Posted by
Defend America on Friday, March 19, 2010 9:42:44 AM
March 17, 2010 4:00 A.M.
Sun and Socialism
Plant a welfare state in a warm climate, and it will grow like Jack’s beanstalk.
Sun and socialism are seemingly a bad mix.
Socialism — or at least communitarian practices that in their ultimate
manifestations would result in socialism — doesn’t go well with
300
days of sun, long summers and short winters, sandy beaches and seaside
cafés, and shorts and swimsuits. Each tends to bring out the worst in
the other.
Take weather, climate, and geography. Few places in
the world are as beautiful as California. Its autumns are like summers
elsewhere; its winters, others’ normal springs — but without the
humidity and clouds. You are no
more than about five hours from the sea anywhere in California; in fact, most of the state’s 36 million
residents are within three hours of the beach.
One does not have to be a geographical determinist to see that good
weather, a predictably warm climate, and natural beauty promote the
pursuit of leisure. On a February Friday afternoon, it is harder to
stay in an office in Santa Monica, in the low 70s, than it is in a
blizzard in St. Paul. Those who can swim or skateboard all year long in
their Speedos at Venice Beach — well, they seem to think they can
approach life with that same carefree attitude, as if things in general
sort of sprout up spontaneously, just as the sun, blue water, and warm
breezes naturally appear each morning, with little worry over a
Kansas-style twister or an Albany-style deep freeze.
I would not
wish to enter into a chicken-or-egg controversy over whether
California’s natural enticements drew in a certain laid-back sort of
person, or whether once tight-fisted, no-nonsense
citizens
crossed the border, they were altered into bohemian types by places
like Carmel and Tahoe. And I grant that there are plenty of
communitarians in harsh climates like Manhattan’s, and conservative,
small-government types in Mobile. I also realize that warm Texas is the
antithesis to warm California — though I would suggest there is nothing
quite like California beaches or Yosemite in the rather scenic Lone
Star State.
http://article.nationalreview.com/428096/sun-and-socialism/victor-davis-hanson