Nothin’.
Well, mostly nothin’. I did use up the rest of last year’s amazing apple crop making two kinds of chutney and lots of applesauce (some of which will turn into apple butter). But I’m done with that phase of my life now.
The dogs are glad it’s over. Boiling chutney makes them sneeze. The tang of fruit cooked in vinegar with pungent spices makes the house smell really nice for days (IMO; NSM in the dogs’ O).
Other than that, nothin’.
—–
I did start re-reading Atlas Shrugged, which I got last Christmas. Hadn’t visited it in maybe 10 years and my first thought was, “Wow, I like this story as much as ever, but everything anybody ever said about Rand being a leaden writer was absolutely true. How did I ever get through this — let alone be awestruck by it — when I was 19?”
Then the story and its meaning caught me up. Pretty soon, I was reading it while stirring chutney because I didn’t want to put the book down.
Rand got so much right (even foresaw sloppy loan-to-anybody practices like those that helped trigger the 2008 crash) and got so much wrong (totally missed the consumer culture and innovations in technology that would sustain the U.S. for years after its industrial base collapsed).
Above all, Atlas gives comfort and inspiration for any individualist living in a collapsing, collectivist world.
Though Rand barely mentions guns, reading Atlas has helped me get my mind & spirit out from the shadow that’s loomed over them since the Newtown shootings.
—–
Man, the Five Questions thing worked great!
Commentariat — pat yourselves on the back! I’m not at all surprised, but gratified nonetheless, that … well, erm … you don’t actually need me.
In fact, that worked so well I think I’m going to make a freedom question a regular Friday feature so people can keep coming here over the weekend for the discussion even when I’m laying low.
—–
Laying low was good, too. Actually, it took about four days for me to quit being restless. It took time — and a 1200-page dead-tree book — to detach myself from news, politics, and other less-savory aspects of ‘Netly reality.
Laying low. Reading books on paper. Hitting the kitchen — or the home-improvement routine. Does wonders for one’s sanity.
—–
Also one afternoon I had to drive a friend to the Medium-Big City where her car broke down and she needed to pick it up from the shop. This is not the little market town I jokingly call The Big City. Nor is it the genuinely Big City. But this is one big enough to have Real Stores. Not cool stores like Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. But good enough.
While there I grocery shopped at a Safeway. Now, you who live in Civilization may wonder why anybody would bother to mention anything so mundane. But for me it was like a trip to Disneyland.
Wow. A store whose Greek yogurt section is bigger than the every, single kind of yogurt section in the local stores. I stood there amazed and took 15 minutes just to choose. Imagine that — choose! (I still make my own yogurt, but not in winter when my house never gets warm enough to enable the yogurt maker to produce anything beyond a sort of yogurt-flavored soup.)
Wow. A store with strange veggies I’ve never seen in actual person before.
Back when I lived in Civilization, I took stores like Safeway for granted. Mostly I didn’t even like them (for their obnoxious “club cards” and the like). But somehow that hour I spent wandering those clean, beautiful, abundantly stocked, and softly lighted aisles lifted my spirits. In fact, that hour in Safeway was the thing that set me on the path to a better mood and, finally, a feeling of renewal.
Almost made me think I could handle living in a town again.
… Nawwwwww, not gonna happen. Nice to visit, though.
—–
Then there came the bounty of California sunshine — in the form of dried fruits — that two Great Gentlemen blessed me with this week. Some of that sunshine went into those chutneys where it’ll keep on giving.
—–
Thanks again to K, P, H, A, M, and anon, whose gifts, past and recent, helped make this week more fruitful.
Welcome back Claire!
“Atlas Shrugged” is long and sometimes arduous. If it was written as a non-fictional philosophy, it might be considered boring and would not have been read; certainly it wouldn’t have obtained a large number of followers, cult or otherwise. The socialistic trends of the time would have overridden it. Ironically, as a novel it was more “believed”.
The novel did its job by speaking to the core of people’s consciousness – they were able to recognize the truth of where society was heading by observing the effect on the lives of the characters. The fact that society has continued down the same path since – and rolling even faster toward its doom – has made it a continued success. From businessmen to housewives, from rich to poor, from laborers to academics – many have embraced the core philosophy of Ayn Rand, often without realizing it.
If we think there are too few freedom-lovers now, think how few there might have been had “Atlas Shrugged” not been written. Think how many frustrated and floundering people would be reeling today, not understanding where this world is headed. Think how many authors would not have been inspired to write their own take on: Economics… Capitalism… the Constitution and the Bill of Rights… Politics in general, and specifically… Aesthetics… Ethics… Liberty, Freedom, Justice… Libertarianism… Etc.
