Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Three reasons to hope

Culture is more durable that we give it credit for

Every day brings new evidence that the America we grew up in is slipping away. How can we prevail when the very foundations of the house seem to be attacking it?

Humor me in addressing this in a round-about way.

Imagine a place where rains come during the growing season every year like clock-work. The farmers live in tiny villages two miles apart. When the rains come they take their draft animals, oxen mostly, out to their fields which they plow and plant. They have only a short time window if the grain is to grow in the rainy season and then ripen with the first dry weeks.

Furthermore, imagine two villages...perhaps 10 miles apart. One village is devout and has exceptionally strong taboos regarding the slaughter of the draft-animals that the village economy depends upon. The other village goes through the motions but it is mostly for show.

Then, one year the rains do not come. The monsoons fail as they might once every five generations.

The less devout village eats all of their grain. Then they slaughter and eat their draft animals. Finally, they migrate to the city and join the swarms of beggars who are already there.

The more devout village also eats all of their grain. They move their draft animals around to find forage. They cut down trees and bushes to put leaves within their reach. They get a little bit of milk from the animals but not enough to sustain them. Many of them move to the city but a few hang on...eating weeds, digging up roots and losing much weight.

The rains come back. Those from the devout village who moved to the city...those who survived the crime and disease and lack of food (cities are no strangers to hunger) come back to the devout village.

Before the monsoons failed, there was BARELY enough farmland to feed the families who lived there.

After the monsoons failed there were vast tracts where entire villages deserted their farmland. It was now open to other farmers who had access to draft animals. That is, to people who had lived in the devout villages.

"But Joe," you ask "what stopped the less devout villagers from stealing the oxen and donkeys of the farmers from the devout villages?"

Some did. And the farmers who owned those animals hunted down and killed the less devout villagers who raided their devout villages. Theft of animals is a capital crime. Not every thief was caught the first time he stole an ox. But eating one ox will not get you through a year (or two) without rains.

The devout village was vindicated and their beliefs were strengthened. The less devout village ceased to exist.

Key point: The faith of the devout village is strong enough that it lasts FIVE GENERATIONS without obvious reinforcement. And even after that time, hungry people will have enough faith to choose starvation over killing what we see as hamburger-on-the-hoof.

Culture is stronger than we give it credit for.

Culture is holographic

Culture is holographic in the sense that tiny, distant patches of it contain enough information such that vast swaths desolation can be reconstructed by repeating the patterns within the patches, much like a crystal grows as atoms deposit on the lattice of the previously solidified atoms.

The term "holographic" is a funny word. 

Women tend to recover from strokes more quickly than men do because their brains are more "holographic". Memories are stored in more places, in locations that are more geographically distant and there are more connections/associations between those memories. Because of that density of linkages, women can knit their "self" back together more quickly after brain damage.

I might be going out onto a limb here, but I believe that we could recreate 99% of the best parts of America with three documents: The Bible (both Old and New Testaments), The US Constitution with the Bill of Rights and Robert's Rules of Order. Those three "patches" of culture are enough that our culture could reconstitute itself and bridge the valleys of desolation.

Divine intercession

Psalm 90

Lord, you have been our refuge through all generations.
Before the mountains were born, the earth and the world brought forth,
from eternity to eternity you are God.

You turn humanity back into dust, saying, “Return, you children of Adam!
A thousand years in your eyes are merely a day gone by,
Before a watch passes in the night you wash them away;
They sleep, and in the morning they sprout again like an herb. 
In the morning it blooms only to pass away; in the evening it is wilted and withered.

 

Matthew 28

Then Jesus approached (them) and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.

 

18 comments:

  1. I sure hope that you are right. Not for my sake because I will be long gone before this resolves but for my heirs and the nation's heirs. Your scripture citations are giving me hope and comfort but I'm pessimistic that anyone alive now will see this thing through. Bless you. ---ken

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am OK with not seeing this out to the end. Moses did not make it to the Promised Land. I am not conceited enough to expect more or better than Moses.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One of the best responses I've ever seen. Gonna steal some day.

      Delete
  3. Another critical change is to only allow voting *in person* by those adults with skin in the game (ie taxpayers). We can see what happens when voters are allowed votes in places where they will NEVER pay the cost of what they are asking for. No voting by government employees. No voting by legislative staff. No voting by students off at college.

    And, the voter rolls are wiped after every election, no exceptions.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That means I don't get to vote in the next election since I will be off at college, despite paying taxes through my business (very little tax). Blanket rules aren't always good.

    I propose only land owning males vote and have a say in the country, as it has been since most of human history. Of course, I would be disenfranchising myself out of my own vote since I don't actually own land; and this would favor families that do have land because they could parcel it up to their kids to increase voting power.

    -Arc

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Derp, my response was supposed to be to Rick T, must have not clicked the reply button.

      - Arc

      Delete
    2. Arc, your case is one of the few where an absentee ballot would be appropriate but only back at your home of record, not at college.

