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The Classicist Podcast, with Victor Davis Hanson: “Drought and Decline in California”
Tired of being depressed by Supreme Court rulings? Why not switch it up a little and get depressed by California? In this week’s episode of The Classicist, VDH walks us through the real-world implications of the drought, explains how the state’s political decline owes to bigger cultural trends, and gives his defiant rationale for why he won’t be leaving California anytime soon. We’re still waiting for the show to go live on iTunes, but it is already available for subscription on Stitcher. Listen in below:
Published in Domestic Policy, Podcasts
I’m saddened that you’re losing your home, guys.
The reference to integrated schools in the 60s is interesting. Essentially, Victor is arguing that people who vote by ideals from a distance vote pragmatically and selfishly when the challenges come home. If your child’s school must be flooded by uneducated foreigners to uphold your ideals, will you choose your ideals or your children’s education?
Parents regularly advise their children against stands on the very priciples the parents taught because they prioritize the children’s comfort and prosperity over those genuinely held ideals. Likewise, principles are set aside in business when their cost is the company’s bottom line. In immediate politics, ideas take a backseat to fears and selfish wants.
Virtue is painful to uphold, especially as it becomes uncommon.
Excellent post, Troy–you’re on fire!
VDH & Troy,
Given what the problems are it is almost beyond imagination that the State Government of California is wasting its time & capital on the idiocy of high speed rail and fantasy endangered species.
Water, Power, Social Services, and Public Employee Pay&Pensions. If they don’t start paying attention to reality they will bankrupt the richest state in America. This negative achievement would be of historic proportions. Maybe that’s what Californians really like.
Regards,
Jim
Wealthy hi-tech Silicon Valley and LA denizens happily pay $40k a year for private K-12 education to keep their kids away from those uneducated Latinos, but vote for candidates who fund NEA policies which prevent school choice.
Mark Zuckerberg is buying all the homes surrounding him so he can choose his neighbors.
The Ed Begleys want us to pay for the fraud that is alternative energy through higher electrical and gas costs, but spent hundreds of thousand of dollars to make his home green so he doesn’t have to pay the energy monopolies like the proletariat.
Leftist Californian hypocrisy knows no bounds.
Meanwhile, citizens who suffer the most are the middle to upper-middle class, who can not afford the same options, yet must foot the bill for others.
Uh, I live in California, Mr. Tennessee. I don’t have a choice. Yet (cf. my post starting “Plan your escape.”)
Victor might stiffen your spine. Towards the end of the show he makes a compelling case for staying.
Ribbing aside, Troy, you know (I hope) I’ll listen to anything you or Victor have to say. And if Victor believes it’s salvageable, that is indeed a very strong signal.
We’re all living in the song “California uber Alles”. I’m not sure what Jello Biafra thinks these days, probably pleased.