I have just recently learned of the increasing occurrence of “street takeovers” in cities such as L.A.. Hordes of young drivers block off urban intersections whereupon they proceed to rampage out of control, in some cases plundering major retail outlets. On Sunday, Aug 14, the Willowbrook neighborhood of L.A. was the site of such a takeover which ultimately resulted in the shooting death of a teenager. A few hours later, just after midnight, the intersection of Figueroa St. and El Segundo Boulevard was compromised so as to enable the ruthless plundering of a 7-11 store. In July, apparently, the city’s Sixth Street Bridge was closed 4 times in 5 days due to the antics of those determined to turn it into a racing speedway! Spokespersons for the LAPD recently have made it clear they will no longer tolerate such irresponsible nonsense. But what, one wonders, has given rise to such widespread disregard for the rights of others? Is it possible those so inclined feel that life has somehow done them wrong, that playing by the rules is somehow oppressive, indeed that they are perfectly entitled to take what has unjustly been denied them? Are they not in fact the predictable, dysfunctional result of the Left’s amoral, Neo-Marxist paradigm which, having eliminated intelligence, merit and integrity from its ethos, literally incites mindless self-indulgence amongst those so inclined?
The Governor of Oregon is a Democrat as is the Mayor of Portland. In 2020 the State decriminalized the possession of small amounts of various hard drugs including heroin, methamphetamine, etc.. In 2021 Portland reported an increase of 41% in drug overdoses. Evidence suggests a significant percentage of the homeless population of any urban center consists of drug addicts. Portland’s Impact Reduction Service recently estimated there were 668 homeless campsites throughout the city! Formerly confined to the downtown core, they have begun to radiate out towards suburbia. Individuals living in what used to be perfectly safe neighborhoods are witnessing drug deals being completed in broad daylight in front of their children. As is evident throughout much of California, many of the law abiding citizens of Portland are now looking for other places to live.
I have cited elsewhere how the 19th C. rebellion against the Enlightenment began the slide into the cultural/moral decline that continues apace today in the West, a decline that regained its momentum, symbolically, at Woodstock. When William Blake descried the “tyranny” of the Objective World, he literally absolved Man of the need to confront life rationally and with integrity. It is no coincidence that Lord Byron was one of the most self-indulgent, self-centered, narcissistic public figures in all of history. He was woke and he was proud of it!
The Marxist permutation of this assault on the Western concept of Morality dating back to Socrates, is “materialistic determinism,” the notion that it is not Man as an Intelligent/Volitional Being that is responsible for the course of his life, but rather the Material World of which he is a mere victim. Hence the insistence of “progressive” politicians such as those in charge of Oregon, to decriminalize behavior that is clearly self-destructive and often conducive to more criminal behavior, on the grounds that those involved are somehow not responsible for their actions. To a rational person [i.e., a “conservative”], such “compassion” is a recipe for disaster, the victims of which are inevitably law-abiding citizens guilty of nothing whatsoever. Not to be outdone by the lunacy evident to the south of us, B.C., Canada’s version of California, has asked the federal government to also decriminalize the possession of certain dangerous drugs. In 2021, apparently, more than 2000 in that province died of overdoses. The rational solution to this debacle, apparently, is to extend a tolerant hand to those who will no doubt die in 2022!
We are an imperfect species and will never be otherwise. There will always be those who behave irresponsibly to their own detriment and criminally to the detriment of others. No amount of government legislation will change this. But Culture matters and a culture obsessed with “entitlement” rather than Morality inevitably creates more problems than it solves. This in no way entails a callous disregard for those struggling to get by. We need, for example, government programs designed to help the homeless. Most “conservatives” would agree! But when a significant portion of that demographic fails to take advantage of those programs, a truly enlightened society must simply admit the Fact of human frailty, the Fact that a good deal of what the Left ascribes to oppression is actually the result of the shortcomings/irresponsibility of the “oppressed.” This is but to say it is possible to be both moral and compassionate at the same time!
Pre-Woodstock North American Culture was implicit with the traditional values of the Enlightened West. While I am certainly not idealizing the 50s and 60s which were indeed still rife with various forms of social injustice, their Cultural Norms rested upon such rational assumptions as the notion that intelligence matters, education matters, hard work matters, respecting the rights of others matters, while an undisciplined surrender to drugs or the pursuit of sexual pleasure must inevitably lead to failure. This Moral Regime having succumbed to the superficial Leftist notion that it has no Objective value but is simply an eccentricity of the hated Western European Patriarchy, we live in a world where personal responsibility as a fundamental existential mandate has been replaced by the narrative of Victimhood relentlessly exploited by the Left in its pursuit of political power.
But isn’t a sense of having been abused, a sense of victimhood, at the core of most criminal behavior? Doesn’t that male who kills his ex-wife feel entitled to do so because he feels “victimized” by her betrayal? Don’t those mobs who pillage Walmarts and 7-11s feel entitled to do so because of the Leftist narrative of Capitalist greed? Isn’t a sense of entitlement unleavened by moral conscience a recipe for the sort of chaos evident in cities like Portland, Los Angeles and indeed others such as Chicago where the weekly murder rate is truly disgusting? Isn’t “progressivism” in fact a shallow and ultimately ludicrous paradox inviting us back into out primitive past?
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