Hardscrabble Farmer stepping up while I work on my Irish tan in Wildwood.
Triage is the medical term for assigning degrees of urgency when evaluating a patient. It used to be the societal method for assigning priorities in civic life- what things are more important than other things in order to promote the health and welfare of our particular societal arrangement. Clearly those who control the levers of power, our institutions and agencies, our economic and political structures, our religious and academic institutions have chosen to triage in a way that places more value on things that in the past were either marginal or unimportant to the health of our State and to retard or eliminate those that are crucial for the long term health and success of the body politic.
We can question motives until we are blue in the face and never adequately address the real issue- should we comply with the destruction of our own communities, families and lives in order to facilitate their further expansion and political control, or simply cease to participate.
Going Galt is a difficult decision to make for most people who are even willing to confront the issue. No one wants to give up the multitude of benefits we receive as members of an advanced civilization, such as indoor plumbing, dentistry, automobiles, readily available entertainment, etc. These perks are the carrot on a stick that has been used to get us to accept most of the current outrages that now make up public life in the 21st century and the thought of giving them up either completely or to a degree is more than most people are willing to consider and so they grit their teeth and fume as each brand new miserable outrage is foisted upon our collective consciences.
The fact is that most of those things will not disappear if we choose to walk away. Knowledge of chemistry, structural engineering, electrical production on a small scale, independent economies, food production, etc are readily available if somewhat more time consuming than by purchasing them from specialists. In many cases- such as providing your own nourishment- is much more efficient, better for you and more rewarding in terms of flavor and satisfaction when done outside of the system. My wife may not be able to set my broken arm as satisfactorily as an orthopedic surgeon, but she prepares a better meal than Thomas Keller. And I know because she has done both.
One of the first things we have sacrificed is the right to make choices. We’re told we have more than ever, but clearly that’s a lie. I have a collection of old rakes for use on the farm, none under a hundred years old, no two alike and each in perfect working order. I can travel anywhere in this country and look for a rake at any box store and my choice will be limited to a plastic, Chinese made POS that will not last a season even if handled with extreme delicacy. We have choices we can make, we can quit this sick and bloated corpse of a world and head down the path to a different and far better one if we stop fearing the things we may have to sacrifice. If we make the right kinds of decisions, if we learn to triage our own lives so that we may ultimately save them, we may find that things we thought we couldn’t live without were the very things that were killing us in the first place.
It would have been easy for me to have mocked the poor creatures in the photos on the Hell, Motherf*#@*ing Yea thread, but that wouldn’t change a thing in their lives or mine. They are lost to history, their value to our society no more than a sandbag in a trench war. Those who can impact the future know better than to abdicate their lives to sloth and gluttony, want and desires, to be nothing more than a living, breathing appetite instead of a productive and inspirational figure that lights the way into the future wherever it may lead.
The people who are reading this are, for the most part, informed enough to understand that nothing lasts forever, they are also cynical enough to think that nothing they do will alter or change the outcome in any way. Such a belief would be a critical error to make. If ever there were a time when doing the right thing, making the correct choice, deciding which attribute had more value than another were critical to the life of the patient, now would be the time.
Sometimes the only way to win is not to play the game.
We bought our fist place in 1992, an owner financed farmette sold to us by the old timer who had owned it for almost 50 years. I remember sitting on the picnic table in the back yard with him while we were discussing the sale looking out over the pond in back and he said “You’re like me, if you ain’t got land you ain’t got nothing.” He died before the loan was paid off.
Ten years later a neighboring municipality forcibly annexed that property against my will and without my consent, and sent me a bill. Then they told me what I could and couldn’t do with my land. FU, I sold it. The new buyer was pasted with an array of service and property tax increases. They defaulted on the payments and that farmette has now been sitting vacant and foreclosed for years.
I bought a bigger farmette in another state 2,000 away. Big beautiful red barn, stellar water well, 100 year old farmhouse in very good condition, zoned agricultural. Within two years time the county board of planning and zoning rezoned my farm FOUR TIMES, without my permission and against my will, finally rendering it useless with a designation of ‘urban reserve’. They quadrupled my taxes. I sold it at a loss and got out while the getting was good.
I now own fuck nothing. I live in a cheap apartment that is somebody else’s problem. We have no car, no car payments, no gas, no homeowners or car insurance. No smart phone and no ripoff cell plan. I have paid off nearly all of our consumer debt. We don’t buy anything. We cashed in our 401k’s.
Now I’m just trying to figure out how to hang on to the rest of our money without the government stealing it through taxes, or just siphoning it from our bank account through some kind of IRS trickery.
