A Day in the life of Diogenes.

I ended up working all weekend due to a back injury(not mine thank God). A little background first: I drive for an auto parts place that I will leave un-named. I don't drive to the shops but as internal logistics between stores. The beauty of this arrangement is I work alone after the initial loading of the van in the morning. All of our routes are fixed and all are considered one way. IE; Your last stop is as far out as you go and you have the whole trip back to do as you please. In my case, I have about 175 miles to think, and think, then sing off key with enthusiasm, then think some more. Especially on the weekends when Talk Radio is typically non-political.

SO,,, Here is how my thoughts went today.

I was thinking about a situation with one of my cousins lately. The saying “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime.” was playing in the background of my thoughts about this. He is an ungrateful wretch with an addiction and while he seems respectful and grateful on the surface; I always get the impression there is a knife somewhere behind his back.

I find that to be a trait in many people. While you may help them out, there is always that “what else can I get for free?” air about them. Teach them how to do for themselves and walk away, chances are, they will be back to their old ways pretty quickly. Respect isn't in their nature, nor in their vocabulary. The closest thing these people have ever had to a Muse was either in a drug or in between the sheets.(don't get me wrong, I like the Mixed Couples sheet romps as well. I am not a prude. I just don't let it control my thoughts like I did when I was a 'young, dumb and full-o-cum') It seems that people like this are a dime a dozen now-days. Rather than attempt to come up with solutions, these people revolve around some central distraction their entire lives, never really seeing the world around them. Never attempting to 'look over the horizon' and see if, maybe, just maybe, there is something bigger, better or just different.
Now, that thought was buzzing around when somehow the Tater harvest came to mind and the two thoughts tumbled around for a bit and took on a new shape.

And just to show how bizarre I truly am; it became Allergies.
I remember growing up as a kid and never even hearing about allergies with the exception of Poison Ivy, or bees. Seemed that there was at least one kid that could run into a patch of poison ivy without repercussions (ME!) and there were some that couldn't even get within 20' of the stuff without breaking into hives.
Yet it seems that over the last decade or two, Allergies have become, not only common, but lethal. You see allergy warnings on nearly every food item. We have developed specialized filters to combat allergens. Commercials abound for allergy treatments(and I won't even get started on the rest of the Pusher commercials on the Toob).

Why?

I have a theory on it. Fair warning, I am not a scientist, or doctor. I don't have a Piled Higher and Deeper sheepskin anywhere in my possession or resume. I do know how to make observations and I have enough gray matter to put some intuitive processes together. The following is strictly empirical thought.
Global Economies and agriculture. Ever since we stopped depending upon local foods, there has been a rise in Food based allergies. There may have been the occasional baby that had milk allergies, but not to the extent that most do now. And we are even seeing it in Adults. They call it lactose intolerance. I call it a homogenized mess. Most of our food is imported from areas of the country AND THE WORLD. Very little is actually produced locally unless you live in the areas where it is produced. Strangely enough, there are instances where that doesn't apply. Where its cheaper for a grocer to purchase an import over a local product(more often due to FDA legislation). Another aspect is all of the Convenience crap that is made for purchase. Does anyone truly know what is in that stuff? I know it makes it easier to prepare a meal if all you have to do is heat up a couple of bags of 'stuff', but is it 'Good'? Are the ingredients even real, like real meat, not some processed vegetable protein?
This practice is, in my opinion, leading to food intolerances across the spectrum that are being equated to allergies. I am not belittling the Doc's on this one, I just think the problem is much bigger than a localized event in one person. I think that we will continue to see issues arise while we maintain this practice. You can even throw in the insecticides and fertilizers and Modified Seeds, hormone and steroid use in livestock etc etc. It all adds up to one thing. We are feeding ourselves to death.
Local farmers have the right idea. If you are growing your own, Kudos. I am starting out now that I have been able to make my move as I have posted about. The advantages are glaringly obvious. There are some that aren't so obvious. My sinusitis is virtually gone and I attribute that to my diet. I still smoke and that was what my Doctor always blamed for it. Getting out and working in mountain air may have had something to do with it too. Dunno fersure; I claim the food.

So those thoughts were running around when suddenly a dollar sign jumped into the fray and basically got tossed on its ass by the other two. Yet that started a different line of thought.

