There's just no clever way to begin this.
Every single morning goes upside my head with the urgency to figure it out. If waste management systems weren't operating, what would happen with the waste I create (and I mean ALL of it)? Figure it out. When jobs dry up or dollars don't matter, what does a community of people trying to make it look like? Figure it out. And what if that food and energy's simply unavailable? Until the right radioactive ooze makes me invincible, I can look forward to a few, very ugly, last days without those most basic needs met. The natural response (and if it isn't yours, please know I am very concerned*) is to immediately and decisively, with no hesitation, Figure. It. Out.
...If you've made it this far, you are among the fortunate who have not had to endure my recent rants. Nothing I have to say is earth-shattering. In fact, each of you who has thought of starting a backyard garden - or hell, even a container of kitchen herbs - is, I believe, caught in this same current. Almost every discussion of late has come around to a discomfort with how our world is developing and where we fit into our future as humans. Whether you are a city mouse or a country mouse, be assured that you have almost all agreed on the need to reconnect with simpler ways of providing for yourselves.
Something snapped me out of a stasis about two years ago. What was I working for? Money to pay for a place to live, heat to cook and keep warm, and the very food and water I need to exist. It all hinged on someone else's agreement that my work was worth a certain amount of their dollars, and my agreement that someone else's resources were worth a certain amount of my dollars... and so on through the happy little circle of modern life. It only takes one disagreement to break the chain. Then, we either must struggle with the value of the resources we seek or with the value of our own work. When pinched, we usually settle for lower quality resources on one end and submit to lower self-worth on the other. Each time, that “American Dream” seems to dwindle.
Maybe it isn't an entirely awful thing. I hope it does not sound like I am suggesting our work as Americans is overvalued, or that we should settle for cheaper crap. The American Dream, however, is a bubble that will burst. It is unsustainable. The old addage is true: there's no such thing as a free lunch. Our artificially low-priced goodies and comfortable, entertainment-drive lives DO come at a cost. It's just a matter of what we're willing to pay. Anyone tried to make your own blender? Mold your own rubber shoe soles? It's not so ridiculous. Just try to reverse-engineer a light bulb. Now walk into your backyard tungsten mine, and get crackin', Edison. Once we start deconstructing what makes our daily reality what it is... well, I'll see you down the rabbit hole.
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin
“Doom-and-gloom” is a label I can live with. Let's stop worrying about whether we sound negative to each other and just talk about what is going on in our world. It's not pessimistic to recognize a challenge and then actively work together on being better human animals. And with China quickly buying up most of our food commodities, gas expected to reach $5/gallon (not accounting for the intense situation currently in the Middle East), and our country wagering itself in a huge-stakes dice game, we MUST think about this.
I admit my hard-headed insistence on taking the most difficult path in every instance may give me a jump on the game. I have never enjoyed safety. Even now, I would happily pack up my doom-and-gloom and head for the hills to carve out my own private frontier, where my quirks could steer clear of burdening anyone... But that “something” that awoke me two years ago tells me now that solitude is a luxury. And there is no time for luxury. (When you get right down to it, it's boring... compared with learning how to be self-sustaining, most things are)
Joy now breeds in the joint creation of a future that merges our innovative generation with the authentic, practical wisdom that led us to this point in humanity... a wisdom that saw humanity as Free. Naturally.
There's just zero time to waste. It's our chance to create. To reinvent. To grow in our ability as human animals. That's what we're here for!
That's freedom.
*More to come on this....
I agree wholeheartedly on much of this. Unfortunately, your dear ol' little bro is essentially tethered to the degenerate modern world, and its miraculous medicines that keep him from shuffling off this mortal coil and joining the choir invisible.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually something that affects me more than just in the immediate here-and-now. Every time I try to plan for the future, and think about where I might end up if I have to live somewhere else, there's always the hurdle of "must live within easy-access distance of a major hospital" to get over.
Looking at it from a very coldly objective POV, maybe that's not so bad. I've got no heirs to inherit my bad genes, and no intention to have any, so when the End Of The Modern World As We Know It comes, my organic matter will fertilize the soil and not pollute the gene pool.
I can say without egotism that I'm above the average in the intelligence department, and I would regret not being able to pass that on, but everything else about me is a mess from the get-go. Joint problems, bad eyes, asthma, narcolepsy, etc., etc., the list goes on. A value judgment renders a "just not worth it" verdict.
Thinking about it, back in Ye Olden Dayes, a man or woman who was weak, stupid, or sickly was considered to be bottom-of-the-barrel marriage material. These days, we only really consider the intelligence factor; the other things mostly count only in animal husbandry.
"Eugenics" is a word loaded with unpleasant connotations by now, but if we're looking to the long-term good of the human race and its ability to survive in the harsher world looming over the horizon, we're going to need to practice it. A little human husbandry, if you will. It's only practical; what prospective wife would be thought wise to marry a man that couldn't take care of her while she's immobilized by pregnancy?
Right, I'm drifting about mentally, so I'll just cut it here. Meanwhile, I'll be doing my best to mentally archive as much practical knowledge as I can. I've recently had a great deal of my first aid training prove itself very useful, and had it supplemented with some new knowledge of little-known older medicine. That's one thing that absolutely MUST be passed on - the knowledge of basic healing care.
The last paragraph alone should spark your vitality: "I've recently had a great deal of my first aid training prove itself very useful, and had it supplemented with some new knowledge of little-known older medicine." If we let them, these moments in our lives can develop into a whole lifetime of growth and TRUE self-confidence as ones who are valuable to the survival of ourselves and our people.
ReplyDeleteIt seems a little silly to go into the nature/ nurture discussion here, but I do want to point to one thing. The people in our lifetime who have diagnosed its people with more named disorders and diseases than ever in history are the same ones who provide the "solutions."
The same thing happens on a global scale, where governments and institutions create a problem then incite fear or demand for action and also provide the solution. So since they've created a problem, there may be a need to find a solution (especially if the air has been poisoned, causing real consequences, like asthma - not that I'm saying this is what is being done).
Bottom line to me is, there may arise a situation that would normally cause a person to depend on outside intervention (like traditional medical treatments, which corner a market for the health care industry). But if we proceed through life hesitant and castrated because we fear that instance - we're giving up on life. Every time we have a chance or desire to grow in capability or to use our human innovation to improve our species' chances as animals on this planet (outside the systems and supports that we're provide, mind you) we MUST follow this. There is no way we can regret growth. It just feels too satisfying. Even if it never works, and we all fall the way of the dinosaur, our lives will be worth it while we have them.
I'll have to go into a Eugenics discussion another time.... Because that's just so sad to hear you buying that line. I hear what you're saying, I do. It's just not ever, not ever okay to think you don't deserve to live or procreate. Ever.