Anybody who thinks the citizens of this country have a bright future is not paying attention. Even going Galt will not save you.
Damn whatever , that’s just so sad .Had me in tears . I’ll go kill myself now.
If that brought tears to your eyes bb, this should get you wailing on the floor.
My 80 year old mother has been sinking in bad health and dementia. Last summer some kind of crazy incident occurred and her husband took her to the hospital for evaluation. The hospital condemned her condition and put her in a nursing home. I went out to America’s great prairie at that time to see what I could do to help them.
A whole lot of shit nothing could I do. They were forced to sign over the deed to their little 4 room house to the state of Kansas in order to qualify for Medicaid. The title to the car. Months of bank account records were submitted, and the state of Kansas seized mother’s very modest social security payment. They literally signed away everything they owned to the state for this nursing home care.
Good American tax paying citizens who had worked all their lives were left with absolutely fucking zero after the state got finished with them. They will both die without a penny to their names.
And to whom is this Medicaid money for the nursing home going? To a PRIVATE provider of nursing home care, a for-profit company that exists to siphon off wads of government Medicaid money – and which pays the majority of its illiterate staff (I’ve met them) minimum wage to mop floors and keep my mother drugged out of her mind.
This is the America we live in now. They are going to steal EVERYTHING one way or another. I’m not exactly clear on what happens after that……
Best way to Go Galt is … don’t have kids.
Damn whatever , life is hard sometimes but it has taught me to hold on lightly to the things of this world.In the end all I will have is Christ Jesus and if he’s not GOD then the jokes on me .
whatever – sorry for your experiences. Truly.
If your mother needed to be in the home, then I have no problem at all that she be expected to pay for that care, even if it meant liquidating assets. That should be the norm. It is the natural order of things – personal responsibility, or familial responsibility.
The disgusting thing is that those parasites who accumulated nothing, and who wasted every penny they ever had in their hands would have been cared for same as her. That is an abomination. That is truly unjust and despicable.
If you are a parasite on society your whole life, the “state” will care for you. But if you are a responsible citizen, and work hard all your life, and support the parasites via your sweat and blood, and manage to accumulate some assets despite the difficulties encountered, the state will strip you of all of you assets before they will care for you. So you simply work your whole life for the parasites.
Seriously, you cannot make this shit up.
If they are going to force people to work for parasites, then those same people should be allowed access to the same benefits, and there should be no requirement of an assets test. To do so is unjust on all levels. It penalizes the responsible beyond all reason in benefit of the irresponsible.
The world is doomed.
Whatever – the government should not be in the business of providing any damn service. Governments are incompetent. The cost of running a government nursing home has to be more than to run a private one. The government has no incentive whatsoever to keep costs down. There may/are be nursing homes that are raping the system, but I would rather not see government run any damn thing. Small government is good government. What you have today is large government run wild, and it is not a good thing.
You can never own land in the US. You rent it from the state in the form of skool and property taxes.
Stop paying each by going Galt and see where you end up.
You are on the hamster wheel until you are worm food.
@ Hardscrabble Farmer
Excellent commentary.
To me, your writings and philosophy of life show a strong influence of Ayn Rand. Just a guess, of course. If you haven’t read it, may I suggest “Goddess of the Market,” a biography of Rand by Jennifer Burns published in 2009. Quite well done.
@ Admin
You complimented Hardscrabble Farmer (HF) as being TBP’s “John Steinbeck.” As a wordsmith, that he is. But you may wish to pick another role model. If I am correct about my assessment of HF and Ayn Rand, then you must consider …….. Ayn Rand did NOT care for, and in fact disdained, Steinbeck and considered him a socialist, which he was.
Ergo, HF is due some other comparison. Who is it?
Pirate Jo, who will take care of you when you are elderly?
One thing I’ve noticed about the poor (also defined as the heavily in debt) is that they tend to buy lots of cheap things, use them a little, then buy them again.
I’ve learned to buy far less, buy the best possible quality (used if possible), and take really good care of it so I (hopefully) never have to buy it again. Plus, the less shit you have, the less you have to maintain. The 2 iron skillets I bought used for under $15 each will last the rest of my life (and in continuous use could last 500+ years). Frustrated with plastic dish drainers, I laid out about $40 for a stainless one from Williams Sonoma when I was in my mid 30s. It’s lasted 15 years, will probably go ’til I die (even the plastic drainer is still nearly pristine). The shovel I bought 5 years ago was of lower quality, so I expect it to last maybe another 5 if I sand down the handle and repaint or re-varnish it to protect the wood.