No, I’m not a salesman for Rand or “Atlas Shrugged”, I’m not a Randite or Objectivist, nor do I even “believe” some of her rhetoric. I just think her influence has been far greater than we know, and more than some are willing to give her credit for. (E.g. William F. Buckley was smart enough to realize her influence, that’s why he was so adamantly opposed to Rand and her atheism, when he could/should have embraced her ‘conservative’ viewpoint.)
I’m glad you’re back all renewed and replenished. Try Safeway on $5 Friday sometime for some real Disneyesque excitement.
Yogurt making tip: A heating pad can make an excellent bacteria incubator. Just wrap it around your container. You might want to do some testing with a thermometer to get the right heat setting.
Apples are an amazing fruit. When I was a kid back in the day, before national chains came to dominate, restaurants in MI put big bowls of apple butter on the table during breakfast hours, often locally made too. I’d happily trade the free wi-fi and soda refills from the fast food chains for those bowls of apple butter in a second. Don’t miss the cancerette smoke from those days though.
You wanted to take a week away from politics, and so you decided that was a good time to re-read Atlas Shrugged?
You’ve got it bad, Claire. :^)
When you find yourself with nothing to do, do it well. Such times are rare and precious.
Joel — Um, well, you do have a point, there.
JP — I’ll have to hunt me down a heating pad. I’ve tried putting the yogurt maker just above a radiator and covering it with a towel, but that’s not doing the job. WORSE! My lava lamp doesn’t lava-ize for most of the year because the house is too cold! Oh, woe is me! Such suffering!
Thanks for the welcome-backs.
Welcome back, Claire. Yes, we do need you, although maybe not as a news aggregator. No single person could possibly keep track of all the anti-freedom news crashing down on us and keep their sanity. Mentally dealing with a police state is a huge challenge, especially when the authorities are currently threatening you or a loved one. I value the Living Freedom blog because I find encouragement in knowing that I am not alone in this struggle. My favorite posts and comments are the ones that remind me to adjust my attitude and face adversity with grace, style and humor.
Vacation … I could sure use one. Glad you were able to enjoy yours.
I hope you picked up some Chobani in your selection of Greek yogurt.
I sometimes consider re-reading Atlas Shrugged. But that would take time away from the huge pile of books I’m already not making enough progress on. If I were going to pick something I’ve already read as a sort of “renewal” read, it’d be Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It’s been so long since I read that, that I couldn’t begin to articulate why it hits the spot for me, which might be an argument for digging it up again.
Considering that the Lava Lamp has its own heat source, I’m a bit curious about that. Of coure, due caution is in order, but maybe a slightly larger bulb would do the trick? Hmmm, are Lava Lamp heat sources in danger from the onslaught of CFL and LED lighting? Wikipedia says there’s a longer warmup time in cooler temperatures.
I’ll bet we could come up with an alternate method of bringing psychedaelia to your home. Not necessarily involving chemicals.
I’m glad you’re feeling better.
We need someone to tell it like is. (Got my own personal shtf scenario to deal with for while… so I’m not avoiding you, if I’m scarce for a week or so.) I’m just not real verbal right now.
Take care – and keep on keepin’ on, kiddo.
I thought of your blog post when I came across this comment, pardon the length, I could not figure out how to post a link to just the comment:
Tor Munkov on March 11, 2013 at 10:51 pm
Is the Wizard of Oz greater & subtler than Atlas Shrugged?
It is known in academia that The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Baum in 1900 is loaded with powerful symbols of monetary reform which were the core of the Populist movements of 1896 and 1900.
http://archive.org/stream/wonderfulwizardo00baumiala#page/34/mode/2up/search/silver
The yellow brick road (gold standard), the Scarecrow (farmers), the Tin Man (industrial workers), the Wicked Witch of the West (OH banker J.D. Rockefeller) and the Wicked Witch of the East (NY banker J.P.Morgan), the Emerald City of Oz (greenback money), the illusory power of the Wizard in the capitol city (who monopolized power through deceit), even Dorothy’s silver slippers* were symbols of Baum’s belief that adding silver coin to gold coin would provide much needed money to a depression-strapped, 1890s America).
Oz is a virtual forest of monetary reform symbolism, done by someone extremely well versed in the Populist monetary reform goals of the period (Baum was a newspaperman and author) – goals which have never changed – they are still valid today, they are needed now more than then.
