Strangers in a Familiar Land
It’s Just Different?
I suppose Facebook and Twitter and the other assorted new social networks are our generation’s version of the now nearly extinct Masonic Lodge, Grange, Elks, and Kiwanis clubs. But for all their brilliance, they really are not; the former are solitary pursuits dependent on a reliable Wi-Fi signal; the latter were fleshy events, where one saw, met, and talked to real people. We are isolated in our homes and life is far more harried. Here I agree with the lament that today’s poor married couple is unimaginably strapped with daycare, two-income responsibilities, and paranoia about super-parenting that ranges from proper computer tutorials to ensuring a young family a granite counter and stainless steel refrigerator. In contrast, my grandmother’s biggest moment of the day was ringing the cast iron chime at lunch, so all of us from all corners of the farm could flock to her wonderful communal lunches.
The Spoken Word
I confess to a bad habit. I have DirecTV satellite out here on the farm. But about once or twice a week I mostly watch only one channel and at one time slot: the Western channel in the late afternoon. They have a daily trifecta of Wagon Train, Paladin, and Gunsmoke. Last week the great Richard Boone was quoting Homer and Milton. Either the producers had writers who read literature or they expected that some of the audience did, or both. The plots are usually inspirational and moralistic — and would hold today’s viewers’ attention for about thirty seconds. They lack the earthiness of contemporary police thrillers, but there is a nobility and simplicity of expression that ultimately is far more uplifting, asking audiences to aspire to elevate their culture rather than to remind us, in admittedly often brilliantly realistic fashion, just how sick we have become.
Of course, you object, that today life’s is far easier and better. It surely is. Technologically we sit on the collective work of a few giants over the decades. Our phones, computers, Internet, and HDTVs provide us with options unimaginable in my youth; take away Urocit and I would have kidney stones weekly. But why and how we deserved our electrical appurtenances are not so clear. Most of us don’t know anything about how they work; few grasp the nature of globalized trade or the mechanisms of how a tiny few engineering high priests in Silicon Valley create ingenious designs and outsource the fabrication to hardworking and meticulous Asian fabricators. The result is sometimes an anomaly: an illiterate gangbanger can, by folk instruction and tribal lore, become a master of iPhone apps, but not be able to read any of the small print manuals accompanying his phone. I see just that scene in action daily at Wal-Mart — or better yet, the colored icons on today’s electric checkout counters that allow one to see and punch at, rather than read or compute, a problem. Without bar codes, we would have mayhem: the more sophisticated the technology, the less educated those who use it. In place of a literate society, we need only a tiny literate cloister to invent and service inventions for the masses.
The look of us has changed as well. We are far more wealthy with far more goods and yet dress far more shabbily. We seem far more obese than a half-century ago, and yet, given our plethora of new drugs and procedures, also more long-lived. While the rarer fat person of a bygone age paid for his girth with thirty years less life than what we now take for granted, nevertheless our ubiquitous obese (despite far more knowledge about cholesterol, calories, and health) can live longer than yesterday’s thin and rugged. It is almost as if a select medical elite is dreaming up constantly new pills and operations — from knee replacements to blood cleaners — to allow us to live longer and heavier. The warehouse store’s self-propelled shopping cart is ever more common.
We are Reconquering the Southwest…and you gringos can’t stop us. Our population is rapidly growing, and the gringo population is aging and declining. We are over 50 million and united. You are down to 63.7% and extremely divided…and will be a minority by 2041. We are already a majority of the population under 18 in Alta California, Tejas, Nuevo Mexico and Arizona… and are rapidly taking over Nevada, Colorado, and Florida.
We are young and vigorous. You gringos are old and tired. We are the future. Your time has passed. We have defeated you without firing a shot. It is too late for you gringos to stop us from taking over the country. Gringos are down to only 53.5% of the population under 18…and a minority of births since 2010. You gringos will soon be a minority, and lose control of your own destiny. We will control who gets elected President. We will DOMINATE Alta California, Tejas, Nuevo Mexico and Arizona…and will be the swing voters in the swing states — Nevada, Colorado, and Florida. Whoever doesn’t do La Raza’s bidding will be thrown out of office.
We have Reconquered the Southwest from you gringos without firing a shot. Don’t you see that we have defeated you? You have no leaders, no hope, no future. You gringos will soon pay the price for your sins against us. The 21st century will undo and reverse the 19th century. La Reconquista is almost complete. It is only a matter of time. We are nearly there. In a few years it will all be over for you gringos.
Do you understand that we are CONQUERING this country right now right in front of your eyes, in broad daylight, without a shot being fired? Do you understand that we are CONQUERING America right now…and that your leaders are like the American Indian chiefs who sold their tribes out for bottles of Kickapoo Joy Juice and some repeating rifles…
We have already RECONQUERED the entire Southwest — Alta California, Tejas, Nuevo Mexico, and Arizona. We will soon have control of Nevada, Colorado, Florida, and Utah. After that, we will proceed to invade, conquer, and colonize the entire country. We are repopulating the country. We will eventually drive all you gringos out of the country, to Canada, back to Europe, to Mars, whatever, just get the hell out of this country because we’re taking over, and we don’t want you racist gringos here. We will drive you gringos out of here as sure as I’m standing here.
We have CONQUERED you without firing a shot. La Raza is 50 million strong…and by 2050 we will be 135 million concentrated in the Southwest that borders Mexico. La Reconquista is almost comnplete. We are taking back the Southwest, the land that you gringos stole from us in the 19th century. Demographics Is Destiny. We are repopulating the country. It is all over for you gringos. By 2041 you gringos will be a minority. A minority that is aging, shrinking and dying. By 2050 we will be 135 million strong, about 30% of the population, an overwhelming majority in the Southwest — and an even greater percentage of children. We will soon be an outright majority.
The Gringo’s world is ending… Not with a bang but a whimper.
The Gringo is going gentle into that good night… Don’t rage against the dying of the Gringo’s light.
Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada.
Assume you are right. And you may me the way things are going.
I have two questions.
Given the history of Hispanic derived peoples does this mean that I am doomed to live in a slum (a la Mexico?). I find it quite revealing crossing the border at San Diego.
Second, who do you suppose will replace the Hispanics? My money is on the Chinese as they are much better organized.
Ignore this troll.
Three words for you, La Raza: Remember the Alamo!
If you insist on increasing the size of North Americas third world toilet you should do it with your own money. You have no credibility when you yse welfare and crime as your main sources of income.
Chinga La Raza
La Raza, you park this same juvenile screed here each and every time Professor Hanson posts an article. Are you stalking him in a literary sense? I bet he’s scared. I’ve notice that you’ve been polishing-up your little piece—you must be toiling away at it day and night to get it to where we can follow the progress of your dementia. I have a few suggestions to make about improving its impact on us gringo. Mention how ‘conquering’ us probably means that US living standards will plummet to third world poverty levels—just like in Mexico—and there will no longer be enough money to subsidize your stay, and millions of others, in the US while you’re sending money back to Mexico. Mention also how this will impoverish Mexicans and will probably make them even unhappier with their government which could cause them to turn their anger on it. Keep in mind that if the Mexican system falls due to social unrest the US might have to grab parts of northern Mexico to create a buffer zone between this country and the likely emergence of a far left-wing regime in Mexico City. This group would then likely ruin the remaining part of Mexico, a la Barack Obama, and this would in turn bring on even more social unrest and then we would have to grab even more of Mexico and this unhappy state of affairs might go on till all of Mexico is conquered by us gringos for the good of the Mexican people and our peace of mind. So, in parting, La Raza, I say don’t wish too hard for what you want because a lot of Mexicans might not want the same thing. In saying this I’m assuming in all seriousness that you are a member of La Raza and this isn’t the joke it seems to be. But just in case you are not La Raza and merely a poseur I say that your screeds have at least been a very amusing, while not enlightening, diversions. I’m looking forward to the same appearing once again word for word the next time Professor Hanson decides to enlighten us—and you, too, La Raza—with his articles.
