The Last Californians

Individualism and the Lessons of the Golden State

The Golden State greeted me with a police chase.

This was my first visit to California. Pundits across America have labeled it a failed state, an example to be avoided (unless, of course, you’re Joe Biden) where crime runs rampant on lawless streets. My first impression did not fail the legend; within two minutes of leaving the airport, no fewer than eight LAPD cars chased down some unknown criminal, accompanied by a helicopter. My Lyft driver agreed; as the police helicopter swerved back and forth over the car and he swerved from land to lane avoiding the speeding cars, he remarked to me that he couldn’t trust the schools his taxes paid for. The driver, an Armenian father of three, observed that gender ideology had totally permeated the schools and he wanted to keep his future safe by private schooling his children. The statistics support him - about a quarter of Californian Youth identify as gender nonconforming.

On my first night in the city, I went to the affluent edge of West Hollywood. This neighborhood prided itself on being the go-to hangout for who’s who – and also a plurality gay neighborhood. The luxury shops and hotels here made it an expensive stay, comparable even to Manhattan. They also exemplify what the neighborhood, and one part of California, stands for. West Hollywood represents American liberalism on steroids, where the trends of the nation are made and promoted. At flashy restaurants with scenic views, social influencers order food to photograph, travel places to pose, and buy to be seen. Eyes rule the day. Children were conspicuously absent. I could not help but observe that nobody I was watching actually made anything.

The next day, I went jogging down the coastline – which was, unfortunately, covered with fog – and ended up in Venice Beach. This too is an iconic LA hangout, but smoke shops and street vendors have largely conquered the walk. Weed filled the air. This, I was told, represented the counterculture of Los Angeles, as well as California generally. A bartender who served me a $10 beer remarked how he had simply drifted in, under the desire to live freely, and simply “ended up” in Venice Beach. He, too, was living in the present. He also grew up, apparently, mere miles from my home town across the country. The whole scene represented a rejection of the hyper-polished corporatism, where vendors made their own shirts and sourced and smoked their own leaves. When I stopped to buy a cigarette, passers-by lamented that I should by my own rolls, and reject big tobacco.

Leaving the beach, I took a moment to reflect on what I saw. The culture, and the counterculture that rejected it, presented a dichotomy of ways to live one’s life. One in West Hollywood embraced corporate values in brands and fashion, and the others at Venice Beach embraced the values of free expression and individual taste. The divide represents a split that has defined most of twentieth century America, and has bled into the twenty-first.

That said, they all vote for Democrats (except for the Armenian Lyft driver). Why?

California is and always has been ruled by individualism. This was the state that spawned Ronald Reagan, the archetypal Republican until about 2016, who prized free markets, free people and free choice as his creed. The American Dream has always been about individual opportunity, the dream of going west, planting a homestead, raising a family, and creating a legacy. The West represents the future, tomorrow, hope. That said, what happens when you hit the water, and there is no further west to go?

Individualism turns inward. Those who cannot go east or west go up or down. The wealthy move to West Hollywood, invest in brands, and pride themselves on status. The less wealthy move to Venice Beach, embrace the “authenticity” of rejecting brands they can’t afford, and dive deeper and deeper into themselves. The cardinal sin in such a world would be to expand beyond oneself, and to claim something greater would be done; that would violate the shadow of John Locke in a California coastline, where to infringe on an individual’s chosen reality would be violence on their person.

The Republicanism of Donald Trump, and the new right generally, violate the principle of individualism by imposing on it a greater duty; the preservation of the nation. Democrats pitch immediate gratification for that individuality and an absence of responsibility for the nation, thus most Californians vote Democrat. The culture and the counterculture are two sides of the same coin. Hollywood will make a flashy movie with stars preaching individualism, or an indie film about individualism, but they will never, ever reject or question that core tenet of the American left. Such individualism has no place for a creator. Even the one street preacher I saw in Santa Monica, shouting Bible verses into a bullhorn, implored the locals to consider what God could do for them personally, and nothing else. God was another brand marketed to the god of self.

In spite of these musings, I actually enjoyed my time in Los Angeles. The city isn’t as bad as people say, but it does have significant problems.

On my way back to LAX, I struck up conversation with another Lyft driver. This one ran a financial planning business on the side, which I found interesting. Unlike most Californians, she spoke repeatedly of the future, and how to plan for it. Her family had five children who she seemed to love dearly. When we got to the airport, I wished her “God bless” as is my usual custom, and she replied back with the same.
As it turns out, when you do not plan for the future, it doesn’t exactly come naturally. When you have no hope for anyone but yourself, your legacy dies with you. White Californians, once a majority, make up only about 23 percent of the youngest generation. The celebrated California of the past century will soon cease to exist, and West Hollywood and Venice Beach alike will find themselves subsumed by something else entirely. This, too, may be temporary; California’s population is, after all, projected to decline through the coming century.

But those two Lyft drivers, who believe in the future beyond themselves, and have a combined eight children, will remain. Hopefully their children will follow their parents’ example. If so, the echo of those past Californians will be theirs.

This article is the second in a series about the broader spiritual decline of western civilization and steps to be taken for its renewal. For further development and writings from Aaron Franklin, follow AF Post on Twitter.