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Tokyo and Kyoto are remarkable and different but not like they were 50 years ago or 100. The U.S. is remarkable and different in way that's not like it was bef

Tokyo and Kyoto are remarkable and different but not like they were 50 years ago or 100. The U.S. is remarkable and different in way that's not like it was before a 100 years of immigrants came here. There's a thru line though - a path dependence in the U.S. that takes immigrants and changes them as much or even more then it's changed by them. There's a world culture homogenization which is unfortunate in some ways but immigration is only part of the story. I don't think it's even a big part of it.

rayiner 4y ago
> There's a thru line though - a path dependence in the U.S. that takes immigrants and changes them as much or even more then it's changed by them. Apparently not as much as we think: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=35594 https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=35594 (“Full assimilation in a generation or two, Jones reports, is a myth. And the cultural traits migrants bring to their new homes have enduring effects upon a nation's economic potential.”) Cultural homogenization due to mass media and the internet is of course unavoidable. But Tokyo is the product of more durable attitudes. There is an orderliness to it that comes from it being populated by Japanese people who were raised by Japanese parents who were raised by Japanese grandparents—even if they watch American movies. As you acknowledge, immigration changed America, destroying the republic as originally conceived and making it something different. Italians and Irish didn’t come to America and assimilate into the small government Anglo-Americanism. They retained their statist orientation and voted in FDR (who would have won without them), whose judicial appointments rewrote the Constitution. Whether you think it’s better or worse, it’s hard to deny it’s different. And it’s quite reasonable for people in any country to want to resist such changes that immigration can cause.

rayiner 4y ago

> There's a thru line though - a path dependence in the U.S. that takes immigrants and changes them as much or even more then it's changed by them. Apparently not as much as we think: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=35594 https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=35594 (“Full assimilation in a generation or two, Jones reports, is a myth. And the cultural traits migrants bring to their new homes have enduring effects upon a nation's economic potential.”) Cultural homogenization due to mass media and the internet is of course unavoidable. But Tokyo is the product of more durable attitudes. There is an orderliness to it that comes from it being populated by Japanese people who were raised by Japanese parents who were raised by Japanese grandparents—even if they watch American movies. As you acknowledge, immigration changed America, destroying the republic as originally conceived and making it something different. Italians and Irish didn’t come to America and assimilate into the small government Anglo-Americanism. They retained their statist orientation and voted in FDR (who would have won without them), whose judicial appointments rewrote the Constitution. Whether you think it’s better or worse, it’s hard to deny it’s different. And it’s quite reasonable for people in any country to want to resist such changes that immigration can cause.