Why would you even want to take over the United States? Haven’t your people done enough damage to your own country? Do you think the USA will somehow be better off if you hold a majority? Should all of our yards look like someone emptied a Walmart dumpster in them?
So sit back and celebrate with the knowledge that as the white population percentage lowers, crime rates increase, test scores lower, unplanned pregnancy rises, spousal abuse increases, and violence in general increases. Great goal to strive for. We need more of that. Keep up the good work, La Raza.
You’re pretty selective about which conquerors you plan on re-conqueroring don’t you think ?
I mean, your RACE doesn’t speak “Mexican” now does it ? Nor does it speak Aztec or Mayan. In fact, aren’t your citizens who look too much like the real indigenous peoples actually looked down upon in your advanced culture ?
Your RACE isn’t coming to the US to re-claim anything…they are coming to find opportunities not available in your country. I doubt they would like to see the Mexican economic miracle replicated here.
“—–without a shot being fired–” Come to my neighborhood ahole and the last thing you will EVER hear is a shot being fired. I don’t miss. Guaranteed !
If he or his ilk show up in my area, they won’t even hear the shot that takes them down.
You write way too well to be a La Racista.
More likely a trust-funded sociology major, looking for cheap kicks.
I believe this is satire…..
…And this apparently, is not. Buffett still owes a billion in back taxes, and feels confident that he can pay them whenever he jolly well pleases.
http://networkedblogs.com/mwctf
Relax folks – the usernames “La Raza” and “Globalist” are from one person posting his own brand of what he thinks is provocative humor just to get a rise of people. It’s not working for me…just tiresome.
Well, good for you. It is important to have goals. Now, I certainly hope you are going to adopt American values like so many of the successful immigrants who have come to the US. Look to the old Hispanic families in the Southwest. Their example will be your guide.
Oh, but that means you’ll just be Americans with Hispanic heritage rather than reconquistdors.
So have fun, and remember to change the oil in the engine or it’ll seize up on you leaving a rustic relic not unlike the professor’s description of dark ages Greece.
Does someone pay you to post this crap all over the internet? Surely you wouldn’t have time to hold down a regular job!
who is “we”?
The Mexicans who are of Indian origin, and whose tribes never lived in what is now the USA,, or do you mean the Spanish who conquered an empire in the Americas and decimated the Indians who lived there, and who once “owned” that area?
Do you include only Spanish Speaking Indian tribes in your “we”, or do you include the Comanche and Apaches who fought you tooth and nail when the Spanish tried to steal their land?
The dirty little secret is that Mexico has long been racist against their indigenous population, and one only has to look at the government to see that those with pure Spanish blood still rule. That is why most “Mexican” immigrants are of Indian blood: they are not given economic opportunities in Mexico, and there is no way they can break the invisible race barrier there.
The only reason you come in the United States is because you have no clue how to generate richness in your own country. Suppose you take over the US, which will not happen even if the entire Mexico moves here: you are 100 million Mexicans, very divided between you considering all the problems you have in Mexico while there are more than 200 millions whites, not to count that the African-Americans cannot stand you. That statics La Raza buddy is meant to stimulate the idiots not to feel too much so, but is far from reality. Now say you take over the US, what you are going to do, for it is pointless to move in a place where there is no more money. And this is exactly what will happen if you, in your scenario become majority. Let’s continue to suppose: did you consider who will do business with you: China, Russia EU, India? I guess not. Not in the terms Obama’s doing now. These powers will dominate you like in the last 500 years of your (a)history and you will end up exactly where you were/are now; washing dishes, driving old tracks working for the same gringo or for the Chinese, Indians. Something tells me, La Raza that when you will begin working again for EU and China you will get a real reason to complain but then it will be too late – you simply work or go into eternity. Be careful what you wish: without America the world will be ruled by the same old powers and you know very well what that means!
Adios!
With love from an European born in a family which ruled over many lands of Mexico and left when you dried you of energy and resources!
We are destroying your currency and economy. We are setting the stages for a New World Order and One World Government. The nation-state no longer exists. Patriotism and nationalism is dead. There will some pain for some people. Adjustments will have to be made. It will require a whole new mindset. Don’t think of yourself as an American citizen. Think of yourself as a global citizen, a citizen of the world. We are entering a new era in the history of mankind. Those who refuse to join us will cause themselves unnecessary pain and suffering. A New World Order and One World Government is inevitable, just a matter of time. Those who resist will end up in the dustbin of history. I hope none of you are foolish enough to attempt to resist. Resistance is futile.
Under the guise of free trade we are destroying your manufacturing base, your economy, your currency, and ultimately your sovereignty. Under the guise of all these free trade deals we are erasing your borders, your national identity, your loyalty, we are outsourcing all your manufacturing jobs and destroying the middle class. Your economy is based on nothing. You produce no real wealth. Your economy is a deck of cards which we will collapse when the time is right. We control both political parties. You are peons. You have no power. We control the media, the financial institutions, Wall Street, the corporations, the entertainment industry etc. You are so Balkanized and divided, you will never be able to stand up to us.
The world is changing. Very soon an independent “America” will cease to exist. Get it through your heads. The nation-state is dead. Borders are obsolete. Nationalism is dead. You are not am American citizen. You are a global citizen, a citizen of the world. There is no American economy. There is a global economy. Your system of government is obsolete, irrelevant and inefficient. It will be replaced. Initially, there will be some pain for some people/countries. They will have to adjust to the new way things are done. But long-term things will be much better, much smoother, much more efficient. The world faces many problems, and the only solution is a New World Order and One World Government. We are entering a new period of human history. Those who are stubborn and refuse to join us will cause themselves unnecessary pain and suffering. A New World Order and One World Government is inevitable, just a matter of time. Those who resist will end up in the dustbin of history. I hope none of you are foolish enough to attempt to resist. Resistance is futile.
It is a done deal. We have destroyed America. Soon we will have a New World Order and One World Government — with us in control. It will be impossible for you to fight back. You are so Balkanized and divided, you will never be able to stand up to us. You are on the wrong side of history. You will end up in the dustbin of history. Resistance is futile. It’s a done deal. If you’re gonna get raped, you may as well enjoy it…
NYT reports on critical drug shortages in US. Why? All of our prescription drugs are made in China and India. The last US anti-biotic factory closed years ago.
Vaccines are no longer made in the U.S. because anytime there was the slightest trouble, lawyers would give the manufacturer such a raking that it was no longer worth it. The drug shortage seems to be seems to be of older but still useful drugs that have become a pain to make because of all the FDA hyper-anal regulations. Our companies, on the other hand, are still willing to make very expensive patentable drugs that offer enough of a margin to make them willing to sustain the legal and regulatory difficulties.
That is factually and absolutely incorrect. Few to none of our drugs are made in India and China. Some are made in Canada, some in Europe, most made right here due to quality concerns. I live in a border state and there’s always some legislation brewing to allow people to legally get their drugs from Canada where they’re cheaper, but it’s not legal to do so.
This is why we’re having drug shortages- due to tight regulations and the never-ending fear of litigation, companies find it just isn’t profitable to make them.
No drugs made in India? You might want to check out Ranbaxy or Dr. Reddy’s. I use their products EVERY SINGLE DAY in my hospital. Drug manufacture is a multi-billion dollar industry for India, Israel, Japan, etc.
I said “few”. The operations of which you speak are minor, minor players. And I’m still waiting to hear about the drugs made in China. The vast majority of drugs, by law, are made here.
Nuance isn’t your strong point, I see.
I hear a noise: WE, WE, WE, WEE, WEE, WEE little pigs wee weeing all over the place. “WEEWEE are going to take you over” “WEEWEE are powerful little piggy’s” Sorry piggy’s. The only thing you so called globalist’s are doing, little piggy’s, is destroying yourselves. On the one hand I’m glad for you on the other I’m sad. But if you must do yourself in, you must. And no, you’re not taking us with you and you’re not taking over anything. You have made yourselves the masters of your own destruction, like sheep led to the slaughter, only you are little piggy’s. Haven’t you little piggy’s looked in the mirror and seen little piggy’s? If you could see yourselves perhaps you wouldn’t want to be you anymore.
