<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD><TITLE></TITLE>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY text=#000000 bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><SPAN class=573011319-12112005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>I
think it's a good summary of the right-wing view,</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573011319-12112005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>but
this is not the place to have a serious argument</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573011319-12112005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>about
it. </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573011319-12112005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573011319-12112005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>If
anyone is hankering for a knock-down</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573011319-12112005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>drag-out approach to political debate they are</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573011319-12112005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>welcome to join us in thepoliticalspinroom on</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573011319-12112005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>yahoo
groups. </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573011319-12112005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573011319-12112005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Not a
tea party, bit it is definitely one place</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573011319-12112005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>where
the interface between left and right is</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573011319-12112005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>hyperactive. I go there to sharpen my teeth :-)</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573011319-12112005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573011319-12112005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Steve
HOvland</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B>
paleopsych-bounces@paleopsych.org
[mailto:paleopsych-bounces@paleopsych.org]<B>On Behalf Of </B>Lynn D. Johnson,
Ph.D.<BR><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, November 12, 2005 10:56 AM<BR><B>To:</B> The
new improved paleopsych list<BR><B>Subject:</B> [Paleopsych] Muslim riots in
France<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>[an interesting and likely correct view of the
riots from the Wall Street Journal]<BR><BR><A class=moz-txt-link-freetext
href="http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007529">http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007529</A><BR><FONT
face="Garamond, Times" size=5><B>French Lessons</B></FONT> <BR><FONT
face="Garamond, Times" size=4>How to create a Muslim underclass.</FONT>
<BR><FONT face="Verdana, Times" size=2><BR><I>Friday, November 11, 2005 12:01
a.m. EST</I> </FONT>
<P><FONT face="Verdana, Times" size=2>Rioting by Muslim youth in some 300
French cities and towns seems to be subsiding after two weeks and tougher law
enforcement, which is certainly welcome news. The riots have shaken France,
however, and the unrest was of such magnitude that it has become a moment of
illumination, for French and Americans equally.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Verdana, Times" size=2>In particular, some longstanding
conceits about the superiority of the French social model have gone up in
flames. This model emphasizes "solidarity" through high taxes, cossetted labor
markets, subsidies to industry and farming, a "Ministry for Social Cohesion,"
powerful public-sector unions, an elaborate welfare state, and, inevitably,
comparisons to the alleged viciousness of the Anglo-Saxon "market" model. So
by all means, let's do some comparing. </FONT></P>
<P></P>
<P align=center><FONT face="Verdana, Times" size=2><IMG height=6 alt=""
hspace=0 src="cid:573011319@12112005-11e5" width=88 align=middle
border=0></FONT></P>
<P></P><FONT face="Verdana, Times" size=2>The first thing that needs
illuminating is that, while the overwhelming majority of rioters are Muslim,
it is premature at best to describe the rioting as an "intifada" or some other
term denoting religiously or culturally inspired violence. And it is flat-out
wrong to claim that the rioting is a consequence of liberal immigration
policies.</FONT>
<P><FONT face="Verdana, Times" size=2>Consider the contrast with the U.S.
Between 1978 and 2002, the percentage of foreign-born Americans nearly
doubled, to 12% from 6.2%. At the same time, the five-year average
unemployment rate declined to 5.1% from 7.3%. Among immigrants, median family
incomes rose by roughly $10,000 for every 10 years they remained in the
country.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Verdana, Times" size=2>These statistics hold across immigrant
groups, including ones that U.S. nativist groups claim are "unassimilable."
Take Muslims, some two million of whom live in America. According to a 2004
survey by Zogby International, two-thirds are immigrants, 59% have a college
education and the overwhelming majority are middle-class, with one in three
having annual incomes of more than $75,000. Their intermarriage rate is 21%,
nearly identical to that of other religious groups.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Verdana, Times" size=2>It's true that France's Muslim
population--some five million out of a total of 60 million--is much larger
than America's. They also generally arrived in France much poorer. But the
significant difference between U.S. and French Muslims is that the former
inhabit a country of economic opportunity and social mobility, which generally
has led to their successful assimilation into the mainstream of American life.
