ICE, Immigration and Cultural Suicide - Lionel Shriver

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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

Lionel Shriver 0:02
This is all the result of individual political decisions. The Biden administration opened that border on purpose. There is design behind it.

What are the reasons behind the recent waves of mass immigration?

Lionel Shriver 0:13
We are not acting out of self-interest.
Konstantin Kisin 0:15
The gender dynamics in the book between who it is that actually is inviting these people and who it is that's resisting,
Lionel Shriver 0:22
This movement has brought out the worst in women. I'm a big fan with masculine virtues, and I mean that on an individual level, but also on a cultural one. We have poo-pooed them for a long time. Our countries are being overrun by strangers because nobody is stopping them.
Unknown 0:47
Look, Abu, an old lamp.

What motivates individuals to immigrate?

Unknown 0:51
If I dust it a little... Oh! No ni. Mä oon lampun henki, ja sä oot sää, ja sä tiedät, mitä seuraavaksi tapahtuu. Sulla on kolme toivomusta, eikä saa toivoa lisää toivomuksia.

How does immigration relate to economic growth?

Unknown 1:02
Mitä laitetaan? Kulho, lusikka, ja sitä uutta valiojugurtti luonnonmakeaa, jonka makeus on hedelmien sokereista. Kulho, lusikka, valiojugurtti luonnonmakeaa. Kuittiin. Arjen klassikka. Valiojugurtti.
Konstantin Kisin 1:17
Thriva, welcome back to Trigonometry.
Lionel Shriver 1:20
Third time lucky.
Konstantin Kisin 1:21
Third time, great to have you. The reason we have you on regularly is you're a prolific writer, as I was saying before we started. You've just written the new book called A Better Life. And as always, you stay away from the controversy, don't you, Lionel?
Lionel Shriver 1:33
Oh, yeah, I tried to go for the safe subject.
Konstantin Kisin 1:36
Well, this book, of course, is a novel, but it is about immigration. And I think you actually go very deep and very hard at an issue that has become completely toxified, impossible to talk about, and also impossible to be honest about. Is that why you wanted to talk about this issue?
Lionel Shriver 1:55
Well, I am always looking for a gap in the cultural library.

Are women more affected by woke culture than men?

Lionel Shriver 2:01
There's no point in writing a book that has been written multiple times. I'm trying to look for something that people are not writing about. And there's usually a reason people are not writing about something, because it's dangerous, it's too polarizing. And there have certainly been plenty of novels about immigration, but they're always implicitly pro-immigration because they are reliably told from the perspective of the immigrant. And they're not necessarily all bad novels. And in fact, I think the The format of the immigrant story is narratively appealing intrinsically. Someone who's seeking a better life is on a journey, is literally going from A to B, and therefore perhaps making another kind of spiritual, political, social journey.

What impact does not having children have on women's behavior?

Lionel Shriver 3:10
and has to face obstacles to overcome is usually at a disadvantage. Often that's an economic disadvantage. All of these things are a formula for a sympathetic character. And when you have a sympathetic immigrant, you are implicitly writing a pro-immigration book. I mean, that's just the way it works, insofar as you have any political content. I know of only one other novel that portrays the experience of the host community, and that would be T.C. Boyle's The Tortilla Curtain.

Why do people believe the current immigration policies are unsustainable?

Lionel Shriver 3:58
That goes back to 1999. And I really can't name another one.
Konstantin Kisin 4:03
One of the interesting things that I think you explore in the book is why this is all happening in the West, why there's been these gigantic waves of mass immigration in the last 20 years in particular. And it was interesting, I was listening to you on another podcast with our friend Winston, and he asked you about the comments that Jim Ratcliffe made when he said England's been colonized by immigrants. And he said, do you think that's true? And you said, Of course, which I thought was surprising, actually, because I think that the reason I don't agree with what he said, even though I understand why he said it, is that I think to say something is colonization is to imply that the people who are coming are responsible for it, whereas what your book actually explores is the people who are responsible for the ways of mass immigration, the people who are encouraging and making it possible.
Lionel Shriver 4:55
I agree with you.

How does a lack of cultural self-confidence affect society?

Lionel Shriver 4:57
I'm not sure that being willing to use the word colonization means that the cause of that colonization is just the force of people's desire. Certainly, that's part of the explanation, but it is being permitted.

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