BlogCritics
written by Joseph Cotto
February 14, 2011
Very often, I hear various left-wing pundits and politicians extolling the virtue of moving forward for the sake of creating a more progressive America, in which total societal equality is achieved, the sun shines endlessly, and manna falls from the heavens as the rivers run with milk and honey. Typically, I shake my head in amusement and resignation at their utter stupidity. After all, it is now, has always been, and forever shall be, a futile action to attempt dealing with one that basks in his or her lack of intelligence via reason and logic.
A few nights ago, I had the opportunity to watch a most fascinating documentary from BBC America, named Requiem for Detroit? It brilliantly detailed the downfall of the Motor City, from the tail end of its halcyon era, which came about during the very early 1960s, to today, when one can observe relatively tall trees growing from the tops of abandoned downtown skyscrapers. Many local residents were interviewed, each of a different racial, economic, and social standing, bringing unique perspectives on exactly why Motown is presently No-town-at-all. The makers of the film came to the conclusion that it was, of course, the greed of big business and appalling consumerism of the American people which, in a toxic brew, brought down Detroit once and for all.
Needless to say, their conclusion was wrong on every level. How can I prove this? Easy. Pajamas Media did a segment of its own on the D's half-century-long suicide-in-progress. In it, journalist Steven Crowder meticulously accounts how Jerome Cavanagh, a firebrand leftist who upset incumbent Republican Mayor Louis Miriani in the city's 1961 municipal elections, strived for and succeeded in creating a slew of F.D.R.-style government programs for the underprivileged by way of destroying Detroit's pro-business atmosphere and gleefully replacing it with one wholeheartedly devoted to the preservation of a welfare state. Childishly believing that he could create a utopia on the shores of Lake St. Clair, Cavanagh managed to witness his hometown and life's dream quite literally fall to pieces all around him as productive citizens left and the underclass grew more demanding, eventually to the point of engaging in terribly destructive riots as a means of displaying its newfound sociopolitical power and influence.
Should one wish to see what America will be like only a few decades down the line under progressive control, then a trip to what was once one of her great cities should most definitely be in order. By far the most ironic thing about Detroit and the living hell it has damned itself into is that this was done in the name of progress and looking ahead, all the while discarding those evil, selfish notions of capitalism and sustainable private sector growth. Motown has indeed gone places since instituting leftist economic policies. It has travelled far; so far that, as I write this, farms are being created on virtually worthless tracts of cleared land in what were once bustling urban neighborhoods. Detroit has managed to do what no other first world city has done before; wage a full-scale anti-industrial revolution and banish itself to what is essentially the Stone Age. The only good it can do now is to serve as a lesson for those of us who have not had to experience its decline in the first person.
We would be fools not to learn from what the once Motor City shows us in each and every day of its miserable existence, as it continues its solemn march towards attaining the status granted to other lost cities such as Atlantis and Pompeii.
No comments:
Post a Comment