Or Bad Results From Good Intentions.
The Biden Administration has foolishly replaced realism with maudlin sentimentalism at the southern border. This policy driven by a dangerous human emotion helps no one, drains population from the Hispanic triangle nations, magnifies the problem of Covid 19, an unemployment here, and fills the coffers of the coyotes and cartels which profit from illegal human trafficking. In truth, the Biden administration is the silent and unknowingly complicit partner of the gang drug cartels. They both act to increase illegal human trafficking. The Biden Administration’s good intentions —its sentimentalism—have generated very bad results.
What is wrong with “sentimentalism” ? The word is originally from the Latin ‘sentire’: “to experience”, and then modified later to Medieval Latin “sentimentum”, meaning: “feelings, experience, opinion”. It has lately come to mean an exaggeration of these self-indulgent, emotional responses to events I use it here in this context to refer to the over-dependence upon “feeling”, “emotion” over logical, rational thought. It may be thought of as the dominance of the “basement brain” (the Limbic System) where emotions hold sway, over the functions of the “upstairs” brain—the prefrontal lobe, the site of human logic and rational thought. Sentimentalists favor emotional self-gratification, “tenderness”, the desire to “feel good” over making rational, logical decisions. Their limbic system is in control not their prefrontal cortex. It’s ironic since this is the party that a is constantly calling for us to “follow the science” but science is definitely not associated with the basement part of the brain.
We all have emotional responses that encourage us to act humanely. We all want succor for those who need help. But these responses are more complex than simply acting in response to these emotions. We may want to desperately pull that accident victim from the car crash site , but or higher intellect warns us that precipitous action may grievously harm the victim-perhaps paralyzing them for life —more than the immediate pain he or she is suffering. To be truly helpful and humane in these circumstances we must modulate our emotional response and listen to our higher brain.
The fact is that the practitioner of sentimentalism acts to assuaged internal (selfish) feelings, that give the sentimentalist immediate self-gratification—they “feel good” . These acts benefit the “sentimentalist” and not necessarily the beneficiary— the “victim” of their actions. .They exacerbate the situation making things worse than before they intervened.
A recent case of parent “sentimentalists” comes to mind. These folks tend to make emotional decisions for their children.
“Oh, how sad it is!” say Johnny’s parents, “Johnny and his friends have suffered so much denial and isolation due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Let’s open the house for them. A class party would help make up for all they have missed this semester.. We can let Johnny invite just a few friends, and have a keg of beer and some snacks for them!”
Such behaviors make some parents “feel good”. But was it good for their children or the school population? Not when one of the house guests is a Covid carrier and infects the whole party. The bad result from good intentions is that twenty students had to be quarantined and could not attend graduation. Here again bad results from good but illogical intentions.
In the news reports from our southern border today was the picture of a three year old Hispanic boy who was picked all alone up by the Border Patrol. He was on his way to a detention facility. He looked so frightened, so sad, so confused. Where were his parents? Where did he come from? He was dressed well....someone was once caring for him. It is possible this little one was simply whisked away from his caring home by determined ‘’asylum” seekers who, needed a minor to aid in their plan to seek asylum. Upon reaching their goal did they simply abandoned this child of three? The poor little tyke what will happen to him? Will he find a home? Will he be cared for? Will he ever be reunited with his family?
The sentimentalists in Washington are responsible for creating and encouraging this sad situation. They have can glibly stated they want a more “humane” system, but by encouraging the poor, the needy and the mostly economic migrants to come to the USA border, they are creating a humanitarian crisis on the corner. Their good intentions may make them. Feel good, but have awful, inhumane consequences. Think of what this poor child has now experienced. Is this a more humane response? Is this child better off being ripped from a caring home and now to be confined in a detention center or placed in unknown, unvetted, foster care?
Sentimentality has created a southern border crisis of huge proportions. It’s time for a more sensible, realistic and —truly humane policy—humane for both the Biden “sit at home, hand- wringing sentimentalists” as well as the sad and displaced young victims of their actions
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