|
|
| Re: Answer to the enitre worlds problems and trends: People simply hate people? (22343) | |||
 |
|||
| Home > OTChat | |||
|
[ Read Responses | Post a New Response | Return to the Index ] |
|
||
|
Re: Answer to the enitre worlds problems and trends: People simply hate people? |
|
|
Posted by SilverFox on Thu Mar 31 04:55:43 2005, in response to Re: Answer to the enitre worlds problems and trends: People simply hate people?, posted by RonInBayside on Wed Mar 30 19:07:01 2005. Goading a person to act by providing misinformation or playing on fears is despicable, reprehensible, repugnant, odious, and a hundred other similar adjectives.Two scenarios, however, come to mind where one concern is real, and the other is built on perception. Both can be quite compelling, and both are based on a form of fear. Witness: A thirtysomething professional moves into a neighborhood where the median age of the neighbors is 50. Over ten years, that median drops to 25. He hears more and louder music on the streets. He sees an increasing number of people outside at all hours of the night. Street furniture is becoming vandalized or stolen, and drug paraphernalia, beer bottles, and other refuse lines the streets. He may love youth, and can rationalize that not all 25-year-olds act like that, but the very real value of his home is in jeopardy, from a quick read of the tax rolls. Does he try to "speak" with the youths about what's causing them to act rowdy, or does he get out of there like a bat out of hell to preserve his investment, nee, nearly his entire net worth? Would he be justified? The second scenario sees an Italian-American man of any adult age, living in a neighborhood that is 85% Italian, with the other 15% being predominantly Jewish. He's lived there all his life, having enjoyed the local Italian specialty shops, the culture, and the sense of community and family amongst his brethren. Over ten years, Chinese and Mexican immigrants come to dominate the neighborhood, making Italians merely 5% of the residents. The man says that he can "live with it" initially, but then realizes through experience: The Chinese and Mexicans in his neighborhood don't make such good cappuccino or lasagna, and since he can't understand a word they are saying, he feels isolated even on his own doorstep. Even though his home has appreciated in value, he doesn't want to sell and leave his roots, but he is becoming depressed. He relents, sells to a Chinese lady, and moves to a neighborhood more within his comfort level. Now here's a person who didn't care either way about immigration -- we don't even know what his political views were -- he tried to deal with the effects of it, but couldn't. Many others wouldn't take the time and have the patience he did. Does he "hate" others? Is he a protagonist of "white flight?" Is he somehow some evil "bu$h supporting fascist" who is really Hitler in disguise? The issue isn't as cut-and-dried as "Pro-immigrant/change/open-mind: Good. Anti-immigrant/change/open-mind: Bad." There are many intricacies that create legitimate arguments on both sides. While "white flight" occurred partly through the act of intermediaries looking to cash in on fears, the true underlying cause of "white flight" was, in fact, fear. And while the ignorant or truly fearful left because of blacks and other ethnicities themselves, I can only guess that many others left because they feared a negative change in their real financial condition, and few of them wanted to hang around and see what the results actually were should they have been negative and they were out their life savings. If whites' moves were based on ignorance, it's their money, and their lives, in my opinion. We can deride their ignorance, but we can also serve to educate and inform. But people have to want to be educated and informed which is something many of the "intellectuals" on this board don't seem to understand. And they will be less willing to be educated or try new experiences if they are going to be mocked, scolded, ridiculed, or assumed to "hate" people because of their shortcomings, which they may or may not feel they have, or their deep-seated experiences which may not jibe with yours. |
|
|
|