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December 9, 2009
Exclusive: Creeping ‘Third Worldism’: The Early Warning Signs
That America is under attack is undeniable. In the past the Great Enemy was clear – Soviet communism – but today’s assaults are more complex, more numerous and, at least in some instances, have a barely perceived, carbon monoxide-like quality you hardly notice until at death’s doorstep. In this latter category is a threat I call “Third Worldism,” a phenomena familiar to Americans who travel to impoverished nations like Egypt or rural Mexico. What is not realized is that sorry state of affairs can become a deadly American epidemic.
I am not being an alarmist. A high standard of living and a decent quality of life are not inevitable. Indeed, judged by what transpires worldwide, squalor and human misery is probably the human default option. No ironclad guarantee insures that America a century from now will remain a First World nation. Think the past glories of Detroit or Newark, New Jersey. Britain under Roman rule enjoyed the benefits of a great civilization, everything from excellent roads to daily fresh water not to mention rule of law. When the Romans departed, civilization collapsed and did not recover for centuries. Any takers for a free pied à terre in the Muslim dominated Paris suburbs? The question, then, are Americans ready to join all the billions who live in semi-lawless squalor?
Preventing the Third Worldism plague first requires identifying its early manifestations. Recall those “Early Warning Signs” lists put out by organizations like the American Cancer Society – small sores that just don’t heal. And to continue this medical parallel, our warning should conclude with, “If you see any of these symptoms, proceed to the voting booth and immediately replace all incumbents before it is too late. Third Worldism is preventable but early detection is vital.” Don’t get me wrong – in principle I delight in the Third World, provided it is over there, not next door. If this allure is irresistible, just tour Crapistan (a mythical country chosen so as not to offend) where you can appreciate mud huts with satellite dishes.
So, what are the early warning signs of Third Worldism? Based on personal experience plus a clear-eyed exposure to what occurs at home, let me suggest a few early indicators.
The most obvious is burgeoning public filth, whether individuals just throwing food wrappers on the street or, more seriously, piles of unattended garbage (including organic rat-food garbage). Add lots of stray dogs and cats. In one North African nation I visited calibrating distances to the next town (and its size) was a snap – the scattered trash became increasingly dense and pretty soon every bush was festooned with a black plastic bag blowing in the wind. The human passivity in the face of this dangerous and unsightly mess can be mind-boggling. On a bus tour of Mexico I once asked my guide about the trash- lined streets and his response was “they’re waiting for the government to pick it up.”
Ironically, juxtaposed with litter- strewn town are knots of people (almost always men) just idling around or sitting in cafes. That this unused labor might be directed at cleaning up seems unthinkable so, one can only assume that given a choice between one more glass of tea and a clean environment, the tea always wins. For First Worlders like me, this is inexcusable. Can one really insist that people will just drop empty plastic bottles on the street unless paid to put them in trashcans? Are garbage cans a First World luxury? As for the argument that “poverty” explains ubiquitous rubbish, a far more plausible (though politically incorrect) argument is that lethargy is the common root of both filth and poverty – industrious people create wealth and pocket candy wrappers until the next trashcan.
A third tip off is traffic—traffic patterns suggesting that the “rule of law” has no local translation. I recently returned from Cairo, a city whose population is estimates to range from 6.8 to 20 million and bumper-to-bumper cars, yet in four days there, I did not see a single functioning traffic signal. Chaotic traffic was occasionally directed by a police officer who might decide to stop some car lanes and let others proceed and, thankfully, might permit terrified tourists to cross the street. A similar pattern occurred among New York City taxies a few decades back when freshly-arrived drivers from Pakistan among other Third Worlders made a habit of running red lights and otherwise bringing make-it-up-as-you-go-along Karachi-style driving habits to the Big Apple (this ended when former Mayor Rudy Giuliani cracked down).
Ditto for pedestrian behavior – the idea that one should cross only at marked intersections and with the light seems incomprehensible to Third Worlders. Might this Brownian movement pattern be some Darwinian population control? In Egypt even mothers and young children would wander out into oncoming cars and to ensure survival, they would pretend to ignore oncoming honking jalopies. Compare this to what must be America’s premier First World city, Portland, Oregon. Here cars come to a complete halt when a pedestrian just approaches a crosswalk, regardless of the traffic signal and, no doubt, will not proceed until the pedestrian has safely crosses, and purchased a double-organic soy-milk latte (and if this latte is a take-out, rest assured it will be disposed of in one of thirty-five specially marked re-cycling bins).
An astute observer will also notice that many jobs are government-supplied make-work positions, not productive employment. So, instead of training youngsters to design computer chips, unemployment is “solved” by putting them to work doing almost nothing. In Egypt, for example, “security” at tourist sites consisted of groups of socializing men, many armed with antique Soviet era automatic weapons, “guarding” what were probably inoperable, often ignored metal detectors. Many American urban schools now also embrace government-driven make work – small armies of student-parent coordinators, classroom assistants, lunch room monitors, school safety administrators, multi-cultural curriculum developers and on and on, none of whom seem able to improve academic performance. The city’s hospitals exhibit a similar penchant for “do-nothing” jobs.
