Dig This:
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/no-jobs-no-hope-no-future-27-signs-that-americas-poverty-class-is-rapidly-be
coming-larger-than-americas-middle-class
What are the practical options that can be applied to mitigate this situation?
Since my disability, we have been a One Income Bunch.I am a Cripple....and have found myself contributing in many unorthodox, nonmonetary ways.
Wife is in Public Ed, as well as various and sundry part time adventures.
This is Texas, and they've suddenly discovered a gigantic Hole in the State Budget.
In Texas, the fill for such a Hole is usually to be found in the Poor, and in anything "Public"....which usually includes
Schools.
What are we gonna do if the one, major job goes the way of the buffalo?
I shall herein set out what I have been doing, and what I plan to do....as well as certain , Normative, Hypothetical things I would Like to see....to meet this challenge....
First, what we Are Doing.
I cook...mostly from Scratch...
I keep much raw material in Bulk Storage.
My Pantry, that used to be the Garage is larger than my Bedroom.
I keep chickens, geese and ducks...I rarely buy eggs...and we're almost to the point in Infrastructure where we can be at
least somewhat "Meat Independent"....
I also endeavor to keep a large Garden....this is a work in progress,necessarily...we've only been here a year and a
half. By next year, we can foresee being almost Food Independent...less things like Flour and Sugar.
I can...everything I that fits in a Mason Jar.
I am a Master N***er Rigger ( I know, I know)....I inherited from my Pop an abilty to "Walk by, and Get It Done"...often
with found materials. I have learned, through the years, how to Rig things in many fields...electric, gas, etc. We have
become very good at being Poor.
I try to have Triple Redundancy...but I will gladly settle for Double Redundancy.
As an example, we get City Water...real cheap (which I expect to change, at some point).
There are 3 existing wells on the property, as well. I have "capped" 2 of them, and the third has a Hand Pump ready to
go (waiting on a part). I also have 300 gallons of rainwater storage capacity (a 1" rain) and the gutters to fill it from the roof over one room.
I heat with wood and propane....(the cost of the latter is a good enough reason to get up off one's butt to try new things.)
By necessity (No Jack) we must do for ourselves.
What I intend to do:
I'd like to install more gutters, and more storage for rain....
Ideally, we could get the empty lot next door. The birds need more pasture, and I'd like to have enough room to keep a Burro...(transportation...I wanna build a wagon)
I also reckon I need a Commercial Kitchen, as i have all the equipment....
Not only would this afford me more room, and wider capability in our own things...I could, conceivably, sell some of
what I make. The Market is not there, right now....but I expect it to be at some not too distant time.(see the link)
An attached Abattoir, and a Smokehouse....perhaps a Drying Room...
Also, there is room for more perennial food plants, like fruit trees, and a proper herb garden.(it;s scattered and
haphazard, now.)I have had in my head, for a long time, a Gas Digester. An Outhouse, of sorts, would hafta be constructed to feed
it...remember Shit= Methane="Natural Gas"....an almost universally wasted Resource.
A working Digester would lead me to consider a Generator....I haven't figured out how to run a fridge/freezer without the City.
Solar is still ridiculously expensive...and , as I'm in Town, now, Wind has regulatory entanglements.
If the power went away, today...we could get by, pretty well....but it would be damned uncomfortable.I call it a plus, that we could do it a lot easier than anyone I know.
What I'd like to see...
A Local Economy.....not the current Facsimile, of jewelry, saddles, Bed/Breakfast,Hunting, and Furniture....all that is dependent on Outside Markets...that can't be counted on to continue.
I'm talking about Important Things....like Toilet Paper, Food, Light/Heat...1000 Cattle come through this town in any given week....and not an ounce of that meat stays here.
I have learned, at least Theoretically, how do do most of the things a little Town actually Needs.(like toilet paper!)
Very few see the remotest need for such silliness...
BAU.
It is my contention that these types of things need to be put in place Now....even though there is no Profit in them....when there is profit, it will be too late.
By then, the Emergency will be in full swing.
For me, this is the most difficult thing...
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Scattered Thoughts on the Dialectic of Enlightenment,Horkheimer/Adorno
Enlightenment becomes Myth...it contains the Seeds of it's own
destruction.
Enlightenment is Totalitarian.
Could this be due to Hubris, to a lack of Humility?....the
Enlightenment gave rise to Certainty, that at long last, Man had
overcome Fear...of Death, of the unknown...And that in that
Self-Satisfaction,Man, as Master of Fate,lay the reassertion of Mythos.
