In the latest online First Things, I see this quote from Europeana: A Brief History of the Twentieth Century by a Czech writer, Patrik Ourednik,

“And in 1989, an American political scientist invented a theory about the end of history, according to which history had actually come to an end, because modern science and new means of communication allowed people to live in prosperity, and universal prosperity was the guarantee of democracy and not the contrary as the Enlightenment philosophers and Humanists had once believed. And citizens were actually consumers and consumers were also citizens and all forms of society evolved toward liberal democracy and liberal democracy would in turn lead to the demise of all authoritarian forms of government and to political and economic freedom and equality and a new age in human history, but it would no longer be historical. But lots of people did not know the theory and continued to make history as if nothing had happened.”

That’s the 2005 version, but I always liked the 1904 version, from The Napoleon Of Notting Hill.

THE human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children’s games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up. And one of the games to which it is most attached is called, “Keep to-morrow dark,” and which is also named (by the rustics in Shropshire, I have no doubt) “Cheat the Prophet.” The players listen very carefully and respectfully to all that the clever men have to say about what is to happen in the next generation. The players then wait until all the clever men are dead, and bury them nicely. They then go and do something else. That is all. For a race of simple tastes, however, it is great fun.

The speed at which the last century moved means that many people didn’t have to die to see their prophecies made foolish; the classic case being Ted Kennedy’s 1965 prediction that

First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same. . . . Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset. . . . Contrary to the charges in some quarters, [the bill] will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area, or the most populated and deprived nations of Africa and Asia. . . . In the final analysis, the ethnic pattern of immigration under the proposed measure is not expected to change as sharply as the critics seem to think.

A reader sends this reply to my Thanksgiving roundup. Deena Flinchum writes:

“What are these men doing that is so offensive? They aren’t asking for handouts. They want to work to support their families and themselves.”
Leslie Milk

Ah, yes, another “saint elsewhere” as I call them. “Chicken-hawk” has entered our vocabulary as a person, usually male, willing to fight to the last drop of other people’s blood as long as he and his family and friends aren’t affected. I hope to see my invention “saints elsewhere” do as well. A “saint elsewhere” is a person who wants to do good works and be recognized as saintly but to have the results - often bad or very bad - of those good works fall elsewhere, as in somebody else’s neighborhood.

I dare say that if a day labor site were to be placed in Ms. Milk’s neighborhood, she wouldn’t stand for it for a minute because she knows as well as we do what is so “offensive” about them in addition to the fact that they are aiding the commission of crime.

A brief story if I may.

I used to live in Alexandria, VA in a middle-class affordable apartment complex. Starting in the 90’s, it was inundated with immigrants, mainly from El Salvador and Ethiopia. We low density (usually one or two) tenants per apartment were gradually replaced by high density (I suspect 6 or more in many 2BR’s) tenants, with the usual problems and deterioration that I won’t bore you with - you know all about them. By the time that I retired and moved to SW VA, it was difficult to recognize that complex as the well managed community that I had lived in for so many years.

Big trouble started, however, when the overflow from some of these apartments started parking their cars in a nearby neighborhood where houses were then going for about $500,000. When you have 6 people in an apartment, you have a lot of cars - more than an apartment complex designed for low density can accommodate. The neighbors, some of them my friends, formed a committee, gathered data such as the lack of local tax stickers on the cars, and watched as several cars were routinely parked in their neighborhood late at night and another car ferried the owners of those cars back to the apartment complex. Neighborhood Watch at its finest. I was impressed.

Soon they went to the city council and were successful in getting neighborhood parking restrictions, thus solving their problem. I supported them completely and even wrote a letter to a city council member that I knew well and a letter to the ‘Washington Post‘, which, believe it or not, got printed in its Thursday Alexandria-Arlington section.

Fast forward six or eight months later. I’m back in Alexandria visiting my friends. One of them lit into the Minuteman group in Herndon that is photographing cars that are picking up day laborers, etc. He referred to them as vigilantes picking on “these poor people who are just trying to work”. The leader of this Minuteman group actually lives in the neighborhood where the day laborer site is planned and you and I both know why he doesn’t want this site in his neighborhood. The people parking in my friend’s neighborhood were basically just parking there - which was legal at the time.

Apparently if you are protecting your neighborhood, it’s civic responsibility and neighborhood watch; if somebody else is protecting his neighborhood, it’s vigilantism. He honestly didn’t seem to “get it”.

Saint elsewhere.