The Scapegoat Technique Works like a Charm
70Turning a Blind Eye
The Number One Enemy
New elections are just around the corner; every time that happens, candidate from both parties are looking for hot topics, so they can take a strong position that will eventually ensure them re-election.
Nothing is hotter those days than the immigration problem. Never mind we had the same problem for decades and every candidate promise to find an effective solution. The minute a candidate gets comfortable in a congressional seat, the first thing they forget about is to keep their promises.
If the debate about the immigration law is hot, Arizona is in fire!
Everybody has an opinion, but nobody has a reasonable solution. I said it before and I will say it again;
The government can’t find a solution because nobody is looking for one. Talk is cheap, action is not. Promises can get a candidate re-elected, doing something about it, will only make them enemies and shorten their political career.
“To promise is noble, to keep promises is bourgeois” – translated from French. Our politicians are so noble you will believe they are all blue blood.
It is just not reasonable to think that a country like United States was able to get to the Moon and back more than 40 years ago, but can’t do anything to protect its border. Do we lack the technology? I don’t’ think so. Do we lack the will? It seems so. Preventing them to enter the country would create more problem than what it may solve? You better believe it.
The truth of the matter is that we need cheap labor and the illegal immigrants provide just that; they work in the fields under the brutal sun and pick up fruit and vegetable to bring to our table. They baby-sit our children and clean our houses. They work in every restaurant and keep our lawns looking pretty.
The illegal immigrants we love to hate are also consumers and make a contribution to the economy; don’t they buy food and gasoline? Don’t they pay rent? Don’t they clothe their children and themselves?
We focus on the negative and accuse them for crowding our schools and taking advantage of the medical system. We also accuse them of gang activities and unspeakable crimes, but we forget to mention that the ones to commit such acts of violence are only of Mexican descent, but were actually born in this country. They grow up poor and frustrated, they saw their families being persecuted and taking advantage of and so, they turn to crime. Most of the first generation illegal immigrants are just hard working people trying to survive the day.
We praise ourselves as being a country of law and all we ask of them is to go through due process. That sounds good, but it may not be that simple. Those people are completely terrified to go to the process, because they fear deportation more than they fear death.
If nothing is being done about solving the illegal immigration problem is because, in reality we need those poor and uneducated people. And we don’t think twice before using them in more ways than one.
Societies in trouble have been using scapegoats for ever; it is an effective way to shift the blame and appease the public opinion; it also works as a charm. Remember Hitler and the oppression of the Jews? Remember the witch-hunt that the Christians went through during the time Rome was facing economic disaster?
Scapegoat techniques are proven ways to “solve all problems”; in fact they are nothing more than a band aid that will not stop the hemorrhage, but will give temporary relief and make believe useful action has been taken. Scapegoats are good for buying time, for diverting attention from the real cause of the imminent collapse and for appeasing the fury of discontent citizens.
Here is an example of how things have worked in the past.
In the summer of 2007, a woman who’s son was born in the United States was chased by police and escorted to the Mexican border. Being under constant surveillance and living in fear of her life and immediate future, the woman was seeking sanctuary in a Chicago church before coming to Los Angeles to take part in a march organized to protest the treatment of illegal immigrants.
Was she being naïve or was she being manipulated? Did she really think her voice will be heard and she could change the course of history? The answer to that is all yours.
The scene of her capture and forced deportation was heart braking and the absurdity of it was revolting. A defend less poor woman was treated like a dangerous criminal. What a disgrace!
According to our humanitarian and civilized laws, she was supposed to leave her son behind and go the hell back where she came from.
This story reminds me of another tragedy that happened a few years ago.
It was about a Cuban boy that escaped the communist regime of Fidel Castro putting his life in jeopardy. His mother died in the cold waters of the Atlantic trying desperately to offer her son a better life and a brighter future.
The young boy came to the Florida shores and was embraced by a loving family he did not know.
His tragedy became a saga played over and over by the media always hungry for sensational events. Elian’s father came to pick him up and to return him to Cuba. A national war that divided the country was paraded for weeks in front of our eyes; a “Dreyfus Affair” of modern times inflamed the country.
