See, Why I’m a Progressive, Peter Boghossian, Substack, Sep 17, 2026.
Millions of people in Africa and South Asia want a better life – in some cases even just a slightly safer one – and so they do what they can to get into Europe. Millions of people in Central and South America want a better life – in some cases even just a slightly safer one – and so they do what they can to get into the United States. Some of these darker-skinned people are needed – desperately needed – because our own diminishing supply of young people don’t want the jobs these migrants are happy to take.
The problem is they’re only happy to take them for at most one generation. And then what? Then they’re Danes. Yeah, but not really. Then they’re Americans. Yeah, but not really. The yeah-but-not-really has more umph in Denmark than in the UK or America, because the UK and America have had un-British and un-American looking Brits and Americans for much longer than Denmark has had un-Danish looking Danes. And so some people think, Oh, not to worry, in time un-Danish looking Danes will start looking Danish, just as un-British looking Brits and un-American looking Americans now look pretty British and American.
And that’s probably true. But it’s also true, just as it is mutatis mutandis in the UK and America, there’ll be two kinds of Danes, white Danes and not-so-white-Danes. After 1066 It took ten generations for there to stop being Normans and Anglo-Saxons in England. How many will it take for the same, mutatis mutandis, to happen in Denmark?
Well that’s one problem. The other is that even after they’ve outlived their usefulness, serving us burgers and emptying our bed pans, even after they’ve adapted to winter coats and smart phones, even after their children have learned to speak our language with the accent on the right syllables, they’re still not like us. They’re not like us, because, dammit, they bring their cultures with them.
Well yes, just as our ancestors brought their culture with them.
Well yes, but the culture they brought with them – or, in the case of Denmark, the culture they developed – is the culture that these immigrant cultures are not like.
Well, can’t they just drop their culture and adopt ours?
Sure, as readily as we can just drop our culture and adopt theirs. Look, if there was a right not to change that goes to whoever gets there first, where I live we’d all be speaking Cree.
Then can’t two cultures just live side by side?
Sure, on opposite sides of a border. That’s what borders are for. Because the very idea of a culture – what a culture is – are the conditions of commonality under which we can live together.
But surely we want curry houses.
But not if the owner doesn’t queue the way we do.
Can’t she be taught to queue?
Sure, just as she can be taught to confess Jesus. The problem is, confessions of faith and queueing are of a piece. They’re pieces of culture. And they come in a package. If you won’t confess Jesus you can’t be trusted to queue. And if you can’t be trusted to queue, you can’t be trusted to return my wallet. And if you can’t be trusted to return my wallet, we can’t live together.
So here’s what we’re up against. We don’t want immigrants, but we need them. So we have no choice but to tolerate them. We wouldn’t have to tolerate them if we could welcome them. And we’d welcome them if they’d hurry up and assimilate. But they won’t because they can’t. And they can’t because without his culture a human being goes rogue. And it’s the rogues who become “the worst of the worst”.
Some people say, Well then, let’s at least control immigration. Unfortunately the number of wanna-be immigrants dwarfs the number that are wanted. So when push comes to shove – and for some on the so-called right it has – ‘control’ has to be a euphemism for letting them drown, be it in the Mediterranean, the Channel, or the Rio Grande.
I live in a country that’s virtually impossible to get to in a dinghy. In Canada our immigrants come invited, and they land at well-guarded airports. So I’m morally disqualified to take a side on this issue, except to say that when I read reports of people’s lungs filling up with salt water because their fare didn’t cover the cost of a life jacket, that disqualification doesn’t sit so well.
Categories: Angst, Everything You Wanted to Know About What's Going On in the World But Were Afraid to Ask, Social and Political Philosophy
Paulosophical Vimplications 
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