Michael, your writing (in and of itself and as a manifestation of your thinking) is excellent. From one aspirational dilettante to another who has such a clearly intellectual and creative interest in the human condition broadly, and trying to make sense of the little world we live in now, you are appreciated. Thank you for continuing to share your thoughts.
I completely concur with Rachel's kind and generous comment, Michael. So many bits and pieces of this article resonated with me in different ways: the dilettante description which fits me to a 'T' I think, the picture of you dancing among the elephants in your peasant shoes, the feeling that Western Civilization is at risk but uncertain of the true source of the danger, suspicious of the clanging firehouse alarms going off from the usual suspects that are claiming the usual sources of danger...
Something that hit me most strongly though is this feeling of the need for the Old Boy Network, which I also feel. Yes, this is something that mostly no longer exists today, and we are both less and more for its loss I think. Men need this because of our need for the Old Guard to pass on their wisdom to we who are coming behind. Unfortunately, the good parts have been lost in the destruction, which also sent some toxic things to their rightful end.
I feel the threat to Western Civilization comes from something within, something moral and spiritual perhaps... - a loss of confidence, fewer children, the self focus, the moving away from cultural institutions that have sustained in the past, the loss of community...
You are unique, and needed, in the world in which we live. I wish I was close enough to sit and learn from you in one of the speak-easy's of which you write. Physical proximity is so important. If you are ever near the Driftless Region of Western Wisconsin, or the Twin Cities of Minnesota, I would love to go for a beer in one of our many, good local breweries.
Joe, I read your 'stack for May 23. Here's a verse for you, fellow pilgrim: "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." (from 1John1:5) ¶ God with us, and in us, and shining thru us! ~eric. MeridaGOround.com
Titus looks like an interesting guy. I’ll check him out. ¶ Wife and I sold our suburban home in 1988 and bought an old dairy farm where we lived and “hobby farmed” — raising sheep, making hay, big veggie garden, for many years — while both working downtown (no kids). So I tried the rural peasant gig, but like the fortune cookie sez: “man who ride two horses, fall off". (NYS was not affordable in retirement. We owned our farm debt free, but couldn’t afford taxes, so sold it and came south.) We have a good friend here in Mexico who writes backyardnature.net . He has been a modern Thoreau for many decades, in many countries, with the tiniest carbon footprint of anybody I’ve ever met. (He has a master's in botany.) ~eric. MeridaGOround.com
Good writing, as usual. Thanks. I, too, love being an amateur (a concept that has roots in the Latin word for love, not evident in our neologism "newbie"). Rationality, and western civ are coming to a head. I'm deeply concerned. Two books are in my thought. ARMAGEDDON: What the Bible Really Says About the End, by Bart Ehrman, a professor of church history (perpetually on best seller lists). Conventional Christians believe in a cataclysmic end, and as Plato somewhere said, we will eventually see what we believe. Book #2: (for serious stoics) PHILOSOPHICAL RELIGIONS FROM PLATO TO SPINOZA: Reason, Religion, and Autonomy, by Carlos Fraenkel. (Pricey, but accessible, and valuable.)
In "my dictionary" a peasant is someone who can feed himself and his family out of his small and defensible plot (a yeoman, in ancient Greece). I can see from personal experience (ie: "failure") that this is mostly a forgotten art. Real farmers are those who can feed themselves and perhaps a hundred neighbors. Today, they mostly "farm the government" — but Washington needs to keep them viable, lest we all starve. Yet the average age of today's farmer is creeping up, and that number is growing white whiskers and getting bald. ~MeridaGOround.
Michael, your writing (in and of itself and as a manifestation of your thinking) is excellent. From one aspirational dilettante to another who has such a clearly intellectual and creative interest in the human condition broadly, and trying to make sense of the little world we live in now, you are appreciated. Thank you for continuing to share your thoughts.
Thank you. That's what I'm trying to do. You made my day.
I completely concur with Rachel's kind and generous comment, Michael. So many bits and pieces of this article resonated with me in different ways: the dilettante description which fits me to a 'T' I think, the picture of you dancing among the elephants in your peasant shoes, the feeling that Western Civilization is at risk but uncertain of the true source of the danger, suspicious of the clanging firehouse alarms going off from the usual suspects that are claiming the usual sources of danger...
Something that hit me most strongly though is this feeling of the need for the Old Boy Network, which I also feel. Yes, this is something that mostly no longer exists today, and we are both less and more for its loss I think. Men need this because of our need for the Old Guard to pass on their wisdom to we who are coming behind. Unfortunately, the good parts have been lost in the destruction, which also sent some toxic things to their rightful end.
I feel the threat to Western Civilization comes from something within, something moral and spiritual perhaps... - a loss of confidence, fewer children, the self focus, the moving away from cultural institutions that have sustained in the past, the loss of community...
You are unique, and needed, in the world in which we live. I wish I was close enough to sit and learn from you in one of the speak-easy's of which you write. Physical proximity is so important. If you are ever near the Driftless Region of Western Wisconsin, or the Twin Cities of Minnesota, I would love to go for a beer in one of our many, good local breweries.
Joe, I read your 'stack for May 23. Here's a verse for you, fellow pilgrim: "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." (from 1John1:5) ¶ God with us, and in us, and shining thru us! ~eric. MeridaGOround.com
Thank you Eric. Beautiful. We fellow pilgrims need each other!
Titus looks like an interesting guy. I’ll check him out. ¶ Wife and I sold our suburban home in 1988 and bought an old dairy farm where we lived and “hobby farmed” — raising sheep, making hay, big veggie garden, for many years — while both working downtown (no kids). So I tried the rural peasant gig, but like the fortune cookie sez: “man who ride two horses, fall off". (NYS was not affordable in retirement. We owned our farm debt free, but couldn’t afford taxes, so sold it and came south.) We have a good friend here in Mexico who writes backyardnature.net . He has been a modern Thoreau for many decades, in many countries, with the tiniest carbon footprint of anybody I’ve ever met. (He has a master's in botany.) ~eric. MeridaGOround.com
Good writing, as usual. Thanks. I, too, love being an amateur (a concept that has roots in the Latin word for love, not evident in our neologism "newbie"). Rationality, and western civ are coming to a head. I'm deeply concerned. Two books are in my thought. ARMAGEDDON: What the Bible Really Says About the End, by Bart Ehrman, a professor of church history (perpetually on best seller lists). Conventional Christians believe in a cataclysmic end, and as Plato somewhere said, we will eventually see what we believe. Book #2: (for serious stoics) PHILOSOPHICAL RELIGIONS FROM PLATO TO SPINOZA: Reason, Religion, and Autonomy, by Carlos Fraenkel. (Pricey, but accessible, and valuable.)
In "my dictionary" a peasant is someone who can feed himself and his family out of his small and defensible plot (a yeoman, in ancient Greece). I can see from personal experience (ie: "failure") that this is mostly a forgotten art. Real farmers are those who can feed themselves and perhaps a hundred neighbors. Today, they mostly "farm the government" — but Washington needs to keep them viable, lest we all starve. Yet the average age of today's farmer is creeping up, and that number is growing white whiskers and getting bald. ~MeridaGOround.
Here is an American rural peasant. I really like this guy and his neighborhood. Most of us are urban peasants. https://youtu.be/Ir3eJ1t13fk