<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD><TITLE></TITLE>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content=text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1>
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY text=#000000 bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><A
href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ThePoliticalSpinroom/">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ThePoliticalSpinroom/</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<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>Gerry
Reinhart-Waller<BR><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, November 12, 2005 4:16
PM<BR><B>To:</B> The new improved paleopsych list<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re:
[Paleopsych] Muslim riots in France<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>I've been looking for
thepoliticalspinroom but all I could find was:<BR><A
class=moz-txt-link-freetext
href="http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=thepoliticalspinroom&ss=1">http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=thepoliticalspinroom&ss=1</A><BR>(the
politicalspinroom2).<BR><BR>Please advise.<BR><BR>Gerry
Reinhart-Waller<BR><BR><BR>Steve Hovland wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE cite=midBKELILMJLCPGPPBCGKNHEEKOCBAA.shovland@mindspring.com
type="cite">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR>
<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></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></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></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> <A
class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated
href="mailto:paleopsych-bounces@paleopsych.org">paleopsych-bounces@paleopsych.org</A>
[<A class=moz-txt-link-freetext
href="mailto:paleopsych-bounces@paleopsych.org">mailto:paleopsych-bounces@paleopsych.org</A>]<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 align=center><FONT face="Verdana, Times" size=2><IMG height=6 alt=""
hspace=0 src="cid:609411901@13112005-1088" width=88 align=middle
border=0></FONT></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 align=center><FONT face="Verdana, Times" size=2><IMG height=6 alt=""
hspace=0 src="cid:609411901@13112005-1088" width=88 align=middle
border=0></FONT></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><PRE wrap=""><HR width="90%" SIZE=4>
_______________________________________________
paleopsych mailing list
<A class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated href="mailto:paleopsych@paleopsych.org">paleopsych@paleopsych.org</A>
<A class=moz-txt-link-freetext href="http://lists.paleopsych.org/mailman/listinfo/paleopsych">http://lists.paleopsych.org/mailman/listinfo/paleopsych</A>
</PRE></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>