From the desk of Howard Schwartz on Fri, 2012-08-24 09:09 In this third and final part of my essay, I want to see if we can get a handle on what Macpherson meant by "institutional" racism, and to see what consequences might follow for the British police, so stigmatized. We left matters asking how the members of the Macpherson group could detect racism even when there was no overt evidence for it. The answer is that they could find racism because they put it there. This is called projection. Now, projection is a term that is familiar enough, but often our understanding goes no deeper than the term itself, as if it were a phenomenon that takes place in a mental black box. But to make it useful for our purpose, a bit more of an explication will be useful. From the desk of George Handlery on Thu, 2012-08-16 06:06 About resentful migrants and their hosts. There are countries with a tradition of taking in immigrants. Among them are the USA, Canada, and Australia. Newly, there are countries that are forced to accept masses of entrants that have not received immigrants until recently. The former group attracted newcomers drawn to them by the “opportunity” offered as welcoming present. That meant that entrants could seek personal betterment on the terms of their receiver’s successful system. From the desk of Howard Schwartz on Mon, 2012-08-13 20:51 In Part One of this essay, I discussed the role of police hesitancy in contributing to the spread of the British riots. The issue there was where aggression was turned; whether outward, in the form of physical destruction, or inward, in the form of guilt. That the rioters turned their aggression outward was essentially definitional. What was odd was that it was the police, who should have been in the business of suppressing the destruction through force, were unable to do so because their aggression had been turned inward. Britain was being burned down and they were the ones who were feeling guilt. From the desk of George Handlery on Sat, 2012-08-11 16:37 Inflation is a subtle way to make you pay for the corrupting gifts you had accepted. Regrettably, this column often needs to deal with the trends of the economy. Politics, especially the “getting elected” aspect of it, is being economized. As a result, and increasingly, the governors’ economic policy responds to the dictate of political concerns. The intertwining of the two areas that are meant to be separated is not accidental. Collectivists converted the framework within which societies produce their livelihood to a political matter, that is, into a something that is steered by those that hold power. This capture of economics by politics causes havoc. The consequences of the political steering of what would otherwise be a natural process, is characterized by derailments. The record confirms the ultimate failure of collectivistic approaches. This new order, within which society is organized as an association for satisfying its member’s needs through production, wobbles. From the desk of Howard Schwartz on Mon, 2012-08-06 21:55 A few days after the riots in Britain last summer, I happened to be at an academic conference. The British were well represented and I asked a few of them for their thoughts. They were appalled, of course, but they could certainly understand the motivations of the rioters, it seemed. The cuts that had been announced by the government bore a large part of the responsibility. These people were so deprived, and the cuts would take away whatever they had. So the riots were the government's fault, you see. And then there was the atrocious behavior of the rich, what with MPs diddling their expense accounts and all. So it was their fault, or perhaps the inequality in society that had given them the money to diddle with. Or it was the fault of capitalism, which had caused them to feel they needed things that they could not ever hope to buy, and so they had to do what they had to do in order to get them. Their method was regrettable, but they were not to blame; they had been forced into it.Not With A Whimper - Part 3
Immigration And Its Challenges
Not with a Whimper - Part 2
Inflation And Its Uses
Not With A Whimper - Part 1
William McPherson
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