(5 of 7)
The elderly, in particular, cling to religious cultism as a substitute for the stability of tradition. There are at least 200 such cults in Southern California alone, with a combined membership of about 25,000. These include "new thought" churches and spiritualist groups, as well as more esoteric fellowships like The Builders of The Adytum (congregation 35), which studies tarot, and Subud (60), which specializes in Javanese mystical cults. The hippies cling to the countercult of their own; along the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, they appear as youthful zombies stoned out of their skulls, and haunt the streets each night by the hundreds.
The Million Swingers
Strains of instability also marble political lifestyles. The citizens abhor conventional party politics, frustrating any attempt by political leaders to find easy accommodation with the voters. Moreover, almost a million registered Democrats are so independent-minded that they can be counted upon to swing Republican in the year the Democrats need them and vote Democratic the rest of the time. Californians have an unfettered political imagination. They have sent John Birchers to the legislature and the Congress, an actor to the Governor's mansion, a tap dancer to the U.S. Senate, entertained the notion of electing an ex-child star to Congress, and helped place one of their local lawyers in the White House after denying him Sacramento.
Despite its masochistic tendencies, the electorate sometimes proves to be remarkably enlightened. The state was among the first to build great highways and airports, and has constructed a civil service system that permits virtually no political patronage. California has also led the nation in the establishment of civilized abortion and divorce legislation. Beginning next January, the single catchall ground for divorce, apart from the usual loophole of incurable insanity will be "irreconcilable differences which have caused the irremediable breakdown of the marriage." The new statute doesn't even call it divorce. The proper term now is "dissolution" (which may make for certain problems, since an ex-wife will thus technically become a dissolved woman).
The legislature has also discussed, but as yet has not enacted, Wolfenden-style laws recognizing the private rights of homosexuals. And a new law taking effect next month liberalizes (though it does not erase) marijuana restrictions.
The girls in shopping centers and on street corners who exhort citizens to exercise their constitutional rights through petition are merely engaging in a favorite California pastime. The state constitution permits the electorate in some cases to bypass the legislature; if they want to make a law, they simply produce an appropriate petition and put the proposition on the next election ballot. In this fashion, the voters have amended their constitution 47 times since 1912.