22 April 2007

The California Paradox

the answer is no. the question is, does living in california for 8 months make you an expert?

i'll pretend anyway.

i'm noticing that california is one giant paradoxical fanstasia. for instance, we all really care very deeply about the environment. but i couldn't go to today's earth day celebration because EVERYONE DROVE THERE. highways were backed up for miles. there was no parking. we all drove clean-air-killing machines to go celebrate the environment. or, more accurately, to go celebrate the fact that we can show people we care about the environment. there is something so california about that.

this paradox extends to the man in charge of the state, the govahnatah. he is, supposedly, post-partisan. i disagree with this, actually, because i think what arnold cares about is not being non-partisan, but rather celebrating the fact that people think he is post-partisan. in all reality he's nothing more than a politician. he was elected not because people listened to and cared about his highly partisan right-wing platform. they voted for him because he's a fucking movie star and fuck it, we like it when he blows shit up and is all muscle-bound and shit. but when people saw what his politics actually are and let him know that they despised his rightist policies, he did what any politician who cares more about staying in office than principle would do: he caved in. he did whatever the opinion polls told him to. now, granted, in california the opinion polls by and large mirror my philosophy on things. so i'm not too upset by arnold's politicking. but please. don't call yourself post-partisan. if you had your way you'd privatize social security and the california pension system and everything else under the sun. you don't because if you try you'll go down in a ball of flames. it's not a lack of partisanship that has brought you to a second term.

the catholic paradox is probably the most interesting paradox i've come across. this city is hugely catholic, both from its white and its latino populations. but it's a sort of pre-vatican ii catholicism, one that shuns catholic social teaching on a lot of things and instead interests itself in the abortion debate, the gay marriage debate, and of course, the sexual abuse issue. there are no homeless shelters here. no infrastructure to speak of for those who are the displaced by capitalism. cities like chicago and new york may be struck-through with the bright colors of capitalism, but the catholic church in both cities helps to mitigate the harm that capital markets tend to do to marginalized populations. not so here.

interesting place, this.

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