The Declaration of Independence states that every person possesses three inalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Two hundred and forty-seven years have passed, and we have mostly forgotten what those words mean.
Today it seems that most of us think that the pursuit of happiness means the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain and distress. This confusion can best be explained by the dumbing down of America which we covered in our last video, and the gross lack of spiritual enlightenment in today’s society. In modern society the childish Atheist will often ask; if there is a GOD, why do bad things happen to good people? As if the Earth is supposed to be a Utopia where humans are born to experience nothing but pleasure. Like all Utopian ideations, this is a fantasy for the weak-minded who seek to avoid the pain of life. Bad things happen to everyone so that we can overcome them, learn, and grow.
The Earth is nothing at all like a Utopia. It is a wild place where one must kill in order to live. It does not matter if one is carnivore, vegetarian, or vegan. And it does not matter if you pay someone else to kill for you. Life can only be sustained by life. And perhaps this is why civilization was created, but more often than not, they have served the tyrants at the top, while enslaving the people to run whatever system has been put into place. But in 1776, our founding fathers drafted something very unique. Perhaps the most revolutionary form of spiritual self-government ever penned to paper.
Robert Rodale was a pioneer in the fields of organic gardening and local food production, as well as a giant in the publishing world. His words often ring more true today than when he wrote them, which is a gift in itself. I have reproduced some excerpts here from a small volume in my collection, which hold even more power given the fact that they were written in 1981.
For many, those bad times have visited their neighborhoods already, so they definitely hit a little too close to home.
For example:
“…we are heading into a soil and food crunch. I am convinced that the days of surplus farm and food production are almost over. My guess is that you haven’t heard or read about that possibility anywhere yet, except right here in these pages. But it is bound to happen…”
“The disruption of normal social and economic activities caused by a worldwide food shortage would probably increase the attractiveness of both gold and soil as investments. But I feel that if you compare the relative merits of each, soil is clearly the winner. And because of the shortage of food that is likely to occur within this decade, soil will soon replace gold as the most talked about and symbolic thing of enduring value.
This is going to happen because people have always put a higher value on things that are rare. Gold has always been rare, and will remain so, even though more is being mined all the time. But soil has never before been at short supply on a worldwide basis. Erosion and encroachment of deserts have ruined the soil of large regions, and their have been famines caused by bad weather. But never have people had to contend with the thought that, on a global basis, there isn’t enough soil to go around. Within a few years that will change. Soil will, for the first time, become rare.
A new symbolism of soil will develop. Until now, soil has symbolized dirt in the minds of many, especially city people who have little or no feel for the tremendous productive capacity of good soil. I think we are going to see that attitude change rapidly. Access to good earth will become the greatest of all forms of protection against inflation and a much stronger security blanket than it is now…”
“When you spend gold, it is gone. Soil properly cared for, is permanent…”
“I want to make one final point. Suppose you do have a hoard of small gold coins at home, and a food shortage develops here in the U.S. Hopefully, the cause will not be war, and it may not even be an absence of food in central storehouses. The shortage could be caused by transportation breakdowns, most likely a lack of fuel to carry food from farms to processing plants to supermarkets.
Where would you take your gold coin to buy food? In postwar Italy, as in this country several decades ago, small diversified farms could be found near all towns and cities. There were even truck farms within the city limits of New York. All are gone now. Many americans would have to walk or ride their bicycles for hours to get to a farm, and then likely would find an agribusiness operation with bins of one or two commodities on hand. Spending your coin would present a real challenge.
So the best fall back possession is not gold, but a large garden and a pantry of home-produced food.”
From the introduction by Robert Rodale, in the book titled “Fresh Food, Dirt Cheap (All Year Long!) by The Editors of Gardening Magazine.
“I wish to have an intimate relationship with earthworms, and soil”. – Michael Patrick McCarty
They are interested, of course, but not so interested that they would get up from their comfortable chairs and walk out through the snowy woods to witness that chaos of hooting and yowling that takes place during the great horned owl nesting season at the end of February. Wilderness and wildlife, history, life itself, for that matter, is something that takes place somewhere else, it seems. You must travel to witness it, you must get in your car in summer and go off to look at things which some “expert,” such as the National Park Service, tells you is important, or beautiful, or historic. In spite of their admitted grandeur, I find such well-documented places somewhat boring. What I prefer, and the thing that is the subject of this book, is that undiscovered country of the nearby, the secret world that lurks beyond the night windows and at the fringes of cultivated backyards.
From Ceremonial Time: Fifteen Thousand Years On OneSquare Mile, by John Mitchell, talking of the owls, the natural, and human history, of his semi-rural neighborhood near the close hangouts of Henry David Thoreau.
Some call this short video clip below the best three-minute stand up comedy routine of George Carlin’s long and illustrious career.
Recorded in 2010, I continue to be amazed at his far-reaching insight and complete understanding of how the world really works. No doubt George was speaking from personal experience, and he had a long time to think about ways to express his opinions. I suspect that his behind the scenes battle were legendary.
A few things can be said. George Carlin was absolutely fearless in the face of the truth as he saw it, and few people have demonstrated such raw and passionate power in an expose. He was a rare warrior of the tip-of-the -spear kind.
Without question, Carlin was also a modern day patriot of the first order, along the lines of Paul Revere and other Founding Fathers. He did not need anyone else to tell him that the Redcoats were at the gate.
In my mind he has been elevated to personal hero status, and everyone needs a few of those around to hang your hat on. I can only imagine what he would have to say just these few short years later.
George – we miss you so!
George Carlin’s “American Dream”
By the way – we would love to hear a bit about some of your personal heroes, particularly in light of recent world events.