Local Economies. I know that this gets touched on all over the place and there are much better writers than I on it. Much better informed on the details. There is a point where we all need to consider just where we sit locally in our areas. Do we know the people down the street(or next door)? Do we know who has ability and who has the monkey attitude? These are all questions we need to answer if things go south. I agree with some about the loner survivor thing. I personally am not a leader, but I sure as hell don't want to give up my hardwork to some charismatic or psychotic jerk when things get tight(and I won't, gotta kill me first) I don't entirely trust the thought of 'group decisions' since that got us here to begin with. That leaves me with the Loner policy. Captain of my own ship L.S. Diogenes.(libertarian ship) in a sea of other free ships. We can work together but when it comes to shove, family first, all others take hind.

And that led to

Tidal power capture. How to capture the energy in the tides. Don't ask me how I jumped from agrarian middle America to some coast line (I blame Mayberry :P) I don't think linearly, never have, never will. Logic plays no mind to me while intuition does, and with a vengeance.

This is actually an extension of some ideas I have had on Micro Hydro electric. Sadly I won't be able to incorporate these ideas into my current housing build since there isn't enough stream head in the creeks. I do have the Cumberland River nearby but I don't think the local Government (or local utilities or my neighbors for that matter) would take kindly to my damming it to make a turbine generator. I think the EPA may even get involved if I did that. Time enough after the collapse when the neighbors(and family) will want to keep the lights on. And the Refrigerators running.
But back to the tidal capture. I was thinking of the issues that arise from such a cyclic event. Reciprocating motion is one issue of such, the other being inconsistent outputs(an extension of the cyclic nature) There are several different routes to go on this one and the one that came to mind for me was a modification of the Hall effect generators, like the ones in those little battery-less flashlights that are so hard to find now. Feasible, but the actual diode bank would be horrendous to build when materials get tight. There would need to be several different layers of power conditioning to keep from burning up battery cells also. More thoughts into the pot for later contemplation. May never need it but its there in the memory banks if I do.
Then I sang for a bit. Lots of off key wailing that sounds better to a dog than a human(my dogs actually taught me to sing if that helps any. LOL). I only sing while driving alone and I know I suck even though I have a lot of fun doing it.
Of course there was a media break at one point and I caught some news. Something about the President saying he shouldn't have to plaster his Birth Certificate to his forehead. No, on that note he is right. But I run into a problem here. I have been working since I was 15 and EVERY SINGLE EMPLOYER has asked me for proof of citizenship. NO exceptions. The crap that was exposed over the web and whatnot doesn't even come close to the hoops I have had to jump through to prove me being American born and bred and I don't even look foreign. Typical American white guy without a trace of accent from some other country. While O looks like an American, talks with an American accent and no trace of foreign accent, his actual birthplace has been in question since day one. But that really isn't the issue, is it?
The real issue is his attitude (and the attitude of most 'elected'). He acts as though he is the boss. Here we have an elected official, a representative of the American people that acts as though he is completely in charge. REPRESENTATIVE doesn't imply LEADER, yet that is where our elected persons seem to think 'winning an election' gets them. Leadership is earned, not installed. Installed leaders are KINGS, QUEENS or DICTATORS. Sometimes all of the above. The only way I get to choose my boss is by finding a different job. I also don't get to vote myself a raise at whim, like our congress seems to do on yearly basis. I also don't get to take 9 or 10 vacations a year on someone elses dime. If I did, I surely wouldn't have that job long. Call it a working vacation if you want, but that doesn't change the fact that it was a vacation. Send the wife and kids to wherever you wish, but do it out of your own pocket. You make 10 times more than the average Joe on the street: I am sure you can afford it more than we can.(and that salary is there for what reason, if you use every dime of someone else's money for your day to day living?) That doesn't include your personal investments or other income through what ever means you have. Get off our dime and use your money for your vacations for chrisakes.
I had to go back to the internal thoughts at this point. I can only handle so much angry for so long. It's not like my wee voice is going to make a difference in the bigger storm we have going on. There is a perfect storm of collapse coming, it just hasn't broken yet. I don't worry to much about it any longer. I know where the monkeys are and from which direction they will come in when things get tight. That is enough for my comfort at this point.

