Communism in Soledad Canyon?

Let’s assume for a moment that the government agencies responsible for cutting Briggs Road off from the world actually mean to perform a kindness. We will do our best to suspend our incredulity and try to figure out why the folks in charge might imagine they are doing good deeds.

First, consider the California Department of Fish and Game. Maybe they really do care about the stickleback in the river, but these guys are a tough one to figure out. If they really were holding a bunch of fish in higher esteem than human beings, then we might consider them rabid Democrats, or even Tree Huggers and roll our eyes. But actually they hold film-makers in higher esteem than the fish. That’s right; they allow film-makers to cross the river but not us. One might argue at this point that they are actually callous Republicans, but then what about the fish? Real Republicans would not value fish more than people, even if they did consider human beings inconsequential next to their businesses.

I cannot justify even a stupid altruistic motive for Fish and Game. Something is fishy here.

Second, take a sympathetic look at the Southern California Regional Rail Authority. Suppose the only notion working here is that the people in charge just want to close all those “dangerous” crossings. Let’s even give them that it is possible for someone to be so single-minded that they miss the fact that many dozens of other at-grade crossings, far more dangerous than ours, remain open.

In the years after World War II psychologists concerned themselves with the psychological mechanism that allowed everyday people to become monsters. Social scientists developed a measurement they called the f-scale, where the “f” stood for fascist. A compulsive rule-follower rated high on the f-scale, and had a high potential for authoritarian abuses. If there is a better altruistic explanation I hope someone will send it to us via comment, but right now the best we can figure is we are dealing with some kind of Railroad-Crossing Nazi, of a mind-set similar to Seinfeld’s Soup-Nazi. But though the actions of railroad officials are damaging our property values and quality of life, they are not necessarily working to oust us from our homes. At least that is not their prime objective.

It is the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy that appears bent on turning our region, including our own private property, into a park-like area dedicated to animals and the public. I am all for parks, but wonder why it is necessary for every acre, every home to be sacrificed to the State of California. When private land is taken over without fair compensation by the government, isn’t that what we call Communism?

Americans have not taken to Communism because they do not want what is happening to the Briggs Road community to happen to them—and who could blame them? But if our property is being devalued, and it is, without the compensation guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment (Eminent Domain), with the intent of takeover by the State, what else can you call it but Communism?

Beyond the evils of sacrifice of property, Communism seems to be fertile ground for dictatorship and corruption. This is all the more reason that Americans feared it so, and why it has fallen in so many countries. It might be interesting to see whether our home-grown communists show similar tendencies. That’s a homework assignment for you.

We wish Mr. Antonovich would make this ethical cause a priority, but he seems somehow comfortable with the way things are going and we wonder why.

Does it worry you that this communistic turn of mind might spread to distress your life? It should worry you. The spread of Communism used to be a major concern of this country, until it finally collapsed of its own ineffectiveness and U.S. resistance.

We don’t have time to wait for that to happen here.