Words of advice
As another once told me: Everything you want or desire is on the othereside of HARD.
The more effort you exert, the easier things become until they seemingly happen without effort.
But if you don’t put forth that effort first, nothing will ever happen.
More later.
Endarkenment
Still manning the watchtower though I’ve little to nothing to add of late.
But I gots ta thinking about some larger aspects of things while driving twixt here and Charleston last week.
I can’t say how many times I have read or referenced analogy of current events to the Fall of the Roman Empire. And I can’t say that the analogy is wrong, but I am starting to think its off. Just as Malthus was wrong in his day, and for much the same reason: ignoring technology and species resilience.
IMO if we are going to see an Great Endarkenment, we are already well into it. In my observations, literacy is the biggest sign of that. Not that most can’t read, but that they are showing loss of comprehension and serious lack of attention span. If it takes more than 140 characters to express an idea, you are likely to lose 95% of a potential audience. I can’t count how many times I have heard, “in twenty words or less, what’s your point?” or some generalization of such.
With loss of comprehension and attention span, the next victim is critical thinking. We already see lack of Critical thinking skills by the simple fact of so few questioning the Heglian Dialects being shoveled around this year. Even when the numbers are obviously being skewed to perpetuate a fallacy, it seems that no one wants to ‘rock the boat’ and so remain compliant and obedient.
Our forefathers must be so proud of what 200+ years have produced.
What I am seeing that does fit the Fall analogy is the population replacement that took place near the very end of the Roman empire. By the time it was a worthless shell, the population of Rome itself had almost no Roman bloodlknes left. They had outmigrated long before.
We are aeeing that happening now as people leave the outskirta of certain cities to warmer friendlier areas. Its not a diaspora, yet! Come November, I would not be surprised to see caravans leaving said cities, loaded with all manner of desperate and haunted people looking for anywhere NOT at war.
Because we are, ARE, at war. Most people are still in denial of that fact because the body count is still below 100 corpses. When that figure starts to approach 4 and 5 digits,,,,
We are at war for ideals, just like we were back in 1860-65. One side still holds values that may seem cliche and labeled as racist or whatever, but they still hold value to those people (note, I am one of them) and the other side see those same values as the ruin of humanity or some such crap. Where a person stands amongst those two sides is a simple matter of degrees, but its not hard to find the divide these days. Hell, its in your face almost 24/7 now.
I touch upon one course of future in my recent book. When I was writing it, I had no idea just how far or how rapidly we could descend to this stage. I would like to think a “Divorce ” amongst the states could be done amicably, but I am a realistic in my pessimism. A break up is inevitable. And it will be heated and bloody. If it becomes a permanent breakup with this continent housing several nations like Central Europe, or one side dominating the other and a new nation/potentially old nation taking the forefront; who flippin knows but the fickle fates and God.
But Grear Endarkenment; not so much. There may be a slow down in innovation (already there on most fronts) and there may be decades where many formerly first world countries are vying for third world status, but it won’t be the centuries of the Dark Ages. Our technology is to advanced and education to ubiquitous to allow much more than a couple decades of slowdown. The only way this world would see such dark ages again is if the madmen started launching multi-megaton nukes with great abandon, shattering any semblance of our global structure and reducing world population back to 15th century levels(or less). Recall I said our tech and species resilience are the two factors keeping the Endarkenment at bay.
I know; such a lovely topic for a Friday post. Apologies to all.
Anywhoos, some memes to fit some of the above points.
Buh,,, I’m not done,,,
Saw a few leaves falling.
I know the fall equinox has already passed and we are on the freight train towards solstice, but the winter train is always so much slower than the summer train.
😢
Its not so much the weather that gets me, its the dead and empty feeling the landscape takes on. I get the anxiety ridden feeling that was doled out so well in the opening scenes of “the Book of Eli”.
OK, maybe I exaggerate a touch; there are some rather enjoyable memories with this time of year to quell the anxiety, but the world “going to sleep” always fills me with melancholy. I know heading back north those changes will seem accelerated, and that, well,,,, Yeah, *sigh*,,,,
Back on the road and its gonna be a long-ass day. And back to the millstone tomorrow, ugh!
Jes’chillin’
Another first in a strange year.
But this one was fun.
Been a few years since I’ve been near salt water and never with a kayak. Didn’t accomplish much but learned a ton. Next time, Serena makes the trip and we’re gonna see what she really knows and I need to learn.
Projection or prediction.
Read this if you haven’t already (not long BMS)
A month or so ago a shady group (I say shady because the red proponents chosen were all ‘anti-Trumpers’) assembled and ran a war-game scenario around our current Selection cycle. I’m not going to link it as its been all around, but if you aren’t aware of it just search for ‘Transition Integrity Project’.
All of the points they bring up are being blamed on the red party but the Right see it very differently as being induced by the blue party.
Then we see information about Color Revolutions and how they play out and everything “Fits”.
And a question in the headlines this AM was ‘why are gun sales still on the rise?’
Short answer, IMO, the quiet ones see a damned big storm on the horizon and Mr. Colt was the true great equalizer.
