Let's adapt to something positive
(My Eastern New Mexico News column for August 5, 2020: https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2020/08/05/voices/opinion-lets-adapt-to-something-positive/166305.html)
Humans are adaptable. More so than any creature other than, possibly, cockroaches. It's our greatest strength. We have adapted to living almost everywhere on the planet, and soon, with the right technology-- an adaptation we've created-- off-planet, too.
We've adapted to a different diet than our ancestors ate. In some cases, we probably haven't adapted well enough yet, and our health can suffer the consequences, but we're getting there.
Not all adaptations are helpful. We have adapted to some things we should have resisted.
We've adapted to having our freedom and property rights trashed by the worst among us. Ironically, in the beginning they used the excuse of protecting our freedom and property rights as to why we should go along with what they were doing to us. They were lying.
We've adapted to the demand to hand our children over to the state to be indoctrinated during their most impressionable years. We are told this is for the purpose of educating them because we are incapable and too ignorant to educate them ourselves. If that's true, it's only because we were victims of the same indoctrination system in our youth. It's time to break the cycle.
We've adapted to tax burdens far beyond the levels which caused our ancestors to violently throw a government out of the country. Some people have adapted so well they want taxes to be even higher.
We recently adapted to stifling conditions imposed by governments using the excuse of Covid-19. Whether or not the restrictions were necessary, or even helpful in the slightest, most of us complied and adapted. Probably more than was healthy.
As bad as these things are on their own, it's more tragic to passively accept them. Most people have adapted so completely they don't even notice and accept it as "just how it is done". It doesn't have to be.
To adapt to certain conditions isn't anything to be proud of. You shouldn't tolerate having your natural human rights violated by anyone under any circumstances, but most of us do to some extent.
You are expected to adapt to even more restrictions with each new year. It's time to make a stand. If we lose this fight-- if we don't resist-- our grandchildren won't understand what they've lost.
Let's adapt to some positive things for a change, such as a life of liberty, including real property rights. The future can be great. It's up to us to make it so.
I feel like a SHTF event is imminent. Notice I don't say I think it is, rather it's just a feeling. Possibly triggered by the upcoming election.
I don't have a crystal ball. I'm almost definitely wrong.
If you can see it coming, it's not going to happen. That's almost a guarantee.
Just like the Coronapocalypse came at us out of nowhere, triggered by unexpected government overreactions to a fairly normal virus, a more serious event will also be a surprise. Consider the Coronapanic a practice run. It should have shown you the holes in your preps if you were paying attention.
I lucked out with the panicdemic because I was ready. Well, maybe it wasn't completely luck; I've prepped for years "just in case", and it finally paid off. I was pretty sure I wouldn't see it coming when it finally happened, and I didn't. But it didn't matter because I stay ready all the time-- and I have done so since well before the Y2K fizzle. I intend to be just as ready, if not more ready, the next time something ...
Sometimes it's good to just listen to people's stories without interrupting, even when you know the stories are nonsense.
My 2nd wife used to tell of a ghost that lived in her house when she was a kid. It was an interesting story even though I didn't believe it. I learned quickly that her family was very prone to believe anything as long as it fit with their magical worldview.
Other people tell me stories about beneficial things political government can do. These stories are no more true-- in the sense of being objective reality-- than ghost stories, but they can still be informative if you want to know which particular superstitions a person is living under.
Interrupt and you'll never hear the whole tale. Listen and you might be entertained by some fantastical tales of magical realms. Just don't bet your life on them being true.
My nature is such that I simply can't see government as a solution to anything. This puts me at odds with most of the rest of my species.
Yes, I think "social media" has become a horror. This doesn't mean I want government to regulate it; it means I think people who don't like it (or are too dumb to know not to take it at face value) should probably stop using it.
The same is true of so many other things I don't like.
Litter/pollution, scammers, sexual predators, abortion, animal cruelty, Hillary Clinton, poverty, drug abuse, pandemics, crime, and all manner of awful things.
I may hate them, but that doesn't mean I want government to step in. Look how often that has the opposite effect anyway; making the original problem worse-- or at least not solving it-- while also creating a host of new problems that never would have existed otherwise (anti-gun legislation being a perfect example).
And even if government intervention doesn't make this specific problem worse this particular ...