At about that thought, I came to the end of my trip. I am sure that there were more corollaries to these but these were the ones that gelled enough to float to the surface. I hope you enjoyed looking into the convoluted mess I call my mind. Onward with the post.

Facts are, I really don't care any longer what those jackasses do in the District of Criminals. There are more important and pressing issues at hand that I can affect while what they do is completely out of my hands. My vote is a fart in a hurricane of insanity so is completely meaningless. Besides, voting is such an incredulous act of submission anymore, I don't want to partake of it any longer. Compliance is not in my nature and I won't allow my voice to be taken as consent when what I had to say was 180 degrees counter to the end result. Mayberry recently posted about Disobedience. I have to say 1) he is absolutely correct in his post and 2) He completely missed that our laws are written with that 'Rush' in mind. They expect people to go rebel. How else can they generate fear and raise taxes? Once that little factor of disobedience can be harnessed, they start the road to enslavement. We are those slaves. Even now, when I am trying to come up with floor plans for my house, I find myself falling prey to 'the rules' and trying to design to codes that don't apply to this area or my life. Old habits are hard to break. Break them I will do; I suggest the same to others, we will have to adapt to survive the future.

Why is the 'Free-est nation' in the world also the one with the highest percentage of incarcerated population? Even though most of those are doing time for non-violent offenses or victim-less crimes? (now there is term I find completely vulgar. Victim-less crime? How is that a crime then?) Freedom is relative to perspective as is shown in another of Mayberry's posts. The more I learn, the more I find how much of a slave to the system I am. The more I learn, the more I want to learn of other things, so that I won't be hindered later down the road when I make my break with the so called "free world". Freedom is subjective, but true freedom is hard work. That is why there are so many willing to forget about it to the detriment of all of us. "Those that would sacrifice freedom for safety and security, deserve neither."

So it was a meandering rant but my boat has ran out of steam today. More to come. Stay tuned.

Addendum 8/31: The pull down of troops from Iraq was in the news this morning. I overheard something about O saying it was to help rebuild here at home. Seems to me that there are going to be more than a few soldiers that are going to be getting out upon return to find a serious lack of work in the private sector. Then again, maybe the Anointed one has a plan to add to the Militaristic backbone in the Law enforcement agencies. Every day, I see more and more things that bode ill for this country. TPTB know that we are on the rocks. TPTB know that there is a growing amount of dissent. TPTB know that there isn't any more money to be had from the slaves. Not without taxing them at even higher rates.

We know they know it.

I guess I will be patient and see what the next move is. There isn't a danged thing I could do to stop it. I can only protect to my best ability that which is mine and that of my family. Outside of that, make do as best I can.

My nickels worth.

I had a post ready to go on Monday until I read Mayberry's post about going Galt.

I scrapped what I had since it was a bit of my normal crap anyway. His post really gave me a bit to think about.
It seems to me that the solution is as old as the communes of the mid-sixties, early seventies. Only much more complex. To set aside a section of country (a reservation if you will, despite the negative connotations that presents) for those uf us that only wish to be 'Left Alone' would do wonders to a percentage of the population that is ready to start shooting now.

This raises many thoughts of 'What if" for me.
And gives some ammunition against those that wish further trepidations upon the population.

It all boils down to "What did people do before XXXXXXXX?(insert your favorite welfare program in the X's.)

Lets look at the nuts and bolts of society PRE-SOCIALISM. Considering that our current state of affairs began back in the early part of the last century, we have to assume that there were protocols in place to assimilate those in dire straits. What were those protocols?(obviously they weren't Federally mandated either)

Public assistance/Welfare: This is the simplest. People that fell on hard times would lean on Family, Friends, the Church, and other Independent social institutions that were set up to help those that couldn't help themselves. The Community chest of a sort.

Retirement/Social Security: This is the one that really gets people thinking. What did people do for retirement towards the end of their lives? The biggest thought here is that many didn't live to the ripe old age of 65 on a regular basis. Life was hard then. And yet, there were those that retired from constant working. The family is the key here. Large families were commonplace. The Grandparents were the last line of defense in taking care of the younger generation. Typically, the grandparents were the founders of a homestead, built it up to its working status, their children would continue in their footsteps and the grandchildren would be 'schooled' by the 'retirees' in their golden years. This isn't a hard and fast fact but was common enough that a brief look at the way our founders lived would bear many instances of just such an arrangement.

