the Hiics did aspire and to which they gave their best, making them exactly the right people for the job ---- the employer has a responsibility to hire legal workers
confiscate his assets, jail him, and make him work for violating our laws On Mar 7, 2:53 pm, "M. Johnson" <[email protected]> wrote: > Immigration Control, Circa AD 175A Lesson from Ancient Greece on Illegal > Immigrants and EmploymentbyHarold B. Jones Jr. > December 2007 • Volume: 57 • Issue: 10 • > Last January the Wall Street Journal reported on the aftermath of federal > agents’ success in rounding up Hiics on charges of immigration violation. The > Georgia company where these“illegals” had been employed sought to obtain > replacements by paying higher wages and offering free transportation. It was > soon involved in a series of legal challenges that a company representative > traced to the sentiments of people who were not really interested in working. > Turnover skyrocketed and productivity fell off. Seeking to justify the > native-born employees’ poor attitudes and performance, a professor at a > nearby university said the work was something to which no American would ever > aspire. She neglected to add that it was something to which the Hiics did > aspire and to which they gave their best, making them exactly the right > people for the job. She neglected also to point out how regulations were > standing in the way of personal freedom and economic efficiency. > The story is an old one. There has been more than one time in history when > the effort to restrict immigration has hindered the progress both of those > who were trying to improve themselves and of the civilization that was trying > to keep them out. It is worth the time it takes to review a lesson from the > late second century and the story of an emperor whose policies were not as > wise as his philosophy. > Marcus Aurelius was born in AD 121, at the high point of what Adam Smith’s > friend Edward Gibbon said was the historical period during which humanity > enjoyed the greatest prosperity and happiness it had ever known. Aurelius was > 15 when the Greek orator Aelius Aristides announced that it was time for the > whole world to lay down its arms as if at a festival; the only tasks with > which the cities of the Empire needed to concern themselves were those > associated with the construction of public buildingsfountains, gymnasia, > temples, arches, schools, and workshops. > It was in many respects a time like our own. The general population was more > interested in athletic contests than in business or the affairs of state. > Epictetus offers a vivid account of the Romans’ love for gladiatorial > contests and chariot races, the partisans of the whites, reds, blues, and > greens debating endlessly the merits of their respective teams. “Freedom” had > come to mean order, stability, regularity, and the maintenance of ancient > social distinctions. Plutarch said the Romans had as much liberty as the > government allowed them and it was just as well that they were not given > more. Like motivational speakers in modern America, “philosophers” (who were > said to have been as common as cobblers) toured the Empire offering easy > answers to difficult questions. Two of the young Aurelius’s teachers, in > fact, had become wealthy on the lecture circuit. > The education of Roman children was for long centuries entrusted to private > enterprise, but late in the first century Vespasian brought the more > important schools of rhetoric under imperial control by turning professors > into government employees, complete with a pension after 20 years’ service. > Early in the second century, the financing of secondary education became a > municipal responsibility. Aurelius records his gratitude for the fact that > rather than sending him to a government school, his father had decided to > have him home-schooled. > Actually, this was his maternal grandfather, Antoninus Pius, who had adopted > three-month-old Marcus when the boy’s father died. The Emperor Hadrian, who > was a frequent visitor in the home, took a liking to the child, and when > Antoninus Pius was selected to succeed Hadrian, it was with the specific > provision that Marcus Aurelius would succeed Antoninus Pius. The tasks of > government were mastered in a series of political appointments, the offices > assigned carrying increasing authority as youth gave way to manhood and > manhood became maturity. When Aurelius became emperor in AD 161 he was almost > as well prepared for the job as anyone could have been. > But only “almost”: the new emperor had gained no experience with military > action, the necessity for which confronted him as soon as he assumed the > throne. A half century of peace had encouraged Rome’s leaders to neglect what > Adam Smith said was a government’s primary obligation, that of protecting its > society from military violence on the part of other societies. An attack from > Parthia (modern-day Iran) caught the Romans off guard. The assets of the > imperial household were auctioned off to raise funds, an army was formed, and > Aurelius’s adoptive brother Lucius Verus took command of it.Looking for > TradeAlong the Empire’s northern borders, meanwhile, German tribes were on > the move. The record of negotiations with them suggests that they were less > interested in conquest than in opportunities for trade and land on