San Francisco’s Homeless, Part V

A homeless man in San Francisco on Feb. 23, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Commentary

Continued from Part IV

Fear of nature, fear of a free economy, the desire to control, the desire for big government—that is the root of progressivism. Not what the Founding Fathers envisioned.

Fear of what’s beyond human comprehension, of having to resort to abstraction to reducing enormous complexity to simple good/bad, black/white generalities, is what prevents progressives from taking strong action to solve societal problems—homelessness, for example—other than throwing money at them, then walking away. Liberal elites who approach life’s problems with nuance, humbleness, and compassion, like today’s public school teachers, are unable to take a firm stance. Tough love, for example, with respect to homelessness or classroom discipline.

Yet, to abstract from complexity is the essence of science. With the universe beyond comprehension, we can’t function without generalities; for example, that the universe is simply a collection of stars and humans are simply animals in nature, genes adrift in space.

When someone mentioned he was going to try to live in harmony with nature, Nietzsche replied, “Who do you think you are? You can’t live any other way.”

Well, there’s our guide: nature—with the understanding that there are no species in nature where one member tells another what to do. A bee colony is not a community. Each bee knows what to do: make honey, guard the queen. Should a bear knock over the nest, they swarm and try to kill it, after which a few bees set out to look for a new site.

No bee tells another what to do; they know what to do—it’s encoded in their genes.

So, too, with humans. Adults teach their young to survive and then send them on their way. There’s nothing to worry about. Like bees, humans pursuing their self-interest to survive automatically create society—better than anything they can do by design. (Adam Smith, the invisible hand.) As long as humans continue to adapt. (Charles Darwin, survival of the fittest.)

Socialism, economic planning, is an enormously incorrect adaptation. Not how life works. Civilization, money, property, language—all evolved spontaneously. Trial and error—that’s how God made the universe. No planning.

To progressives, this is way too simplistic. So, put progressives in charge and let’s see what happens. San Francisco. The homeless are there because the ACLU protects their liberty to refuse treatment or conservatorship. Progressivism.

Refuse treatment?

The following excerpt from Jonathan Rosen’s “American Madness,” published in The Atlantic in May 2023, is what that means:

“Jim O’Connell is the founding physician at Boston Health Care for the Homeless. He tells a story about a woman he spent many years caring for on the street, who was often on the psychiatric brink, though O’Connell, determined to honor her autonomy and dignity, never committed her. Finally, the police did it for him. After the hospital, and time spent stably housed, the woman moved on to other systems of support, slowly recovered her balance, began working again, and eventually joined the board of an organization that sponsored the event where she and O’Connell reunited after many years. When the woman saw him, she said, “You son of a bitch! You left me out on the street for ten years!” If I were bleeding, you would have taken me in. But since it was my brain, you left me out there.”

There it is—a progressive’s fear of decision. Although when progressives are really nervous, they make really bad decisions, such as “Stop all CO2 emissions no matter what the cost.” Or, “Believe the scientists because the consensus among them is unanimous.” (Those that were asked.)

Really? The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forced their one conservative scientist to resign (for asking to open up discussion); the head of environmental studies at the University of California, Berkeley, announced there is no compelling evidence to believe that global warming is man-made, nor that increased CO2 in the atmosphere is the cause of global warming; the founder of Greenpeace resigned because its radicalized membership made him feel like he no longer belonged.

Consensus is not science. When the entire IPPC and all university environmental studies programs consist entirely of progressives, that’s partisan politics. So afraid of the future, progressives latch on to Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Proof,” his famous “off-the-chart” graph showing the rise of CO2 as the cause of global warming. Completely disingenuous.

The “Inconvenient Truth” is that we are living in a historically low period of CO2 emissions. Extend the graph back a few years to the period of Arctic warming and the Ice Age, and the level of CO2 in the atmosphere was 10 times higher.

As sheep will follow a leader off a cliff, so will humans. Follow someone who has an idea when no one else does? That’s a smart survival move. It’s encoded in our genes; it’s not smart science. Follow a leader because no one has a better idea? That’s religion.

We have public schools because Thomas Jefferson warned that if we don’t teach citizens to read, do math, know history, and think for themselves, America will lose its democracy. Citizens will not recognize and then end threats. Nor will they recognize and then put an end to bad science—science based on consensus rather than proof.

The baby boomers are our only hope. Since 1952, the first generation of 56–74-year-olds to be majority Republican—a stunning evolution for a generation that was liberal in their youth. The generation gap between today’s boomers and the more liberal millennials and Gen Zers is huge. (Jean Twenge, Ph.D., Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America’s Future.)

According to Ms. Twenge, when you were born has more to do with how you behave than what you learned from your family.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.