It's funny the events that I remember and don't remember to blog. On Sunday, Aunt Ellen and Uncle Chuck came to visit, and I forgot to even give it a passing mention. It was pretty good. They took me out to lunch, though both the Maid-Rite place and The Depot were closed (Sunday and renovations, roespectively), so we had to go to Subway. Still, it was a nice departure from Dining Hall food. By which I mean I really liked finally having a meal that didn't come from there. We talked about lots of different stuff: people they know, politics, the history of Grinnell, my plans for the future. Just sat around eating subs. Then I showed Aunt Ellen around the new developments on the campus, though she visited just a few years ago, so she knew most of the stuff already. That was a little disappointing. But I still got a visit, which is something I don't often get. In fact, I've gotten either three or four all year. It's pretty nice, especially when I get to talk about the history of Grinnell and other stuff like that.
-I'm going to talk to you about politics. Specifically, I don't believe in politics. To believe in politics, I also would have to believe in government. Now, you could call me an anarchist, but that wouldn't be entirely accurate. Anarchist just means I'm against government. To get rid of government and replace it with nothing else would not be good for anyone. More accurately, I'd call myself primitivist. I still have more learning to do (and my intro to anthro next year should help fill that in), but from what I know right now, I'll write this.
-I think the idea of a national border is fundamentally immature. "I'm going to draw a line in the dirt. Everything on that side is yours, and everything on this side is mine. If you try to take anything from my side, I'll beat you up." Things swiftly deteriorate into all sorts of poor decision-making processes when countries are based on that principle. Another thing that gets me is how difficult it is to even cross a lot of borders. For example, in order to get into Canada now, it's required that you get a passport. Not only is that a big hassle, but it also costs something like a hundred dollars, maybe two hundred - I don't actually know. It seems like a minimal hassle, but then consider: before there was a big imaginary line there, you needed to prove yourself to absolutely no one when you decided to go that far north. In fact, no one cared where you went. I'll just hang that out there.
-Government gets abused. Mom and I were discussing the REAL ID bill that got passed a few years ago. Boiled down to basics, the plan is to make your driver's license into a standardized ID across the nation. That seems at first blush like just a streamlining. Digging deeper, however, we find that it will also result in a merging of all the states' databases, and will eventually require you to have your REAL ID on you for almost anything you decide to do, so you can prove who you are. Our privacy is protected now by the fact that all the databases that have tabs on us are spread across the whole nation in websites and companies everywhere. When all your identification is unified into one master ID, anyone will be able to find out anything about you. Anything you've ever done that caught an official person's attention, anyplace you've ever been (these IDs will be equipped with radio scanners). It's a cinch that websites or credit card companies will start requiring your REAL ID number instead of other identification. After that, anyone will be able to find your purchasing history, credit score, and heck, maybe even salary based on this one card. I don't know about you, but that scares the hell out of me. Luckily, this bill is being heatedly opposed. However, John McCain is in favor of keeping it in the pipeline. Obama isn't.
-If the REAL ID is implemented, I won't be subject to it for very long. You'll get an Alexander Supertramp vibe from this, but I'll be seceding from the country. Not leaving it, but I'll no longer call myself an American citizen. I won't take part in anything that would tell the government who I am; I would find my own food, buy anything with cash but try not to need to buy anything at all, and generally do my best to disappear. It sounds a little bit insane, I know. But I think living in a surveillance state sounds much more insane.
