(I typed up the following yesterday, then let it sit to think about it. I’m not crazy about it — it really needs a lot of refinement — but my core thought is still this: people who are quite convinced that they can control the fate of their children and grandchildren, and do the right things to ensure they get the plum jobs that benefit from cheap labor rather than being imperiled by it, are the ones supporting open immigration. In any event, I just thought I’d put this out there for comment.)
Yesterday I wrote about the AAP’s statement that pediatricians are to tell their patients’ parents that it’s necessary for their children’s development to read to them from infancy. And the day before (and multiple times before that) I expressed my frustration at the Democrats’ seeming support for open immigration.
My mind wanders as I move through the day’s routine. And my first thought is:
It’s the Democrats primarily who push the narrative that a child doesn’t receive the right “inputs” during the first years of life (e.g., via universal “high-quality” preschool and, ideally, universal state-funded childcare from infancy on, where professionals can ensure your child is reared properly), then they’re permanently doomed. They become Epsilons, not by means of intentional intellectual stunting while developing in an artificial womb, but due to their deficiencies in infancy through early childhood.
At the same time, they’re more than happy to bring into the U.S. untold numbers of Epsilons.
By their own reckoning, they’re dooming the country, with legions of people who are harmed for life by their deficient upbringing.
But my second thought is:
in Brave New World, those who designed the system would have been able to create an all-Alpha society, but they wanted Epsilons.
And that’s the story here, too: open-immigrationists want Epsilons, cheap labor. But the studies from the AAP and so on are reassuring to them, telling them that, if they follow the endless rules about pregnancy dos and don’ts and parenting rules — read to your kid, talk to them endlessly, get them into the right schools, they can be confident that they won’t have an Epsilon kid. By following these rules, they can create a caste-like system, but without the legal or social restrictions.
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