|
|
It
is human to be inconsistent, even hypocritical; to
say one thing and mean another, to pose as
something one is not, to feign to believe that
which one does not.
Hypocrisy’s
original definition, after all, refers to playing
a part in a play. In the air of a Virginia summer
heavy with politics, the wags can be heard
chuckling, “Sincerity is the key, and once you
can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
While
certain politicians, rip-off executives or pro
athletes have turned hypocrisy into an art form,
they reflect their society of which they are a
part. Deep down we know hypocrisy can ease the
difficulties and create new options where those
tough, often intractable problems of life lock us
up. Hypocrisy is familiar, even comfortable. It
lets us feign concern or interest without
requiring rational or remedial action. We can
dissemble and move on.
But
hypocrisy is a more disturbing when it leaves the
realm of individual conduct and appears in group
form at the community, the state or even the
national level. Start with any news of recent
days. New attention to the constitutional right to
hunt and fish in Virginia melds with the news that
the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has a
list of 925 species disappearing in Virginia.
Well, we meant to save the oysters in the
Chesapeake Bay. Note how praise for the openness
of democratic government meshes with the 10th
Avenue freeze-out from public debates of a
legitimate, fully-qualified candidate for
Governor.
Stories
on energy and immigration provide even better
examples. Gasoline is up almost a dollar a gallon
over the price of a year ago. Federal lawmakers
are wringing their hands with worry -- and hiding
ho-hum energy conservation strategies of the last
three decades. “There is nothing we can do in
the short term,” they lament, as if national
policy-makers have really tried for 30 years to
act decisively to reduce America’s reliance on
oil. Automakers have never gotten serious. Neither
has the driving public. Summarize America’s
energy policy as “Maybe oil prices won’t go up
that much.”
So
here we are, wailing and gnashing our teeth as we
pump another $40, $50, even $60 of gasoline into
our cars and trucks and SUVs. Here we are, still
oblivious to the market forces of supply and
demand we proclaim as core principles of the
American economy. We act, instead, as if there
were no such thing as demand and as if the
post-World War II advantages of the American
economy (artificially low demand from other
economies) were eternal. Weren’t the Dukes of
Hazzard a popular distraction the last time real
gasoline prices were at this level?
Take
another example in which we ignore the role of our
demand in producing economic activity, the case of
day laborers or casual labor. The recent
controversy about day laborers, some of whom also
may be undocumented immigrants, has been playing
out in Herndon in Northern Virginia. But the
discussions could be in Danville, Richmond,
Roanoke or Harrisonburg, too. Construction
companies, landscape companies, homeowners,
orchard owners, poultry processors and others have
created a vibrant market for unskilled or
semi-skilled workers. The workers and the
employers end up creating an informal meeting
place where each can find the other, but the
convenience store owner or shopping center
operator or neighbors begin to complain.
So
a local government or agency or community
coalition steps in to provide a public place for
these informal hiring halls. Then the fireworks
start. Those whose neighbors have just had their
house painted, their landscaping improved, their
children cared for, their driveway restored, their
apples picked or their town house delivered on
schedule chant, “We don’t want our tax money
going to benefit illegal immigrants.” Quickly,
the conversation expands to include how those
immigrants smuggle drugs, carry disease and form
gangs. Then the gangs are connected rhetorically
to al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein and, probably soon,
the soaring price of gasoline. If only “they”
didn’t drive so much....
Before
it’s over, the words about immigrants from the
president of the Philadelphia & Reading
Railroad come roaring forward from 1902: “They
don’t suffer; they can’t even speak
English.” That our high demand for their
services is a prime factor, the lack of a federal
commitment to rational immigration policy and
enforcement is another, gets lost. We hire them,
we pay them, we rely on them. They buy food from
us, pay rent to us, pay taxes, tolls and user fees
to the Commonwealth. And while many are illegal in
the context of immigration law, virtually all are
not criminals. But the cry, “What is it that you
don’t understand about ‘illegal’?” is
loose on the land.
Immigrants
remind us that there is a world market in workers
now, not just in commodities, such as oil and
coal, or high finance. The market is in engineers,
cab drivers, graduate assistants, nurses and, yes,
day laborers. And Virginia’s New Americans
expose just how feigned our commitments can be to
universal human rights or market forces in the
economy or limited government or loving our
neighbors.
“They”
are to obey the law, but not enjoy any benefits of
a lawful society -- a school, health care, public
safety or a shot at a day’s wage for a day’s
work. “We” want government to game the market
forces that drive up prices, rather than decrease
our own demand; to restrict the competition for
jobs, rather than increase our commitment to
education and training, including Economics 101.
Is
this the height of hyprocrisy? Not yet, just the
common, everyday blindness, ignorance, fear and
dishonesty that goes with being human. Still,
barriers of this kind make it difficult to solve
problems, expand opportunity and improve the
quality of life. But then, we dissemble.
--
August 23, 2005
|
