Thursday, June 17, 2004

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Lately I've been thinking of getting out of California for good. This is no small decision, as I was born and raised here. Even my ma was born in Los Angeles, and a true second-generation Angelean is rare, considering most people who've been here a year or more will tell you they're "from Los Angeles".

But I just think California is too damn hard on its citizens, its businesses, and so forth. I don't belong to any political party (ok, I do have my own -- the Completely Rational No Lies Or Bull Shit Party, of which I am the presidential candidate). So when I say what I'm saying, it isn't motivated by political gain.

The fact is, no place is more "Big Brother"-ized than California, and we have only our own citizenry to thank. Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Green Party or Silly Party, it doesn't matter. What matters is individual choices, made by representatives, made by executives in companies, made by individual citizens and people in California. And you'll note I don't say "da gubahmint done it", because there ain't no such thing as "da gubahmint". There's you and me, bucko, and I'm so sure about you.

"They" can't do nothin'. But individuals can and do, and sometimes hide behind "government" or "big corporation" or "trade union" or whatever anonymizing label they can. And we, individually -- each one -- have put and kept in places of decision and (so they think) power, people who make policies that are destructive of your and my lives, our families, our security and our individual and collective futures.

Let me be blunt (like I need your permission): no government, nor any system of organization, has ever or will ever improve YOUR life. There are no social programs, hand-outs, freebies, medications, drugs, television shows or low-carb foods that will make your life better. And the operative word there is "make", as in "cause to come into existance; create".

The reason is that the power to create your life is yours alone, and if you abdicate that then it is nowhere. If you're going to be irresponsible about it, then assigning that irresponsibility to a group like government just makes government a set of collective irresponsibilities. There is nobody and no entity external to you that can be responsible for the aspects of your life that need improvement. Sorry folks, but this is the "No Lies Or Bull Shit Party" home.

YOU didn't want to be responsible for it, so now you've assigned that to government, and of course it got your irresponsibility, and is now irresponsible about it for you (and many others). They don't get your responsibility, because that cannot be transferred or assigned. By it's very nature, responsibility is totally and only personal and individual. No group has ever been "responsible" for anything. Any attempt to make it appear so is the intent of the cowardly to mask their actions behind a facade of generality.

And then there's a corollary to this: the fact that no amount of money can be spent by government to improve things. The only thing you can improve is the people who improve things, and the only way government can even touch that subject is through education. But public education has become a complete joke, no matter how much money is pumped into it? Why? Because, again, you don't pump money into an entity or thing -- you give it to people who competently or incompetently use it for things that get results. So are these people competent or incompetent? Well, look at the results.

This is not deep, philosophical maunderings. This is cold, practical, day-to-day life-or-death stuff here. It is what makes your life the way it is, good or bad.

I don't excuse myself just by pointing out these facts. But I still am considering getting out of California, and into a climate where there's more expectation of personal reliance and responsibility, and less common reliance on "authorities" for every decision. On the other hand, there are few places as naturally blessed as Southern California for climate, opportunity (despite everything that's been done to blunt this) and diversity. Within two hours driving I can be in a true desert; at a world class beach; snowboarding at 8,000 feet; playing at Disneyland; hobnobbing with the beautiful people at the most chi chi hotspots of Beverly Hills; hiking through rugged mountains along the John Muir Trail or watersporting in well maintained lakes. I can kayak the sea, mountain bike in the San Gabriels, sky dive, go balooning, or any of hundreds of other activities, many year round. The fact is, it's a great place to hang out despite the extreme level of official control and regulation of every day activities.

Last year I was in the south of France for a while. That's right, the famous Cote d'Azur, and the ultra-cool Riviera. This is one of those places where you look around and say "now here is a place to live!" But after a few days, I realized that the things I liked about it were the same things that we have here in So Cal - great beaches, weather, hillsides studded with homes and picturesque pocket-communities. They even had housing prices similar to the sky-high real estate here. So what is that is so unpleasant as to outweigh all these niceties?

And it is such a pain to move. All that packing and throwing away and breaking things, stowing stuff on a truck, blah blah. And then living out of boxes for weeks cuz it's too much trouble to unpack everything. And more broken stuff.

But I am surrounded here in California by a thronging majority of people who have come to expect much and give little; who cannot protect themselves yet bemoan the inability of police to protect them; who don't want to understand the influence each has on those around them and thus society, yet demand that only good things happen to themselves lest they litigate; who think that progressivism or conservatism or any -ism is going to save them, yet don't know anything about any -isms.

Surely there's some place where I'm expected to be responsible for my actions, and where those expecting it are equally aware of their own responsibility. Where laws are sensible and designed to protect only the honest. Where I can't be hanged for damaging the self-esteem of somebody who has earned no respect, and where my rights are respected and defended equally with my willingness to respect and defend the rights of others.

There must be some place where I am free to keep what I earn, pay a fair share for the public works of which I partake, not be threatened and harrassed because I wear no helmet when riding my motorcyle (as if the Police are now my mother!), build on my own land, and take care of myself and my own as only I see fit?

I'm thinking Nevada, up in the northern parts.

What do you think?

A. Biker

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