-What about primitivism? Well, mainly it's about living without needing the support of a vast and unwieldy infrastructure to support me. Currently, if our American civilization were to collapse, I would most likely die. Grocery stores would run out of food within a day or two as people stockpiled goods, and the Iowa landscape offers little in the way of directly usable nutrients. Pilfering crops would only work at the right time of year. There are animals I could hunt, but it's precisely because I lack hunting skills that that would be my downfall. I could find a deer and shoot it, except that I have no bow or gun, and I don't know how to butcher a deer. Same goes for any other animal of any size. It makes me feel helpless when I realize that I'm dependent for my very life on thousands of people I don't even know. I want to take charge. When you go far down enough into this feeling, it becomes clear that you need to know how to do everything you need to survive. It's actually a fairly tall order: We often presume that we'll be able to get some stuff from civilization, but what if you're too far away or have no money or (let's go for the gusto) civilization has imploded? Everything you have will eventually wear out, and you'll need a new one. Then you have to make your own house, figure out how to fletch bows and arrows or make a spear thrower, know how to sew with bone and sinew, and be able to make sturdy tools of stone or other materials. It's not actually as hard as it seems, though. We come back to the three million years, and see that it worked for everyone for that long. It's especially nice when you realize that people formed small groups, rather than having to do everything all on their own. That way you don't have to know every single skill, as long as you know someone who does know it. However, the more you know, the more confident you can be in yourself and in your group. I haven't the faintest idea who would be in my group, but I want to learn the skills. They would make me feel accomplished, and also in control. I want the control of my life. I don't trust the government with it. After all, look at their track record.
-Let's get into the other stuff. Manito-wish has accepted me as a counselor! So, I leave in early June, and come back in July. Unfortunately, that seems to eliminate Crowduck. But, it'll be almost as if I'm there anyhow. The Boundary Waters are really an incredible area. I'll miss you guys in July. I expect you'll miss me too. But I'll still be having fun. Hopefully, I can come next year. Sometime, I'll tell you whether I plan to work at Manito-wish next summer, and then you can conceivably plan next year's Crowduck dates around it, if you want to and if it's not a lot of trouble. I promise I'll play a lot of krokay with you all some other time, and maybe even some poker.
-Also, I'm adding to my list of plans for the summer "Get a driver's license". I'll be able to go back and forth across the immense distances my life now seems to entail all the time. I'll also be able to ferry krokay players around, and buy mice and rats for my snake in Newton, where the nearest pet store is. It's something like 20 miles away. It'd be nice to be able to drive myself to Ottumwa, or other places. Also, really, it's about time. And, if I get it before 2009, it'll have nothing to do with REAL ID.
22 comments.
If Real ID goes into effect, at least it won't affect you until 2014. So you have ample time to secede. But if you secede, don't disappear. You'll drive your mom crazy. The best thing- know how to hunt, gather, etc. if you have to... I think this is the basic thing the Amish do- live in self-sufficient groups and will not have anything to do with something they have to rely on others to provide. If they can produce it themselves, they will.
Now there are lots of people who let these thoughts get away from them and so they make bunkers, stockpiles, etc. and so they are prepared "just in case"- and that is fine and one can do that. One can be able to hunt. Your dad can teach you how to hunt. If the entire economy collapsed today we could go to Nana and Papa's and as a unit we'd be pretty successful. I think in some military trainings, they teach you these things also. But if the whole economy collapses, you can be with your family.
You know I have thought out exactly the same scenario a million times in my head. But please don't let it get you paranoid. Participate in stuff around you.
Personally if everyone knew my purchase history, salary, etc. I guess I would no longer care. I don't have much to hide and I don't think the government is very interested in me. I'm old enough now that I have realized that. Being in some pan-database, though, is probably not going to happen, or if it does, it won't be so efficient. Believe me when I say the government's computer systems are often outdated, lacking in interfaces (everything stands alone), some of it stored in a bunch of old boxes in a government warehouse. And say they, by some wild vicissitude, get did get that information. What would they need to know it for? And what good would it do? Believe me when I tell you there is no group of lordly overseers in the government- just a bunch of temporarily elected, agenda-driven officials who range in ability from inadequately to mildly competent. And the inner workings of the FBI and CIA are interested not in the musings of any single citizen. I think if you want to secede from the economy and kind of live a Grizzly Addams experience, I hope you have a few people around you because it will be difficult solo...because there are people who love you (like me).
