[@ClocktowerEchos]

This is an attempt to better articulate my idea. Also advanced apologies for any grammatical or formatting errors as I am on my mobile at the moment.

The "Dark Enlightenment" was neo-reactionary philosophy that was primarily fostered by the a small minority of intelligentsia from the Silicon Valley; the polestar of this particular line of thought was the notion that democratic capitalism was intrinsically prone to crises due to the fact that it was nothing more than an artificial perversion of natural selection i.e. survival of the fittest. Adherents to "Dark Enlightenment" thinking advocated a return to a more agrarian feudalistic society as to them it better reflected the natural order. The fallout from the worldwide devastation allowed those remaining affluent adherents free reign to inflict their backward worldview on an unsuspecting populace. They keep order through maintaining a monopoly on knowledge; while prewar technology is considered a lost cause the elite have maintainEd a good grasp of academics. Honestly, one can think of "Dark Enlightenment" as the ultimate juxtaposition of Californian eco-awareness and Californian entitlement.  Alternatively if one has read [I] A Confederacy of Dunces[/I] the worldview of Ignatius J. Reilly is a comparable example.

So, in regards to technology it seems I misspoke in my previous post. This proposed Californian state would have medieval technology at best...bows and arrows, clubs, spears and so on; scavenging for pre-war equipment would not only discouraged, but would be a rather fruitless endeavor in post-war society as California's reliance on Eco-friendly cars and stringent anti-gun laws left slim pickings. Agriculturally this proposed state would fair a little better as some preexisting infrastructure could possibly be repurposed to suit the socially engineered agrarian society, but drought and sporadic wildfires would remain a problem therefore  fueling expansionist notions and tension with neighboring states.