Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Livingontheland Digest, Vol 152, Issue 2

livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Liz <liz@allslash.org>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Livingontheland Digest, Vol 152, Issue 2
  • Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:59:55 -0400

At 03:06 PM 7/22/2008, you wrote:

I realize what you meant in all good terms. I was just trying to point out that as the pool of suspects shrinks, you end up with everyone knowing each other, and you no longer have 'suspects' to think of. A grandmother whose batch of potato salad goes bad is still the same person that she was before the potato salad made a few people sick. A mexican farmer with sick birds pooping on his field is still the same person to his neighbors that he was last year, but after a thousand Americans got sick from imported jalepenos, his entire group of countrymen have become "dirty suspects", as Iraqi farmers have become "suspected terrorists" whenever they approach a checkpoint with a truck full of melons.

Yep, you said it. If I get sick from eggs, beef, chicken, pork or milk, I know exactly where it came from (and since the farmer's family eats the same things they sell to me, they'd probably be sick too, so there wouldn't be any reason to call names).


I just feel like our country has become TV fantasy land, where nobody has to bury a dead cat, get permits for every nail they drive, or get their hands dirty without a commercial break. We are watched constantly, our finances are monitored, our children are surveyed and tested, and the sword of Democles takes the form of the FDA, the IRS, or the local zoning board, depending on what time of day we open our eyes.
Do I sound paranoid to you?

No more than me. We (the generic "we") use TV to isolate ourselves from real life, a/c and central heat to isolate ourselves from the natural world, supermarkets to isolate ourselves from the source of food, and mood enhancers (drugs--legal and illegal, alcohol, tobacco, shopping, etc, etc.) to make us feel better in our isolation. I think we're a country of borderline psychotics, but then I'm paranoid too.

Liz in SW VA
http://life-as-a-spectator-sport.com






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page