"Living Wild -- Wilderness and our place in it"

Nice little rant about the world: http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~savage/rants/wildness.html

Here's an excerpt:

A whole lot of meandering words about nothing....

"We pass through this world but once. Few tragedies can be more extensive than the stunting of life, few injustices deeper than the denial of an opportunity to strive or even to hope, by a limit imposed from without, but falsely identified as lying within."

~ Stephen Jay Gould

Sherpadog,

Yep. I guess having a life expectancy longer than 30 years is wasted on the author...
Anyone who believes a "pastoral perfection" life was lived by our ancestors needs to go camping for two weeks without gear.

-Blast

Which is better, quantity or quality? If you live to be 70, but do a job you hate until 65, was your life really better?

http://ezinearticles.com/?Read-This-Article-if-You-Hate-the-World&id=89280

Hmm, I'd say we have both quantity and quality over our predecessors. We certainly have a lot more choices, and the poor sap who chooses a path that they find unsatisfying deserves their misery until they make a better choice.

Real estate is just another possession. If we didn't stake out a claim on the land we live on, then we would, and do, fight about other covetous items. Land is only one facet of the struggle between the haves and the have nots. The author's views are perhaps germaine, but too narrow minded in that respect. The author also discounts whatever investment made into improving said chunk of land for the sake of the traveller, which I find wholly unacceptable. I do not intend to labor under the hot sun cultivating and cropping just so some freeloader can take what he wants and go on about his business without contributing his portion. Agriculture has long been proven to be far more efficient than hunting/gathering ever was. If venison is in greater market demand, then the rancher will grow deer instead of cattle. The author's premise is far too liberal for my tastes. As for community displeasure, once again I look to those wonderful liberal welfare programs which interfere so much with free market society. What's happening in New Jersey right now is a prime example. Politics and bureaucracy spoil everything.

Despite some social limitations that civilization makes inevitable, there is always one paramount choice in our existence that takes precedence above all others, and that is acceptance or rejection. I can change the things I control, choose to accept the conditions I cannot change, and find a way to live with those conditions in harmony with others, or be miserable. It is far easier for me to adapt to my surroundings than to try and adapt my surroundings to suit my desires. Those who learn that vital skill will get a lot more out of life.

Bear in mind that for any one of us who find our careers, our families, our social realms not what we wanted, there are a myriad of those past and present who would've killed to have what we loathe.

Listening to someone rant on about what might've been, could've been, or even should've been won't solve any problems, it only adds to the noise and puts the blame for their misery onto someone or something else. I much prefer to be a "glass is half full" kinda guy. Life is too short, you take what you can get and make the best of it; you could always have less.

It is always easier to quit trying and find a fault to blame than it is to never give up and be responsible for your own happiness. Life, such as it is for each of us, is a gift, in whatever form we are bestowed. It can either be wasted or relished. If a guy like Ivan Denitsovitch can find something in each day to be happy about, then how much moreso for us?

I'm very, very happy with the quality of my life. I have a great wife and two kids. I have an exciting, rewarding job that allows me to see the world. On the weekends I go hiking, canoeing, or other fun adventures. I turn 40 in a few months. Hopefully though medical science I'll still be doing this 40-50 years from now (except maybe swapping the kids for grandkids or even great grandkids). A dirty, brutish and short life doesn't appeal to me.

It's been my experience that people who complain about modern times are unhappy with modern times. The reason they are unhappy with modern times is because they made a lot of bad, dumb or otherwise crappy decisions in their lives. It then seems to me that it's a waste of time to listen to people who have made such poor decisions in their own lives. If they hate it so much they should work on changing their lives rather than whining about it.

Plus, complaining about modern times via a computer is just funny to those watching.

-Blast, who grew up so poor he had to borrow dirt.

Surveys can be spun easily enough by the format of the original questions that were asked.

I have a good family, a good life and have had very unique opportunities to do things, go places that I will remember for rest of my life. I also enjoy my work and do not and will not direct my life / goals based on others rants and surveys....

Let's see:
1. 60 percent of our population hates their job and only 30 percent tolerates it: love mine

2.Did you know that 45% of Americans surveyed hated their lives and only 10% was willing to say the loved their lives: LOVE mine.
3. In another recent survey done over 70% of Americans were divorced: Married 10 years this coming Feb. "Til Death do us part" means it.

