seen as a positive bonus.

Attitudes on both sides of the Atlantic may be changing, with a growing realisation in Europe that net immigration is inevitable, and growing resistance in the US to an open-door policy. Both face huge challenges of integrating the large inflows of workers from very different cultures and economies. Neither seems very keen to learn from the other’s experience.

All the evidence in the EU suggests that the movement of migrant workers from eastern Europe to western Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall has been overwhelmingly positive. In February, the European Commission compared the experiences of the 15 “old” EU members, and concluded that the migration flows had not affected unemployment rates, and had not been significantly curbed by national measures to restrict them. On the other hand, they may have held down wages in sectors such as construction and tourism, making the benefiting economies more competitive.

Only three old member states opened their doors to migrant workers from the new members on May 1 2004, when they joined: the UK, Ireland and Sweden. On Monday, they were joined by Finland, Greece, Portugal and Spain. But all the biggest continental economies – Germany, France and Italy – as well as some of the wealthiest, such as Austria, Luxembourg and Denmark, have maintained controls.

If the Commission is right, it may make little difference. The one country where there has been a remarkable upsurge in east European migration has been Ireland, where there was no restriction. Some four per cent of new workers registered last year came from eastern Europe. But the next highest was Austria, with 1.4 per cent, and Germany, with 0.9 per cent (although in absolute numbers Germany was the most important destination, taking in some 500,000 since 2004).

East European migrant workers are a big bonus for most west European economies, for they are relatively skilled, and usually not intending to become permanent immigrants. Neither Spain nor Greece, of the countries now opening their doors to free movement, is expecting a big increase in numbers.

The debate on immigration in the US seems to veer wildly between the extremes of building a far more strongly patrolled border fence with Mexico, and granting an effective amnesty to the estimated 12m illegal immigrants who have already made it.

What seems to be missing is a coherent debate on how to manage the migration process, rather than how to restrict it, and how to ease the integration process for both migrants and indigenous workers.

Europe clearly needs to learn more of the positive US attitude towards immigration as an economic bonus.

The danger is that the opposite is happening, and the US is becoming infected by Europe’s traditional defensiveness.

When you're done, read Because Real Americans Never Do This Stuff, by The Anchoress.

Who ever said life was easy?

The Future Of History

There was a time when events shaped history. It was the 'facts on the ground' that would influence the future and help us understand the past. We might debate the meaning of it all and we were free to debate the events that triggered changes.

While scholars and historians will discuss Lincoln and the Civil War forever, or debate the real origins of World War One, it clear that 'facts on the ground' now play a lesser role than ever in determining history- or the future.

Now, feelings have entered the equation- so much so, that feelings have supplanted 'facts on the ground' and actual events as having primary influence.

That is not to say that nationalism and/or religion- clearly emotional beliefs, have not always been a source of influence. Of course, they have. That said, when forced to deal with 'facts on the ground,' they did,and responded appropriately. Irrespective of the government, monarch or church, there came a point when dealing with reality was in the best interest of the nation or church.

Nowadays, however, things are different. Today, as wenoted, 'facts on the ground' take a back seat to feelings. Think about this. Our borders, spanning thousands of miles, were breached by terrorists, employing a single 'hole' in the system. Clearly, events of 9/11 ought to have us fortifying all of the system, and not just airports and visa applicants. Nevertheless, with thousands of miles of frontiers, that is exactly what we are doing.

Why? because we feel that securing our safety might alienate illegal aliens. What is worse, is that millions of people concur with that kind of thinking. The 'facts on the ground' and the reality of promises of more 9/11's mean less to us than the 'feelings' that many have.

The Wonderful World Of Ward

We are working on a discussion predicated an a rather remarkable post by Dr Sanity, in which she discusses either extreme and the 'middle' in our decision making process. We are much taken with her ideas and and theories. They really do shed light on 'the way things work'- and conversely, on why they don't work.

It is with that in mind that we post on Ward Churchill and the recent CU Board of Investigation findings. The responses from both Churchill, his defenders and CU itself, are all studies in the denial and kind of cognitive dissonance. For a look at how characters like Churchill devise a mechanism to propagate and legitimize their skewed views, see this post by Shrinkwrapped, in which he clearly identifies and describes the mechanisms (and intellectual gymnastics) employed by anti semites to maintain their beliefs and sense of credible self importance.

Ward Churchill has been busted. Pirate Ballerina has the those detail as well as Churchill's predictable cries of racism and victimization. Alexander Cockburn's Counterpunch hosted Churchill's cries of despair.

I have received the report of the Investigative Committee of the University of Colorado and consider it a travesty. This "investigation" has all along been a pretext to punish me for engaging constitutionally-protected speech and, more generally, to discredit the sorts of alternative historical perspective I represent…

As noble as those words are, they do not adress the committee' findings. Pirate Ballerina notes that "

[...]We therefore find by a preponderance of the evidence a pattern of deliberate academic misconduct involving falsification, fabrication, and serious deviation from accepted practices in reporting results from research.

The media summary is more explicit:

While we are unanimous in finding that Professor Churchill’s research misconduct is serious and that we should express the degree of that seriousness through a recommendation about sanctions, our discussions have not led to unanimity about what particular sanctions are warranted. What follows, then, is the only portion of our report that presents multiple views."

The Pirate Ballerina has been a constant source of information on Ward Churchill and has been on top of the story from the beginning. Spending some time on his blog and looking around is a worthwhile endeavor. Also noteworthy, Frontpage magazine has an excellent series on the Ward Churchill/CU debacle. Start with Ward Churchill Is A Fraud, Part One, and go from there.