It rained the whole of yesterday. I walked out a bit at 10 AM to see if I could see a few things, but the wind here is strong and drives the temperature, from around 8-10 degrees to zero. It’s too humid to freeze or snow, though. Small mercies.
The first week I was down here – the last week of June – the weather was chilly and damp – the kind of damp that makes your knees and knuckles ache.
At first, I shrugged it off. Nothing’s perfect, I told myself.
Then a particularly cold blast from the ocean sent me scuttling to the provinces in search of warmer weather. But after a couple of days, I realized that with only English, a small town can pose problems, and I came back, sheepishly.
You can’t have beautiful old colonial houses, pristine air and water, safe streets… and complain because the weather is a bit chilly for a few months in the year. What kind of a pioneering attitude is that, I told myself.
Then again, I don’t fool myself I’m pioneer material. At heart, I’m a traditionalist. Even a bit of stick-in-the-mud. It’s an accident that I end up in the vanguard of things.
And the reason for that…the problem.. is rationality. I tend to argue things to their logical conclusions and then follow those conclusions – even when they don’t necessarily come easily. I call this a problem, because I’m not convinced that rationality is the best way to arrive at decisions. Instinct – gut – is better in most cases. And in some, just doing what the other fellow’s doing seems to work just fine. But I’ve always had a tendency to fall for beautiful symmetries – even when they’re misleading. Especially when they’re misleading.
And the beautiful, symmetrical argument is that the safest bet for most people is land.
They aren’t making cheap farmland in the US. There was still some in places like Alabama and Mississippi and Tennessee, until recently. But now it’s all been bought up. And what’s left is probably the dregs, as far as fertility goes.
Holing up in the Ozarks with a cache of ammunition probably works for some Americans. But somehow, I think a foreign born citizen taking to moonshine country might not work. It would be a shame to survive the Feds – and then succumb to the locals.
No offense meant.
In times of difficulty, people tend to stick to race and faith. I think it’s to be expected. I’ve begun to grow suspicious of everything foreign too – although personally, I’m nothing but a patchwork of foreign and borrowed.
It also sits much better with many people – morally – to hold a piece of dirt than to cling to ingots ….or scraps…of precious metal. Maybe childhood stories about golden calves…about Midas turning his little girl into gold…bother us at a certain level.
And gold mining is one of the worst businesses when it comes to water usage and damage to the environment.
Even if no one wants your piece of dirt…even if it crumbles with every other asset class into nothingness…..you can always scrape in the dust for turnips and roots. There’s something reassuring about that. Something solid.
You can’t eat wind – which is what we have an oversupply of now.
So – it’s land for many people.
And that’s what I’m seeing. Americans and Canadians are moving down here in something stronger than a trickle. Some of them, on a temporary basis. But the temporary seems to change into longer term for many.
My interest is both personal and professional. I came down to see for myself how the economic crisis is playing out in this part of the globe. And why Soros…among many other investors…is down here….
I’m on an assignment, it goes without saying. But one I’ve set myself.
I hope to leverage the information. How, I don’t know..
The counter-argument…Commodites are fungible and portable. Rents or profits from businesses (or government granted monopolies) do not require one to be geographically close to what generates them. Such sources of sustenance can allow one to immerse oneself in the humanities rather than sweat (not that the latter is necessarily inferior to the former).
Land on the other hand opposes occupation and non-tenancy. It will always be struggling to follow it’s own purposes, not those of it’s “owner.” Since it cannot be moved or stashed, it is easier to confiscate or otherwise encroached upon.
Whomever strives for self-sufficiency had better put down Plato or Zarathustra and immerse themselves in small engine repair, welding and carpentry.
That said, a bit of a redneck could do us all good. I don’t know if Karl Hess said that, but he would have.
I dream of dirt.
This was a good read.
Are you going to be able to sell the dirt next to your dirt?
I usually try to benefit from hearing a good counter-argument.
It’s well known that women make better welders than men – and – sloppy simple fixes are easy. J.B. Weld (like playdough) sometimes works just as well. A junk pile of metal plates and some bolts do wonders too. Or, better yet, do the farmer thing and think of a workaround.
Never throw nuthin’ away.
Many are the guys who will fix small engines or pound some nails and saw some boards in exchange for a home cooked meal, alcohol or some other service they cannot or will not provide themselves. I can see it now: (two neighbors or such) teach my kid to write some Plato and feed me a meal while I fix your motor and we’ll drink afterwards.
Or, use a hoe, a goat or a chain driven wind pump.
“Rents or profits from businesses (or government granted monopolies) do not require one to be geographically close to what generates them.” To that I think -add on, so far. That is something many governments are working on changing. I can’t count the number of times many in our city have tried to make it so landlords have to live in the state to rent out or own their property. When the economy gets really bad, the well connected successful businesses would act just like the giant monopolist and edge out the competition by lobbying for legislation requiring the owner to live in close proximity to their business. It sure makes it easier for governments to levy fines if the owner lives nearby. Just a hunch about the direction of the current trend.
“…Land … will always be struggling to follow it’s own purposes…”
So a great game plan would be to find what that purpose is and go with the flow and still make a profit?
Something tells me you didn’t have a winch on the front and a mud-hook for getting unstuck from the rice paddy. Some people pay good money for such an adventure ya know.
I wasn’t, Miserable in Metropolis in this LRC article, Finding Your Own Freedom http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/wolfe-c3.html
but I’m pretty darn close.
It sure does parallel your stuff quite well, especially your Fight or Flight series.
Down your way is soo tempting, if it wasn’t for the gun restrictions I’d be there in a flash. Like you said before though, a dual citizenship might not be such a bad idea in case the tax man makes things unbearable up here.
Yes – I read that. I like Claire Wolf a lot.
Why don’t you shoot me an email at my blog email address and let me see what I can do to help.
I don’t think you should let gun ownership decide for you. I am pro-gun ownership but I can assure you that things are not going to be decided by armed militias here or any where else.
The federal government has to be starved to death..