Well, a 1000 mile speed bump isn't our best idea, it's just the only one political forces want us talking about. Simple enough to capture the imagination, and concrete enough for someone who has never seen the area to think it could be a solid solution.
We could go other routes, like "Dig a trench!" Just image the frustrations a trench would cause. It'll be great, again! We were going to call it a moat, but then we realized some people knew we were talking about a desert. Then someone pointed out that the border is a river, and a river is a moat nobody gets paid to build. And besides, a moat seems kind of silly, so we should dig a trench! Better yet, get Mexicans to dig a trench and Mexico to pay for it!
Or, we could reform our immigration laws, allowing people to work, and pay taxes, like they were humans. We could even recind the monopoly we have granted to cartels over drugs, reducing the smuggling incentives, and stopping the destabilizing effects of the drug trade on our southern nieghbors. These policies would reduce immigration pressure, save money, and generate tax revenue.
But we aren't interested in working solutions, we need decisive ideas. So a 1000 miles of speed bump is what we are talking about. Until we find a more divisive idea.
Could ERE have prevented the Holocaust?
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Riggerjack
- Posts: 3199
- Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:09 am
Re: Could ERE have prevented the Holocaust?
@jacob:
You are very right, these are preventive, somewhat ERE-minded strategies that come to mind. But what if they got you? With your back against the wall, what would you do? I think my grandmother was in the ERE-like mindset. I would do the same:
1. Come to terms with the fact that you are at the mercy of strangers (hard);
2. Look at the hidden, not obvious resources. Someone somewhere might have a gold ring that would save your life;
3. Look at people, carefully - one by one - not all of them are brainwashed, not all of them are by the book;
4. Come to terms with a real possibility of a catastrophic failure.
Somewhat loosely related thought... I vaguely remember the discussion on another thread on how things we do today will look to people 60 years from now. 99% of people today would say that German boy did the right thing. I wonder how he looked to German people in 1941?