The living will live on and the globalist little piggy’s will bury the globalist little piggies.
God bless and have a nice day. :)
Jeffrey, my first thought when reading globalist’s post was that he was a pig! Oink, Oink!
Booooring! A real snooze fest. Even just skimming this juvenile garbage sent the ole’ eyelids drooping. As Bugs Bunny loved to say: What a maroon!
“Us”? how’s “Us” and your globalized world buddy? Globalism is ours, meaning Europe, US, India, China, Canada. If you are not on that list you might indeed have to change your mind for you will follow our globalization dumby! We have “you”, not you “us”. We had you since always, it is just that now we give you the impression you have a “say” which you can’t because have no clue first of all who’s “you” and how’s “us”. We conquered you in the past, now we moved up to the second stage. The only ones who have to lose is “you” for you still have same nice resources down there. The question is can “you” make it in our globalized world for “us” feel very well in yours? I can move in the nice mountains of Mexico with sweet little Mexican and let you make money for me in a dirty trashy NYC where you like so much.
Comment 1 ties perfectly into VDH’s theme: Collectively we don’t have the *will* to do what makes sense. Twenty years ago we should have enforced our immigration laws by building a real fence and really deported illegals.
An unholy alliance developed between the Right and Left. The business Right wanted cheap labor and the Left wanted voters. Now look what we have: a disaster.
When someone on TV say “We can’t deport all those people” I say why not?Eisenhower did it. And a national deportation campaign would result in some self-deporting themselves.
LaRaza is correct about one thing: Hispanics are united and they will work their way to win. The US is consumed by identity and “tribal” politics. Thanks, libs!
And on the matter of the culture: last week in NYC, the “Jersey Shore” episode had more viewers than the Yankees game. “Jersey Shore” defines what is wrong with American culture today.
La Raza posts the same comment on every essay, whether it applies or not. I suspect La Raza is also Globalist, the author of post #2. It’s getting a bit tiremsome.
I agree. “Do not feed the trolls” is always good advice.
Ignoring trolls is always a good idea, but why on earth aren’t obvious trolls banned and blocked? Free communication is hurt, not helped, by not getting rid of deliberate disruptors IMO.
Strangers in a familiar land — You better get used to it. In 1960, Americans of European ancestry were 88.6% of the population. In 2000, European-Americans were down to 69.1% of the population. In 2010, Americans of European ancestry were down to only 63.7% of the population…and will be a minority by 2041.
In 1980, European-Americans were 88% of the electorate. In 2000, European-Americans were down to 81% of the electorate. In 2008, European-Americans were down to only 74% of the electorate. It is pretty obvious where this is going…
Goodbye, White America
http://rightbias.com/News/misc2.aspx
Your country is desolate; your cities are burned with fire; as for your land — strangers consume its [yield] in your presence; it is desolate as if overturned by foreigners.-ISAIAH 1:7
We are living in the last great days of the Great Republic of the United States of America…
If white America is becoming a minority, it’s our own fault. Fifty million abortions, and a birth rate well below replacement. For the last forty years we’ve been spending our accumulated wealth, and the wealth of coming generations, and producing less and less while demanding ever more. We’re not even raising and educating our children to succeed. It’s all about the good life. Don’t have too many kids, you’ll have to share your toys, and as for work, well they have to pay you, but that doesn’t mean you have to really work, and of course you deserve a raise every year. And no white person, or black either, needs to take a job like that- picking fruit or cleaning chickens-yuck!
We’re not losing our country, we’re giving it away.
I for one, can’t wait to see these “conquerors” when food stamps run out.
A chilling list of signs and portents.
Let’s focus a moment on education: “Half of incoming freshmen at CSU today require remediation; about half graduate in six years.”
Back in the day, a college education was a privilege, not a right. Students who required remediation were not admitted. Period. Those who were accepted faced another hurdle: Prove your mettle. The entire first year was the equivalent of college boot camp. Professors droned to packed lecture halls, with the sole goal of flunking as many of us as possible as quickly as possible. They were masters at their craft.
Cheeky creatures they were, too. No matter what discipline you were in, you were expected to demonstrate excellent writing and speaking skills. One professor used a simple model. For every two errors (grammar, spelling, factual mistatement, typo) you lost an entire grade. Assuming you started with an A paper (a risky assumption), two errors earned you a B, four errors earned you a C, and so on. Superior logic presented in a sloppy package simply didn’t suffice. And yes, we were expected to graduate in four years, so that’s what we did.
Expectations drive performance. In today’s show-up-get-a-gold-star environment, we’ve dumbed-down college standards and abandoned unwavering excellence to teach to the lowest common denominator rather than the highest.
GDI said: Back in the day, a college education was a privilege, not a right. Students who required remediation were not admitted. Period.
I’m sure things are worse nowadays, but I think you exaggerate just a bit. Ca. 1960 colleges had freshman English composition classes, which, AFAICS, were remedial, even if they were not classified as such. If I’m not mistaken, some of them did not count for credit hours. It’s hard to argue that what they taught should not have been learned in high school.
I will differ with you. In high school, in the ’60s, all college prep curriculums also required physics, algebra, geometry and chemistry, besides the usual English courses, that seemed never to end. No matter what year of high school, there was always an English course requirement, and srictly English Composition was not one of them. We learned composition through writing book reviews, etc. In college in 1962, English Composition for freshmen was a requirement, with credits, as well as College Chemistry, College Physics and College Algebra, if an Engineering degree was selected. So, just because I had required algebra, chemistry and physics in High school, does that mean that I was being taught “remedial” chemistry, algebra and physics in college. Believe you me, they were not “remedial”.The English Composition course was devoted strictly to composition, and not part of, for instance, an English Literature course, as in high school.
However they did have Bonehead Math and other remdeials. I think the difference is that they were for the student who was bad at one subject, not a mass of students who came from a high school where there wasn’t a serious enough effort to teach the basics.
Gee, except for Cornhead, the first 4 comments are bizarre. But I too remember the good old days. Maybe not really as good as I remember but they did have their points. As a teenager I could readily get a job that, though low in pay, would pay my bills. Premium gasoline, 105 octane cost 25 to 30 cents a gallon. The interstate highway system was great and after dark, west of the Mississippi River you could drive pretty much as fast as you dared between cities.
Dr. Hanson mentioned his favorite TV shows and I remember them fondly as well but one thing I have noticed is that the pre TV generation of Baby Boomers was more creative and independent than the Howdy Doody bunch. TV did homogenize the American dialect but I think it created subsequent generations of passive dumbed down creatures. I no longer own a box and I do miss college football but I find most TV fare as unwatchable; I can no longer abide it.
But as for the Dr.’s worry about the future; between the coasts there lies a vast expanse of the real America. The corruption there does not run so deep and the memory of a working America is much fresher. We still have a very good infrastucture both physically and morally. The rule of law still holds. If, IF the welfare state can be replaced by the former structure this country will rebound quickly.
Unfortunately the midwest is infected with the same moral,ethical and cultural erosion the coasts are.
The welfare mentality is everywhere.Illegal immigrants,muslims,thugs,drug dealers:hordes of demanding ,uneducated,unemployed,texting, facebook loonies.
You can not go to a store safely in many midwest towns.Schools are turning out liberal spouting,historical revisionist,culturally shamed critters that think yo,m…f…and homie are proper english,food is from a drive thru ,roads are trash cans and jobs are where stupid people go every day.
They no longer see anything as earned,a goal or a privilege.
They demand their Constitutional-G-d -given-democratic rights.
We moved from New York to Indiana to raise our 6 boys ourselves in a wholesome town, rather than a huge city. The first year was an 85% salary cut. But we found we knew our neighbors and their kids and our streets are tidy here. The cost of living is modest and the air is clean. There was no drug or promiscuity problem in the Christian schools we sent our kids to (now seven kids, and 110 years of Christian school/university tuition behind us). Our kids know the classics, but not how to score a football game, since we have thousands of books but no TV. They work hard and are skilled in modern technology (Computer Science). They will turn out OK, in dramatic contrast to the families of our friends back in the brutal New York child-free frenzy.
You each have a choice. The self-centered dead end of a big rat-race job on the coasts or a wholesome life with a legacy. Think it over.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Right here in fly-over country.
It’s ironic that liberals talk so much about science, because they certainly don’t use the data directly in front of their eyes when it comes to making policy decisions; assuming, of course, that the policy decisions are directed toward improving the common good.
Indeed, it’s far more likely that they are anti-science, because even a cursory look around can convince anybody with the slightest knowledge of how things were 20, 30 or 40 years ago that California and much of the country has gone seriously downhill, as VDH says so often. But in so many areas, now at the federal level as well as California and the other coastal states, rather than changing to what works, the Ruling Class simply quadruples down, as if more of a poison is better than none.
But I’m interested in data, and the data tells me that the liberals are either blind or not interested in the mayhem that their policies create. So that in turn causes me to develop a theory as to why that might be, since it so obviously true, and a big part of theory is that liberals are not blind.
The theory is that liberals don’t care about results because what they really care about isn’t related at all to the results of their policies. The generous side of the theory says that they are so committed to their stupid ideology that they continue to do what is wrong because like a woodpecker trapped in a house, they are going to find some wood to peck.
But I don’t really believe that. I believe that they care only about power, their own personal power.
The reason I’m sure the theory is an accurate model of politics is that it explains just about everything that ever happens in the political world.
I absolutely agree with you proreason. As you’ve stated many times before, the history of man is one of oppressive rule by a small group of tyrants/rulers over the oppressed masses, with America being a rare exception. The Democrats are merely a continuation of this trend and they are mightily trying to undo this aberration that the American experience represents. This relentless quest for power not only puts their Party before country but sometimes also puts their Party before cold, hard sense and, happily for us, sometimes backfires on them. Take the Clinton impeachment for example. Had the Slickster taken the honorable route, Al Gore would have succeeded him and had perhaps as many as a couple of years of incumbency before facing the 2000 election. As much as a squeaker as that election was does anyone think he would have had a problem defeating George Bush with said incumbency? In short, if Clinton does the right thing, there is no W. Bad for the country of course, but good for Democrats. I think of this when I recall the Senate Democrats, en masse, refusing to even look at the evidence brought forth by the House during the impeachment proceedings. Contrast this with Richard Nixon, the end all and be all of evil (according to Leftards), who when faced with impeachment, was visited by Republican Senators and resigned, rather than put the country through a Constitutional crisis. The Democrats are about nothing but power, results be damned. And anybody, or any party, that wants power that badly should be feared and should be kept away from it at all costs.
Clinton Irrumator got away with it, and as a result, depravity, like Weiner et al., is normal.
I also agree with your thoughts, proreason. Sadly, the science they’re most ignorant of is economics. To me, that’s just psychology already quantified in dollars and cents, but that’s data they pointedly ignore.
When Obama was overturning the Bush decisions about government paying for embryonic stem cell research, he made a comment to the effect that “we need to make decisions according to science”. As far as I have seen, the left wants to make moral decisions (abortion, stem cell, euthanasia, etc) based on science but scientific decisions (global warming for instance) based on morality (and call it science). They use the word ‘science’ but I don’t think they know what it means. To them it means “I use the word science to describe by decisions and that proves I am smarter than you”. Scientific method? Nah…
I find this very frightening. The job of science is to show what you are *able* to do, and morality says what you *ought* to do. If those boundaries get crossed you end up in nightmare-land very quickly. (My mind immediately goes to a certain European country during a certain world war but I am trying not to use the word “Nazi” in a post. Oops – I blew it. :-) )
This sentence was, with its hang-wringing anger over the senseless loss of greatness – terrifying.
” I worry not just that we lack the politicians to replicate the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project, but perhaps even the same caliber of engineers and construction workers themselves. I am sure that we know the number of spots on every endangered newt . . . ”
It’s a world turned upside down.
Recently I drove from Susanville over to Redding on Highway 44 through the Lassen area.
The road was amazing – seemingly brand new, flawless asphalt topped off by a brand new palacial rest stop. This is one of the least populated parts of the state. Traffic was extremely light, as one would expect in that area. But obviously a lot of money had been spent on this highway. Meanwhile, more populated parts of the state that could use the roadwork go begging.
Such a governing elite we have…
I live in Washington and have been over that same road, but only once. Hope to do it again. The road I have driven most on, because of 2 kids in school in SoCal is I-5. To me, it is in amazingly poor condition, especially the stretch through Kern County before you ascend the Grapevine, heading south. Aug 2006 was the first time we traveled over it, and I just got back from another trip. There has been some improvement, but still, very bad spots.
["Infrastructure has changed little in decades because we no longer care to accomplish the necessary."]
Exactly right! We now have generations of monetary greed who are all about taking and giving nothing back to the common national infrastructures…much less their own economic enterprises….unless of course they can beg it from government handouts.
It is a terrible thing to grow old. I should not wish to see 100 years, for I would not recognize my homeland. I sympathize with the good Dr. Hanson.
That said, #7 Black Bart has it exactly right. Dr. Hanson needs to get out more, so to speak. It is time for him to leave CA. Sell off the vineyard and get the heck out. CA is a lost cause. There is no longer a place for him there. I know it is painful to leave your beloved farm behind, this place of your youth, but the land you so loved no longer exists.
It is a terrible thing to no longer fit into your own society. It is a terrible thing to see the despoiling of your culture and community. You report on the despoiling. It is depressing. It also serves little purpose, for people merely shrug resignedly and ask, “Well, what can be done about it?”. I would rather read of the joys of some better place, than the travails of some decrepit place. Please lend your skills to some more worthwhile task, Dr. Hanson. Go to some place and tell us what is working, and why, and how wonderful it all is.
I tire of the laments of an old man. It is too depressing. Please cease your belly-aching, Hanson, and get out of CA, for it is a benighted, doomed land. If you find it too ignoble to run away, then find it noble enough to walk away.
You’re right again Marc! It’s rudeness of the most high, for us ‘old folks’ to disturb the younger generations with their heads buried in the sand hidden away from and rejecting realities.
“Please cease your belly-aching, Hanson, and get out of CA, for it is a benighted, doomed land. If you find it too ignoble to run away, then find it noble enough to walk away.”
And when the cowards run out of places to run to, they will all die together in shame at the end.
Slightly off topic: I have a good friend in Cape Town.. family has been there for over 200 years, he fought in Angola with the SADF in the unpleasant years. Educated, had the possiblity to immigrate to UK or Australia due to his capailities on a number of contracts he fulfilled over the years, but refused to leave South Africa. He and his family didn’t escape the violence that is on going there and when I asked him why he didn’t take up an offer and flee that obviously sinking swamp he said, “It’s my home. The only one I’ve ever known and I won’t be driven from it.” He understands the risks and what could happen with his family.
At some point, Marc, some people draw a line and take a stand despite the possible cost. Might be hard for some to imagine.
And yet, remember that America was originally settled by people fleeing the troubles of their homelands to find a better life elsewhere. Who is truly courageous? The one who flees, or the one who stays?
“And yet, remember that America was originally settled by people fleeing the troubles of their homelands to find a better life elsewhere. Who is truly courageous? The one who flees, or the one who stays?”
False analogy. The one who is courageous is the one who fights. How many conflicts were fought to secure that “better life elsewhere?” Fleeing only is an option when you have a destination, and the abality to get there, outside of your antagonists reach, but even then you will eventually run out of real estate. In the end, libetery is only secure through your capacity to wage war.
I don’t believe immigrants who came here were so much running away from anything, as running to something, which was America when it was still that “shining city on a hill.
In some ways Dr. Hanson reminds me of the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah. Maybe that is his purpose for staying there. Although I wish he would flee it and settle in a safer place and dwell among people with his values. Sometimes when I read his writings about his home place it reminds me of a dystopian episode of Twilight Zone.
Marc, history is full of examples of people leaving their homelands when things got to out of hand, but those were instances of people leaving their native countries, not moving to a different zip code as you suggest. Your advice to move somewhere else is condescending.
