You’re No Fun Anymore

Laughter is contagious.  Laughter can set the mood for an evening, a home, or even a state like California.

Being able to smile and laugh and take a joke are not just indicators of an easy-going nature, but signs of confidence.  As abundance is the opposite of scarcity, confidence is the opposite of distrust, weakness, and fear.

When California was abundant and confident, it was fun:

Now that California is hobbled and afraid, it’s not:

We’re no fun anymore.

For much of its history, the state enjoyed a certain reputation – new beginnings, lightness, possibilities. And the reputation was largely accurate.

California could laugh at itself specifically because of how it felt about itself.

Land of Fruits and Nuts. Hollyweird. Cu-ka-munga. Governor Moonbeam. Venice Beach. The Slauson Cutoff. I left my harp in Sam Clam’s Disco! All fine by Californians and even earthquakes and smog and traffic could be turned into light-hearted conversational fare.

The Steve Martin movie ‘L.A. Story” picked at this comfortable silliness quite well, with two scenes about water being almost the Ur-California experiences: People at a restaurant confidently asserting which glass is best for still rather than sparkling water (and don’t dare just use wine glasses!) and the life-changing glory of beachside enemas touted by Sarah Jessica Parker’s character.

This sense of coastal giddiness infused the state, its institutions, even its governments.  Everything was possible so why not have a little fun along the way? It will all work out like it always has for California.

Take, for example, public service announcements. California created the “Got Milk?” and “California Raisins” ads. The Raisins do not run anymore and the dairy board now has ads – which no one can remember –  in which people singing in both English and Spanish tout cheese.

Then there were the “Happy Cows” series of ads. Here’s one that would surely not be made today as someone would certainly complain about animal cruelty and, of course, about how cows drive climate change:

And showing specifically how self-deprecating humor both comes from a place of confidence, here’s one of the famous L.A. County Fair spots that, again, wouldn’t be made today because California simply cannot poke fun at itself anymore…it just hurts too much:

In other words, there was a good reason why television networks made all of their shows – except the news – here.

And if even you never did – because no one really does – just the fact that you could surf and ski on the same day gave one a sense of inner peace and amusement and – better yet – amazed and enjealousified your friends from Pennsylvania.

Now that just sounds like too much of a hassle.

You feel, maybe even just sub-consciously – that something could go terribly wrong.  You assuredly know it would mean going out and seeing depressed, deprived, deranged, dangerous people. It would mean being reminded of a better time and in the end you might be too worried about everything else to truly enjoy it anyway. Might was well just stay in, where it’s safe and comfortable.

Once the pinnacle of youth culture, California is now aging faster than the rest of the nation.  As Joel Kotkin said in a recent piece, “With its falling birthrate and rising net outmigration, California, the birthplace, and global center of youth culture, is now nearly as old as the rest of the country, but aging 50% faster than the national norm, according to the American Community survey. Los Angeles has suffered the biggest loss of young people in the nation, hemorrhaging 750,000 people under 25 since 2000.”

While youth culture can have its downsides, it is unarguably vigorous, expansive, and – for the most part because everything lies ahead, anything can be tried – fun and it unquestionably has been the driving force of the state for generations.  It is most likely not a coincidence that as the state ages it is becoming more dour, nervous, touchy, thin-skinned.

Exactly which started first – the olding or the saddening – is a matter for debate, but either way they feed off of each other to create a doom spiral (NOTE – NOT A LOOP BECAUSE LOOPS RETURN TO WHERE THEY BEGAN AND SPIRALS GO DOWN) that makes the people in the state more brittle and far less likely to engage in civic life to try to make things better, hence, in part, the current state of governance.

With the money and the power stacked on the side that has entrenched itself in power precisely because of the societal deadening of the population they purposefully caused specifically to gain said power, what’s the point?  

Let the kids handle it – maybe – now, only maybe – it will work out.

Except the kids are leaving, the state is failing, the emotion is flattening and any laughter comes from fear and pain.

We’re no fun anymore.

Well, that was a down note to end on, so here’s a little mood brightener: