rational optimism

(HT to Matt Ridley for his book)

Read a post by Orvan Taurus and left a longish comment, and now, takin’ it a step further here.

I have to keep this in my hind brain or I really start to lose it with the doings of the days worlds,,,  REALLY, we have it DAMNED GOOD, and the only thing wrong is the same thing that is ALWAYS WRONG: GOVERNMENT OVERREACH, alternatively, depending on your proclivity to contrarianism; GOVERNMENT AS A WHOLE,,,,

Look around you.  Swing by the strip mall, look at ALL of the things that people take for granted today, the stores, the restaurants, the autoparts places, the hardware stores,,,,,   

and like I pointed out in that comment; the Chinese Restaurants.   Places that you can go, eat ALL YOU WANT for not all that much cash, and eat things that King Louis XIV would never have dreamed of,,,  And you can do this hundreds of miles from any coastal fisheries and have an entire meal of seafood (day dependent in most cases,,)  

We have toys, that we carry around with us, that feed us music as a backing track to our days, communications that can reach world wide at the touch of a button, from almost anywhere on land, even at sea in some cases, and can access information that rivals and surpasses that of the libraries of the not so recent past: in a package that fits in the backpocket of your jeans.

Heck, the fact that jeans are now so ubiquitous in our daily lives,,,,

I live off-grid (for the most part, cell service ties me in) I have a comfortable home with running water, hot and cold, heat sources to keep it warm in the winter, and insulated solidly enough that I don’t need AC in the summer months.  A house that is heads higher in quality than those that were built 100 years ago in these parts, but by todays standards is still “a shack”,,, (size wise mostly; 16’X24′ floorplan with large porch,,,)  It has ammenities that weren’t available 100 years ago, though not up to todays standards for most.   I prefer it that way.  Don’t like microwaves, don’t want the Boobtoob,,,,,   It could  have those things, but I would need to upgrade to a larger power system; more solar panels, larger battery bank, bigger inverter,,,,

BUT I COULD DO IT,,, Thats the point, we have the means!!!   We HAVE THE MEANS!!!

And its all fudged up by regulations legislations, ‘politically correct thinking’ that protects those that need a good swift punch to the face and taught how to have skin thicker than a wet tissue.

Look at Elon Musk.   Dood is blowing up more hardware at a faster rate than NASA ever did, making LEAPS of engineering feats due the great information gleaned from those failures.   HE HAS THE MEANS,,,, Those means were not just handed to him, they were accumulated over decades and decades of ‘hm, that’s interesting’ growth.  He is doing what all the others before have done: Standing on those shoulders of Giants and reaching for the stars (literally in his case)

Most people just go through life lounging on those shoulders, taking it for granted that ‘this is how it is’.

Until it “Ain’t”

I mentioned in that comment at Ox’s, that ‘if there is a reduction in population greater than 65%, we are in trouble.  The chances of the likes of Elon Musk and his engineers being a large part of the survivors is slim.   Chances are that the lower rungs would make up a greater portion of the survivors and how many of those would know ‘How to make a toaster”

That was the drive behind this Blog so many years ago: The How-To’s.    Its part of why I was making bows from whatever was at hand.  Its how I came to start making Kayaks.   It IS STILL very much a part of my daily thinking “How Can I…?” instead of “Can’t do it”.   It’s why I am an asset at the J.O.B.   Why Son of Bossman hands me a list of ‘things to do’ and gets the fuck out of my way,,,   If I have questions arise, I call/text him and we clarify things and back at it.   But for the most part, I am on my own.   Same for the rest of my life,,,, I am IT!!!

I am the solution,

I am the weapon.

I am the reason, the fault, the cause, the screw-up, and the fix.   

And I have thousands of years of expert mentors to draw on, IF I ASK,,,,

and as long as government stays the fuck out of the way,,,,

Stop holding down the inventors, the creators, the COMPETITION that drives the inovations. STOP holding back the conversations that NEED TO TAKE PLACE so that we can reach agreement.  Let the arguments flow so that there is NO dissent, but understanding.    Stop taking the lifeblood of those that produce, so they can produce MORE,,,,

Stop supporting those that only drag us down.

Stop inviting in those that only want a free-ride.

Stop,,,,

just STOP,,,   (I think that last was to m’self,,,,)

more laters,,,, gotta get to church,,,,,