4. Did you know that 50% of all Americans do not care for their neighbors and 40% of them will not even bother to have a conversation with them: Poker night, pool parties, movie & dessert night, group Christmas light hanging parties, etc. Do I live in the only good neighborhood around?

5. In fact 25% will not let their children play with the kids on either side of their home: DD1&2 regularely play with the children of seven neighboring families. It used to be nine, but two families moved. Sometimes they play at our house, sometimes they go over there.

6. Another recent showed that most Americans almost 66% did not like their communities, because they had changed over the years or there was too much traffic or some other legitimate reason. Actually in that poll only 10% loved their communities and got involved: LOVE it! I write the community newsletter, run our street's welcoming committtee and organize block parties.

7. Did you know that the average American watches 6 hours of TV per day and that most 79% said most of what was on TV was just BS: Hmmm, I watch the weather report in the morning and if I'm lucky The Simpsons on Sunday evening. That adds up to a little over 90 minutes of TV per week. The rest of the time the TV is off. We don't have cable or satellite tv, just plain old rabbit ears. I do watch DVDs while working out on the treadmill after I put the DDs down every other night.

I guess I'm a lucky dog.

-Blast

Our civilization has laws saying you can't just hunt for deer, even on your own property, any time you wish. Even when you can legally hunt deer on your property, within the season the law allows, you are still required to haul that deer into town and pay a small tax to have it tagged as legal.

I do have a couple cousins in WV who do hunt and fish out of season, they own a lot of land way back in the hills and are as close to living off the land as you can get these days. They cut their own trees and hauled them to their own sawmill and made limber and built their own houses from them. The hunt and fish as needed and the law overlooks them because they are responsible in they don't hunt more than then need.

1. 60 percent of our population hates their job and only 30 percent tolerates it:

I'm in the middle, I like mine but at times it gets borning and there are other things that I'd love to be doing so I can't say I really love it, but it pays well enough that my wife can stay home and raise our kids.

2.Did you know that 45% of Americans surveyed hated their lives and only 10% was willing to say the loved their lives:


Love mine too, might be a time here and there that i wish I would have done something different (like not listneing to our in laws advice on things) but overall I love mine.


3. In another recent survey done over 70% of Americans were divorced:

Married in 1995 here


4. Did you know that 50% of all Americans do not care for their neighbors and 40% of them will not even bother to have a conversation with them:

I used to but a couple of my neighbors moved away and trash moved in beside us so its not be choice.


5. In fact 25% will not let their children play with the kids on either side of their home:

I wouldn't anymore, don't want my kids and the middle of a drug deal that turns bad


6. Another recent showed that most Americans almost 66% did not like their communities, because they had changed over the years or there was too much traffic or some other legitimate reason. Actually in that poll only 10% loved their communities and got involved:

Thats mine, The city's plan to clean up bad neighborhoods was to move the bad people to neighborhoods like mine so they drag ours down with them.


7. Did you know that the average American watches 6 hours of TV per day and that most 79% said most of what was on TV was just BS:

I might turn ours on, we watch the discovery channel more than anything else but even recently its become more reality tv than educational tv. Even when its on I'm not watching it 100% as its been dumbed down enough that it can't hold my full attention, I have to have a laptop with me reading forums at the same time.

I'm curious, of the 45% in #2 that hate their lives, what percent are willing to do anything about it?

That makes you one of the lucky ones. But just because you are lucky, doesn't mean everyone is lucky.

It's been my experience that people who take all the credit for their good fortune have completely forgotten all the help they got along the way, i.e. good parents, good friends, good mentors. Those who don't acknowledge what others have done for them are the most self-centered (and deluded) people in the world.

Rousseau was a romantic. And like most romantics he overlooks some details.

Fact being that people didn't get into farming because they just happen to need a hobby. He isn't entirely wrong in his observation: "Food grows everywhere, that's not really the problem."

Food does grow everywhere. Problem is that it may only be eatable once a year. Or in a form that it grows in may not be digestible by humans. Or it may be so dispersed that a single human would need to harvest the output of hundreds or acres, or spend every waking hours harvesting or processing it, to survive.

