San Franciscans : A view from far away

San Franciscans
A view from far away

I suspect that history is not going to be kind to the current generation of Californians and San Franciscans in particular- the elite ones that is.

They’re sitting on top of the greatest innovation machine the world has ever known, but like elites throughout history they’ve fallen into hubris.  

To their credit, much of the surplus generated by their enormously profitable tech businesses has been ploughed back into creating more of the same.  Willingness to accept multiple failures as a price for each success is what has set San Francisco (and California) apart and is an essential ingredient in its ascendancy. 

Yes, with success they’ve indulged in conspicuous consumption, but not to an excessive extent (thinking Egypt’s pyramids and 13th century European cathedrals).

Rather, their failure is to indulge in a raft of moral crusades that while superficially laudable are perverse in outcome and destructive in effect, which irrationality they appear to be unable to even recognise.

Some of these moral crusades are environmental:

Pursuit of nett zero emissions (in itself a desirable goal) by subsidising wind and solar while penalising the use of fossil fuels has, in practice, substantially increased the price of electricity in California.  This has caused energy intensive activities to relocate (or establish) where costs are lower.  Perversely this results in an increase in global emissions because these places generally have lower efficiency and pollution standards. (Germany and the UK are caught in the same destructive debacle).

And, like extreme environmentalists in other wealthy countries, California’s leaders pretend that environmental policies can be divorced from economics.  But as prosperity is eroded by economically destructive environmentalism- as is surely happening in California currently- the mandate for these policies will collapse.  Affordable energy and protection from wildfires then rank above biodiversity and support for endangered species- which is already happening.  Exempting environmental policy from economics is delusional.

Other moral crusades are about social justice:

Selection for jobs and appointments based on merit has been supplanted to an extent by quotas based on identity.  The intent is to make society ‘fairer’.  The result, unsurprisingly, is less ‘fairness’ not more, and lower productivity, compromised safety. loss of trust in businesses and institutions, and a groundswell of resentment by those who have been passed over.  Employees now look at their bosses and ask whether they are there to tick a diversity box- not a formula for effective anything.

Then there is the presumption that differences in income and employment status are all or almost all the result of discrimination (racism, sexism, etc).  Even putting aside that people are differently abled, differently motivated and that luck is not evenly apportioned, this is nonsense; Asians in western countries are subject to more discrimination and racism than almost any other ethnicity, and some have horrific back stories, yet they perform above the averages for every other group, including whites.  A perverse effect of this crusade is that those who are presumed to be discriminated against have an easy excuse for failure- which some of them take up with great conviction.

The crusade with perhaps the most distressing consequences is the promotion of gender identity choice for mixed-up adolescents.  Five or more times as many Californian adolescents now profess to experiencing gender dysphoria than did before this became a fashionable cause.  And, for some, irreversible puberty blocking and surgery makes it a life sentence- all for sake of a tiny percentage (0.18?) with actual ambiguous chromosomes.   

There are others; like Alice in Wonderland crime reduction by disestablishing offences and denying that the removal of sanctions and provision of more social support promotes dependencies- which is at least a factor in burgeoning drug addiction and homelessness.

What is singular is that all these moral crusades have either the opposite effect to that intended or are otherwise highly destructive of society- to outside observers it looks like some sort of death wish. 

So, what is the underlying driver?

Is it just another luxury disease- conceits only the wealthy can afford? 

Have the elite lost the ‘will to power’, that essential ingredient in all empires, the self-belief that their success to date has been built on?

Or perhaps it’s another of those inexplicable hysterias that roil human society from time to time- like in 15th century England when nuns at various convents started to meow and bite each other.

One thing for sure, these are emotional rather than rational beliefs, as evidenced by their reaction when challenged: rather than reasoned rebuttal there’s immediate recourse to personal attack, intimidation and cancelling, like when religious and cult beliefs are questioned.

These crusades are probably better understood as loyalty tests rather than true beliefs- many of them are too silly to be believed by anyone thinking half straight anyway.  For San Franciscans, it seems that ‘belonging’ requires they are supported without question, at least in public.

No matter, perversely applied environmental and social justice initiatives have become destructive to the point of threatening the San Franciscan and Californian model, which is not good for San Francisco, California- or the world.

Fixable?  Perhaps.  Some cracks in the façade are appearing.  Recently, a few tech leaders have jumped ship and revealed themselves as closet conservatives.  There is also less arrogant self-assurance on show since Trump was elected.  While the administration is talking defiance and doubling down on its various initiatives, sometimes this happens just before a back-down.

But I’m not optimistic.  Probably nothing much will change in the psychology of the place until the tech boom itself falters.

                 Peter Lynn, Ashburton, New Zealand, February 2025