This has been the case despite the best efforts of multiculturalists on the
right and left to extol fixed racial, ethnic and religious identities at the
expense of the traditionally adaptive, supple American one. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Verdana, Times" size=2>In France, the opposite applies. Mass
Muslim migration to France began in the 1960s, a period of very low
unemployment and industrial labor shortages. Today, French unemployment is
close to 10%, or double the U.S. rate. Unlike in the U.S., French culture
eschews multiculturalism and puts a heavy premium on the concept of
"Frenchness." Yet that hasn't provided much cushion for increasingly
impoverished and thus estranged Muslim communities, which tend to be
segregated into isolated and generally unpoliced suburban cities called
<I>banlieues</I>. There, youth unemployment runs to 40%, and crime, drug
addiction and hooliganism are endemic. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Verdana, Times" size=2>This is not to say that Muslim cultural
practices are irrelevant. For Muslim women especially, the misery of the
<I>banlieues</I> is compounded by a culture of female submission, often
violently enforced. Nor should anyone rule out the possibility that Islamic
radicals will exploit the mayhem for their own ends. But whatever else might
be said about the Muslim attributes of the French rioters, the fact is that
the pathologies of the <I>banlieues</I> are similar to those of inner cities
everywhere. What France suffers from, fundamentally, is neither a "Muslim
problem" nor an "immigration problem." It is an underclass problem.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Verdana, Times" size=2>French Prime Minister Dominique de
Villepin almost put his finger on the problem when he promised to introduce
legislation to ease the economic plight of the <I>banlieues.</I> But aside
from the useful suggestion of "enterprise zones," most of the legislation
smacked of big-government solutions: community centers, training programs and
so on.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Verdana, Times" size=2>The larger problem for the prime
minister is that France's underclass is a consequence of the structure of the
French economy, in which the state accounts for nearly half of gross domestic
product and roughly a quarter of employment. French workers, both in the
public and private sectors, enjoy GM-like benefits in pensions, early
retirement, working hours and vacations, sick- and maternity leave, and job
security--all of which is militantly enforced by strike-happy labor unions.
The predictable result is that there is little job turnover and little net new
job creation. Leave aside the debilitating effects of unemployment insurance
and welfare on the underclass: Who would employ them if they actually sought
work?</FONT></P>
<P></P>
<P align=center><FONT face="Verdana, Times" size=2><IMG height=6 alt=""
hspace=0 src="cid:573011319@12112005-11e5" width=88 align=middle
border=0></FONT></P>
<P></P><FONT face="Verdana, Times" size=2>For France, the good news is that
these problems can be solved, principally be deregulating labor markets,
reducing taxes, reforming the pension system and breaking the stranglehold of
unions on economic life. The bad news is the entrenched cultural resistance to
those solutions--not on the part of angry Muslim youth, but from the employed
half of French society that refuses to relinquish their subsidized existences
for the sake of the "solidarity" they profess to hold dear. So far, most
attempts at reform have failed, mainly due to a combination of union militancy
and political timidity.</FONT>
<P><FONT face="Verdana, Times" size=2>There are lessons in France for the
U.S., too. Advocates of multiculturalism might take note of what happens when
ethnic communities are excluded (or exclude themselves) from the broad
currents of national life. Opponents of immigration might take note of the
contrast between France's impoverished Muslims and America's flourishing
immigrant communities.</FONT></P><FONT face="Verdana, Times" size=2>Above all,
those who want America to emulate the French social model by mandating health
and other benefits, raising tax burdens and entrenching union power might take
note of just how sour its promises have become, especially its promises to the
poor. In the matter of "solidarity," economic growth counts more than
rhetoric.</FONT><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>