OH YES, AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

from Murph

Yup, Christmas is over, the New Year has arrived; Obama and his crew are the next up to bat. The Democrats are already targeting the Bush administration for all the ills of our foreign and domestic policies, despite all of them being complicit. This leads me to suspect that things are not going to really change anytime soon.

Am I being overly pessimistic over the future? That depends on what I am looking at. For our country and most of the rest of the countries on this tired old earth, an attempt to continue in the manner that we have been for the last 150 years is an impossibility and of questionable benefit to all but a very few in the world anyway. All of the information I have been looking at for the last 5 years indicates our wasteful use of resources, particularly fossil energy, cannot continue because of geological constraints. The paramount question in my mind; is what will develop out of this condition? The population of this earth has overshot the earth’s capacity to feed and house everyone and it seems obvious to me there is going to be a rather vast population reduction. How fast and how extensive and in what manner this will be we can speculate on. But, it is going to happen. That realization alone is enough to get you into the extremist’s pessimistic camp for the new year.

Do I think there is a value to continue the human race? Yes I do. I guess that precludes some future changes to how existing humans organize themselves to maintain. Humans are simply going to have to change from the present paradigm to something else that is sustainable. I reckon that is an iffy optimism for the near future.

Which brings up the question for me as to why I would want the sad history of human existence to continue and to state it has value? Other than the egotistical satisfaction of having lived for some time, as human lifetimes go, and for a large part of it enjoying this existence, is there another value system for wanting humans to continue after my death? The first thing that comes to mind is of those a lot younger than me. I would want them to also enjoy the bounty of living on this planet and finding the enjoyment of doing so. Is that sufficient? I suppose if we want to answer that with a cliché we can say that it is coded in our genes to want to continue our species existence. And yet, so much of our behavior on this planet points to a death wish. Besides the destruction of our environment that we depend on for continuation, we do the whole war thing with attempts to exterminate ourselves with ever increasing war technology. It also includes the human capacity to exterminate those some particular group doesn’t like or that claim possession of something that is wanted, and that includes a large amount of the biota on this planet.

I find religion very unsatisfactory to answer these kinds of questions, and yet that is what religions are supposed to do. I find no universal panacea to make this easy.

So what do we have to look forward to in this new year? For me it is a hope that human beings on the whole wake up to the realization of how badly they have been conned, wake up to the realization of what they have done to the biosphere, wake up to how badly most people in this world live, wake up to the realization of how much negative impact we have had on nearly everything we have touched. Despite all of the advancements (if we can legitimately call it advancements) that have made a small proportion of the earths residents more comfortable and live longer and better than most, we are still not able to internalize the costs, understand how that came about. What we consider normal for living is only because we were born into it. Would the nomadic reindeer herders of the north consider their lives normal? Of course, and yet it is very different than our own, and in comparison, much harsher. For many residents of this world, their lives have been deliberately made brutish and unbearable due to the western countries looting and economically enslaving them.

So I guess I look forward in this new year to a revolt of some kind, rejection of the status quo, a changing of attitudes, and most definitely a shunning of the PTB and large government and institutions. Will it occur? Stay tuned, we shall find out.

I am dividing this post into two different subjects. This next is due to some comments on the previous post that I think needs to be addressed.

Freeacre gave a description of our rabbit harvest on New Years Eve on the last post. A comment on this expressed an inability to do the same. Believe me, I understand this. So I have a bit of self exposure on the subject.

I had been raised most of my childhood in some kind of country living to a greater or lesser degree. When I was considerably younger, being able to see my neighbor’s rooftop in the fall when the leaves were gone was close enough. As I grew older, every time I lived in a city I felt very uncomfortable and couldn’t wait to get out and back to having more elbow room. Those of you who have been at this site some time know that I had taken my then family (some years ago) and done a semi survival trip in the Ozark Mountains. It was pretty much back country living. For the most part, if it was to get done, (whatever it was), you did it yourself. The really big event of the day was the mailman coming down the road. It was quiet, except in the summer when the frogs got active and nearly deafened you in the evening. I was in hog heaven in many ways. And this brings me to the subject matter, supplying your own food.

The ground in the mountains is generally pretty bad for growing gardens and crops. So, you also had to depend on animal products for food, including milk. It was a long haul to town, 30 minutes over single track mountain roads to a paved road and another 30 miles to a real grocery store. We didn’t go very often. Maybe once a month. So, we supplied much of our own food, which included garden produce, rabbits and milk/meat goats.

Unless you are a hard line vegetarian, (which I am not) this necessitates killing animals. I know there are a lot of people out there that have killed a lot more animals than I have for sport, food, plain old orneriness, out of necessity because of threats or destruction, and to end suffering of the animal. I’ve done my share for sure.

Here is where my confession begins. Every time I did kill, for whatever reason, I felt uncomfortable to a greater or lesser extent. Every time. That includes the butchering of rabbits that Freeacre talked about. In fact, on New Years Day we had a friend request that we show him how to butcher a rabbit. So we did. He was very thoughtful when he left, stating he needed to think about the experience and talk with his wife about it. We do hope he wasn’t too shocked by the experience.

In the raising of animals, from household pets to animals that supply at least some of my nutrition, I feel responsible for their well being. If I cannot supply that well being, I shouldn’t be keeping them; they are completely dependent on my largess. It is also not a matter of turning them loose to fend for themselves either when you can no longer provide for them. Most domesticated animals are completely unfit to survive in the wild if the environment has predators or conditions they are not suited to deal with. So the question arises as to whether it is more humane to kill them or turn them lose. Some animals become a real nuisance or outright dangerous when turned lose. Ever seen a pack of feral domesticated dogs or a bunch of feral cats? I have. I’ve lived where there is an annual hunt for them because they became dangerous. The import of rabbits to Australia was a total disaster. Some will always get lose and if there are few or no predators, they become a real problem. However, I am more concerned with those domesticated animals that don’t have the instincts or ability to survive if they get lose or are turned loose. In this area, we have a problem with people that are no longer able to take care of their horses and they take them out to the forest land and either kill them and leave them lay or just turn them lose. Generally, a lot of the ones turned loose die of starvation or are found by people that are willing to take them in. This part of the country is not conducive to their independent survival.

Raising animals for food involves butchering them. It is a messy affair, no argument. But, the question must be dealt with concerning how meat animals are raised and butchered commercially on the industrial farms which supply most of the meat in the Western countries as opposed to individuals doing it. The contamination of meat animals with hormone injections and questionable feeding practices and the horror of how they are dealt with in the butchering processes are awful. I can understand for that reason alone why someone would become a hard line vegan. I can also understand the difficulty for individuals unable to engage in this butchering activity. However, I think that in the not too distant future, it is again going to become more common for individuals to supply their own meat out of necessity. The question is whether it will be a humane quick death with reverence for the life you have taken or not? Will you give thanks for the sacrifice of that life form for your benefit or look upon it as a right and entitlement? Will you view that life with compassion, and understand that life has feelings and a desire to continue its existence? So Freeacre and I will continue to sage and give thanks for that life being extinguished for our continued well being. aho.