The Florida family took the little Gonzales boy all the way to Washington asking for congressional protection despite the fact that they never had any contact with their relatives back in Cuba and despite the fact that the father was the only living parent.
America loves high drama and sensational stories. Cuba as well will not shy away from a sensational tale. In both cases a propaganda point was meant to be made.
When less propaganda is involved, but just as much human drama, our sense of justice is less alert and our focus is more on the legality of the matter while moral consequences are being ignored.
Was the woman deported the nr. 1 enemy of this great country? Was she a beggar, a known prostitute or a drug dealer? Was she in any way involved in the senseless attack of the TwinTowers?
None of the above, but her crime was nevertheless unpardonable. In the eyes of the law she entered the country without permission and she “abused” the system.
As far as the authorities were concerned she broke the law and she deserved to be punished. She should serve as an example for others. Her personal tragedy and that of an abandoned son should not make us loose any sleep.
We are a country of laws, remember?!
By having her deported, we as a nation have been saved. We proved to the world that we are perfectly capable of taking care of our land and most efficient at enforcing our laws.
We are after all, a great country.
How convenient it is to look only at one slice of the truth and ignore the rest of the pizza!
They Coming to America
America's Double Standards
- America's Double Standards
It seems that the controversy created around the illegal immigrants law will never end; and it shouldnt. It is about time for us to look at both sides of this issue and make a decision based on...
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You are so right.They don't think ennough to be
concern about the people until it make them look good.
Good pictures of presentation.
Hello China man,
Happy to have you as the first one to comment, especially since you agree. I am sure many will not, but is always convenient to choose the slice of pizza we like best - ignoring the rest of the pizza is to be expected
Hello Jack,
Glad you stopped by and got a chance to read this. Being right is only a small part of the picture
We're all immigrants in the U. S. and the treatment of them has always had a twisted slant...
Hello Mentalist,
I totally agree with you; my next hub will be about the "two sets of rules" applyed by the immigration law. Stay tuned
Agree re scapegoats, but if the US had open borders, the population would swell by millions overnight as the poor from all points south rushed to get a better life. (and a lot from Europe would be with them!) Bob
Petra, I think this is a very good article and I agree. This immigration problem is huge and I still think we need to secure the borders and then get a good immigration bill completed. Rated up!
Terrific hub Petra. In my view before we can deal with this issue we have to secure our borders. Once this is accomplished surely there is a humane way of dealing with a problem that we created. Compassionate and sensible solutions are out there, but it will take time. In the end, we need a path to citizenship that is rooted in common sense. I rated this up, up, up!
Hi Diogenes
People are immigrating out of desperation and nobody will rather live in a foreign land and start life over. It is a question of economics for some and political or religious oppression for others
Hello Pamela,
It was your hub on the immigration bill that inspired me to write this one. Securing the borders is an urgent problem and it could be done; the fance is a joke though and had never worked anywhere in the world - it is just a detour, not a solution
Morning Pop,
I totally agree with you and the solution should be a two step approch - securing the borders and giving the immigrants a path to citezenship. If I remember correctly Bush (whom as you know I have little respect for) did mention something of that nature, but as all good ideas got lost in translation.
The bottom line for me remains the fact that there is little desire to solve the problem and politicians NEED scapegoats
The Mexicans have been in this hemisphere for thousands of years. We took their land with "Manifest Destiny".
The most important jobs in our country are what most of them do. God bless the Mexicans!
Hi Micky,
I don't know if they have the "most important jobs", but I do know that they have the useful and hard jobs nobody else is willing to do.
We need them and it is about time to admit this reality and start treating them with some well deserved respect. Using them as scapegoats is shameful and it only serves the political agenda while inflaming the public opinion and creating more problems.
It should not be about keeping them out they are as deserving of lifes comforts as the next person.
Divide the natural resources among the worlds people at a price everyone can afford and quit selling them to the highest bidder. Our resources were given by God and I'm sure were not meant to be hoarded by a few greedy countries.
I say give citizenship to anyone who wants it. Better yet remove all borders and become one world governed by a council of wise persons of high integrity.
Once there are no borders to fight over the war is over.
Americans think that they have some God given right just because they were born in this country. We forget too easily that we were born from imigrants. If there had been walls to keep our ancestors out where would we be now?
