Immigration and Self Doubt

Maybe the earlier sunlight is triggering neuroreceptors in some novel way. Lately I have been more reflective. I wish I had more time to spin these thoughts out and look at them, but I don't.

American Immigration:
The archetype of the ingenious, hard-working, self-sacrificing immigrant forming the backbone of America is incomplete and inadequate. This personality type has gone a long way to forming the culture of America. Yet, it does not explain the fanciful optimism coloring the perception of the American Dream. Two of the three ancestral strains that compose my family heritage immigrated on the hard worker boat. The remaining one came to avoid conscription. Looking back, indeed, there were a large number of British (and others, but I'm thinking in particular of Benjamin Franklin's warning against slackjaws and wastrels immigrating to the colonies) who came across the ocean looking for opportunities. Yet, we must not discount the large numbers who came without a country, having been exiled or persecuted for their religion or politics. They came here out of sheer desperation, holding close the vision of a promised land or even just a reprieve from the punishments of the nations they left.

Recent immigrations have this same dynamic. There are many who come from south of the border looking for better pay. There are a lot of enterprising Nigerians, Chinese, and Indians ready to apply business skills and highly technical knowledge. Yet, there are also a lot of Southeast Asians who fled destruction (or who had no country, like the Hmong), refugees from the Balkans, Somalia, Central Asia. A lot of the immigrants from my wife's community fled state-sanctioned persecution in the world's largest democracy back in the 80s.

On the face of it, America has a lot of trauma that is continually processing and integrating. Perhaps that is the wellspring of the optimism that marks the national character. A therapeutic nation? Or, perhaps something more Freudian is in play, as populations sublimate their own disillusion and pain associated with the old country, and impose an improbable level of hope onto their vision of the new world. ?

Self Doubt:
Self doubt is a weird thing. On one side of the scales you have a cautious, measured nature prone to analytics. A boon. The other side of the scales is weighed down by unproductive self-criticism and unrealistic expectations. Finding a proper balance only keeps the crazy side in check. The thoughts still persist.

Being analytical does not seem to help the problem because a lot of the unrealistic expectations and self-criticism have deep roots. Once you've trekked the river to its source, often you find the only way back is by the same arduous path and you lack the means to plow a more efficient route back to civilization. Instead, you have to wind back through the dark woods and clamber over brambles.

I think of Brennus fixing the scales so that the Romans could never put enough gold to satisfy his demand for loot. As the elders complained, he retorted "Vae victis!" Woe to the vanquished. I think Brennus provides the proper model for dealing with self doubt. Impose an iron will, let no self criticism ever tilt the scale. Rather, let all the pricking thoughts and reminders be of no consequence, no weight at all, and the measured, analytical part of the mind shall bear all the value.