Specifically, the Myth that Man has Overcome.
The falsehood of this Belief is apparent in the Feeling engendered by
the Pale Blue Dot.
We saw our insignificance in the vastness of the cosmos, and recoiled
in Fear...which we had thought to be vanquished.
The preenlightenment world of demons and gods gave way to a new form of
Duality, Subject/Object....as well as a new Hubris...that we can Know,
for Certain.
The Enlightenment kicked the Gods out of Heaven,and in their place,
erected new Gods...a Mythology of Knowledge, Universalism...then
Positivism.But we keep finding new Unknowns...the Universe is
exceedingly Large, both Within and Without...and the ever expanding
bubble of our collective Knowledge cannot contain it.
The Enlightenment took over the function of Myth that seeks to Explain,
to banish Uncertainty, and thereby, Fear.
Pointedly, even Enlightened people Die, eventually.
Turns out we are not Gods...and , in this sense, never can be.
The Turning Away from this unpleasant Truth, the denial of it's
importance, and the lack of a means of Accepting our ultimate Fate, is
what doomed the Enlightenment to become Myth.
We demystified the World, and left no room in our conceptualisation for
Uncertainty.
The thought occurs to me, in the middle of the first essay, that what
was left out of the Enlightenment Project was ,really, apprehended,
long ago.
Socratic Perplexity.
I know that I do not know.
Wonder, Awe, was excised.
Instead of observing the stars,for their own sake, we sought to
Understand....and when we ran up against the limits of our Knowledge
(ever expanding as it may be) we recoiled.
Perhaps the Species was not yet ready for Enlightenment...as much as it
pains me to admit.
So we invent Totalitarianism...Fascism...we pretend at Certainty, so
that we may ignore our Uncertainty, and the Fear of Death, the Unknown,
that seems hardwired into us.
What Hubris.
############
We have applied the Enlightenment to what used to be the domain of Religion...after killing God, we sought to replace Him with Reason, Universalised.
The problem we face, in my estimation, is: How do we Accept the essential Meaningless of Existence, without falling into Decadence and Nihilism?
If the only Objective Meaning to the Universe, and our very Existence, is the Meaning we impart...how do we learn to accept this...?
How do we not panic, react with terrific Violence, in the face of Meaninglessness?
I have said before that my own experience with the Mystical, the Ineffable, led me to appreciate that there is, indeed, a "Thing behind Things"....what most would call God...but that that Thing doesn't care one whit about us....it is entirely Indifferent.
The task is to reconcile, to our individual satisfaction, these Terrible Truths.
Ecclesiastes is my favorite book in the bible, for this very reason..."All is Vanity...and vexation of Spirit..."
Instead of recognising and accepting the Meaninglessness,and being OK with applying our own Meaning...we assert our presumed Specialness...despite the Irrationality of such an endeavor.
Universalism is the enlightenment's fatal flaw.
We cannot all be Philosophers...yet we all feel the need, as per the Enlightenment's Promise, to be Special.
Hence the ads on late night TV dealing with weight loss, tooth whitening..profits from one's home...all without sacrifice or reflection...
We attempt to give Meaning to a Meaningless Existence, by applying more Triviality.
When this, necessarily, does not satisfy, we turn away the Mind.
Hence, the Willful Ignorance so prevalent in our "Enlightened", Post Historical Age.
We, despite our pretensions, are Beasts...rolling and fucking in the mud.
Do we, therefore, abandon Enlightenment?
On the contrary, as in Habermas, I reckon we need precisely More Enlightenment....and most importantly, we must learn to get over ourselves.
Every generation has figured itself to be the Last, the Point to which all of Creation was directed.
Progress, as Myth.
The humility that I prescribe was present in the Pre-Indoeuropean Gylanic Culture.
(as near as we can tell)
One can find it, quite readily, in the Worldview of many Native American groups...
They didn't feel a need to Master Nature...which, when one gets down to it, is the unstated Purpose of Enlightenment...conquering Fear,the Unknown, the Capricity of the Not-Man.
When Decartes separated Subject from Observer, he was simply restating the Augustinian Duality that had gone before...which was, in it's turn, a restatement of the Common Wisdom of previous cultures.
Duality, Dichotomy, Man as somehow Separate from Nature, is the legacy of the Kurgans....and is, at root, a rebellion against Death.
destruction.
Enlightenment is Totalitarian.