Americans need to get over themselves and learn how to be compassionate and conscious of how they are living their lives.
The control is truly in the hands of humanity if we do something about it. It starts with taking a good look at ourselves and what we stand for. Good Hub
Hello Slock, glad to see you again
In a perfect world nobody should be forced to leave their country and look elsewhere for a decent life. As we know our world is far from perfect.
We stepped into the 21-th century, but political or religious oppression, hunger, poverty and desperation still exist.
I agree with you, a world without border and where the only religion is Peace, Tolerance and Love will be great, but we know it will never happen.
What bothers me more than anything else is the HYPOCRISY
Should we blame the financial crises and the real estate disaster on the illegal immigrants as well? Are the CEO’s of major corporations all illegal immigrants using our bailout money to give themselves bonuses for bankrupting America?
The answer is NO, but illegal immigrants are always the first to be blamed when something goes wrong; they are defenseless an easy target.
They have always been an easy target; they are poor and ignorant of the law
This seems to be a problem all over the world. Instead of deporting the illegals they should let them stay and deport the natives who would rather exist on social security than dirty their hands doing the jobs that only the illegal immigrants are willing to do. The question is which of those two groups are of most use to society?
Hello Christpher,
The ones living on social security do not bother me that much, because they worked and paid taxes at one time or another. It is called an entitlement, but I see it as a long term “saving account” people contributed to through out their working years
The ones that should be deported are the ones on welfare and other subsidized government programs, since they are really taking advantage of the system and contribute nothing to the economy
Excuse me Chris... but the social security system is a right we have paid for out of every paycheck throughout our lives no one is giving us a hand out. We have earned a chance to take it a little easier after a lifetime of hard work.
And you dare to compare this to Illegal residents in our country. I am for making it possible for them to become legal citizens so they won't have to work for slave wages.
The government keeps them illegal so that they can be taken advantage of. If there ever ceases to be illegals or people who they can pay dirt cheaply who do you think is gonna do the slave labor?
It won't be the ones on social security. they for the most part are not able to do a hard days labor. It will be the young strong ones. The ones who are on the bottom of the heap that they need to keep their bottom line down and profits climbing.You can be assured the government and those in control already have a plan for this.
Your indignation is misplaced.
Excuse me Petra for talking around you.
Hi slock,
I am glad you joined in; this is a debate and is one of the things I most like about Hub pages, so please don’t ever hesitate to make your point. As long as people make sense and give an honest opinion, we can all benefit from it and gain a broader perspective.
As I said in my answer to Christopher, social security is only called an entitlement, but IT IS NOT; people have worked for it and deserve to get it back.
Petra, you make some very good points on both sides of the equation. No doubt, at the root of this controversy lies the fact that the people do provide a labor base in this country that is not easily replaced. On that basis, I think any viable solution must address that aspect possibly providing work visas for define periods and geographies so these people can continue to fill these rolls. Done in a legal manner, we all win to some degree. Of course the real heart of the issue lies along the Mexico border so more than the one with Canada. The "whys" behind that are, in my opinion, driven totally by the giant economic imbalance from one side of the Mexico border to the other. A viable solution needs to address that aspect. At the same time, we must be cautionuous in that the government of Mexico is quite corrupt in the methods employed to line the pockets of officials. One issue on that side that I see, is that a significant portion of the Mexican population base in not living in proximity to either the manufacturing bases or the tourists industry of that country. The are essentially farmers without a field living in dire poverty. Still, illegal immigration is a very dangerous life-threatening process for so many of them. They literally risk their lives and lose them on occasion. This is another strong point for shutting off the illegal flow. Sometimes, I get the feeling that we are catching and deporting the same people over and over. Maybe we are too easy in some way. Regardless, a solution must focue the person coming to the country to stay, regardless of origin, on becoming a citizen and foremost, An American. If we are to continue to exist and exercise a free society, we must have passionate citizens and voters who want to be Americans above all else. Otherwise, we end up with a country full of isolated tribes who cannot agree with each other on anything...not a a very enduring thought. Finally, we have to rid ourselves of politicians who do not have the moxy, stamina, or the guts to see this through to a viable solution. I am not talking about "comprehensive immigration reform" either...anytime I see the word "comprehensive" I get the shaft! Thanks for a good write! WB
Hi Wayne,
As always I appreciate your comments and value your opinion as it is based on knowledge and common sense. We have a lot of work to do regarding this problem and we better start at the top, since the politicians themselves inflame passions and create problems.