MOM
I "ditto" Ann. G.Pa
I want to try very hard not to come off as a nut. I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I realize that the government isn't interested in me particularly, and that they're not a group of hostile people planning on making America a totalitarian state. They're for the most part probably pretty good people (though, there have certainly been quite a few crazies). They want their liberties too. I don't knowa whole lot about the government, but it seems likely that Congress probably doesn't pass laws that its members themselves wouldn't want to be subject to - or at least not often. The crux, though, is that they've been getting a little less reasonable of late, with the PATRIOT Act and the REAL ID Act. Notice that both of these acts have played on fear of terrorism. The threat of getting hit with an airplane if you don't relinquish a few liberties seems to have given Congress a much freer reign on what they can pass. If it combats terrorism, it'll probably get passed. And that's been giving the government, which is to a certain point detached from the populace at large, powers that it shouldn't have. Do you agree that wire taps shouldn't need warrants? I doubt it. It seems like a pretty minor issue, especially since you're not personally going to get tapped. But it's still a violation of rights, an intrusion. Ditto for the REAL ID. It seems pretty minor, but you justify it by saying it'll have no effect on you personally. It'll only be young Arab men. The REAL ID has much more potential for spreading out to affect a big chunk of the population than the phone tapping thing does, since it requires much less effort. What will happen will be comparatively less dramatic, but nonetheless a retraction of a privacy you once had. The REAL ID is especially more worrying because it has the potential to be used by more people than just the government, and since it gathers all sorts of information that could be given to other parties, instead of a small amount of information that's probably pretty useless if it doesn't actually implicate you as a terrorist. Only the government will have access to the databases of the REAL ID system. That's at least how it will start out. I think it's reasonable to expect they'll start sharing information with potential creditors. Then that dam will be boken, and maybe they'll decide it's not so bad to share your information with amazon.com. The specific information shared won't be much at first either, but slowly and surely all these information-age easy data sharing techniques will get used more and more. I don't find that a comforting thought, and I plan to take no part in it, even though it appears pretty tolerable. I also have to wonder what the next act passed will be. The government tends to be imaginative in these things. It could end up being even less tolerable.
But even if none of this comes to fruition - even if they take securities back to the pre-9/11 standards - I still have that other problem with not being in charge of my own life. That one he government can't solve, nor can anything in civilization, because civilization itself is the fundamental thing holding me back from it.
I just talked to your DAD. You may not realize it but he is pretty expert in survivalist skills. Imagine yourself with NOTHING, in the wilderness. How do you eat? Build shelter? Get water? Survive long-term? And then, DEFEND yourself against animals and other people who want your things? (That's a big thing that has to be thought of- we all want to cooperate in such a scenaria, but realize that you will be fighting others because they will attack and you need to know how to fight and defend yourself, those you love, and your stuff from them).
When you are home this summer perhaps he can teach you all this stuff. You may not see that he knows this sometimes, but he does know it. He knows how to fletch arrows, keep up a gun in proper working order for a long time, hunt any type of game, make clothes from animal skins, and source edible vs. poison fruits and vegetables, and fashion tools. Bet you didn't know that about your old man. :) I think once you have gone through some survivalist training,that can put your mind at ease. LOVE YOU much!!!!!!
I think it is very normal for a young man's instincts to be kicking in- whether at a university with blogs abounding or in a forest with a few tribemates and you are experiencing that awakening(btw modern humans have been around for about 100K years only -3 million years maybe since the first little unicellular critters).
MOM
ps I meant 3 billion.
Sorry, I was confused there. Misread.
But modern homo-sapiens, 100K (give or take a few). I guess the apey chimpy folks, 3 million.
My bad. The book I read used that figure, referring back to farther species that led to our own. I didn't know it had done that, and since it was a more recent memory than my bio classes, I went with it instead. Probably I should have looked that up. 'Pologize.
I hope that when you become a modern cave man and survive on your own, you will remember that the average life span for cavemen was around 20. You've got one year to go, so enjoy it! Ha. Grandma
I think alot of what you are saying is spot on. I am a creature and creation of the modern luxury world, and I too see the eventual writing on the wall. This pampered, entitled, disenchanted world we live in, is a one trick self absorbed pony, waiting to be slaughered. Your generation feels it too. I see the apathy in kids today. We have more of "it all", all the time, yet the full glass is full of holes.
I for one believe that we will see in my lifetime, and yours an entire economic collapse. It won't end in a prmative "Mad Max" scenario, but for a time it could be REALLY bad.
I applaud you for seeing what is real and what is illusion of a soft and falling world.
You don't need to learn how to drive, you can be a freight train tramp.
Someday we could take a hike to the bus, wouldn't that be cool?
