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[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

Comments within, marked with asteriks

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--- On Mon, 12/8/08, Clansgian AT wmconnect.com <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com> wrote:

> 
> Back??
> 
> Heavens no.  We are going forward.  We will not go "back" to a previous way 
>  of life.  Understand that I am not an 18th century homesteader, I am a 
> 21st centruy homesteader.  I am not a ghost from the past, rather I am a 
> foreshadowing of the future.

****** Okay, is this one of those 'the past is prologue' riddles?
> You are saying you are 'not' the past though you use the tools and methods 
> of the ones who are past.  You say you foreshadow the future 'as' you use 
> the methods and tools of the past. ???




> There is no going back.


*****  But ; in method and lifestyle, you did go back, James.  That is part 
of your success and mystique.  You have separated much in the ways of Susan's 
"plain" people, by going back.  How do you say "There is no going back" ?  
You went back ?
> 



> 
> The same as we cannot go "back", we also can't stay where we are either.  
> It is fading away visibly beneath our feet even as we
> correspond. 

****** More riddles.  I feel like I'm trying to explicate part of "The Four 
Quartets".  





> ALL going to some place different than we are right now.  The only thing to 
> choose is what that place will be for us specifically.


******  That is at the heart of my dilemnas.  I have, now, multiple choices; 
and I still have time to narrow my choices for the most rewarding future, I 
can provide.  What is wrong with taking time that I have to make sure that I 
am making the right choices.  I also must use part of the time to tie up the 
loose ends of my current life.  That is unavoidable.
> 


> What the masses face is institutional housing,institutional food, an urban 
> shadow existence of what we have now but with very, very diminished 
> resources.  People will die of longing and despair because they
can't adjust.  Many others will adjust and make the most of what existence 
theyfind in the near future.
> 

***** Now, you sound like Tolstoi.  Do you think everyone who isn't like the 
people on this list are going to be the institutionalized masses?  Why, Why 
do you think that most Americans will just give up and accept a dreary fate?  
I don't believe that; I will state my dusagreement with you on that point.  
While there are many morons around, there are many bright , kind, ingeneous 
people.  I act like a don't care for people.  That is part of my personae.  
But, the truth is there are many impressive people.  Some have much in what 
we call 'wealth'.  Does all of their property dissappear?  If so, why will 
the properties of my rural brothers not also dissappear?



> The large institutions from the mega banks, to the auto makers, to the 
> giant store chains, and ... the important one ... the mega agribusiness 
> farms are all doomed.

****** Why are the people going into large institutionalized , bleak living 
situations, but the large institutional Ag, Banks, etc, going to dissappear.  
You are arguing for and against institutionalazation.



  The opportunities in their wake are legion. But those who thrive 
> will be the industrious ones.


*******   Now, the two lines above are important.  there are many industrious 
peo-le, what is going to be the new industry in your "new" agrartian society?
> 


> For the masses little will change in the fabric of their lives except they 
> will not have their opiates.  From my perspective they will go from a grim 
> existence they were not aware of to a grim existence they are aware of.  
> Sucks to  be them.


****** I don't understand what you are saying above.  Are you saying now that 
most people will live as they have in the past, just with fewer toys and less 
comfort?  
> 


> In all of this, the rural agrarian life is a pretty attactive one.  It was 
> before this great change, it will be during this change,and it will be so 
> afterwards as well.   The rest??  Ya pays ya money (gold only, please) and 
> ya takes ya chances.

*****  That may be so, but you already said that most people will not be able 
to do that kind of life.  Society as a whole might change in a drastic way, 
but it has to continue to function ??
> 
> James