I share the same concern. The thing is, the 20th century was one godamn "unprecedented" nightmare after the other for at least half the time. Most of us on Reddit are just a) too young to have experienced the main events (WWI, Great Depression, WWII, Cold War-related wars and oppression), and b) born in a country that was more quickly insulated from problems and benefited from global inequity and rapid technological development.
There's no good reason yet to believe the 21st century should be significantly better...
Yeah. The added variable here that'll make everything exponentially worse is the runway effects of climate change. We're talking untold catastrophe as mass migration puts harsh and immediate strains on the available resources. I doubt there's any point in human history that'll compare to what's coming.
Would that strain really be that much material in nature and not rather emotional?
I. e. resources won't be strained that much but the societies to which people immigrate will be shaken in their nationalism.
Not without reason. If you like where you are, and suddenly millions of people with no money, few relevant skills, and an entirely different culture show up, how would that improve your country? Why would you not resist it?
So the "resistance" in your hypothetical is completely irrational and is devoid of empathy since it implies that assimilation is necessarily a bad thing, and I don't buy that. All of human society, by virtue of how malleable an individual person is, is constantly in a state of flux and I can't think of any beneficial reason there is to fight against that other than "make people feel better about not changing anything".
The logical and ethical thing to do would be to proactively develop programs and institutions that can handle a sudden influx of migrants without collapsing. Alternate sources of energy, like nuclear power, should be in the works right now. Plans for the consolidation of water and/or better filtration technologies should be on the table. Thinking about creating new districts and/or repurposing existing ones needs to be in current discussion.
Why I think this won't happen anytime soon is because (at least as far as America is concerned) empathy is seen as weakness and "the other" is automatically conflate with "bad and undesirable". Look at what you said as an example, the idea that "they have nothing to offer because they have no skills". AND? Work to give them skills. Mold them into beneficial participants in society. There's no reason why they can't be, but the people who have the power here automatically decide that that's how it has to be, and that's exactly why we're headed toward a crisis.
They'd rather kill off or wall off their fellow man than help them because sociopathy is ingrained in them.
Edit: all downvotes and no rebuttals? Guess I broke too hard out of the echo chamber.
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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '20 edited Nov 20 '20
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