Dave
"The full glass is full of holes": This is absolutely excellent. I love this phrase on several different levels.
Unfortunately, in the case of a total economic collapse, I doubt if the trains would still be running for long. But, all sorts of other things would happen that we simply don't get the opportunity to see today. The collapse would have lots of terrible aspects, and result in a lot of death. I would definitely be saddened heavily by it; probably I would cry quite a few times, and I never cry. But we could also turn to some of the new life that sprung up in its wake: prairies regenerating, forests expanding, nature recovering. I have no idea what might lay in store, nor do I think anyone really does, because there are so many chaotic variables. But there would be bad and good in it. How much we get of each would depend on how we'd prepared up until then.
In a side note, I don't know if I've ever written a whole paragraph in the conditional mood before.
Not me! Not me! I do not care to ride on your negative, doomsday train. I much prefer the world of hope and optimism. It is lighter, cleaner and the sun usually shines.
If you don't like what you see, work to change it. It really takes only one person to make real and I mean REAL change. Look at Gandhi, MLK, Abe, Jesus, Moses, Churchill. Jumping off the train and living in your cave makes absolutely zero contribution to anything, especially the person who jumped off the train.
Enjoy life, don't hide from it. Be and optimistic activist and never be a hide in the cave, pessimist (no one will care or pat attention to you).. Live life to the fullest and never ever hide. Life should be fun and full of Krokay (I refuse to play Krokay in a cave).....Grandpa
That's the thing. If we're already on the "negative doomsday train", we can't help but keep going to the end of the line, and we might as well enjoy ourselves as much as we can on our way and after we get there. If we're not on the train, well then I'm still going to enjoy everything, it's just there won't be any of this sad stuff going on around me, so I'll be enjoying it even more.
Maybe it's true that one in a million or a billion people can make a serious social change, but ony if they're really lucky. I'm not that interested in swaying the inert masses, though if I become an author that will be a minor goal of my prose.
Who said anything about living in caves? I never mentioned them at all, except when we took our Kentucky vacation. Never fear; I won't go live in a cave and then insist that you play krokay in my house. If that's what you were afraid of.
Actually those Kentucky caves were really nice and I could live in one for a while...'slong as I had plenty of walls to make murals on.
I have imagined all kinds of scenarios (what if all electricity somehow stopped functioning? what if there were a nuclear attack? what if, what if....?) I really HAVE thought those through. As a new mom especially, that instinct really kicked in. I mean I mentally mapped out routes to walk/run if I were at work and a big earthquake happened- routes to go to get back to my kids. I have had the thought a zillion times about the I Am Legend scenario, too, and how I would break in and get my meds from existing drugstores before others could- but I didn't dwell on those thoughts all the time.
When 911 happened, Nathanael, your dad actually planned out sending you two to West Virginia for a while, anticipating nuclear attacks on cities, and thinking about Wright Pat so close made him nervous. Kind of the like the kids of Narnia (that was a real situation for so many kids in WWII)...anyway...it was just a backup to backup plan. Sure you make these plans JUST IN CASE. But then you get pragmatic and deal with the situation as is as well.
There are going to be a lot of things that you just can't plan for, so just getting up in the morning we take our chances.
The one thing I do agree with Dave on is that we here are pretty pampered- Affluenza- when compared to the rest of the world, to whom economic collapse is a daily reality.
Don't mistake my prediction for paradigm shifting change as a sign of wanting to run and hide, or be negative. Change is GOOD, and it always comes. We americans cling to our money, security, materialism, and wrap it in ignorance and apathy.
Of cousre this is a big generalization of things, but I sense that BIG changes are in store for this country for the next 100 years. The ones who can adapt and see beauty in a rebirth of what America is, will flourish. The ones who feel mad that all they are "entitled" to in this post WWII, we are kings of the world world, is being taken away will not do so well.
What America and most of the western world has promised to it's people as a right and an entitlement cannot sustain. We all feel sad that the WWII economic bonanza won't last forever, but seeing that it will change is a positive thing for me. I like to be around people who see and chase dreams that are real and grounded in a future reality, and alot of the people (most to be sure) don't see what really matters.
Change is GOOD! Clinging to the past and listenting to poisoned polarizing politicians is bad.
