I have heard your act numerous times, mostly on the John Bachelor show, and I find it tiresome.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n You really need to spend more time on your \u201cidyllic\u201d farm and not venture out into reality.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Times change, places change, and people change, but you will not change or cause change.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I am a California native, born in San Francisco and raised in Los Altos, so I have seen, firsthand,<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n the decline in California and especially the Bay Area during my 66 years.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I cannot argue with many of your observations, but much of what you say is not unique to<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n California.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The opioid crisis is but a symptom of a much larger national problem.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n That problem being that many capable, working age persons have given up on working and are<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n merely leading lives of ignorant dissipation at increasing rates.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n They have fundamentally given up on life and are just marking time until their sad lives end.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The worst part of this death spiral is that there is no end or improvement in sight.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n No government leaders can come up with a solution to this problem.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The U.S. is headed down the road to second class status in the World and there appears no<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n solution or national will to reverse things.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Nothing said by you and your ilk will change this. The toothpaste has simply left the tube.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Maybe you would do better to adopt my philosophy.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n That is that I grew up during a golden time in both California and the Bay Area and that no one can<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n take my fond memories away from me.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Let the newcomers squabble over the crumbs while I am looking beyond California and what it has become.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n They will never know what you and I know having grown up in one of the best areas on Earth.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dear Angry Reader Kevin Curtin,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You need to define what you mean by \u201cyou and your ilk.\u201d And if you find \u201cit tiresome,\u201d there is no penalty in turning the channel. Otherwise, I find your angry reader note not so angry, but somewhat incoherent. Is your criticism that I fault present leadership, suggest changes, and lament the trajectory of California downward\u2014when I should just accept it and lament the consequences?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In a nutshell, massive amounts of unprecedented wealth in a few coastal enclaves\u2014the result of globalization and high-tech Silicon Valley\u2014and epidemic interior poverty (the result of massive illegal immigration and flight of the middle classes out of state) have created two states that are ungovernable as one.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Otherwise, I agree we can retreat to the monastery of the mind to remember a lost California that once worked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From An Angry Reader: I have heard your act numerous times, mostly on the John Bachelor show, and I find it tiresome. \u00a0 You really need to spend more time on your \u201cidyllic\u201d farm and not venture out into reality. \u00a0 Times change, places change, and people change, but you will not change or cause […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2Jl","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10251,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/10251-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10499,"position":0},"title":"06\/05\/17 From an Angry Reader:\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"06\/05\/17 From an Angry Reader: From: Goofomatic \u00a0Dear Sir, \u00a0You may be a \"classicist\" and historian but you are clearly not a logician. Your reductive, simplistic polarizing nonsense may appeal to those disaffected and disenchanted by change but to others, like me, it reeks of divisive, defeatist drivel. Globalization is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":368,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10499,"position":1},"title":"Angry Reader #2","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers Angry Reader #2\u00a0writes: Typical crank piece by the professor, full of crap that people who don\u2019t know California (but loathe it anyway) will eat up. Fact: \u201cLiberals\u201d did not let illegal aliens flood California. The federal government did, by not policing the border. Rich\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9900,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/9900-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10499,"position":2},"title":"From an Angry Reader: You\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"From an Angry Reader: You are most definitely wrong, California could go it alone. They are after all the sixth largest economy in the world. If secession is in their future the US Federal government would be more likely to fall into chaos than California. We need them more than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11431,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-10-02-2018\/","url_meta":{"origin":10499,"position":3},"title":"Angry Reader 10-02-2018","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Dear Dr. Hanson, I am an angry reader. I am angry because my two candidates for Senator from the state of California are both evil and\/or just plain stupid. Who should I vote for? Or should I sit that choice out? I\u2019m leaning to the latter.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9895,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/9895-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10499,"position":4},"title":"02\/23\/17 From an Angry Reader:\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"02\/23\/17 From an Angry Reader: Prof. Hanson: First, as an aggressive moderate, I believe any talk of California secession is simply a waste of time and idiotic.\u00a0 But saying \u201cCalifornia\u201d supports secession is equally absurd.\u00a0 One third of the population reflects nothing close to a majority, not to mention the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11494,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-11-02-2018\/","url_meta":{"origin":10499,"position":5},"title":"Angry Reader 11-02-2018","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Maybe if nazi apologists weren't threatening to lock up their political enemies, or harassing them in their columns, we might see less polarization. Hi Victor, Nice to meet you. You wrote about me in March. Care to discuss? Or are you just up for the pot\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10502,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10499\/revisions\/10502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Victor Davis Hanson’s Reply:<\/h3>\n