States refusing Syrian refugees? Pffffft.....

My guess is that there's your answer. People expect it to happen in Syria. France isn't supposed to be a warzone.

 

Middle Eastern societies are corrupt to the core. Part of this is because collectivist cultures tend to trust less (particlarly those in the out group) which in turn breeds more collectivism/corruption/lack of trust/need for hierarchy. Admittedly the collectivism part is only one part of the puzzle.

Here's some recent observations from some Chinese (highly collectivist) scholars:

http://jom.sagepub.com/content/28/4/567.full.pdf+html

 

I agree that the Syrians are victims, I just wanted to point out that they are victims of their OWN culture, whereas the French are not.

 

Nope. It's the impact of culture, which is the number one determinant of the wealth, stability, and freedom of nations.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index

 

Not sure I agree there. France has gone out of its way to welcome Muslims and to try not to be seen as anti-Islam. Hollande tried to keep Netanyahu away from the Charlie Hebdo demonstrations and even laughed aloud at his warnings to keep an eye on ISIS... In a way, the chickens have come home to roost and ordinary citizens had to pay the price...

 

Well yeah. But the French culture itself didn't produce the problem.

 

I'm talking about taking refugees. That should be a yes.

 

France sure as hell creating a ton of problems in Syria, beginning with creating an artificial country of Syria out of various ethnic groups in the first place, similar to mistakes European countries made to disastrous effects in Africa.

 

Syria is also a faceless, alien culture to Americans and when a Syrian is killed, he's anonymous to an American. However, a western European citizen dies? Well, we can easily personalize them and understand their identity as a real person. How many times do you see individual profiles of terror victims in places like Syria, Kenya, etc.? Have a terror act in Paris and we see eulogies with details about victims' lives visible all over media sources.

 

What country isn't, at this point in history, an artificial country comprising various ethnic groups?

 

To the extent they threaten the society, not at all.

 

The refugees, in and of themselves, bother me because I'm guessing I have zero problem s with 99.9% of them.

But then there is the other .1%..........and I have no idea how or what to do.

 

We've been collecting ethnic groups in this land since the Mayflower washed ashore and all of them had "threats to society", but it worked out well for all of us. We've been at our worst as a country when we've been exclusive and at our best and most successful when we're inclusive. We don't need them to be let in free and clear, but not providing a haven is pretty antithetical to our history.

 

It's a shitty situation with no easy answer. I lean towards countries taking whatever means necessary to protect their own citizens, even if that means refusing to help people who may or may not be refugees in shitty situations of their own.

 

We're most inclusive today. We are easily past our best days. Our open doors are helping accelerate our financial demise.

I'd welcome none from the Middle East at this point in time.

 

The ones that have been dictated by others, as opposed to gathering immigrants, definitely have more issues.

 

Which ones?

 

Pfft, same argument recycled since the 1800s and my entire life. Things always falling apart, don't buy it.

 

Countries that have been carved out artificially by other countries, namely colonial powers.