Organized farming and herding is a result of the simple desire for people to have a consistent and predictable supply of food that doesn't require the monopolization of every waking hour to keep from starving.

For all of its faults modern agriculture has done pretty well at providing a steady and predictable supply of usable, healthy food in amounts that keep the cost low enough that even the poorest in this society can afford to eat.

Go back in time just a hundred years or so and if you look closely you will find that the 'good old days' were not so very good. Many people literally starved to death. Nutritional deficiencies were rampant. Even people with enough food were eating food that was so tainted that a considerable percentage died every year. During the Spanish-American war more soldiers died of food poisoning that from enemy action.

The popular press is ripe with claims of how vaccines are poisoning or killing people. But the writers are seldom old enough or well researched enough to understand that diseases stalked the land and killed seemingly at random. So many fell or where afflicted that barely a family existed that didn't have at least one member that was affected. Everyone knew that vaccines were not entirely safe. But they also knew that they were way better than fighting the odds without them.

Which is my point. Nobody likes industrialization and industrialized farming. Nobody loves the risk and uncertainty of the poisons we use on our crops or the compromises to individual liberty and freedom that comes with regulation. Nobody likes that a certain number of children given a vaccine will have a reaction that may cripple or kill them. Nobody likes the down side of all these adaptations and compromises we have made.

But before we throw these adaptations aside we need to think long and hard about why these changes were made. Fact being that things were bad. So bad that many in this cloistered modern existence have forgotten how bad they were.

When entire families were hollowed out and crippled by food poisoning the intervention of the government and institution of inspections, regulations and controls was seen as a small price to pay for the safety gained. But now, five generations later, the memory of the scourge of tainted food is long gone. Just a footnote in a dusty history book for most.

The industries regulated tell us that regulations are not necessary. All in the cause of freedom they say. Overlooking that all their sweet talk about being responsible citizens and rigorously regulating themselves was heard before. They failed to toe-the-line a hundred years ago and there is no reason to believe that things have changed.

There is saying abut you never know what you have before it is gone.

For all its frustrations, compromises and achingly painful distortions of the human spirit imposed on us by modern life I have no desire to return to 1890. People in 1890 actively promoted and worked toward what we have now because for most Americans the majority of the time sucked.

If you want to return to that day and time do it. But remember that most of the stories about the 'good old days' were were not written by the average people of that day.

Thinking about it, I'd have to say I'm NOT lucky, I just learned to make good decisions. My dad taught me to save 10% of every paycheck no matter how sick the family is of eating rice. Both parents taught me it is better to buy stuff that make you money (seeds, land, stocks) than "toys". They taught me how to love my wife even when it's hard. Math class taught me the power of compound interest. The town I grew up in taught me farming is a hard way of life. The class bullies taught me how to stand up for myself. Being dirt poor I learned if I wanted something I had to make it, fix it or work my ass off to buy it. No one was going to hand me it for free. I learned to plan ahead, live within my means, and decide what is really important. I learned my decisions have consequences. If I don't want a bad result I need to make a good choice.

Some may say I was lucky to have parents like mine. I disagree with that premise. Every child is told these things in school, in cartoons, in stories, etc... The question is do they listen and act on it or do they decide to take the easy path even though it heads downhill. For 98% of people in the civilized world choose the life they live. A few good people are fated to have bad luck, a few are fated to have good luck. For the rest of us it's not luck it's choices. Heck, if it were just up to luck how do you explain all those lottery winners that have crashed and burned a year later?

It's not about luck, it's about choices.

-Blast

Did you know that 80% of statistics are made up on-the-spot???

I think you make your own luck!!! And reap the benefits of it!!!

Life is way too short to spend it in misery. That's why I've enjoyed living everywhere that I have been.

Married 30 years this Aug 4th (Coast Guard Day)!!!!!

Did y'all know that darned near 100% of all those who get up off their sorry butts and do something constructive with their lives not only get all their basic needs met, but often manage to acquire and experience certain luxuries that those who don't can't?

This "By Henry O'Mad" sounds a lot like 'ol Pol Pot.