WEST COAST INSANITY

L.A. Street Village. 

A new cultural shift is rapidly evolving in the U.S.. The seeds of permissive parenting for two generations in the U.S. are growing into a crop of toxic narcissists of various ideologies, Left and Right. And these unproductive and self-indulgent creatures are finding each other in order to wreak chaos and destruction on a mob scale in Western cities. And these are chaotic mobs, not disciplined organizations. Why Western cities? I can only speculate the relatively mild weather of all four seasons makes life on the cheap more bearable there.

Perhaps weather also explains why the Northeast, which saw the early bloom of the Occupy Movement, has been relatively spared these mobs of weapon-wielding lunatics. Winters, and now even summers, here can be harsh. Rents are very high. Even dormitory accommodations for the student wing of lunacy at high-tuition campuses is very high and hard to obtain. More risk comes with antisocial behavior. 

YouTube provides ample evidence of the deterioration in the West Coast's urban spaces. Tents on the streets of LA and San Francisco. The occupants appear to be the outcasts of our nation: Those mentally ill and addicted souls who were once housed across the country in large government-funded mental institutions. Those huge campuses have been abandoned to ruin or sold for development into residential complexes. 

The ghost of Rosalynn Carter, former First Lady, might well be condemned to a purgatory of constant wondering through the urban tent cities she helped create by endorsing the state-administered de-institutionalization trend, which the Reagan Libertarians exploited to reduce local taxes and expropriate massive tracts of government owned land for later development.

A later generation of privatizing politicians supported the purchasing of for-profit prison beds to house the de-institutionalized, now relabeled in many cases as felons due to behavioral issues and drug addiction. It was a win-win for government and business. A lose-lose for the down-trodden and society at large. More money spent on prisons to house the dysfunctional at the expense of the middle class taxpayers. Less healthy street environment for everybody using the street for business and recreation. 

Violent gangs, whether drug-centered or politics-centered, thrive in an authority vacuum. The dysfunction of politicians and police to establish peaceful law and order in our growing cities has been increasingly apparent. Police and public employees in cities have been allowed to insulate themselves from the general social changes which have stripped average citizens of reliable social health and pension networks associated with secure employment. There is less and less secure employment for the average citizen. Workers must strive to be competitive to make livable wages. 

The public sector is not as dynamic. Bureaucrats and police executives with secured tenure and benefits are unsympathetic to the plight of struggling Americans. They are living in an America of several decades ago. Their misunderstanding of the needs on the streets of their own cities is obvious. Police speed through city streets in SUVs, hidden in anonymous man caves: Computers, tinted windows, climate control, weapons. How can these officers of the law possibly be in touch with the street atmosphere of the pedestrian and resident? City halls have similarly been sealed off like fortresses. Metal detectors and intimidating guards greet the citizen, who is paying for municipal services. The message is clear: We will be safe, even if you are not.

It has often been observed that some cultural trends in America sweep from West to East. This usually implies that the West is still wild and open to more disruptive change. Harvard and Yale may hold Washington, DC, but tech and innovation have been concentrated on the West Coast until recently. The West Coast now appears to be in a post-innovation phase. Politically, it is clinging to socialist politics based in historic guilt and victimhood which are increasingly rejected in the rest of the U.S., even among Liberals. Perhaps this is also a magnetic force drawing the hordes of dispossessed and dysfunctional. 

If the chaos and poor authoritarian models of the West Coast are a preview of the nation's future, the growing cities throughout the country may well become chronic war zones. As mob violence becomes more and more tolerated by police, the overall safety of the lawful is diminished everywhere. And, as riot squads replace daily and identifiable community policing by officers in public spaces outside of armored SUVs, the cycle of violence will only escalate. 

The well-meaning non-profit workers of the shelter model which has replaced professional mental health institutions have failed in the face of the increasing population of dysfunctional, addicted and unskilled street people. The few well-meaning police forces which have taken on the role of mental health workers and addiction counselors will also fail in the face of the deep needs on the streets. A nationwide retooling of policing and a sobering of the political discourse to address the real needs on the ground are the only ways to a truly progressive future. Mob violence and large populations of destitute street dwellers will only drag the nation down.