Dave
Actually I do agree with Dave on more than that one thing. Didn't want to let you think I didn't.
Mom
Okay folks, I�ve waited long enough to comment. I just wanted to see how far and deep this obstinate topic would go before slowing down to whimper. Well, truthfully I just read this entry for the first time so here goes...
Grandpa makes the best comment. Don�t run away. Work hard to make real change and to facilitate organized action. No country was ever built by people shying away from adversity.
Now on to you bunch of doomsday duds. Of course, we�ve all thought about what would happen if the real world war happens. I mean Duh! That goes without saying. If there�s anyone left that hasn�t realized yet that bombs and religion aren�t going to save the planet� it will be easy to figure out after the big war, because you all will be first to meet your peril.
The brighter side: Necessity is the mother of invention. If there�s one thing humans can do, it�s invent themselves out of a jam. It�s already started. Who had ever heard of a Hybrid car 5 years ago? Now a show of hands, who knows someone that drives one? I do, and I bet you do to. Who knows someone that has started combining trips to save gas this year? I do, and I bet you do to. Who knows someone that 10 years ago could have voted but never cared enough to do so, and now votes? I do, and I bet you do to. Who knows someone that used to think global warming doesn�t exist but admits it does now? I do, and I bet you do to. Who knows someone that was really scared of terrorists after 911, but now is more afraid of their own government? I do, and I bet you do to. Who knows someone that�s heard the saying �absolute power corrupts absolutely�? I do, and I bet you do to. Who knows someone that is optimistic instead of pessimistic and that believes that real change for the better is upon us? I do, and I bet you do to.
Live for today, act for tomorrow. Dance like nobody�s watching.
Dan
Well, I have tried to leave a comment, but don't seem to be getting through. Never mind. I just suggested looking for a book by John Christopher, who writes science fiction for young adults. It's about a doomsday of another kind, where a young boy is the sole survivor of a disease that wipes out all mankind, and how he eventually meets a couple of other survivors, and how terribly lonely it is for them all.
Love, Aunt Irene
I'm trying again.
Ah, that seemed to work. Now I can add that I think this world can be pretty crazy sometimes, but it's the best we've got. There are a lot of good things in it, not the least of which is the relationships we build. Don't give up on finding the ecstasies along with the agonies of human experience.
Irene
What kind of trouble were you having? And what's the book called?
We've seen some movies over the years (one about 3 survivors in Australia, then the Will Smith one). I do know there is more to everything, to existence, to life, to consciousness, than we have limited ourselves to think about. More than politics and petty bickering of the day. With regard to that, I will have to reiterate whoever it was (Solomon?) who said "There is nothing new under the sun."
Mom
Oh, darn, I just can't remember the name of the book. I don't even know if it's available any more. John Christopher was popular when I was teaching in an elementary school, and his trilogy about the Tripods was on the sixth grade novel list. It's not in the library any more, but they did recently republish that set. Anyway, I read some of his other things because he had a really interesting view of existence. I was fascinated by the one where the kids go through a time warp and find themselves in an alternate world where Rome never fell.
I'm not sure of the trouble I was having, but I think probably I typed in the security word wrong, and then closed the file thinking I had gone through. It's probably okay now that I know what to watch for.
I'm going to try looking up John Christopher and see if I can find the name of the book for you.
Irene
P.S. Yeah, I was really interested in the Armageddon story set in Australia. Nuclear disaster, that time. What was it, "On the Beach"?
Aha! I found all John Christopher's books at Amazon. The one I was thinking of is called Empty World, 1977. I'm tempted to send for a used copy. The Roman story is a series of three books called Fireball, 1981, New Found Land, 1983, and Dragon Dance, 1986. I remember now that the second one in that series was about the kids coming to America, only it had never been discovered, except by the Vikings, and the third book was something to do with the Aztecs, who also had survived to the present because the conquerers had never come.
I might just have to send for these, too. Hmmm.
Irene
those sound like FUN to read. LOVE alternative history.
There's a guy now (don't remember his name)who writes about the civil war (south won)from that point on until now. Interesting. Covington is much bigger than Cincinnati and Iowa is a free state.
Mom
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