You get the idea.
Another one: what would I do with a big yard? “Enjoy it” by spending my spare time with the mosquitos mowing the grass and trimming everything (or working more to get central Americans to do it for me)? A big yard is good for one thing only: growing food.
Mike, a big yard may not suit you, but it sure as hell is good for more than growing food.
It provides privacy. That is something truly special and precious.
It provides a safe (ish) place for children to explore and play and grow.
It allows enough space to have a big dog without being cruel.
It can provide security in some instances.
It can be a means to grow the value of your home – land appreciates, houses do not, as a rule.
You can often grow timber for various uses.
And this is just a quick list off the top of my head.
Your comment is ill-thought out, in my opinion. It seems you like to live cheek by jowl with your neighbor. Not me. Not ever. Crowds are for avoiding, nothing more.
“Sometimes the only way to win is not to play the game.”
Waitaminute, Hardscrabble. Were you writing about going Galt, or just watching War Games again?
How about a nice game of chess?
SSS
You should be aware that Admin went ape-shit crazy the last time someone called Steinbeck a Socialist. You’re lucky he’s on vacation.
We all have stories of how the system as it exists can screw you. When we made our decision to strike out we had to let go of a home that sheltered five generations of my family because the tone and tenor of the area had become so toxic, the taxes so unsustainable that the draw of fifteen generations buried in the cemetery on the hillside above our home was not enough to keep us in that place.
Are there any truly safe places? Anywhere to go where the prying eyes of the State cannot see? Perhaps not, but one thing I learned in combat was that if you make a low enough profile, if you can find a place out of the line of fire and keep your head down and if enough of your men can manage to do the same, when there’s a lull in the action and you keep your mind on your mission, you can be there to make all the difference in the world.
To me it isn’t about whether or not I can make it to the next campaign- my time has been up for a while now and I am at peace with that. My duty now is to my children, to the sons of our friends and neighbors who come up the hill every morning to swing a scythe, drive nails, feed chickens, weed the gardens, and repair what’s broken. From here, while they are under my watch, I can make sure that these boys turn into responsible young men confident of themselves, filled with justified self esteem that has been built on their hard earned accomplishments. The future is in their hands, not ours and anyone who really believes that the present system of corruption and indolence, of chicanery and vice is something that has legs- then I feel sorry for you. For not knowing better, for not having faith in the tangibles of hard work and honor. There are plenty of good people left and every day more join us not only in their acts, but in their outlook. A man who thinks he is lost, already is.
This too, shall pass.
Today we’ll hoe the beans, feed the hogs, crate the chickens for slaughter tomorrow, eat a lunch in the shade of the giant maple and laugh out loud. Maybe we’ll learn something; we’ll come up with a better way to do a chore, or increase fertility. I have no idea what tomorrow will bring, but nothing is going to stop me from believing that in some small way it will be better for us if we just keep at it and continue to do the right thing for the right reasons.
These folks out there who have poisoned themselves on mass produced snacks, scribbled all over their bodies with inane epithets, lost all desire to fulfill whatever destiny was carved out for them by countless generations that went before them are already lost to time, but not all of us. Not all of us by a long shot.
We have to pick our battles in life, but when we do we have to give up every last ounce of energy we have, every breath if that’s what it takes to be where we’re needed when we are essential to our task. I’m a father and a husband, a farmer and a son, a neighbor and a friend and while I may not be perfect at any one of those things, I am dedicated to being the best I can be at all of them. These times are not the ones we may have chosen for ourselves, but these are the times to which we belong. Whatever is coming next will be a test as to whether or not we have made the right decisions, kept the right perspective, perfected the required skills, but when it comes it will be a product not of the times, but of those who lived in them. All that is required is to drink from the cup when it is offered. And I believe that people are thirsting for that vintage.
“In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”
-John Steinbeck
@Zara,
“Pirate Jo, who will take care of you when you are elderly?”
Orlando Bloom, of course.
@PJ – Seriously? That nancy boy?
I had you pegged for the type that liked large rugged guys.
@TPC,
Oh, I like that kind, too. I expect to have an entire fleet of them to carry me around and run errands for me. Orlando can do my pedicures and wave palm fronds.
“You should be aware that Admin went ape-shit crazy the last time someone called Steinbeck a Socialist. You’re lucky he’s on vacation.”
—-Stucky @ SSS
Ssshhhhh. I knew that. I just wanted to stir him up again. My motto is to never let sleeping dogs lie, especially on TBP.
Steinbeck was a communist nancy-boy.