This blog's perspectives 

Now we know a little about who lives in Costa Mesa and where they work, so we can start from a common knowledge base. The next step is to understand the assumptions, or the world view, of this blog. That will help explain why we suggest a particular approach to a challenge in future entries.

Assumptions

For the purposes of this blog, the assumptions are basic and straightforward. First, most people want to do what is right and are good people. They try to tell the truth, and usually do. Fewer have flawed personalities, such as narcissistic personality disorder, and will distort what they say, support, and do in accordance with their disorders. They are ill, and mistaken, but not bad people.

Very few people are evil, although some folks seem evil when they try to benefit themselves while harming others. In the political arena supporters can become so focused on promoting their cause that they lose touch with reality. Then they view the world as “for us or against us.” They may be misguided, undisciplined, or even stupid, but they aren’t evil in spite of their obsessions.

Perspectives

Problems and challenges can be viewed from several perspectives, for example from the viewpoint of “what’s green is good,” or “conservatives favor low taxes so they’ll (love/hate) this proposal.” The perspective of this blog is that use of a business or military analysis will reveal a great deal about a situation and may suggest plans and goals associated with it. 

Examples

For example, we have a lot more homeless people in Costa Mesa than is warranted by our relative population size. That’s a fact, and no perspective change will affect it. A related problem is that the homeless population may hurt the City, and this lends itself to analysis. Differing perspectives affect how this problem is seen.

From a business perspective, a city attracts folks who feel comfortable in the city and find it enjoyable. Therefore, professionals living on a well-maintained street attract productive home buyers while a large homeless population will tend to attract folks who want handouts.

This is similar to the view of the owner of a restaurant; if he wants patrons who pay high prices for exceptional food, service and atmosphere, he plans and sets goals to offer that exceptional food, service and atmosphere.  Or, if he wants a volume trade he will tightly control costs and portions and speed the patrons through.

So, the business perspective suggests dealing with the homeless in Costa Mesa by reducing or eliminating the freebies that attract them to the City, and by insisting on fairness in the allocation of the people being released from custody – no more should be sent to Costa Mesa than our fair share. This perspective implies that soup kitchens, storage facilities, and such be limited to providing services to citizens of Costa Mesa—and to only a proportional share of outsiders. In other words, it favors limiting attractions.

A military perspective on this subject might view the crime nexus when homeless congregate as a key issue. It would consider increased enforcement and incarceration as means to reduce the numbers who congregate in Costa Mesa. Strong enforcement efforts would be focused on the recovery homes and on the congregation areas while acknowledging that sufficient support is necessary for those Costa Mesans who are just down on their luck. This would reduce the crime and make the City uncomfortable for those who steal and beg for their livings, reducing the homeless concentration as well.

Generally, our overall political -- and philosophical -- viewpoint is covered well in a 15 minute U-Tube clip: here

We won't use

A viewpoint that won’t be common in this blog is “niceness.” That perspective would suggest that we all “should” be kind and supportive toward those less fortunate. Most of those who espouse this view have two commonalities: they live far from the affected areas (such as in Newport Beach or in upper Eastside Costa Mesa) where the homeless don’t congregate, defecate and steal. And, second, and they work for wages.

As employees, they tend to see the solution as a matter of influencing others (or forcing others) who have authority to provide what they believe is needed. For example, they’d have city government provide more food and shelter for homeless persons. And they’d hire more police to deal with the increased crime.

They strongly resist having the soup kitchens move to their neighborhoods. They may, though help out by dishing out food in a homeless camp on occasion, then returning to their safer neighborhoods.

It's my responsibility

Another viewpoint that will be uncommon here is, “they” should do something about that. We believe that “we” are responsible for the direction, beauty, and attractiveness of Costa Mesa, and that “we” act through our representatives. The representatives aren’t responsible for the fixes,” we” are; they only execute our will.

Finally, to end this soapbox harangue, we believe in trying to collect facts and use reason to address problems. We seek to define a problem, collect and analyze information about it, and to use logical analysis to develop and evaluate solutions, usually from a business or military perspective. We’ll remain open to other perspectives that address the issues. We’ll appreciate hearing about it if (or better, when) we have our facts mixed up or our logic stinks. 

We will continue to identify and discuss propaganda techniques on occasion, too, since their use surely hasn’t ended with the election.