If you don’t want to read the narrative then tune out. It is not exaggerated. I have driven some of the county and state highways in his area, and the sights he has related in this blog are what you will see from your automobile.
There is an ethic and an emotional attachment associated with owning a piece of property such as VDH owns, that you may not fully appreciate. You don’t up and sell the home place like you sell a stock. My guess is, the professor gets as much enjoyment out of working on the place as he does in writing, or his other intellectual pursuits. Indeed, the physical labor aspects may provide the battery recharge needed to keep the intellectual fires burning.
Do not be dismayed over empty words and deceitful promises. Things may get a whole lot worse before they get better. And get better…it shall be.
Many of our looney leaders of the west have forgotten the rule of the Most High.
But He forgets nothing and He does not share His Glory.
In this time of choosing, there is a scramble pick what seems to be the most powerful and therefore the winner. But appearances are often deceptive.
None shall rob the Lord of His rule. None at all.
I have been a sometime Californian, and have close relatives in the Bay Area. So I have an opportunity to visit at intervals, which is an eye-opener. I think if you live there (VDH and others like him excepted, of course) it’s a bit like being the frog in the gradually heated water that doesn’t notice it’s cooked until the water’s boiling and it’s too late.
Quite vividly I remember sitting in traffic in LA about two years ago. I-5 south was only two lanes wide, and overloaded in the middle of the day. To me it was unbelievable. Any person with an economic bent could look around and see the sheer idiocy of letting all that inventory and manpower sit idling on the road , day in and day out. And that was one segment of one highway- I’m sure the scene is repeated over and over again all over California. I’m certain the GDP of my entire state is eclipsed by the wasted economic potential sitting there on the congested freeways of California.
Regarding higher education, I visited my alma mater, UCSD, and couldn’t even find the medical school as it was dwarfed by enormous science buildings all around it. Of rather more current interest was the fact that despite the glorious buildings, they informed my son it would take five years to get an undergrad engineering degree. We didn’t stick around long enough to find out if it was because the curriculum was dumbed-down, or because too much time was spent on the PC core curriculum everyone was forced to take, or whether there was a lack of money to fund enough higher-level classes so kids could done in time. Also, there was no student housing for upperclassmen- and I already know what rent in La Jolla is like. I got the clear impression that it was all very pretty, but the substance was slipping away.
And now, it’s not even all that pretty.
Really, it’s tragic. The state could easily become Golden once again, in the right hands. But the current batch of politicians seems to be bent on doubling down with the same useless policies. Such a waste.
“The state could easily become Golden once again…”
this is so true– california’s failures directly result from idiotic policies; remove the policies and an economic juggernaut remains– abundant natural resources, excellent harborage, and strong industries are waiting to flourish as soon as californians realize that, like the loafing smughead in the fast lane, the best thing is for government to get out of the way and unclog the true “progress” stymied by a few self-deluded/righteous pokes
california is too valuable to give up and is too strong for the liberals to completely ruin–their eventual death throes will have a negative impact to be sure but the rewards to be had are definitely worth this fight
my optimism stems from my fervent belief that mankind desires, whether known or not, freedom and when californians (at least the uninvolved but productive ones [there are millions of these]) finally feel the encroachment of tyranny we can then take back our state
poo…great point except….
We’re a very young nation and already we’re experiencing difficulties with open immigration and our own over population at the same time the effects of having surrendered our once greatest economic foundations to foreign emerging markets, is taking its toll. The freedom for economic prosperity was ‘the’ American dream. That is slipping away from most Americans but not as much for many immigrants whose vision and measure of economic prosperity is quite different.
We can only hope you’re right but I don’t see it coming anytime soon in the near future. I think the nation is only beginning to face the problems/consequences of the 60′s and 70′s era of social, economic and political changes.
Dog Days: Tired of Hanson’s Lament? Tired of Comments by trolls and agendists? Last time Frank M* posted a Comment here, the thread skyrocketed! Nothing ever like it before, after or ever since on PJM. There is a reason why Paladin (“Wire San Francisco”) quoted Homer and Milton, if you check Wikipedia. So here goes:
Frank M*, what is the Future for California?
“A contemporary culture that cannot finish a forty-year-old planned three-lane freeway from Sacramento to Bakersfield has no business borrowing tens of billions to attempt a new high-speed rail corridor. It is characteristic of our present generation to dream and talk wildly of the non-essential as penance for neglecting the very doable and necessary.”
In my humble little town here in New Jersey, our train station is being renovated as part of the first “stimulus” that was passed as soon as Obama got into office. We even have that big, ugly, orange sign to prove it. Anyway, all the renovations were going to do was expand the platform a little, build some bathrooms, put in a two-story elevator for hadicapped people, fix some rails and a tiny bridge going over an small overpass. The project was estimated to take two and a half YEARS! You’ll be happy to know that as of today, they are still working on it, all union workers, and most of them only seem to work a few days a week (if at all). But we just got a note in the local paper that they expect to be done on schedule, or “pretty close to it.”
When I ask some of the workers why it takes almost three years to fix a small train station, they just shrug. Then I remind them that the Empire State Building was built in a little over a year. Of course, that was only in 1931. We’ve come so far since then, right?
Actually, a few of the more thoughtful liberals are beginning to realize that THEIR programs and regulations are a big reason why projects are taking so much longer now than they used to–why as Obama ruefully noted, they’re not as “shovel ready” as expected:
“The real culprit [why the stimulus package failed] wasn’t underfunding or lack of political will. It was poor implementation. The White House hasn’t made the massive push that’s required to overcome the normal inertia of government. And matters are complicated by the checks that liberals created to keep the government from building roads, rails, and other infrastructure by executive fiat.
““I kept hearing that we had lots of projects that were shovel-ready,” says one administration official. “But they weren’t. We have think tanks that make a compelling case for Keynesian stimulus. What we need, it turns out, is a think tank that tells us how to actually do a stimulus—how we can get the dollars out there now” to reduce unemployment….
“What happened? Big government—spending, that is—ran into good government—regulation, competitive bidding, environmental safeguards, the works. “To be shovel-ready is much more complicated now than it was in 1933,” says Laura Chick, the former Los Angeles city controller (and a liberal Democrat) whom Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed as the state’s inspector general of stimulus spending. “Environmental-impact reviews, historic-preservation safeguards, unionization of government workers—these are good things, but they’ve changed the way government can operate. Plus which, the federal government said, ‘We’ll give you a ton of money, and we want you to spend it faster—and better.’ There are no exemptions from regulations that came with the stimulus funds. They didn’t waive the requirement for competitive bidding; they stressed competitive bidding.”
“She continues, “You can’t just build a new bridge. You’ve got to do environmental-impact reports, you have to open up the decision to community input, you face potential lawsuits. I’m not saying concern for environmental impacts should go away, but it makes it harder to deal with an economic crisis.”
“Chick rolls off a litany of speed bumps. The federal government wanted community-based organizations in poor urban communities to undertake home-weatherization projects. But many organizations couldn’t pay the federally mandated prevailing wages for construction work or meet the increased reporting standards that Washington mandated. Weatherization work in Los Angeles almost ground to a halt.”
http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=work_history
That’s the American Prospect, a LIBERAL journal.
The next time you hear a liberal saying “We need a WPA! Infrastructure will save us!”, try quoting this article to them. See what reaction you get.
” . . as Obama ruefully noted, they’re not as “shovel ready” as expected”
Obama is looking for shovel ready senior citizens, not shovel ready projects.
“When I ask some of the workers why it takes almost three years to fix a small train station, they just shrug.”
Actually, that question is easy to answer. Just go to any construction site and watch for a while. You’ll be astounded, as I am, with how little work is actually being done. You might see many workers but you won’t see many of them working; most of them are standing around. At any given time you look at such a site, you will see that only a small percentage of people are actually working.
Why are the rest standing around? I truly don’t know. Perhaps they’re waiting for some particular person to finish what he is doing before they can start on their piece. Maybe they are just taking a short rest from work that is sometimes physically gruelling.
