George Rebane
Progressives embrace any science only to the extent of how many other progressives embrace that science. That is sometimes called consensus science, auto-repressive science, or simply circle-jerk science.
The copy progressives, and the Left in general, have put out for over a century is that they want to transform society into its new and improved version. History shows that nothing could be further from the truth, and also explains why the Left has always been busy revising history in whatever venue it gains a foothold. Socialist (cum communist) countries have always instituted the most repressive form of morals that their captured cultures have practiced in the past. In the taxonomy of governance, socialism and its big brother communism are the best known forms of collectivism – governance informed and dominated by central planning and control. Under such regimes individualism is neither condoned nor tolerated; people belong to classes, and classes are the proper units of humanity to be managed.
Progressivism arose in the United States during the late 19th century, and immediately became the fount of American collectivism, ultimately finding a warm welcome within the Democratic Party whose principles had been revealed in its embrace of slavery, practice of post-war repression of blacks, and rejection of the Founders’ legacy at every turn. With its new progressive allies the party saw the masses as a sea of humanity that needed strong guidance, and even culling (see eugenics and forced sterilization) in its promotion of human progress. But the problem was that progressives saw the masses divided between the educated elite – the social technocrats – and everyone else who needed their strong hand for guidance. And the solution was a step back to the top-down form of governing that hearkens a direct return to the ancient autocracies and tyrannies of church and monarchies – the proposed approach forward was functionally equivalent to doing an about face and going backward to the days of princes, priests, and peasants, albeit now in different garb.
The bottom line of all this is that today’s progressives are peddling a form of stasis and repression that their undereducated minions can barely perceive. The latest generation of their minions has been either coddled beyond comprehension or left in a permanent state of dependency to wallow in neighborhoods where dodging bullets and drugs are the only skills needed to survive. Today’s more fortunate young progressives are blanketed with safe zones, trigger warnings, and other politically correct prophylactics to shield them from untoward (read ‘all imaginable’) risk and assuage their tender psyches. When we witness their mass protests against a more demanding and invigoratingly brisk society, we understand why the metaphor ‘snowflake’ accurately describes their fragility and brittleness.
A particularly troubling form of progressive stasis is their abhorrence of all forms of growth and accompanying change that may result in less controlled forms of living and commerce. When we consider the progressives’ view of community development, especially in housing, then anything that deviates from a ‘stack and pack’ approach is rejected on its face. This alone stifles growth in both exurban and rural communities.
Here in Nevada County we witness a particularly virulent form of surreptitious anti-development sentiment as we have become more prominently progressive. We are located in a desirable part of California, near a major metropolitan area, and within a county that has loads of open lands on which to build both housing and commercial facilities. And yet our population has been in stasis for over a quarter century and is now decreasing. One main cause for the lack of growth has been the shortage of low cost housing (as opposed to government regulated ‘affordable housing’) that satisfies the market of newly forming families. Another is the paucity of hotel/motel rooms to house overnight guests/tourists who want to come and enjoy our rich and varied cultural offerings. We have put up uncounted barriers to development in Nevada County, and where these are lacking, we import and impose state and federal regulatory barriers in the name of everything from ‘social justice’ to ‘save the earth’ environmentalism.
As a further example of this dominating sentiment, in the 3jun17 Union we read a piece (here) by Mr Terry Lamphier, former county supervisor and re-emergent politician, that blatantly promotes stasis and duns growth in order to retain our scenic beauty which most certainly will disappear if we welcome more young families, tourists, and retirees. The man starts off by showing us that he does not know what is going on in Nevada County with respect to employment, job creation, and development. His counter to the obvious stagnation we are suffering is to put some lipstick on it and call it ‘sustainability’. The only thing we are sustaining here is stagnation.
His crime rate arithmetic supporting NIMBY development seems more descriptive of stack and pack ghettos than neighborhoods of young families raising kids and retirees looking to downsize from the bay area. And he can’t quite agree with himself as to whether we have low unemployment, or not enough jobs to sustain a vibrant retail sector. The mystery eludes him as to why new businesses don’t locate here when we have such a nice area in which their employees can live and raise families. His bible seems to be a dated 12-year-old study (based on even older data) of dubious worth that convinces him capitalists are too stupid to decide whether and when to build marketable housing or locate a shopping center in our community. His conclusion is that, if permitted, they’ll come and build the bejeezus out these foothills whether there are any prospects for customers or not; to him it’s just what they do. We have no idea what Mr Lamphier’s own business experience is, but given his current attitudes, heaven help us if this progressive gets back into some elected office.
No one should get the idea that Mr Lamphier is in any way out of the norm for progressive politicians at local levels across the country. Quite the opposite, he is solidly in the norm, and people like him now cover the countryside ready to guide us to a new socially just and environmentally sound future.
rebanesruminations.com 
Leave a comment