which to > settle. There had been a time in history when they might have been welcomed, > a time, Gibbon said, when Rome had been open to the contributions of every > slave, stranger, or barbarian who was willing to play a part in making her > great. By the self-indulgent second century that time had passed, and the > tribesmen were treated as a threat to imperial security. Aurelius assembled > another army and commanded it in a series of campaigns along the Danube. > Between battles he entered his thoughts in a diary, which was found among his > things after he died and published as Meditations.Libertarian AuthorThe ideas > contained in this small volume seem to mark its author as a libertarian. At > one point, he comes close to suggesting that the tribesmen have as much right > to occupy the land as the Romans do to keep them off it. The spider that > captured a fly, he said, the man who trapped a boar, and the solider who > killed a “Sarmatian” (the generic term for the peoples who lived along the > Danube) might all be regarded as predatory thieves. > The philosophy of the Meditations is part of an intellectual tradition going > back to the third century BC, to the city of Tarsus, and to a man named Zeno. > Aristotle’s opinion that people were from the hour of their birth marked out > either for subjection or for rule found no echo in the teaching of Zeno. He > believed that society should not be divided into classes, for all could > become wise. Men and women might have different roles and different > capacities, but they were equal as free moral agents. The ideal state would > embrace the whole world, and its laws would be dictated by nature rather than > convention. > Called “Stoics” because of the porch (stoa) on which their teacher gave > lessons in Athens, Zeno’s followers believed that everything from the falling > of a leaf to the rise of an empire could be explained in terms of a single > underlying principle, or logos. In The Economy in Mind, Warren Brookes grasps > the essence of this concept when he talks about how the natural ecosystem > maintains its own balance. All of its elements, he says, are so closely > interrelated that even the best-intentioned efforts at regulation bring about > reactions and distortions throughout the system. The accommodations by which > the ecosystem moves toward equilibrium are part of nature’s tendency to > preserve, protect, and strengthen itself. Such adjustments may entail some > discomfort, but the results they lead to are better than anything that could > be produced by means of intervention from the outside. > The Stoics said the universe, as animated and directed by the logos, tends > toward harmony, and the wise person seeks to live with this in mind. This > meant, first of all, tending to one’s own business. Aurelius said that each > person should focus on his private concerns because these were his particular > thread of the universal web. Such a focus might draw criticism from external > observers, but it was the only way to happiness and peace of mind. Your > critics have reasons of their own, Aurelius told himself, but you cannot > afford to concern yourself with those. Do not look around for praise or > encouragement. Just keep your eyes fixed on your purposes.Not Narrow > Self-InterestUsing a term that was popular during the eighteenth century, > Adam Smith called this “self interest.” In Aurelius’s mind it referred not to > a narrow selfishness but to the simple truth that his own concerns are the > only things about which a person can know enough to be effective. And this, > remember, was the opinion of an emperor, a man whose authority reached so far > that even the Chinese knew about him. His concerns included much that was not > strictly private. He could oversee the management of imperial affairs and > direct the operations of an army, but he refused to pry into other people’s > motives, and he wished they would resist the temptation to pry into his. > Focus on the issues of your own life, Aurelius said, because that is how you > can make the maximum possible contribution to the good of the universe. To > each individual thing Nature has assigned enough time and energy, and in the > case of human beings enough intelligence, for a limited number of tasks. The > wise person therefore concentrates his attention on what is actually in his > power. The fig tree does a fig tree’s work, a dog does a dog’s work, and a > bee does the work of a bee. The sun has one job, the wind another, storm > clouds a third, and all play a part in the final result. Just so, each human > being has his own particular tasks, and no one knows more about how to do > them than the person to whom they have been assigned. > This being true, it is not merely foolish but barbarous, to deny a person the > privilege of pursuing what he believes to be his proper concerns. A man is > always justified in seeking what he imagines to be his own good. We are all > working together for the same end, Aurelius insisted, some of us knowingly > and others unconsciously. Even the malcontent who is trying to stand in the > way will be found in the end to have played an important part. The best of > all possible governments would therefore be concerned primarily with > upholding the liberty of the subject. > Detailed regulation on the part of the state was counterproductive because of > the