Personally, I suspect it is largely laziness combined with the power of their unions. My mother has often seen city work crews sent out to do something like cutting grass on public property. Inevitably, a dozen men show up, presumably to get the job done quickly. What actually happens though is that at any given moment, one of them is working and the rest are standing around watching him work. These workers, are, of course, heavily unionized. And this sort of behavior is not new. Forty years ago, I worked with a guy who had been part of a city work crew and that is exactly the pattern they practiced: one guy would work and 11 would sit around and wait for their turn to work.
I don’t think it much matters whether the employer is a city government or a private company if the workers themselves are unionized. At least that’s my experience. Your mileage may vary.
What’s all this about Highway 99?
It was all trucks from Bakersfield north in 1968, but a ton of new traffic abandoned route 99 when the 5 was completed from the Grapevine past Fresno circa 1975.
Actually I haven’t much been on the 99 since then (I live in Los Angeles and the joke is that driving east of Sepulveda (near the coast while in the basin) is considered an expedition), but I guess the priority was all to the high-population areas nearer the coast. Though from what I’ve read on your many columns on the subject in recent years, the agricultural valley has been suffering any number of insults since back in those days as well.
Oh wait, I’ve been on route 99 quite frequently in recent days after all – where it runs smack into the doors of the Macy’s in Burbank, just north of where the 99 intersects route 66! Silly of someone to drop an entire friggin’ mall right dead on the highway!
Silly of someone to drop an entire friggin’ mall right dead on the highway!
You think that’s something? I still remember driving on the ring road around Boston 20 years ago (Route 128 or I-93) and finding that a building with high walls and barbed wire in the median between the northbound and southbound lanes. On checking with locals, I determined that this was exactly what it looked like: a maximum security prison!
My first realization of the cultural rot you write about came thirty years ago when Greyhound Bus Lines and Continental Trailways merged. The Continental Trailways depot was elegant and clean, with high ceilings and nice long wooden benches. The Greyhound depot was dirty, with hung ceilings, plexiglass windows, and plastic seats; it was ugly and low class. Which depot was kept when the two companies merged? It was the one that made the bus rider feel most like a peasant.
Millions upon millions no longer care about a gosh-darn thing except themselves, and screw you.
Dr. Hanson, you really have to google Dr. Robert Lustig, a medical doctor who teaches at UCSF, and watch his lecture on sugar—it has 1,666,000 hits!
He spends around an hour clearly showing how high fructose corn syrup, or HFCS, has been causing the obesity epidemic in America, and around the world.
You MUST see this, and get educated about what he has to say from a CONVENTIONAL MEDICINE point of view.
I’m a long-time health food nut, so “normal” people who continue to eat the Standard American Diet, or SAD one, have quite a hard time taking advise from such a fringe character as me. But, the good Doctor Lustig is an M.D.!
Check it out.
It’s SAD to continue to read your spot on political commentary, VDH, and then read you writing about your own kidney stone problem.
Oh well—as an expert in your own field, evidently you never had time or the open mind to research alternative ways of treating YOUR OWN problems.
Just last week I read another famous M.D.’s writings—ever heard of Andrew Weil? In 1995, his “Miraculous Healing” was number one on the NYT’s best seller list.
Why don’t you dedicate some time to his brilliant take on healing—especially inspiring is his beginning. He gets right into the primal difference between Western medicine and Eastern medicine.
Your disquisition, today, on how today’s society likely couldn’t even compete with those who built the freeways, etc, in the 50′s, say. applies in OBESE spades to the noosphere—oh how far from personal responsibilty most people are, these days, when it comes to diet and health!
I’m 69, and back in the late 50′s, when working in my uncle’s sausage factory, I remember a worker who cut himself pretty badly, who proceeded to stitch himself right up—no pain killer needed.
Any way—google Dr. Lustig, and watch his tour de force HFCS presentation.
He deserves a Pulitzer Prize–and, maybe someday—2030 when 50% of Americans are OBESE!—he’ll get it!
I do not know how VDH does it. Unless you’ve tried writing for publication, you have no idea how hard it is to produce such polished essays, let alone produce several a week. Man’s a natural.
And the insights! Hanson is America’s chronicler, the sharpest observer of politics and culture writing today. If you asked me what person alive today I’d most like to talk with over a beer, I’d say “Hanson.” If I could pick two people, it would be Hanson and Nicklaus.
Who knew that most of Dr. Hanson’s early commenters would prove his thesis? Do they mostly live near Orosi?
…i cant believe this!! me and my sister just got two i-pads for $42.77 each and a $50 amazon card for $9. the stores want to keep this a secret and they dont tell you. go here short.as/cmt
Moderators: This post and the next one are obvious spam. Why did you let these appear?
that’s right
Hanson, I appreciate your writing, as an amateur classical historian. I appreciate your classical references..
I do detect an increasing crie de ceur, a pessimism, but I do not agree that this decline is inevitable. It is incumbent upon the likes of us to box these kids around the ears.
The world belongs to the young, alas.
the significant amounts of cannabis smoked has led to stunted brain function in millions, especially those in the public sector: they can no longer make moral judgments, nor consider the relative importance of matters and decisions.
there is absolutely nothing which can be done about that now.
It is growing more difficult for me to read Dr. Hanson’s essays. I am a decade younger than he, but long before I had ever heard of Dr. Hanson, I could see the writing on the wall – and it ain’t in English, folks.
I have lived my entire life in the Bay Area where I have taught in public schools and private colleges and worked at a major newspaper. For almost twenty years I kept a clippings file of newspaper articles that enraged me. The file grew so fat that I had to divide the gall into five parts – illegal immigrants, political correctness, diversity, ignorance and stupidity. Then it metastasized into an electronic file that I labeled “diversititis Californoma.” There used to be hope that things would right themselves, that people would finally get fed up or see the light, but over the course of almost twenty years it has only gotten worse, beyond belief even.
I recently burned my clippings file and deleted the electronic folder. Enough. Let the foreigners worry about it now. It is their home not mine. Let them solve the problem of rolling blackouts, the TB alerts broadcast over local cable access, the babies shoved in garbage cans, the roving gangs of sadists, the drugged, the delinquent and the disgusting,and of course the pathetically ignorant who are angry at the world because they cannot change themselves. I hate these people…hate ‘em. Again, enough.
Why on Earth you call Mexicans “Hispanics”? More than 70% of their gene pool is native American. And they are on average (with proper number of smart outlays) full standard deviation dumber than average European origin Americans.
Do you really afraid of Haiti-creating mob to conquer you?
Enlarging freeways doesn’t buy many jobs or votes. Light rail creates more welfare state jobs and thus more votes and more political patronage and booty. So we’re seeing the politicization of infrastructure.
Can you tell a moth from a butterfly? Both can look pretty. But only one eats the pocket of your trousers.
Let’s take the Diamond Valley Reservoir in Southern California built from 1991 to 1994 as an anti-recessionary
Keynesian stimulus that was totally unneeded because that water could have been parked upstream in Lake Mead
or downstream in conjunctive use basins in urban areas or mid-stream in the Hayfield underground aquifer in
the middle of the desert. What MWD needed was a catchment or water resource reservoir – what they built was
a pure storage reservoir. A moth not a butterfly. Cost: $2 billion. But people will vote for taxes for water.
Same could be said for California’s five water bonds totaling about $18 billion spent mostly on open space
acquisitions and landscaping in upscale residential areas that bought the votes of “environmentally” conscious
NIMBY’s that want green around their homes to enhance their property values. But now the state is broke
and there is no money to build the Peripheral Canal or even create cold water segments of the Sacramento
Delta that would support salmon. A moth not a butterfly but it looks pretty.
Take the elimination of old coastal power plants along the coast in 2001 that reduced visible air pollution but
did nothing for public health. Asthma rates rose afterwards if the data is to be believed. Cost of the Caliornia
Energy Crisis that resulted from mothballing old coastal polluting power plants as part of the California Energy
Crisis of 2001: $42 billion.
California has morphed into a pretty moth that eats through your new suit. So you hang your suit in the closet,
give it to the Salvation Army or throw it away. That is why California is “unsustainable” to use a term from
environmentalists. A moth is hypnotized and flies into the flame.