One California candidate of the republican party for governor says on his TV add: “I will take steps and address the problem of illegal immigration” which in translation is “I WILL DO NOTHING”
With such leadership we may be waiting for ever to solve this problem and as our common friend POP said in one of his hubs, we better get busy and learn Mandarin
Without going into a lot of research on this subject and not being an American or Mexican citizen I will give my two cents worth of my feeling about immigrants of any nationality. First and foremost they should be entering legally and wanting to merge into American society and it's beliefs. No gangs, no drug dealers, no criminals, no free handouts. I have travelled the USA as an 18 wheeler a few years back and I must say the MEXICANS who unloaded and loaded my trailer where efficient, hard working, considerate and friendly. Bottom line they were workers. I will share with you an email I received the other day about illegal aliens, and this could apply to any, not just Mexicans. Enjoy this read.
This was written by a Mexican who is now a naturalized US Citizen, and I think it's a great explanation of the illegal immigration issue.
Here is the quote:
"If you had tickets to a sports event, concert, Disneyland, or for an airline flight, and when you got to your assigned seat you found someone else was in that seat, what would you do? You would call for a person in charge of ticket checking and have the person in your seat removed. You would properly be asked to show your ticket, and you would gladly and proudly do so, for you have bought and paid for that seat. The person in your seat would also be asked for a ticket, which they would not be able to produce. They would be called "gate crashers" and they would properly be removed.
Now in this huge stadium called the USA we have had millions of gate crashers. We have been asking security to check for tickets and remove the gate crashers. We have been asking security to have better controls in checking at the door. We have asked security to lock the back doors. Security has failed us. They are still looking the other way. They are afraid to ask to see the tickets. Many people say there is unlimited seating, and whether there is or not, no one should be allowed in for free while the rest of us pay full price!
In "section AZ", of "Stadium USA", we have had enough of the failures of Security. We have decided to do our own ticket checking, and properly remove those who do not have tickets. Now it seems very strange to me that so many people in the other 49 "sections", and even many in our own "section" do not want tickets checked, or even to be asked to show their ticket! Even the head of Security is chastising us, while not doing his own job which he has sworn to do.
My own ticket has been bought and paid for, so I am proudly going to show it when asked to do so. I have a right to my seat, and I want the gate crashers to be asked to show their tickets too. The only reason that I can imagine anyone objecting to being asked for their ticket is that they are in favor of gate crashing, and all of the illegal activities that go with it, such as drug smuggling, gang wars, murder, human smuggling for profit, and many more illegal and inhumane acts that we are trying to prevent with our new legislation. Is that what I am hearing from all of the protestors such as Phoenix Mayor Gordon, US Rep. Grijalva, even President Obama? If you are not in favor of showing tickets, (proof of citizenship, passport, green card, or other legal document) when asked, as I would do proudly, then you must be condoning those illegal activities."
Written by a US Citizen, Globe, Arizona.
This makes perfect sense to me. What do you think?
Since Obama has never shown his ticket I guess he feels obligated to not ask others to show theirs.
First let me say I am impressed by the command of English your Mexican fried has; he does make a lot of sense, but the odds where in his favor to begin with since obviously has a high education or was lucky enough to be born here.
The percentage of illegal immigrants that commit crimes of any nature is very small compared to the ones who work hard and make a contribution to the economy, both by taking the jobs nobody else wants and by being consumers.
The reason the government is not getting serious about solving the problem is precisely because THEY KNOW what would happen the day the Mexicans leave and we are left without cheap labor. It is noting but an economic issue and the rest is nothing but using them as scapegoats so the rest of us will not pay attention to the real problems we are facing because of rampant corruption and insatiable greed.
Inflaming passion is the easy way out and it has been all through history with devastating effects; the sad part is that we never learn and keep on repeating the same mistake while hoping for different results. It is not going to happen.
china man 24 months ago
Could not agree more - nicely put together, even a conservative should be able to understand it ! :D