10-28-2022, 03:01 AM
Eric, I must remind you that Appalachia and the Ozarks have some beautiful scenery. Although neither I-44 in the Missouri Ozarks nor the West Virginia Turnpike can match the beauty of I-70 between Denver and Colorado Springs nor I-84 through the Columbia River Gorge, those highways are much more attractive than I-80 from Lincoln, Nebraska to Cleveland. One of my favorite long-distance drives is US 69 from McAlester, Oklahoma leading into I-44 to St. Louis, or back. Great Smoky Mountains National Park is magnificent. If I must drive to Florida from Michigan then I am taking that route.
Educational standards are generally poor, which is horrid preparation for any Good Life. The "honor" culture fosters violent assaults over trivial affronts for which the appropriate response to a d@mnyankee like me is to back off. If someone calls me a sissy for not fighting against such an affront, I simply want to avoid the situation. I prefer to avoid the broken fists or jaws that come from fist-fights that prove nothing.
(It may be ironic; I long thought myself a coward for not standing up for myself until finding that the Armed Services tell soldiers that backing off and getting out of the scene is the right, proper, and honorable way out of a situation that might get one into a military hospital). I have run from several fights, and the most serious effect of my "cowardice" has been running out of breath.
Neoliberalism allowed Big Business to abandon manufacturing in favor of importing. No nation gets rich by importing luxuries; the expensive English woolens that Indians wore in deference to their British overlords caused poverty for India, Gandhi got it right by suggesting that India revert to more traditional, locally-produced clothing. The Americans who I thought got hurt least by neoliberalism other than the rich were the Old Order Amish, who did not spend heavily upon electronic goodies and on cars. Need we go that far? I hope not!
Educational standards are generally poor, which is horrid preparation for any Good Life. The "honor" culture fosters violent assaults over trivial affronts for which the appropriate response to a d@mnyankee like me is to back off. If someone calls me a sissy for not fighting against such an affront, I simply want to avoid the situation. I prefer to avoid the broken fists or jaws that come from fist-fights that prove nothing.
(It may be ironic; I long thought myself a coward for not standing up for myself until finding that the Armed Services tell soldiers that backing off and getting out of the scene is the right, proper, and honorable way out of a situation that might get one into a military hospital). I have run from several fights, and the most serious effect of my "cowardice" has been running out of breath.
Neoliberalism allowed Big Business to abandon manufacturing in favor of importing. No nation gets rich by importing luxuries; the expensive English woolens that Indians wore in deference to their British overlords caused poverty for India, Gandhi got it right by suggesting that India revert to more traditional, locally-produced clothing. The Americans who I thought got hurt least by neoliberalism other than the rich were the Old Order Amish, who did not spend heavily upon electronic goodies and on cars. Need we go that far? I hope not!
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.