The Absurdities of Our Age

American Greatness ^ | 22 May, 2023 | Victor Davis Hanson

[MtnClimber]

What cannot go on, will not go on and all the absurdities of the present will end with a bang not a whimper.

A sign of a civilization in headlong decline is its embrace of absurdities. Unfortunately for the United States, we are witnessing an epidemic of nihilist nonsense. Here are a few examples:

Reparations

How could a dysfunctional state like California even contemplate $800 billion in reparations?

The state currently faces a $31 billion annual deficit—and it’s climbing. Its $100 billion high-speed rail project is inert, a veritable Stonehenge of concrete monoliths with a foot of track.

California’s income tax rates are already the highest in the nation. Its sales taxes, electricity rates, and gas taxes and prices are among the steepest in the country. And for what?

Crime, homelessness, and medieval decay characterize the once great downtowns of San Francisco and Los Angeles. It is now not safe to walk alone in any major California city after dark.

Shoplifting and smash-and-grab theft are no longer treated as crimes. The result is the mass flight of brand stores from our downtowns and inner cities, with all the accustomed cries of “racism,” even as racist public prosecutors pick and choose whether to indict the arrested on the basis of race.

California infrastructure, once the best in the county, is now among the worst. Decaying and crowded freeways, inadequate water storage, and pot-holed streets are the new norm.

The state’s public schools are dysfunctional. Once premier public universities are spiraling headlong into decline—junking scholastic tests for admissions, using illegal racial quotas to warp admissions, and institutionalizing racialized dorms and graduation ceremonies.

Even if California enjoyed a huge surplus, even if 300,000 residents were not fleeing the state each year, even if California had a history of being a Confederate slave state...

[SaveFerris]

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[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the ping.

This oped by VDH is one of his best.

Freepers might consider taking 5 minutes to read this oped!

https://amgreatness.com/2023/05/21/the-absurdities-of-our-age/

[Thank You Rush]

Ironic you mention Thomas Sowell now. I am cleaning out my bookshelves and packing up books to donate and found inside one an old article I saved of Sowell’s from the OC Register in May 1995 titled:

“It is the left that divides to conquer”

I tried to find it in online so I could link to it here but didn’t succeed.

[poconopundit]

Sowell and Hansen are intellectual giants.

* * *

Too bad that Sowell missed the boat in understanding President Trump. It’s a big gap in his understanding of the forces that grow and sustain a great Republic.

[poconopundit]

Totally agree Grampa Dave. American historians studying this insane period in our nation’s history two decades from now will be reading and re-reading what VDH had to say in essays like this stellar piece.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks, for the past 4-6 years, VDH has been trying to show us what is really happening behind the closed doors in DC, NYC,and the west coast.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for your comments

[V K Lee]

The ‘elites’ will look down upon us and attribute this
to extreme inbreeding. Of course, they’ll ‘have a solution
for it. Anyone for a jab?

[oldtech]

Been a fan of Victor Davis Hanson since the first time I heard him speak. His message is concise. He would be a good advisor to Newsom if he would listen, but maybe California has regressed too far already. It’s too bad because California used to be a good place to live, but I wouldn’t want to even cross the state line now.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the feedback on Victor Davis Hanson!