Friday, March 29, AD 2024 10:45am

Reactionary Liberals

Saint Albert of Ecoscam

 

I have long been struck by how the policies of liberal elites in this country tend to have amazingly destructive impacts on the poor they hilariously claim to champion.  Joel Kotkin at NewGeography has noticed this also:

But   in today’s gentry-dominated era, traditional industries are   increasingly outspent and out maneuvered by the gentry and their allies.   Even amid tough times in much of the state since the 2007 recession —   we are still down nearly a half-million jobs — the gentry, and their   allies, have been able to tighten regulations. Attempts even by Gov.   Jerry Brown to reform the California Environmental Quality Act have   floundered due in part to fierce gentry and green opposition.

The     green gentry’s power has been enhanced by changes in the state’s   legendary tech sector. Traditional tech firms — manufacturers such as   Intel and Hewlett-Packard — shared common concerns about infrastructure   and energy costs with other industries. But today tech manufacturing has   shrunk, and much of the action in the tech world has shifted away from   building things, dependent on energy, to software-dominated social   media, whose primary profits increasingly stem from selling off the   private information of users. Servers critical to these operations — the   one potential energy drain — can easily be placed in Utah, Oregon or   Washington where energy costs are far lower.

Even   more critical,   billionaires such as Google’s Eric Schmidt, hedge fund   manager Thomas Steyer and venture firms like Kleiner Perkins have   developed an economic stake in “green” energy policies. These interests   have sought out cozy deals on renewable energy ventures dependent on     regulations   mandating their use and guaranteeing their prices.

Most   of these gentry no doubt think what they are doing is noble. Few   concern themselves with the impact these policies have on more   traditional industries, and the large numbers of working- and   middle-class people dependent on them. Like their Tory predecessors,   they are blithely unconcerned about the role these policies are playing   in accelerating California’s devolution into an ever more feudal   society, divided between the ultrarich and a rapidly shrinking middle   class.

Ironically, the   biggest losers in this shift are the very ethnic minorities who also   constitute a reliable voter block for Democratic greens. Even amid the   current Silicon Valley boom, incomes for local Hispanics and   African-Americans, who together account for one-third of the population,   have actually declined — 18 percent for blacks and 5 percent for   Latinos between 2009 and 2011, prompting one local booster to admit that   “Silicon Valley is two valleys. There is a valley of haves, and a   valley of have-nots.”

Sadly,   the opposition to these policies is very weak. The California Chamber   of Commerce is a fading force and the state Republican Party has   degenerated into a political rump. Business Democrats, tied to the   traditional industrial and agricultural base, have become nearly   extinct, as the social media oligarchs and other parts of the green   gentry, along with the public employee lobby, increasingly dominate the   party of the people. Some recent efforts to tighten the regulatory knot   in Sacramento have been resisted, helped by the governor and assisted by   the GOP, but the basic rule-making structure remains, and the   government apparat remains highly committed to an ever more expansive   planning regime.

Due to the rise of the green   gentry, California is becoming divided between a largely white and Asian   affluent coast, and a rapidly proletarianized, heavily Hispanic and   African-American interior. Palo Alto and Malibu may thrive under the   current green regime, and feel good about themselves in the process, but   south Los Angeles, Oakland, Fresno and the Inland Empire are threatened   with becoming vast favelas.

Go here to read the rest.  The key to understanding contemporary liberalism is that instead of being a radical force, as it is erroneously viewed, it is a deeply reactionary force.  Most current liberals look to a sliver of our history:  1965-1975, and wish to enshrine forever the social mores and ecological and economic beliefs then current among the young leftists that their leaders then were.  It is their determination to stand across the tracks of history and yell halt, that is at bottom responsible for much of the dysfunction that has become a part of our society.  They do not seek to create utopia, but rather to preserve in amber their perceived golden age.  The young are to be indoctrinated in it in the educational institutions they control, entertainment is to propagandize for it and their politicians are to safeguard it for perpetuity.  Any movement like the Tea Party that is a threat to this effort to stop the clock forever, is to be anathematized and destroyed.  Reality is to be ignored if reality differs from this religion, and that is what liberalism has become, a substitute religion that looks resolutely to the past, ignores the present and has only fear for the future.