Meanwhile Third World “private sector” jobs often involve swarming street peddling, and the tip- off regarding the economic pointlessness is that dozens upon dozens of vendors hawk the identical cheap stuff – $2 petrified sheep dung necklaces in Crapistan, $5 leatherette cell phone accessories in the New York. And for those challenged by hawking trinkets, there is always begging. This is not about economic productivity; it is about quelling potential unrest by handing out jobs (or permitting peddling or begging) to those who might spend their days drinking tea or plotting revolution.
Nor does anything seem to work, or if does work, everything requires extra effort. A fancy name might be “competence deficit.” New York City beginning in the late 1960s experienced a spell of Third Worldness visible in broken public phones, potholes the size of lunar craters, vandalized public toilets, cabs with non-functioning windows, vending machines rejecting “Change we can believe in,” and, most critically, a rapidly collapsing infrastructure (see the original version of the movie, The Taking of the 1-2-3 Pelham). Travelers in many under-developed nations routinely experience businesses unable to make change, restaurants lacking accurate daily menus and indifferent, bumbling service to match. Many have yet to master 19th century sanitation technology so teeth must be brushed with bottled water, even in first-rate hotels. Actually, this list is endless, and seasoned travelers routinely compete with, “If you think you’ve seen incompetence, let me tell you about the time in….”
Finally, there is what might be called enclave living – the affluent retreat into secure neighborhoods where everything works, one is not accosted by peddlers and, of the utmost importance, one lives in safety. This is a society of sprawling slums and beautiful walled mansions; of decrepit smoke-belching dangerously overcrowded buses and shiny chauffeur-driven BMW’s; of unhygienic souk food stalls and world-class French restaurants. Make no mistake, much of this already occurs in the U.S. – buildings with 24/7 doorman, gated communities, traveling only by car service and ordering everything via phone or the Internet rather than risk walking, so let us not become too smug.
What is remarkable about creeping Third Worldism is how this slither can be almost imperceptible—the carbon monoxide model of disaster. One can only be reminded of the frog and boiling water tale – throw the frog into a pot of boiling water and it jumps out; put him in cold water and slowly turn up the heat, and voilà, a tasty treat.
Needless to say, many Americans are hardly alarmed by this scenario. Some may enjoy a day-shopping trip to the exotica (where else can you get “genuine” Rolexes for $10?). Others prudently relocate to Utah or Idaho. Still others, perhaps like a species of survival- clever frogs, flee after spotting a pot.
Alas, our savvy upscale Kermit the Frog may still be doomed, even if he and Miss Piggy elope to rural Vermont where different species marriages are now legal. The Third World is inclined to vote, and American being a vote-driven democracy (fully assisted by self-appointed community activists), politics can transform the culture. Imagine a mayor elected on a “slowly boil Kermit” platform. It would be a snap. Funds once spent for “quality of life” (the code phrase for policies favored by affluent whites) now go to helping the poor by mandating easy-to-fill jobs. The newly-funded well-staffed Homeless Services bureaucracy puts panhandlers on the public payroll as “street entertainers.” Expensive restaurants now must hire restroom attendants to insure that customers are spared the job of trying to enter a locked bathroom (in Egypt young men guarded the WC and handed you six inches of flimsy toilet paper and no doubt expected a tip for this vital service). Law enforcement becomes “culturally sensitive” so those inclined to “airmail” garbage (throw it out the window) are no longer stigmatized. Mounting budget deficits are “solved” by new soak-the-rich taxes on doorman buildings, limousines and private security. “Quality of life” takes on a whole new meaning. Anti-shoplifting surveillance cameras now require a $500 annual license, and the proceeds go ex-cons to mentor at-risk juveniles (a “root cause” approach).
It is a relentless dynamic. As Third Worldism creeps in, First Worlders flee and the former increasingly dominate city, even state politics. The private sector shrivels, government becomes the Great Benefactor and expensive but oft-broken mechanized street cleaning machines are replaced by workers who indifferently rearrange windswept trash. Taxes soar and at some point, the city goes bankrupt. Fearing social chaos, the state or the feds step in and print up money to keep the enterprise afloat. China becomes our bank. When it is obvious that our public debt can no longer be repaid, a totally exasperated Chinese banker announces that he has no choice but to repossess California. Fear not, counsels President Obama, we can get 10 times that amount for Alaska.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Robert Weissberg is emeritus professor of political science, University of Illinois-Urbana and currently an adjunct instructor at New York University Department of Politics (graduate). He has written many books, the most recent include The Limits of Civic Activism, Pernicious Tolerance: How teaching to "accept differences" undermines civil society and the forthcoming, Bad Students, Not Bad Schools: How both the Right and the Left have American education wrong (early 2010). Besides writing for professional journals, he has also written for magazines like the Weekly Standard and currently contributes to various blogs.
Reader Comments: Submit Your Comment (2) | Sign Up for FSM Updates!
You are absolutely correct. The sad part is that most people here don't even realize what's wrong or even worse, profit from it. C. São Paulo, Brazil.
posted by: Cesar
Sunday, January 24, 2010 at 07:15 PM
And you cannot imagine how hard it is for law-abiding people to live down here. One great example is our prestigious President, who just proudly said that he was glad when the company he was employed at flooded: he didn't have to work, then. G_d help us. (also from São Paulo, Brasil).
posted by: Mauro
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 01:33 PM
