Greeks versus Romans: A Talebian framing of immigration discourse in the West

Abstract

In this paper, political division in the West is depicted as a function of i) demographic changes in Europe and the United States due to mass immigration; ii) tension between government policy and public opinion on mass immigration, and iii) attempts by the media and governments to proscribe and punish the expression of anti-mass immigration sentiment. The ‘two sides of the immigration debate are characterized as Greek (ideology-driven) and Roman (practice-driven), utilizing concepts popularized by the writer Nicolas Nassim Taleb. Current divisiveness in political and civil discourse is framed as a consequence of Greek ideology taken too far, in opposition to which populist movements have taken full advantage of social media and the new news media and the concomitant loss of monopoly power by traditional opinionmakers.