unseen rationality already built into the nature of things. Early in the > fifth book of Meditations Aurelius said, “Look at the plants, sparrows, ants, > spiders, bees, all busy with their own tasks, each doing his part towards a > coherent world order.” Adam Smith went into some length with a paraphrase of > these lines and the surrounding passages in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, > which was published 17 years before The Wealth of Nations. It seems probable > that the notion of an “invisible hand” was something he discovered in the > writings of Marcus Aurelius. > This idea was destined to work a revolution first in the intellectual and > then in the economic life of the eighteenth century. It had little impact on > the life of the second. It is true that Aurelius initiated a systematic > effort to reduce the extent of slavery, not quite a campaign for general > emancipation, but a policy of granting freedom whenever it was possible to do > so. Again and again the surviving documents report that a slave had attained > his freedom in accordance with the emperor’s command. This policy may bear > witness to an understanding of the relationship between economic efficiency > and the Stoic insistence on personal liberty. Aurelius writes of having spent > a long time with Cato’s Agriculture, which argues that cultivation could be > accomplished more effectively by free men than by slaves.Debasing the > CurrencyTo the extent that liberation was carried on in defiance of popular > beliefs, it was the exception rather than the rule. In other respects, > Aurelius’s policies paid homage to expectations. Returning to Rome after a > military campaign, he granted the citizens’ demand for eight gold coins per > person. The old practice of paying the peasants to have children reached its > widest expansion. Imperial extravagance was funded by debasing the currency. > The philosophic emperor’s greatest downfall, though, came in the way he dealt > with his problems on the northern borders. > Repeating the sentiments of Zeno, he had described all the world’s > inhabitants as fellow citizens of a single city. A consistent application of > this insight might have been the salvation of Rome. The soldiers coming back > from the war with Parthia carried with them a plague, which infected every > area to which they were later assigned. In Rome itself, the death rate rose > to over a thousand a day, and corpses were carried out of the city in heaps. > Whole cities reverted to jungle or desert. For this depopulation the tribes > of the north were a ready solution, the very friends and allies of which > Mediterranean civilization was desperately in need. Treated instead as > enemies, they responded in kind, and years were wasted in expensive wars. > These wars, in turn, were a major cause of the military chaos that overtook > Rome during the third century. Aurelius’s son Commodus made a hasty treaty > with the tribes along the Danube but retained the prerogatives his father had > assumed for the sake of military operations. Unresolved tensions along the > northern frontier and the hostility of Parthia led Commodus’s successors to > expand the army. With additional legions came additional expenditures, and > the competition for scarce resources produced new centers of power. Roman > generals began to direct their forces against each other rather than the > “barbarians,” and a once tightly-knit polity unraveled. The Empire of which > Diocletian assumed control in AD 285 was a mere shadow of what it had been a > hundred years before. > The situation facing the United States at the dawn of the 21st century is > similar to the one Rome faced in the evening of the second. There are on the > one hand implacable enemies, who seem to be bent on the destruction of > Western civilization. There are on the other hand potential friends, who > would like very much to share in and contribute to the abundance they see > just across the border. Modern America is like ancient Rome in that it seems > to be incapable of distinguishing between its enemies and its friends. > Some may reply that the members of this latter group must be treated with > hostility because crossing the border is a violation of our laws. Those who > say this should consider the words of Aurelius’s forebear in Stoicism, > Cicero, as reported by Will Durant late in eighteenth chapter of Caesar and > Christ: “True law is right reason in agreement with nature, world-wide in > scope, unchanging, everlasting. . . . We may not oppose or alter that law, we > cannot abolish it, we cannot be freed of its obligations by any legislature, > and we need not look outside ourselves for an expounder of it.”Natural > OrderThere is a law that no legislation can rightfully attempt to override. > What Adam Smith described as every person’s uninterrupted effort to improve > his own condition is one expression of that law. It is as much a part of the > natural order as the forces that bring springtime and fall. Left to operate > freely, such forces tend toward harmony, progress, and improvement. Hindered > or bottled up, they may become destructive. Today’s leaders might do well to > consider the unfortunate example of Marcus > Aurelius.http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/immigration-control-circa-ad-175/ -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
