Gypsies Again

Most of us get our impression of Gypsies from TV and movies, where they're usually portrayed as vaguely exotic people who dance and play instruments and go around in wagons.  Like American Indians, they've been romanticized beyond recognition in fiction.  Actually, though, they mostly are exotic people by definition, and they do dance and play instruments more than most of us do, and they do go around a lot, being culturally and traditionally nomadic, though they usually do their traveling in whatever is popular wherever they are, these days, usually automobiles, of course. But that's the good part.  The bad part is that the "slur" that Gypsies are swindlers and thieves is completely accurate. I've blogged before about my first encounter with Gypsies, and I guess I have to hasten to assure you that there are indeed Gypsies who aren't swindlers and thieves, just like there are Germans who neither brew nor drink beer, and ennui-free Frenchmen.

But like all human beings, Gypsies belong to a culture, and cultures differ.  They have different norms, different languages, different moral codes, different religions, different marriage customs, etc.  And, obviously, some pairs of cultures are more compatible than other pairs of cultures.  To be clear, Danes and Norwegians are slightly different culturally, but when you put them in juxtaposition to each other, they don't automatically break out into riots.  This is because Danish culture doesn't require things that outrage Norwegians and vice-versa.  However, when you put, say, Aztecs and Quakers together, you're going to have trouble.  Quakers have a hard time ignoring all the human sacrifice, and all that drab Quaker clothing irritates the Aztecs.

But, it's not so much that Gypsy culture doesn't fit in well with other cultures (though it doesn't), but, being stateless nomads, the Gypsy culture has evolved to be a parasitic culture.  That is, Gypsies as a group aren't capable of autonomy — If you gave the whole nation of them an island of their own, they couldn't survive unless they totally changed their culture.  Because, economically, they do live as swindlers and thieves.  Criminality isn't a subset of Gypsy culture, like it is with most human groups, but the core of Gypsy culture.  They're not unique in that respect, but they're the most visible group within Western culture that can be described that way.

And now that all the self-destructive nations in the West have gone gung-ho for open borders, Gypsies are more mobile than ever, and are especially taking advantage of this new freedom of mobility to move from Eastern Europe, where they wore out their welcome long ago, to Western Europe and Britain, where there are oodles of naive new victims to take advantage of.  Steve Sailer writes:

Men with Gold Chains: Rich Gypsies

Immigration restrictionism is growing in popularity in Britain because Romanians and Bulgarians are supposed to get complete freedom to move to Britain in 2014. Brits are particularly worried about Roma Romanians: i.e., Gypsies. If you want to see what Gypsies typically live like, check out Borat's hometown in the 2006 movie. Simon Baron Cohen filmed "Borat" in an Eastern European Gypsy village. (Of course, later on in the film he portrayed stereotyping Gypsies as obviously irrational and evil.)

However, some Gypsies have gotten rich, as depicted in this fabulous pictorial in the New York Times devoted, as always, to Smashing Stereotypes:  (See the pictorial and more HERE.)