Could this be due to Hubris, to a lack of Humility?....the
Enlightenment gave rise to Certainty, that at long last, Man had
overcome Fear...of Death, of the unknown...And that in that
Self-Satisfaction,Man, as Master of Fate,lay the reassertion of Mythos.
Specifically, the Myth that Man has Overcome.
The falsehood of this Belief is apparent in the Feeling engendered by
the Pale Blue Dot.
We saw our insignificance in the vastness of the cosmos, and recoiled
in Fear...which we had thought to be vanquished.
The preenlightenment world of demons and gods gave way to a new form of
Duality, Subject/Object....as well as a new Hubris...that we can Know,
for Certain.
The Enlightenment kicked the Gods out of Heaven,and in their place,
erected new Gods...a Mythology of Knowledge, Universalism...then
Positivism.But we keep finding new Unknowns...the Universe is
exceedingly Large, both Within and Without...and the ever expanding
bubble of our collective Knowledge cannot contain it.
The Enlightenment took over the function of Myth that seeks to Explain,
to banish Uncertainty, and thereby, Fear.
Pointedly, even Enlightened people Die, eventually.
Turns out we are not Gods...and , in this sense, never can be.
The Turning Away from this unpleasant Truth, the denial of it's
importance, and the lack of a means of Accepting our ultimate Fate, is
what doomed the Enlightenment to become Myth.
We demystified the World, and left no room in our conceptualisation for
Uncertainty.
The thought occurs to me, in the middle of the first essay, that what
was left out of the Enlightenment Project was ,really, apprehended,
long ago.
Socratic Perplexity.
I know that I do not know.
Wonder, Awe, was excised.
Instead of observing the stars,for their own sake, we sought to
Understand....and when we ran up against the limits of our Knowledge
(ever expanding as it may be) we recoiled.
Perhaps the Species was not yet ready for Enlightenment...as much as it
pains me to admit.
So we invent Totalitarianism...Fascism...we pretend at Certainty, so
that we may ignore our Uncertainty, and the Fear of Death, the Unknown,
that seems hardwired into us.
What Hubris.
############
We have applied the Enlightenment to what used to be the domain of Religion...after killing God, we sought to replace Him with Reason, Universalised.
The problem we face, in my estimation, is: How do we Accept the essential Meaningless of Existence, without falling into Decadence and Nihilism?
If the only Objective Meaning to the Universe, and our very Existence, is the Meaning we impart...how do we learn to accept this...?
How do we not panic, react with terrific Violence, in the face of Meaninglessness?
I have said before that my own experience with the Mystical, the Ineffable, led me to appreciate that there is, indeed, a "Thing behind Things"....what most would call God...but that that Thing doesn't care one whit about us....it is entirely Indifferent.
The task is to reconcile, to our individual satisfaction, these Terrible Truths.
Ecclesiastes is my favorite book in the bible, for this very reason..."All is Vanity...and vexation of Spirit..."
Instead of recognising and accepting the Meaninglessness,and being OK with applying our own Meaning...we assert our presumed Specialness...despite the Irrationality of such an endeavor.
Universalism is the enlightenment's fatal flaw.
We cannot all be Philosophers...yet we all feel the need, as per the Enlightenment's Promise, to be Special.
Hence the ads on late night TV dealing with weight loss, tooth whitening..profits from one's home...all without sacrifice or reflection...
We attempt to give Meaning to a Meaningless Existence, by applying more Triviality.
When this, necessarily, does not satisfy, we turn away the Mind.
Hence, the Willful Ignorance so prevalent in our "Enlightened", Post Historical Age.
We, despite our pretensions, are Beasts...rolling and fucking in the mud.
Do we, therefore, abandon Enlightenment?
On the contrary, as in Habermas, I reckon we need precisely More Enlightenment....and most importantly, we must learn to get over ourselves.
Every generation has figured itself to be the Last, the Point to which all of Creation was directed.
Progress, as Myth.
The humility that I prescribe was present in the Pre-Indoeuropean Gylanic Culture.
(as near as we can tell)
One can find it, quite readily, in the Worldview of many Native American groups...
They didn't feel a need to Master Nature...which, when one gets down to it, is the unstated Purpose of Enlightenment...conquering Fear,the Unknown, the Capricity of the Not-Man.
When Decartes separated Subject from Observer, he was simply restating the Augustinian Duality that had gone before...which was, in it's turn, a restatement of the Common Wisdom of previous cultures.
