Paia-Disney and the Cost of Connectivity

Recently, I visited the California town of Sonoma for the first time. For those who have been there, you know what a charming little town it is. Driving into the town square and looking at the beautiful scenery, the first thought that popped into my mind was, "Man. White people can do parks." And that's true. Western culture and civilization create faux landscapes and wildernesses that in many ways appeal to the human eye more than nature ever could. In a lot of ways, it's like pornography because it creates a picture of something that has nothing to do with reality or nature.

Much more recently I was visting Maui. I was staying in Wailea which is a resort town and very beautiful. Resort towns have a feel all their own and I'm comfortable in such environments because I don't expect them to be anything more than what they are. But I also went to visit the town of Paia and what I saw sickened me. Here was an old charming Hawaiian town. Everything about it reminded me of the old Hawaii of my youth and earlier. However, upon closer inspection, I realized I wasn't seeing old Hawaii. I was seeing Paia-Disney. The town was simply a set for hippies who wanted to opt out of society for whatever period of time or tourists who wanted to find the "Hawaii" of their imaginations.

I remember meeting an educated couple in San Francisco once who went to great lengths to tell me how disappointed they were with Hawaii. They wanted something more exotic, something more intense... more foreign and dangerous. That attitude drew nothing but contempt from me. My response was that people still had to live their after they left. Hawaii didn't exist for their entertainment.

Now I'm not an isolationist at all. I think connectivity betweeen Hawaii and the Mainland should be increased. There's absolutely no reason why there is no national banking chain in the Hawaiian Islands. Major banks have tried but local protectionist tendencies and sheer incompetence has driven them out. When young mainlanders come to Hawaii and tell the local kids that the rat race is saps the soul of man or that globalization is the engine of their destruction, it gives the youth an easy way out. Choosing not to do something is infinitely more powerful than not being able to do it. With the education level being what it is in Hawaii, competing is a question of ability, not willingness. It's not opting out when you simply can't measure up.

Writ large, I approve of the greater influx of outside influences into Hawaii. Occassionally it breaks my heart as it did went I went to see what has become of Hanauma Bay but my heartbreak is meaningless compared with the opportunities provided for future generations. Paia broke my heart. Maui itself was rather strange. I didn't feel like I was in Hawaii. I could have been in Huntington Beach. But if this is what it takes to raise the mentality in the islands then it is worth it.

Freedom from violence needs to exist before anything better can happen. As weird as Maui was, it was the safest I've ever felt in Hawaii. And that's a start.