Member-only story
How Democracy Made The Los Angeles Fires So Devastating
Nope, this isn’t clickbait: it’s hard facts
Those who are indulgent enough to read my articles from time to time know that I am convinced our ramshackle and entirely unconsidered approach to governance is the cause of nearly all of our modern-day problems, from unsustainable government debt through a total inability to tackle climate change to endless appeasement of dictators like Putin. It’s striking that whereas we expect demonstrations of competence in virtually every aspect of life before granting privileges, we let anyone at all stand as a candidate for office and we let anyone at all vote provided they’ve managed to avoid killing themselves before reaching the age of majority.
In other words, the ignorant and foolish garner votes from the ignorant and foolish by promising metaphorical free ice-cream forever, wrapped up in an easy-to-chant soundbite.
Not surprisingly, the results both large and small are reliably catastrophic. Unless, that is, you happen to think that national suicide by Brexit or global suicide by the mindless creature Trump are highly desirable outcomes.
So when we look at the recent wildfires that have been telegenic enough to capture the attention of Western media for a few days, it’s not really surprising that the…