Duality, Dichotomy, Man as somehow Separate from Nature, is the legacy of the Kurgans....and is, at root, a rebellion against Death.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
An open letter to Judson Phillips:
Dude,
Just because you say shit doesn't make it true.
(from:http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/421479/a_peek_at_the_tea_party%27s_priorities/#paragraph5)
Judson Phillips:"Liberal hero and man voted most likely to be an ACLU board member, Joseph Stalin...."
;"There are only two parties and the socialists have absolute control over the other party."
"In this past election, the left made a concerted effort at voter fraud. This fraud effected elections."
"In socialist states like California or corrupt, I mean Democrat controlled states, like Illinois, it will be very tough. If we are going to win, we must. If we do not eliminate liberal voter fraud, our votes won’t matter because they will not be counted."
"The left knows it cannot win free and fair elections. They can only win by cheating."
I mean, WTF?
I have been trying to understand the Right since 9-11.
Recently, I attempted to get it "from the horse's mouth"....I "joined" your little website,Tea Party Nation.
What prompted this move, which was done without subterfuge, was an article regarding the banning of the teaching of Culture in Arizona schools...something to do with Mexican Culture.
I didn't get what the hubbub was about, so I joined up and asked.
The first few respondents were understanding...they didn't bite my head off. This was a welcome surprise.
One woman, however, lashed out at me, saying that hatred of Americans flowing North from Mexico was a good enough reason to ban any attempt at fostering cross-cultural understanding....and getting the history of the US' annexation of the South West completely wrong.
(ie: that Mexico sold it all to us, because, it was implied, they were evil(?)....Mexico did sell it , but only after we invaded them and encircled their capital.)She then went on to state that Jesus is the Only Path to Wisdom...and that if ya don't like it, your doomed to Hell....
Soon after correcting, gently, this woman's error, I found myself Banned!
It seems that you guys can't handle a little opposition, a little Dissent, in your one sided, Black and White World.
And you are just one of many...
The Becks, and Bachmans and Palins of the world have embraced a surreal characiture of Reality....and no amount of evidence will convince you of your error.
This would be fine, if it wasn't so dangerous.
After all, it is your Right to believe BullShit...a Right I will defend, vigorously.
But you have taken perhaps a third of the country with you on your freakout....convinced them that Liberals love Stalin (!?), that we want to do all the things that your boy, Bush2 wanted to do(Camps, anyone?), and that it is "Liberal" policies that have driven the Economy off the cliff.
When reality breaks through your defenses, it is ignored...or, worse, held up as evidence of the veracity of your version of the "Truth"....
This makes it impossible to talk to you....or even be in the same room....the threat of Violence is always there.
(I have tasted this Violence, when my views didn't agree with "Conservative" Principles, and when those "principles" couldn't be defended,the answer was to attempt to strangle the offending "Socialist/Commie/Traitor".)
Lets take the statements from your missive that really stood out, for me:
1;"Liberal hero and man voted most likely to be an ACLU board member, Joseph Stalin...."
Where, pray tell, do you get this? How do you justify such a statement?Do you have any examples?
2
;"There are only two parties and the socialists have absolute control over the other party."
Please define "Socialist", and show how the Democratic Party is "controlled" by Socialists....You folks throw around these words...but I don't really think you know what they mean...they are more like dog-whistles for your fearful supporters. Prove me wrong...
3"In this past election, the left made a concerted effort at voter fraud. This fraud effected elections."
Evidence? This looks like classic Projection to me.
You don't remember the 2000 election? Or the one from '04?
Your side was caught red handed, and it was only through Political Intimidation (attorney scandal) that you were able to get away with it.
Ken Blackwell? Katherine Harris? surely you remember....
4"In socialist states like California or corrupt, I mean Democrat controlled states, like Illinois, it will be very tough. If we are going to win, we must. If we do not eliminate liberal voter fraud, our votes won’t matter because they will not be counted."
Again...evidence?
5"The left knows it cannot win free and fair elections. They can only win by cheating."
Really.
A member of the rabid right is gonna level that charge?
Remember the White Shirt Mobs?
Remember, just this last election, in Houston, and elsewhere, the Intimidation of voters....the head stomping?
Remember, in 2000, the supreme Court stepping in?
(and that whole fiasco being blamed on Gore?when it was Bush who brought suit.......)
Really, dude...if there is any one group who can't win an argument, without resorting to Ad Hominem, Misrepresentation of Facts,Fearmongering, and...if all else fails...Violence, it is the Right.
