Steven Crowder takes audiences on a tour of Detroit, a place which he describes as the perfect example of liberal policy consistently implemented. One commenter says, “look at the bright side – once liberalism fully destroys an area, we can get some cheap real estate! well – that is if we have any money left to buy it”.
Detroit has achieved something extraordinary. It’s become a lost city in real time, at least on the Internet. There are sites like The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit. A pair of photographers have a glossy presentation simply called The Ruins of Detroit.
Increasing segregation and deindustrialization caused violent riots in 1967. The white middle-class exodus from the city accelerated and the suburbs grew. Firms and factories began to close or move to lower-wage states. Slowly, but inexorably downtown high-rise buildings emptied. Since the 50’s, “Motor City” lost more than half of its population. Nowadays, its splendid decaying monuments are, no less than the Pyramids of Egypt, the Coliseum of Rome, or the Acropolis in Athens, remnants of the passing of a great civilization.
Slate has an upbeat article called “Exploring Detroit’s beautiful ruins”. Stephen Crowder, though, is not world-weary enough to be a consoisseur of degradation. He still thinks a bad thing, something which threatens to come to your neighborhood some time soon.
know that some of you may think that the last thing Detroit needs is another hit piece. Granted, some could consider this video as THE hit piece. Detroit however, can serve as a valuable lesson to the rest of the country. It has been the perfect laboratory for leftist policies at work. The more you examine the policies of Detroit’s politicians, the more strikingly similar to this administration they become. The results… are shocking. Notice how I added the “…” for dramatic effect? I’m thoughtful like that.
Given the scale of the failures of Detroit and perhaps now of California why is repeating the same mistakes not only inevitable but actually described as being desirable public policy? Maybe it is because we cannot help ourselves. Consider that before the year is out the Senate may have voted in health care bill which a majority of voters, if polls are to be believed, actually detest but which they are going to get anyway. Like the residents of Detroit, we take the handout we know will kill us and do it despite everything.
One of the saddest sights a man can watch is during election time in the Philippines when the poor are rounded up in dump trucks and rented buses and sequestered by politicians near polling precincts to vote. There they will receive ten dollars, if that, and an afternoon’s worth of gin and peanuts. In exchange for this meager handout they will troop to the precinct and vote for the villain. The luckiest of that sad crowd are too stupid or drunk to care. But a substantial number know exactly what is happening; they are fully cognizant that the pittance they are about to receive will be taken back from them a hundredfold by the corrupt politician. They know it with the certainty of a sentient cow walking into an abbatoir. But they take the money anyway. They take it because they need the money and the forgetfulness today. Today the money will buy some rice; the gin will let them forget. Tomorrow is a luxury they cannot afford. Of all the tragic sights on earth, nothing is so pathetic as watching a man sell his dignity with both eyes open.
Maybe it happened in Detroit because those who wouldn’t buy into it had somewhere to run. And the same kind of crew is counting on it happening elsewhere and leaving nowhere to run. It isn’t too wise to put one’s faith in the nobility of man. For a fistful of dollars and a little entertainment too many will sell out their tomorrows for a little bit more today.
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