Victor you need to get out of California! It is nowhere near that bad here in Texas. We redid the I10 corridor through Houston in 10 years, under budget, and it works great! Our police work with the US Military on the border very effectively to stop incursions ( since the Feds are AWOL) . We recovered from a Cat 3 hurricane in record time two years ago because every neighborhood got together with saws, axes and pickups and cleared the roads three days before the emergency crews arrived. What you are seeing sounds like only one side of America, and not the group living from the Rockies to Appalachia.
But there have been some improvements: people with disabilities have access to education, dignity and work far beyond earlier decades. But note that the disabled from physically handicapped to people with Down’s Syndrome to make the kind of effort to get to work and do their jobs in ways that put to shame the type of people Hanson laments. And African Americans live in a society far better than 50 years ago. And I recall how my uncle had to go to medical school outside the US due to quotas on Jews, a situation that has changed radically. Liberalism worked as long as it opened opportunity to those previously excluded from the mainstream to benefit fully from the conservative values of family, hard work, community. It discredited itself when it lost those values just as conservatism once discredited itself by placing barriers to those excluded from our Declaration of Independence’s values.
“And African Americans live in a society far better than 50 years ago.”
Like all Americans, and peoples of the world for that matter, African-Americans live in a richer society, and benefit from that wealth, not necessarily a “better” society. In the early to mid 1900s, over 98% of black households were run by married couples, a higher percentage than in the white community. They were more religious, with higher moral principles than today. There was less crime in their communities, especially the inner cities, fewer drug problems, and less unemployment. Today, 50% of black households are dependent on a single head, usually a woman. There is a 50% out of wedlock birth rate and all of the attendent problems with welfare dependency, twice as high as whites. Is it a better society…or just richer? And how much of that can be attributed to the wealth attained by black athletes?
Jarmo, most of the decline in the black community can be directly linked to how much Democrat “help” they have gotten over the last fifty years. Who rules the cities? Democrats!
Larry, I have a couple of questions about this statement of yours: “Liberalism worked as long as it opened opportunity to those previously excluded from the mainstream to benefit fully from the conservative values of family, hard work, community. It discredited itself when it lost those values just as conservatism once discredited itself by placing barriers to those excluded from our Declaration of Independence’s values.”
Al Gore’s father, a librul Senator, voted against any and all equal rights bills. He didn’t seem interested in opening up opportunities for anybody but his son. And isn’t so-called affirmative action legislation an effort to exclude certain people from opportunities while favoring certain others? Could you tell us what “barriers” conservatism placed to exclude people from something?
Al Gore claimed he and his daddy went on civil rights marches together when Al was just a kid. Maybe he was smoking more than the tobacco that daddy was growing eh?
So his daddy was for civil rights before he was against it? Or maybe Albert forgot that he and daddy had clubs and were there to beat the marchers?
Once upon a time, progressives believed in progress and empowering people, and conservatives were afraid of anything new.
Nowadays, conservatives believe in progress and empowering people, and “progressives” have become regressives.
“Transvaluation of all values” — Nietzsche would have been proud.
Conservatives have never feared change. They are simply sceptical of solutions for problems that don’t exist.
I would like to dissent a little bit from all this declinism and handwringing I see going on.
First of all, let’s remember that while things may look bleaker from the perspective of white men, there are other perspectives.
In the 1950s, the only white-collar jobs open to women were clerks, secretaries, and teachers. Today, we’ve got women CEOs of giant corporations. We’ve got men working for women (we didn’t have THAT in the 1950s).
Blacks and even Jews still faced much discrimination.
And an employee who was exposed as gay could face termination on that basis. Gays and lesbians lived lives in fear and shame.
None of that is true anymore. We’re much closer to realizing equal opportunity than we ever were.
The world is a better place now than it was in the 20th century. Nazism and Soviet Communism are dead. Former socialist nations, like Eastern Europe and India and many nations of Africa, have now adopted market economies. I am one of the last generation of Americans who, as children, had to huddle under tables or against walls in those “duck and cover” atomic bomb shelter drills. Except for random and isolated acts of terrorism, that is a fear that today’s kids aren’t growing up with.
As for California’s problems, those problems didn’t happen only since 2001. Those trends had been going on for decades.
As for our kids not getting a good education, let’s remember that the bestselling book “Why Johnny Can’t Read” was published in–1955.
Americans as a whole NEVER got a good education. Many, like the famous Sergeant York, had only a sixth-grade education. My own mom was a high-school dropout.
The difference between then and now was that there used to be good paying jobs for those without a college education. Today, those jobs are gone–mostly to Asians who are willing to work for less money, or to robots who are willing to work for electricity.
And yet, though these problems have smoldered for decades, we were a much more confident nation under FDR in the 1930s and 1940s and Reagan in the 1980s and under Clinton in the 1990s than we are now. That says the problem is leadership.
We do have a big problem in this country. For too long, we’ve been coasting on our victory in World War II (which made the dollar the world’s reserve currency), and then on our victory in the Cold War (which created dozens of emerging markets). We are now starting to face the same challenge that the British Empire did in the early 20th century: Still dominant, but challenged by new upstarts. For them it was the U.S. For us it’s likely to be China and perhaps India.
But we’ve responded to big challenges before, by finding the right leadership. We had a good run: Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, JFK, Reagan. It’s clear that Obama is simply not in that league. We need to find true leadership–elsewhere.
A good read as usual! However, I would submit that leadership represents the people of the times. From the 30′s through the 50′s our presidents, however accomplished, were rooted in their hometowns and hometown values. They reprsented a completely different kind of patriotism that was common from the smallest community to the largest communites across the nation. They were ‘connected’ to the trials and tribulations of the common folks lives. We were a closely knit unitized society back then and our presidents were much a part of that fabric. Our presidents were mature, more wise and more often thought of as our nations father figure.
JFK was probably our nations first ‘celebrity’ president but again, was billed and seen by most as a war hero and a ‘family’ man.
Reagan was the last of the ‘old values’ presidents.
Every president since the 50′s except for Reagan, has been from the lost generations and will continue to be, for far out into the future….or at least until the nation is notas divided as it has become in every fascet of life, religion and politics. Other from the old school era serving post 1950′s were simply corrupted politicians with the exception of Ford, playing to the New American generation embroiled in a social and political revolution….that continues today. A broken nation of idividualism!
sinz54:
sinz54:
“None of that is true anymore. We’re much closer to realizing equal opportunity than we ever were.
The world is a better place now than it was in the 20th century.”
Are you joking? I can’t tell because your opaque description of Utopia is a little unclear. How is your eyesight? Do you ever leave your house and look around? The world has become a better place since 1999? Maybe we’re not viewing the same world. Please! Are you there?
I’m also one of those ‘duck and cover’ kids – I have the small pox vaccination spot to prove it. I still remember the day we got vaccinated for polio.
You got some things wrong but I won’t waste time trying to correct all of them. Your mother was likely born around 1910-1920. Girls were discouraged from graduating high school and even fewer went on to higher education unless it was to become a school marm. My mother was a rarity in the middle 30s – she graduated high school. She wanted to go on to higher education but could not find the money to attend – scholarships were rare for young men at the time – and even rarer for young women. I’m sure that had she been born 20 years ago she’d be in college today.
As for Johnny not being able to read little was known about some common learning disorders easily corrected today. Dyslexia? ADD? When did you first hear of those problems? And there are very real occurrences of ADD – just not as plentiful as there are today thanks to teachers that can’t cope with a few difficult boys who just wish to medicate them. Shame on them!
I don’t know about the schools you attended but where I went you had a choice – learn or remain ignorant. I chose to learn. I guess I’m lucky since I do have a higher than average IQ – enough to join MENSA if I wished – but public education was once a very good one all in all when I was young. That no longer is the case today and that is sad. I believe much of the attitude of kids today are a direct result of their parents and the parents seem to take little interest in what little Johnny is doing – in or out of school.