If you take offense at what I have to say....refute it.
I welcome such engagement.
Just because you say shit doesn't make it true.
(from:http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/421479/a_peek_at_the_tea_party%27s_priorities/#paragraph5)
Judson Phillips:"Liberal hero and man voted most likely to be an ACLU board member, Joseph Stalin...."
;"There are only two parties and the socialists have absolute control over the other party."
"In this past election, the left made a concerted effort at voter fraud. This fraud effected elections."
"In socialist states like California or corrupt, I mean Democrat controlled states, like Illinois, it will be very tough. If we are going to win, we must. If we do not eliminate liberal voter fraud, our votes won’t matter because they will not be counted."
"The left knows it cannot win free and fair elections. They can only win by cheating."
I mean, WTF?
I have been trying to understand the Right since 9-11.
Recently, I attempted to get it "from the horse's mouth"....I "joined" your little website,Tea Party Nation.
What prompted this move, which was done without subterfuge, was an article regarding the banning of the teaching of Culture in Arizona schools...something to do with Mexican Culture.
I didn't get what the hubbub was about, so I joined up and asked.
The first few respondents were understanding...they didn't bite my head off. This was a welcome surprise.
One woman, however, lashed out at me, saying that hatred of Americans flowing North from Mexico was a good enough reason to ban any attempt at fostering cross-cultural understanding....and getting the history of the US' annexation of the South West completely wrong.
(ie: that Mexico sold it all to us, because, it was implied, they were evil(?)....Mexico did sell it , but only after we invaded them and encircled their capital.)She then went on to state that Jesus is the Only Path to Wisdom...and that if ya don't like it, your doomed to Hell....
Soon after correcting, gently, this woman's error, I found myself Banned!
It seems that you guys can't handle a little opposition, a little Dissent, in your one sided, Black and White World.
And you are just one of many...
The Becks, and Bachmans and Palins of the world have embraced a surreal characiture of Reality....and no amount of evidence will convince you of your error.
This would be fine, if it wasn't so dangerous.
After all, it is your Right to believe BullShit...a Right I will defend, vigorously.
But you have taken perhaps a third of the country with you on your freakout....convinced them that Liberals love Stalin (!?), that we want to do all the things that your boy, Bush2 wanted to do(Camps, anyone?), and that it is "Liberal" policies that have driven the Economy off the cliff.
When reality breaks through your defenses, it is ignored...or, worse, held up as evidence of the veracity of your version of the "Truth"....
This makes it impossible to talk to you....or even be in the same room....the threat of Violence is always there.
(I have tasted this Violence, when my views didn't agree with "Conservative" Principles, and when those "principles" couldn't be defended,the answer was to attempt to strangle the offending "Socialist/Commie/Traitor".)
Lets take the statements from your missive that really stood out, for me:
1;"Liberal hero and man voted most likely to be an ACLU board member, Joseph Stalin...."
Where, pray tell, do you get this? How do you justify such a statement?Do you have any examples?
2
;"There are only two parties and the socialists have absolute control over the other party."
Please define "Socialist", and show how the Democratic Party is "controlled" by Socialists....You folks throw around these words...but I don't really think you know what they mean...they are more like dog-whistles for your fearful supporters. Prove me wrong...
3"In this past election, the left made a concerted effort at voter fraud. This fraud effected elections."
Evidence? This looks like classic Projection to me.
You don't remember the 2000 election? Or the one from '04?
Your side was caught red handed, and it was only through Political Intimidation (attorney scandal) that you were able to get away with it.
Ken Blackwell? Katherine Harris? surely you remember....
4"In socialist states like California or corrupt, I mean Democrat controlled states, like Illinois, it will be very tough. If we are going to win, we must. If we do not eliminate liberal voter fraud, our votes won’t matter because they will not be counted."
Again...evidence?
5"The left knows it cannot win free and fair elections. They can only win by cheating."
Really.
A member of the rabid right is gonna level that charge?
Remember the White Shirt Mobs?
Remember, just this last election, in Houston, and elsewhere, the Intimidation of voters....the head stomping?
Remember, in 2000, the supreme Court stepping in?
(and that whole fiasco being blamed on Gore?when it was Bush who brought suit.......)
Really, dude...if there is any one group who can't win an argument, without resorting to Ad Hominem, Misrepresentation of Facts,Fearmongering, and...if all else fails...Violence, it is the Right.
If you take offense at what I have to say....refute it.
I welcome such engagement.
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