We have a presidential election between a hated president (I still dont get all the hype but Ive covered it other times and places) and an obviously mentally incapacitated septigenerian. His wife has a reputation of “power hungry” that almost equals that of HRC without the list of dead. His running mate has a history as well and the whole combination is deeply embedded in politics since graduation of higher learning: never a day spent in private enterprise or free-market (cough) world.
I don’t like Trump as a person, but his lack of political history (prior to 2016) makes him a better candidate in my opinion. And while he may have some nasty past, ain’t a one of us in this world vying for angelic status.(be honest with yourself. We are all sinners in this world in some way.)
So we have one side accusing the other of trying to steal an election while making efforts to do the thing they say (projection). We have(currently legal) gun sales continuing to rise. (Of course there is no way to know about the under the table sales but I’d say that is moving in similar fashion). We have an open seat in the SCOTUS and a potential Constitutional crisis on the horizon. And the country is showing political/societal/ divides greater than those of the late 1840’s. Toss in the whole Pandemic confusion, democrat controlled cities burning with riots and protests,,,,
Hell the damned list of shit this year has brought on or exposed is too damned long. What it all boils down to is a perfect storm brewing and its all been manipulated by people in positions of power. The big question in my mind is this: who is fucking feeding this maelstrom? Things like this dont just happen. Whats the ultimate endgoal of the providers? NWO? Or Agenda 21 stuff (I know the Agenda 21 group dissolved but many of the members reformed under “The Great Reset” and much of their list resembles A21 garbage.)
Yeah yeah yeah,,, I just lost some of my readers to “conspiracy theory tinfoil hat wearer” accusations. Heres how I look at it. It IS another piece of information and true or not, the best place to hide anything is right out in the open. Mmaybe its bullshit? Maybe its a real thing but so unbelievable that 99% wil write it off as crap, if they even ever see it. Its information and sometimes (a lot lately) that information intersects and even snuggles up perfectly with current events. I don’t believe in coincidence. Once is happen stance, twice is the warning, three times is enemy action. This year I lost track of all those ‘co-wink-i-dinks’.
Storm’s a’comin’
and we have no way of knowing its intensity or duration. Those that have set the winds to blowing think they can control it to achieve a certain outcome. Its almost as if they think they are God or somesuch.
Good luck with that, Gods proven to be the jealous type and doesn’t do competition very well.
Ugly American
Am I ‘proud to be ignorant’?
Hmm?
I take great pains to educate myself on issues. Most of my readers know my stance on the whole Covidiocy/Coronaphobia thing since its inception in March and that my research has led down certain paths (note: all of those points are starting to show I was right from the get-go) and yet I am the one who is ignorant?
I see claims of inequality being spewed left and right and yet NO ONE ever talks about the decades of welfare, hiring regulations and billions of dollars spent on minorities to bring them ‘up’ in status.
But I’m an ignorant ugly American?
No. I am the epitome of everything that people want to deride as evil and hateful. I’m an over the hill white skinned heterosexual male.
People talk about white privilege. To be honest, I have no clue what they flipping mean by this because I have never been privileged of anything. What I have, I gained through hard effort and planning. No one ‘gave’ me anything, without a serious investment on my end first. My income is derived through my renting my life to others for short spells, not a promised benefit or attempt to “make me equal “.
My gains have been through withholding immediate gratification, knowing that the longterm will be better than the here and now.
But I’m the ugly ignorant American.
There are days where I read the headlines, scan the FB posts, see the world at large and wonder “when did I fall into this asylum of insanity?”
But I’m the ugly ignorant American.
And y’all wonder why I love my kayaks? Hell, its my temporary escape from the ugly truth of what horrid things this country is headed to. Its my ‘zone’ where ‘the deer and the antelope play’ and I can IGNORE the brash and hateful world playing out at large. Maybe in that case I am IGNORANT as I would rather walk away from this shit and let y’all do those great and terrible things to each other, WITHOUT my participation. I’ve seen death, horrible death in burned out vehicles on the highway of death in Kuwait. Y’all have NO IDEA what your ‘good intentions’ are leading to.
But I’m the ugly ignorant hateful white male American.
God help us.
Still paying the bill
All of that is now this.
I won’t try to emulate the Late Great Remus, but thats my woodpile report for now. Three more loads like that last and I will be full up for the winter. I still had half a row left from last year, but this one is looking to be a doozy with an earlier start. I have another shed, half this size, I may end up filling if our cold snap carries out much further. Added insurance you could say.
And my kayaks are feeling quite neglected this week. Will next week too since I have to make a run back to my old stomping grounds of yore to help family out. I may drag Betty
along in the off chance I can get in some paddle time on my ol neighborhood river. Nothing wild about it, some dull class one stuff and a lot of open slow moving areas, but its cleaned up a ton since I was a kid and any seat time is a welcome addition right now. Most rivers hereabouts are dragging hulls low and I am betting the same applies up there, so, Betty is the only choice if I get that shot. She rides higher and has that thick-skinned whitewater hull to take some abuse.
But its back to the grind(er) and burning metal tomorrow. A week behind as usual but steadily gaining to the end of that (current) list. (It always hits in loads that need done yesterday it seems) There is ALWAYS more after that, even if its just some strange shuffle of tool bags and a different hat to wear for a day. “The price of being good” is what the bossman said to me once.
Dio's Workshop 