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Daledog
Daledog
Sunday, November 3, AD 2013 9:33am

Donald,
You last sentence is a doozy. It is as succinct a description of liberalism that I have yet heard.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Sunday, November 3, AD 2013 11:30pm

Ironically, the biggest losers in this shift are the very ethnic minorities who also constitute a reliable voter block for Democratic greens. Even amid the current Silicon Valley boom, incomes for local Hispanics and African-Americans, who together account for one-third of the population, have actually declined — 18 percent for blacks and 5 percent for Latinos between 2009 and 2011, prompting one local booster to admit that “Silicon Valley is two valleys. There is a valley of haves, and a valley of have-nots.”

That’s not ironic. That’s UNEXPECTED! (in the ironic sense that James Taranto uses).

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Monday, November 4, AD 2013 5:30am

Curiously enough, in Europe, and particularly in France, it is the Hard Left that is most suspicious the Green Agenda.

There is no “environmental catastrophe.” The catastrophe is the environment itself. The environment is what is left to man after he has lost everything. Those who live in a neighbourhood, a street, a valley, a war zone, a workshop – they don’t have an “environment;” they move through a world peopled by presences, dangers, friends, enemies, moments of life and death, all kinds of beings. Such a world has its own consistency, which varies according to the intensity and quality of the ties attaching us to all of these beings, to all of these places. It is only us, the children of the final dispossession, exiles of the final hour – the ones who come into the world in concrete cubes, pick our fruits at the supermarket, and watch for an echo of the world on television – only we get to have an environment… What has congealed as an environment is a relationship to the world based on management… Tracking, transparency, certification, eco-taxes, environmental excellence, and the policing of water, all give us an idea of the coming state of ecological emergency. Everything is permitted to a power structure that bases its authority in Nature, in health and in well-being.”

Elaine Krewer
Admin
Monday, November 4, AD 2013 6:59am

Also at New Geography is a blog post and link describing a similar process taking place in Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago, which has millions to spend on bike trails and sports arenas but (allegedly) can’t afford to hire more cops to stop rampant violence in certain neighborhoods (where, needless to say, the “important” people don’t live):

http://www.newgeography.com/content/004000-well-heeled-windy-city

Jeanne Rohl
Jeanne Rohl
Monday, November 4, AD 2013 9:40am

Anytime you do not let people feel pride and accomplishment in acquiring those things that make their life worthwhile, you are creating an atmosphere and mind set of “I am owed this, as I have been put down”. I have seen this over and over in the last 50 years. This whole agenda has been perpetrated by liberal thought. I have worked closely with farmers and Native Americans. I have in depth knowledge of how these “welfare” subsidy and distribution systems work. I have seen independent working farm families turned into “let’s get everything we can from the government” because the market is not allowed to work under true supply and demand principles. I have watched Native Americans sit on their reservations and darn near starve, waiting for the next government check. The incentives are not there to make things better and rise up against “Big Brother”. This has all been perfectly planned by the ruling parties of the last 100 years. When people are marginalized into thinking that they are owed anything from the abuse or neglect of the powerful they tend to retreat into this demeaning state. The Right To Life, The Native American situation, the farm programs and the population control issue are intricately tied to each other. We have entered this phase. The ignorance of the common person in this country to those issues which literally control life and death, and death not only of the people but the Republic has come full circle into their perfectly planned fruition. The diabolical forces of evil are evident in every phase of society. The CED(committee for economic development) back in the 40’s and 50’s was implemented for this very purpose, This committee was stacked with population control fanatics, purveyors of getting as many people off the land as possible, eliminating small rural communities and mom and pop businesses. congregating all of the people, and the wealth into verticaly economic hubs that are controlled by centralized banking systems. This is not conspiracy, it has all been printed and exposed by the very people who have perpetrated it. They are not humble in their pride of this accomplishment. They knew exactly that birth control and abortion would eliminate future populations. They and their minions have plenty of time to wait it out. Unfortunately our own Christian Churches fell for this and have become a huge part of the problem Let’s see, save the resources, save the animals, get rid of the people, (except for those we have to keep for slave labor) Yes I believe this is a perfect green blueprint.

Dave W
Dave W
Monday, November 4, AD 2013 12:18pm

There’s a Catholic chamber of commerce? Who knew?

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