At any rate there were kids in my classes that simply didn’t want to be there and wanted no part of what was going on in class. Being smart or dumb had little to do with it since some of the less bright kids were always asking me for help – which I gave. Some of the smarter ones just didn’t give a crap. We all were given the same opportunities to learn and some of us took it – some of us didn’t. For whatever reason.
The “Johnny can’t read” crisis of the 1950s came about because some geniuses, in Ed. schools, of course, had dreamed up a new, scientific way to teach reading that broke with the tired, old, phonetically-based instruction (think “b, a, bay”, etc.) of time immemorial–that actually worked.
This new method was foisted on schoolteachers and school systems as the new, improved, modern, 20th century way to do things.
Not surprisingly, it led to failure. And to so many repetitions! Remember whole-language instruction more recently? I myself (in first grade in 1963) was subjected to something called the Look-say method of reading, which expected little children to learn to recognize words as whole chunks (as if we had a writing system based on hieroglyphics, or characters!) instead of breaking them down phonetically. I learned to read in spite of the teacher, who insisted I was just ‘pretending’ to read the books I was bringing in to school … Luckily there were also teachers (like Mrs. Corrigan in 2nd grade) who were old-school and taught us phonetically; I had figured out the code on my own, but she was wonderful at reinforcing it.
It’s also sad to reflect that, once upon a time, and coincidental with the glory days of American education (up until the mid 60s or so), women were more or less channeled into education. These brilliant women, who today are lawyers, doctors, business leaders, what have you, were more likely back then to be teaching. What culture, learning and understanding they brought with them! That’s irreplaceable. Many of the nice young people teaching these days are woefully ignorant in comparison to them; there’s no getting around it. There’s no going back, either; I’m not proposing an agenda, just offering a lament.
“…a three-way fight between feuding city council members over conflict of interest charges made and refuted by each.”
Shouldn’t that be DENIED rather than REFUTED? The cultural decline is indeed insidious!
Remind me again, why did I, a San Diego native, leave California and never look back? Oh yeah, sanity. /s
We left SD because it didn’t seem like the greatest place to raise kids, so that probably falls somewhere under the “sanity” heading.
La Raza’s little epistle was good for a chuckle or two. When the going gets tough and the tough get going don’t think for a minute illegals won’t find themselves on the next INS bus to nowhere. Very few south of the border immigrants legal or otherwise take the view of Raz. Many are hard working people grateful to escape the poverty of their own country. Raz better hope the VDH’s of CA don’t leave or they will indeed inherit the same problems they choose to escape from.
Otherwise great essay, unfortunately it’s gonna get a lot worse before it gets better. Hang in there fellow Californios. Someday out of the dark will come light.
I, an old engineer, vacationed in the bay area last year with my bride of 45 years. We visited places where I worked eighty hour weeks in the early 1970s; dined together where I once ate alone. I talked to the young Silicon Valley engineers of today. Facts impress me, and three stand out.
Visit the USGS facility in Stanford. You will learn that the bay area is overdue for a quake of hideous scale. West of the Financial District, the old structures will be rubble. When will this certainty occur? Sometime between today and the next generation. Yet there is almost no political will to prepare basic infrastructure. It was this way in 1971.
The other is that our nation’s electric grid has a center of gravity circa 1958. The young hackers use machinery built by their grandfathers, and without juice their toys are simply sand. There are three large grids in the US. Consider one being in an outage for five years. How would this shape society? California has been obsessed about “clean” for generations, but the result is that they have not built life sustaining infrastructure for generations.
My last observation is that about 75% of engineers with PhD s, in the US, are citizens of other nations. 51% of the PhD candidates in nuclear physics, in US colleges are citizens of the People’s Republic of China. These ratios have severe unanswerable consequences to our future.
I, or others could quibble with above facts, but they align with Dr. Hanson’s overview that our societal priorities have been twisted since the hippies invaded San Francisco. The net result is not sustainable in my judgment.
A couple of thoughts for LaRaza and Globalist:
If Mexico gets the US Southwest, two things will happen: The newly
acquired territory will become as screwed up as Mexico and the residents
thereof will have to sneak into what’s left of the USA to get a decent job.
As for Globalist: If he/she gets his/her wish of a global government, things
will be like Cuba…everyone will make fifty bucks a month and a grateful
global government will give everyone a rice cooker.
Enjoy your fantasies Raza and Globalist…
The author brought up “high-speed rail.” What is the fascination with this? I live in Wisconsin and we were almost saddled with this, too, a high-speed line between Milwaukee and Madison. We got our Republican governor and he managed to stop it in its tracks (forgive me).
The Dems hooted and hollered about his turning down all that good Fed money. They never even considered this project in the long run- the maintenance, the building of depots and the fact that because it was mostly in highly populated areas, it couldn’t travel at a high speed and to top it all off, the closest it could get to it’s end destination was 6 miles away. It took longer by rail than to drive your car. It was also figured the fare would be $60 one way. Just crazy. There’s no deep thinking behind too much of the projects Democrats propose.
Right in the first section this sentence jumped out at me:
“It is characteristic of our present generation to dream and talk wildly of the non-essential as penance for neglecting the very doable and necessary.”
I thought, “Moon Shot.” The quest for the moon in the 1960s made everything else seem mundane, boring, inadequate. Who wants to build a bridge when you can build a rocket to the moon?
Bill Whittle had a video a few months ago about how we made it to the moon about thirty years too early. I’m a solid Gen X-er and have watched the baby boomers ahead of me screw everything up. Now they’ve left us with a pile to clean up, and no money for shovels–I mean, they are confiscating our shovel money as fast as we can earn it. My husband and I have a long-continuing conversation that we call “The baby-boomers screwed that up, too” and here we have a great example. Sad to say I don’t know the answer, other than to raise children who know how to rely on themselves. And conduct our lives as another commenter above us said: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
When two vehicles meet on a steep road where neither vehicle can pass, the vehicle facing downhill must yield the right-of-way, by backing up until the vehicle going uphill can pass. The vehicle facing downhill has the greater amount of control when backing up the hill.
Have to disagree with VDH on the two vehicles rule. When the vehicle coming downhill is a loaded log truck, or a truck towing a low-bed trailer with a piece of heavy equipment on board, the vehicle going uphill stops and backs up because might makes right, and besides, the heavier vehicle coming downhill may have a tough time stopping and can’t back up safely.
I work in TV, and it’s true that today’s stories are different; they are morality plays, too, but much cruder and with a wholly different point. The point is to tear down the old traditions and raise up the new leftist ones. Every week I hear an impassioned speech in favor of unions or see a script about an evil businessman or insane Christian. Feh.
That’s why nobody watches the new programs any more. They will learn some day.
“The more sophisticated the technology, the less educated those who use it. In place of a literate society, we need only a tiny literate cloister to invent and service inventions for the masses.”
Make things fool-proof, and you’ll get more fools.
While I agree with much of VDH’s take on the passing of the older ways, he still tends to come off as a bitter, if literate and well-spoken, old fart. Progress happens; things change.
My neighborhood and 300,000 others lost electricity after Irene; in our case for four and one half days. We were forced to live in that older time. Fortunately for me, I have had good (or was it bad?) practice for such a lifestyle, even after my generator crapped out, but so many people griped, had temper tantrums because neither the electric company nor town officials could tell them exactly when the lights would go on, and, gasp, did not always get right back to their individual concerns.
VDH (and I) have to face the fact that people get used to modern conveniences, even take them for granted and their “problems” revolve around a whole different set of issues than supplying the basics, the task which occupied our ancestors. All of VDH’s praise for the modern era is grudging; all of his critique of the earlier one is limited. That in itself limits the usefulness of the commentary. We take for granted what we now have, and grumble about what we no longer have. Losing electricity tends to help put things back into perspective.
Poor La Raza…You haven’t conquered anything all you’ve done is muddy the water…
How stupid can you be? It’s no wonder you want to leave your fetid hole and cross the border!
You don’t have the where-with-all to win the day, all you can do is bitch about your shortcomings which are a thousand- fold. Why don’t you and the jacka$$ you rode in on try to be adults instead of ranting about your ancestors inability to hold a job in your own country? You lose because your’e insipid!
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