Public Education(read Socialist indoctrination): What public education? Most small towns(villages) would have a one room school house that took up where those families that couldn't afford the time left off. Most children were taught the rudiments(the Trivium) up to a certain age and that was sufficient for the average person to get along in life. (look at a "Primer" text from Pre-1913. Can you do half of the exercise's in it. I can and I was struggling on some of them. This was a 4th grade book and the math was the equivalent of senior H.S. education when I was in school. Compare to what the texts are like NOW.) Higher education was for those that showed promise, desire, willingness and drive to further learn the Quadrivium. Further education may have even been done during an Apprenticeship. Current Progressive Reform(a centuries worth of social reform, lets quit beating around the bush) of forced education until adulthood, child labor laws, and a minimum wage set up, have all lead to KILLING that particular training tool. The current minimum wage law has it so that educated persons have a hard time getting a job without experience due to the costs of employing them. Having seen what a business pays for the privilege of keeping an employee; I understand why many small businesses are passing over H.S. educated Graduates for College Grads(that and the actual education standards of both)(PS: Abe Lincoln, homeschooled. Albert Einstein: mostly homeschooled. Edison: Homeschooled. etc etc etc)


There are more that I could bring up but those three really show what is wrong with where we are. There are many other aspects that screw us over but those push us to the slippery slope of not pulling back to the standards of what made this country "the shining City on the hill".

Going Galt isn't going to be a reinvention of a society so much as a Renaissance of one. We don't need to reinvent the wheel, we only need to step back on a societal level to what worked. We need to teach the kids what really worked and show them how to learn for themselves how to make it better. The tech we have now isn't a stumbling block in our way if we know how to incorporate it into " the old ways". Doing so would be far easier than some may think.

Heinlein wrote about a place called Coventry in a few of his books. In those books, it was a place of Exile. In some ways, we that would like to go Galt, are looking for Coventry. We don't fit in todays society. I freely admit I don't. I see the damage of 100 years of elected retardation and I don't like the effects it has had upon those around me. I see levels of apathy towards where we are headed (and in some ways that is the cobalt rod in this reactor. The one that keeps us from completely blowing the core) and how the consensus is "Well, what can one person do to change it?"

One person can't do much of anything. Not when it comes to the bigger picture. That is where our depression lies. But a group, persistent enough, can make a huge difference. Look at the founding of this country and see what a handful of "We must hang together or we will surely hang separately"'s did. They may have fudged the paperwork (and there is some debate on both sides of the fence about that. Reference Boston T Parties book on the illusions of liberty.)but you can't deny that they pulled together a lot of people to defeat the "superpower" of the time.

I am torn between wanting Galt's Gulch and wanting out right Revolution. I can't deny that I only want to be left alone, that I no longer want to support a gaggle of leeches through Forced taxation, that I no longer want to see children subjected to the Retardation of the public school system, etc, etc, etc. I am thoroughly frustrated with our society as it has morphed into, in comparison to what it SHOULD be.

But I don't have any answers to the questions Mayberry put forth.

What I do know is that I have the knowledge and skills to keep the lights on when the grids go down. I know that I can keep food on the table when monetary means are back to the barter level without Scrip or Fiat toilet paper. I know that I can 'generate' alternative fuels to keep the wheels turning when that time comes. I know that I can educate my children in higher levels of learning if need be(and it would be needed) The knowledge is in my head and on my bookshelves: they can't take whats in my head.

But I am one person. There are only 24 hours in a day and the level of work to maintain those needs would need to be spread out among a village, town or some other form of community. One is an island, two are a group, three or more is a committee. (I could give that thought line a serious run for chaos if given half a chance. Think I will stop there for now.)

I guess until some such time as when it all comes apart or we come together, I will keep on "keeping on", trying to establish my own personal Gulch, and watch the sunsets with a cold one when the fermenter is done bubbling. Feel free to contact me if you have some enlightenment on this subject. I am sure that Mayberry will have more coming in the next few days.( Have fun with Starving Mayb. Tom is a great writer for his subject. His reading list is extensive but well worth it.)