      Delete
    3. Increasing the voting power of landlords and disenfranchising working class renters.

      Yeah, that oughta fix it.

      Delete
  5. Hey RJW. Just a few depressing facts: "Renters are significantly more likely to lean left. Among homeowners, President Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election by a margin of 6 percentage points, but Clinton won the renter vote by a staggering 30 percentage points.
    We estimate that if renter voter turnout had matched homeowner voter turnout in 2016, Hillary Clinton would have won four key swing states — FL, MI, PA, and WI — leading to an electoral college victory of 307-231." Might want to rethink that hol' renters voting thing...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Renters pay taxes, just not directly. Taxes on the landlord for his rental property are included in the rent he collects from his tenant, However, if some sort of subsidy from the government to the renter or landlord is involved, then we all (taxpayers) are paying the freight.

      Delete
  6. There is no voting our way out of this. 2020 and 2022 elections tell a tale.

    Get behind the mule, and plow…

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WtAYk4bhFXE

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Get Behind the Mule
      Tom Waits
      Molly be damned smote Jimmy the Harp
      With a horrid little pistol and a lariat
      She's goin' to the bottom
      And she's goin' down the drain
      Said she wasn't big enough to carry it

      She got to get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow
      Got to get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow
      She got to get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow
      Keep behind the mule
      In the morning and plow

      Choppity chop goes the axe in the woods
      You gotta meet me by the fall down tree
      Shovel of dirt upon a coffin lid
      And I know they'll come lookin' for me boys
      I know they'll come a-lookin' for me

      Got to get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow
      Keep behind the mule
      In the morning and plow
      Get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow
      Get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow

      Big Jack Earl was 81
      He stood in the road and he cried
      He couldn't make her love him
      Couldn't make her stay
      But tell the good Lord that he tried

      Got to get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow

      Get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow
      You got to get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow
      Got to get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow

      Dusty trail from atchison to placerville
      On the wreck of the weaverville stage
      Beaula fired on beatty for a lemonade
      I was stirring my brandy with a nail boys
      Stirring my brandy with a nail

      Got to get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow

      Keep behind the mule
      In the morning and plow
      You got to get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow
      Get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow

      Well the rampaging sons of the widow james
      Jack the cutter and the pock marked kid
      Had to stand naked at the bottom of the cross
      And tell the good Lord what they did
      Tell the good Lord what they did

      Got to get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow

      Get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow
      You got to get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow
      Get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow

      Punctuated birds on the power line
      In a studebaker with the birdie joe joaks
      I'm diggin' all the way to China with a silver spoon
      While the hangman fumbles with the noose, boys
      The hangman fumbles with the noose

      She got to get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow

      Get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow
      You got to get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow
      Get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow

      Pin your ear to the wisdom post
      Pin your eye to the line
      Never let the weeds get higher than the garden
      Always keep a sapphire in your mind
      Always keep a diamond in your mind

      You got to get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow

      Got to get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow
      Got to get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow
      Got to get behind the mule
      In the morning and plow

      Delete
  7. ERJ, I needed to read your post today. You've encouraged me. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  8. ERJ, methinks the book list should be expanded to include the following so our heirs may partake of the detritus of our world.
    1.Gardening when it counts. Steve Solomon
    2. Indian Herbology of North America. Alma R. Hutchens
    3.The Knowledge. Lewis Dartnell
    4. Deadfalls and Snares. A.R. Harding
    5. The best loved poems of the American people. Hazel Felleman
    6. Halley's Bible Handbook. H.H. Halley
    Thanks for your blog, steve

    ReplyDelete
  9. It matters not which laws are put in place when the people are corrupt.

    Consider the U.S. Constitution is but a few hundred words yet sufficient to govern a nation. This because it was composed for a moral and religious people.

    [The term religious here refers to people adhering to a personal code of conduct.]

    ReplyDelete
  10. I get paid more than $85 every hour for working on the web. I found out about this activity 3 months prior and subsequent to joining this I have earned effectively $15k from this without having internet working abilities. Simply give it a shot on
    the following site.. www.Payathome7.com

    ReplyDelete
  11. Everybody can earn 500 dollars 💰💰Daily…🥳🥳 Yes! you can earn more than you think by working online from home. I have been doing this job for like a few weeks and my last week payment r60 was exactly 25370 dollars💰💰.
    COPY This Website OPEN HERE..... www.EarnCash7.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. I get paid more than $90 per hour when working from home with my 2 children. It's not something I'd ever thought I could do, but my best friend earns over 10000$ dollars a month doing this, and she convinced me to do it. There is an endless amount of potential here

    check the details...... 𝐖𝐰𝐰.𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐡𝟏.𝐜𝐨𝐦

    ReplyDelete

Readers who are willing to comment make this a better blog. Civil dialog is a valuable thing.