After reading my post about the death of Fordism, David Bellamy asked:
On of the reasons for attracting immigrants to first world countries is precisely – as I suspected – because their presence is likely to dilute the resistance to post-Fordism.
Then why are Repubenrons trying so fiercely to limit immigration?
I was going to address this later, but since the question has been asked – and it’s an absolutely crucial question – I will discuss this now.
David is absolutely right: the trend of admitting (thank you for the correction, reader V) immigrants into a country in order to dilute any possibility of resistance or discontent with the advent of post-Fordism belongs to Western Europe and Canada much more than to the US.
The reason for this is that there is already within the US a large group of people who are the emotional equivalent of immigrants.
Deeply alienated from the mainstream culture in the US, incapable of understanding the TV shows the majority watches, the books on the best-seller lists and the laws governing the majority’s lives, speaking its own language, clinging desperately to outdated ultra-patriarchal structures common to Third World countries, suspicious of any governmental institution, insular, isolated, confused, often very angry at the incomprehensible world that is so different from everything they find familiar and comforting – I could be describing an immigrant* or an ultra-conservative American Evangelical.
As long as it is possible to keep this group as isolated, confused and scared as it is right now, there will be no need to look for any other group to dilute social resistance to post-Fordism.
Of course, the question here is the following: is the death of Fordism a fully negative phenomenon? Is post-Fordism a regressive trend?
Or – and this is the most interesting issue to ponder – are these ultra-conservative forces unwittingly assisting the advent of a more progressive era?
Isn’t it fascinating to consider whether, ultimately, the Occupy movement is defending an outdated, hierarchical, socially very conservative system while the Evangelicals are smoothing the way for a system that is more flexible, less hierarchical, and explosively progressive socially?
*Yes, not immigrants are like that. Some learn the language (and I obviously don’t mean this literally), go to Yale, and become part of the American mainstream. Just like some people who grow up in ultra-oppressive Evangelical environments become professors of mathematics, adopt deeply progressive beliefs, and start using the word “Repubenrons.”
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