Institutions vs. Evolution
On crumbling concepts, stagnant systems and society’s need for trickster gods
Out in the desert of southeastern California sits a sparkling blue lake called the Salton Sea. It’s a manmade lake, and an accident, formed after irrigation runoff from the Colorado River flooded a low-lying desert basin in 1905. In the 1950s and ’60s, the lake became a popular vacation destination for families across Southern California. You can still see those mid-century pastel aesthetics dotting the white sands, a retrofuture throwback like a postapocalyptic Jetsons episode, now broken and peeling.
All those towns are ghost towns now, dead just like the lake.
The problem is that the Salton has no natural water source, so after decades of drying out in the desert sun and repeated contamination with farm runoff, evaporation and toxicity turned the lake into a high-saline death trap for wildlife. The birds that flocked to it by the thousands started dying out and rotting on its salty shores. The water receded, bit by bit, leaving crusty beaches of salt and carcasses and the vacation towns emptied. Now, the once-glittering beach towns of the once-glittering Salton Sea are run-down, dusty graves popular with meth heads and edgier travelers seeking something called “decay tourism.”
