The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: How DEI Caused a Multifaceted ‘Systems Breakdown’ in Los Angeles

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

In this edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Hanson, author of “The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation,” explores the systematic failures plaguing Los Angeles as it attempts to put out devastating wildfires. From diversity, equity, and inclusion dilemmas to regulatory failures, see how this extreme ideology impacts good governance.  “We have a $700,000-a-year utilities czar in Los Angeles, and she cannot explain why there was not enough water, at least in a convincing way—because she's never had to, because she was ideologically correct.”  “You have an assistant fire chief who said, ‘If women can't—if I can't carry out a man [from a burning building], then that's not on me. It's the man who shouldn't be there.’ It's like saying if a child fell down a well and I'm not physically strong enough to retrieve him and save him, that's his fault. He shouldn't have been in the well.” “In the Los Angeles catastrophe, there are whole areas of imperial inquiry that are put off limits. You cannot talk about the homeless and whether there was a homeless person who was out in the hills, [and] to get warm, lighted a fire. It's a legitimate topic of inquiry. It's happened. You can't talk about.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The system becomes so complex that very few people operate it. And when those people are incompetent, and they tend to be bureaucratic and ossified, calcified, entire system is so dependent upon them, it collapses. That's what we're seeing in Los Angeles. It is a multifaceted breakdown. It's a diversity, equity, and inclusion. This is what I want to get to because people, that's the most controversial. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal. We're into about the fourth or fifth day of the Los Angeles fires, and people are commenting on the complete systems breakdown.

It's a word that sociologists, historians, and archaeologists use systems breakdown, but also systems collapse, the collapse of complex societies, for example, the Mycenaeans and others. But it's the idea that the system becomes so complex that very few people operate it. And when those people are incompetent and they tend to be bureaucratic and ossified, calcified, then the entire system is so dependent upon them, it collapses. That's what we're seeing in Los Angeles. It is a multifaceted breakdown. The insurance industry is overregulated. It doesn't trust the state to police, give them people security in their homes.

It doesn't trust their ability to stop fires. They understand there's no water policy that's lodging. in the state and they want out. There is no, it's a fire problem. We have lost the ability to fight fires at our grandfathers over decades, practice, and hone to a fine art. We have lost control, as I said, of water. The water issue is a disaster.

We have plenty of water. We had a brilliant California water project, Central Valley Project, and we abused it and have not built a reservoir nearly 40 years outside of Los Angeles. It is also a regulatory problem that we overregulate so we do not allow people to expand their homes, fix their homes, and prove their homes, build their homes. And finally, it's a diversity, equity, and inclusion. And this is what I want to get to because people, that's the most controversial. But any time, I think we should look at this in a historical perspective,

If any time an ideology trumps empiricism, meritocracy, investigatory efforts, just disinterested inquiry and knowledge, then you're going to have a disaster. And it can be on the left with communism and the commissar system. So the Red Army, let's say in 1942, was saying it's not ideologically correct to retreat in front of the German army. therefore they lost 650,000 people in the Kiev pocket. It can also be ideologically on the right where national socialism says to the German arms industry, we have to have V2 rockets, even though it was one of the most inefficient ways of delivering payload to the target versus a pedestrian four-engine bomber, which they never made. But in our case, when you take a person's superficial appearance in the case of race, or their beliefs that are ideological, whether it's religious,

or it's an emphasis on one's sexual orientation, or whether it's an interest on one's gender, male, female, etc. And you put that over empirical investigation, then you're not. not going to be able to, in a scientific matter, solve a problem. And so when we looked at these people, we have a $700,000 a year utilities are in Los Angeles, and she cannot explain why there was not enough water, at least in a convincing way, because she's never had to because she was ideologically correct. You have an assistant fire chief who said, well, if I can't carry out a man,

then that's not on me. It's the man shouldn't be there. It's like saying if a child fell down a well, and I'm not physically strong enough to retrieve him and save him. That's his fault. He shouldn't have been in the well. Why does a person say that? Because she knows that she was appointed to that position on other criteria. The same thing holds true. No need to get into the mayor. People voted as a DEI candidate. She said at one point a few years ago, don't blame the homeless for these fires. So we, we, we get in conclusion in the last Angeles catastrophe, there are whole areas of

imperial inquiry that are put off limits. You cannot talk about the homeless and whether there was a homeless person who was out in the hills to get warm, lighted a fire. It's a legitimate topic of inquiry. It's happened. You can't talk about it. Karen Bass, as I said, don't

talk about that in the past. You cannot talk about the fire department because it is run by people who were pointed primarily because of the DIA criteria, and to do so makes you a homophobe. You cannot talk about fires and the lack of forest safety, forest ecology, because to do so challenges the green ideology. I could go on, but until the society says that we are going to have free speech,

no topic is taboo, and we can find the answer to questions by symptomology. We look at all of the evidence, and then we make a diagnosis. These are good Greek words. And then we make a prognosis. Until we can do that without the influence or the tyranny of these ideologies, in our case, our generation, it's diversity, equity, inclusion, and radical environmentalism that preclude free discussion and the pathway to the truth. We're going to have more Los Angeles, I'm afraid to say.

Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily Seek. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Please subscribe to the Daily Signal for our next episode.