California Builds the Future, for Good and Bad. What’s Next?

California was the first state to pass tailpipe-emissions standards, the first to legalize the medical use of marijuana, the first to adopt paid family leave, the first to experiment with guaranteed income on a municipal level, but also the first state to stage a tax revolt that hobbled public services, the first to ban affirmative action and, in 1994, the first to pass a ballot initiative — Proposition 187 — that would have barred undocumented immigrants from public social services, including education and health care. Prop 187 was a consequential episode in the state’s history, crystallizing the nativist backlash to changing demographics and foreshadowing similar movements in the rest of the country.

California’s character emerges out of the seesawing between two impulses, one restrictive, the other rebellious. Although a majority of voters cast a ballot in favor of Prop 187, resistance to the measure was steadfast, especially among young people, chipping away at its support. It was declared unconstitutional in federal court and was effectively ended by Gov. Gray Davis in 1999. The proposition’s passing strengthened Latino voter turnout and changed the electoral map for the next 25 years.

Now, as California takes on the threat of climate change, a housing crisis that is spilling out of state and a demographic exodus, we find ourselves again at a crossroads. Listening to the radio after a wildfire a couple of years ago, I heard a caller pin his hopes on technological innovation as a solution to this problem. But as we approach the future, it might be worthwhile to consider how we got here in the first place.

Three hundred years ago, the future arrived on foot, clad in the brown robe of a Franciscan friar. In 1769, charged by the Spanish crown with exploring and “civilizing” the area then known as Alta California, Father Junipero Serra and the padres set about building a chain of Catholic missions on a 600-mile route that ran through the territory on a vertical line. The road, which in parts followed already existing Indigenous trails, was called El Camino Real (“the Royal Highway”). The highway supported the farms and ranches that would eventually become the backbone of the territory’s economy, but the mission system presaged a long and brutal campaign of displacement, forced labor, acculturation and violence against the Indigenous peoples of the state — which the Spanish envisioned as a Christian territory filled with gente de razón (“reasonable people”).

In 1848, as California came under U.S. rule, flecks of gold were found in the American River. By some estimates, nearly 300,000 people moved to California during the Gold Rush, tripling the state’s population in roughly 10 years. In order to transport people and goods to and from the West, a new type of roadway was needed: the Transcontinental Railroad. The newcomers hoped that a combination of luck and hard work would make them rich, a belief that became known as the California dream, a precursor to the national mythology around the American dream.The Oscar winner, who received an honorary doctorate of arts, joked he was receiving the degree "without having done a lick of work" other than playing a Harvard professor in "The Da Vinci Code" movies.

"It's not fair, but please don't be embittered by this fact," he said.

"I don't know much about Latin. I have no real passion for enzymes, and public global policy is something I scan on the newspaper just before I do the Wordle," Hanks said. "And yet here I am closing — closing for Josiah, Pallas, and Vic," he quipped, referring to the three student speakers who proceeded him..Actor Tom Hanks delivers a commencement address during Harvard University commencement exercises on the school's campus, Thursday, May 25, 2023, in Cambridge, Mass. Steven Senne / AP

Hanks then pivoted to talking about "truth, justice, and the American way."

"Propaganda and bald-faced lies will erode over time," Hanks said. "Idolatry and imagery lose luster and effect."

He went on, saying, "Ignorance and intolerance can be replaced by experience in the wink of an eye, but indifference will narrow the vision of America's people and make dim the light of Lady Liberty's symbolic torch."

Hanks told the class there are three types of Americans and that they will have to make a choice between "those who embrace liberty and freedom for all, those who won't, or those who are indifferent."

The difference, he, added, is in "how truly you believe, in how vociferously you promote, in how tightly you hold to the truth that is self-evident — that of course we are all created equally yet differently and of course we are all in this together."

"We are all but human," Hanks said.

Hanks said that, "the truth, to some, is no longer empirical. It's no longer based on data nor common sense nor even common decency."

"Telling the truth is no longer the benchmark for public service. It's no longer the salve to our fears or the guide to our actions. Truth is now considered malleable, by opinion, by zero-sum end games," he said. "Imagery is manufactured with audacity, with purpose to achieve the primal task of marring the truth wit