The odd at odds

(written last night, and no, not AI modified,,, Follow along.)

Nothing is sitting well today: my lunch, my thoughts, my music feed even feels off. I am at odds with the world and can’t quite sort the why of it.

Looking around at the big picture (and no, this is not going to turn into a rant about current events.) and some of my liberal upbringing is trying to escape the pen I keep it in.    The “every body should/could” thoughts that seem the lifeblood of liberal thoughts.

Utopia for me might be your poison.   The why I keep the internal liberal under lock and key.   We are all individuals with individual drives and desires.   No two will ever agree, or at least not for so long as to make peace a constant.  Differences WILL arise, and not all are flexible in spirit.

I don’t see a world of scarcity.   I DO see a world where resources are hoarded at the expense of others.   OR Restricted and regulated out of existence for the everyday Joe.   OR, people being indoctrinated into “this is how it is, there is no other”.    

But we know that isn’t true.    Take the building code thing.   There is no reason for anyone on this planet to be homeless except by personal choice.   Some will choose that, I nearly did at one point.   I came real close to being the wandering hermit, mostly so I could find somewhere where I ‘fit’.    (I found out there are no such places,,, I’m too ‘odd’ to fit unless I make my niche.  Which I have been doing). But building codes have made homeownership onerous.   Mortgages and property laws have made it worse.   And in some ways, yes, even Capitalism has gone awry and made it so some own much, while many own little or nothing.    That isn’t due to “Free Market” enterprise, but that regulatory monster of GOVERNMENT interfering (usually funded by the few with much to keep their edge.). 

Here is a truth: a person, an acre of undeveloped land and one year of solid effort on their part, CAN have a durable and comfortable year-round shelter and a revolving food source for next to no money.   A few tools, a little learning, and LOTS of drive, thats all it takes.   But we have others build our houses, we have others grow our food, we have others do for us, that which we can’t do for ourselves, and no, there is nothing wrong with that, except for one thing.   So many forget what they are capable of and depend on others for everything.   And it has evolved into a growing welfare state where people are dependent on the FORCED welfare of others for their basic living needs.  Maybe I should rephrase that part: So many have been taught they are not capable and to depend on Government for everything.

I don’t find the capitalism world at odds with natural rules.   If someone is capable, I don’t find it sinful that they would want compensation for that ability.   Such as the fact that I have black thumbs.  I would happily pay others to run my garden, or better yet, build a shop in place of said garden and provide skills They lack for the Food I can’t get to grow.  I’m not alone in that either.   I know people that are natural talents at tasks, but completely inept at some of the most basic functions.   It was said Einstein couldn’t tie his shoes, but look at the mental experiments he did that literally changed how we view the world.  (is the shoe tying thing true?  No idea, probably not, but it makes a great point to my missive here.)

“self-reliance has been systematically underrated and discouraged, and that’s the real scarcity problem”. Our modern systems of education have created disability, not grown sovereign peoples such as built this country. Those that have the sovereign drive are driven out of the discussion.

Here’s the real rub: We’ve been there before. Right after the Civil War/War of Northern Aggression. The Wild Wild West times. When the territories were lawless (they weren’t, but the law tended to be more precise and abrupt.). No Building codes, no real infrastructure interference except for RR right of ways. You typically knew the asshat you were trying to vote into office as your representative. You most likely knew where they lived when they weren’t ‘at the office’ which, at that time was NOT a full time job and they were paid Per diem, not a salary with lifetime bennies.

People built their houses out of resources from their land. Sod, Stone, Wood, Cobb, all of the above. No permits, no inspections, no inspectors to bribe, no Home Owners associations to dictate what condition your yard should be in,,, Typically every home had a small ‘truck’ garden to keep food on the table, and people depended on each other, locally, when things went sideways. How many even know their neighbors these days? Not saying it doesn’t happen, but everywhere I have lived the last 30 years, it was not as common as it was back in the 80’s. Everyone knew everyone in the hood back then. You may not have liked the Curtis’s but you knew them, and they knew you. You knew if you got in trouble at the Smiths, the word would beat you back home, and your butt might get a beating then. When I owned a home in Sin-Sin-nasty, I knew one neighbor: the elder retired lady across the street. That was it. No one attempted greetings, and it felt highly discouraged to meet them. And that was one tight packed neighborhood; 1/4 to 1/3 acre lots. I had more relationships in the neighborhood of Oceanside California where I was a renter.

Is that a symptom of something else? Like our reliance on tech these days? Or that most people tend to sedentary activities after the day wraps up in ‘the real world’?(again, a tech thing for the most part). Or is it a symptom of ‘Social Programming’?

Maybe things really haven’t changed as much as I perceive them.

And somethings are coming closer to reality and showing their true colors.

Stay tuned tomorrow. Posting up something for y’uns that have existing structures and looking to alleviate some of those huge utility bills. Not as glamorous as building a Cobb house with your very own two paws, but ‘something’.

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