Do you know that only one zip code in the USSA spends nearly half of all the special interest lobbying money used to influence Congress? Guess what that zip code is? It’s 10036, the upper east side of Manhattan. That’s where Mayor Bloomberg of New York City lives. That’s where the Wall Street bankers live. They control the money, they control the mass media, they control Congress. They get the bailouts – other Americans get the bill (in higher taxes to pay the ever-growing interest on the National debt, and in fewer services).
Some will say – the bankers’ shills – that these solutions are something radical like perhaps socialism or worse. They are not. This is the most basic historic struggle for human freedom running back to the beginnings of societies – the struggle for widely disbursed private property and a fair and just economic system. Without that, individual freedom has no solid foundation.
If we value the Founding Father’s dream of freedom — an escape from serfdom by political self-determination – we ultimately have to conclude that creating our money is too important a function to be put into private hands where it can and is being used to corrupt our political system. History has shown time and time again that concentration of wealth leads to nothing but plutocracy: rule by the rich; then to plutarchy: rule by the very few, very rich, and ultimately slavery for the rest.
*changed to ruby slippers by the banksters who funded the movie.
Glenn Beck Goes Deep Into Oz(oz means ounces of gold)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSI_aOl6Rn0
Wizard of Oz – Fu11 Audio Book
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYIaUmnGLj4
The above comment is from , Barry & “People” over at ericpetersautos
Pat, I agree completely with you about Rand. I once considered myself an Objectivist, that is until it all fell apart in 1968 with the schism between Brandon and Rand. But the book certainly influenced my thinking and later pursuits.
Welcome back, Claire.
I re-read “Atlas” infrequently, but I usually skip’s Galt’s speech anymore. Rand was influential in my life, almost as much as you have been. 🙂
Dang, I was hoping that you would announce that you had finally learned how to enjoy beer during the hiatus.
Claire, I do yogurt in my crockpot, but here are a couple of ways I use to cope with the cool house issue: At this house, I have an oven light, so I let the crockpot full of yogurt spend the night in the oven with the light on. When I didn’t have a light, I would wrap a towel around the pot and put it in a cooler for the night. I usually get decently thick yogurt out of the deal, and my kids like it fine to drink when I don’t. If I had a woodstove, I would tuck it into a warm corner nearby.
Jim Bovard, on the bright side, she didn’t learn how Not to enjoy beer. Nor did she discover what bad beer does. Or so it seems.
I, on the other hand, have.
For good measure, I think I tossed some pearls to swine, elsewhere.
I’ll bet she’s feeling a heck of a lot better too.
Also, is there such a thing as yogurt beer?
Welcome back, Claire. Glad you had a good rest, and I do envy you having the apples. I think I miss my orchard the most…
Atlas Shrugged? I read that many years ago, and have my mother’s dog eared copy in paperback, but I’ve never been able to read it through again. I’ve got a few favorite parts, and I’ve looked at them – usually because I want to reference specific phrases or sentences, but there is just too much else to read and do to give much time to it, really. So much to read/write… so little time.
I thought of your blog post when I read this one too (it’s got lots of colorful easy to understand charts) it would be good to pass around to those sitting on the fence, especially the business types, imho.
It’s difficult making the transition, in thinking and how to approach subjects, from Huxley to Orwell, where once it was about pointing out lies and deception, to where we are now; the obvious out in the open boot. Here’s some choice bits:
The two greatest visions of a future dystopia were George Orwell’s “1984” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” The debate, between those who watched our descent towards corporate totalitarianism, was who was right. Would we be, as Orwell wrote, dominated by a repressive surveillance and security state that used crude and violent forms of control? Or would we be, as Huxley envisioned, entranced by entertainment and spectacle, captivated by technology and seduced by profligate consumption to embrace our own oppression? It turns out Orwell and Huxley were both right. Huxley saw the first stage of our enslavement. Orwell saw the second. …
Orwell’s 1984 Is Happening
We are one crisis away from a police state. All the powers are in place. Someone will flip the switch. Whether a Cyber Attack, escalating Currency War tensions or a ‘terrorist’ attack by indebted college youth, it is only a matter of time and circumstance. …
http://www.safehaven.com/article/29122/an-orwellian-america
As you contemplate a dystopia, remember that many Christians are awaiting the Second Coming 2000+ years and counting. And they see signs everywhere – daily. It’s just around the corner, like Y2K.
What I fear is a deadly virus, fungus, or bacterium. Mother Nature is a Bitch.
What I fear is a deadly virus, fungus, or bacterium. Mother Nature is a Bitch.
One of the original EOTWAWKI novels (and my introduction to the meme) was No Blade of Grass by John Christopher, where something killed the world’s grass.
“Grass” as in wheat, rice, corn, all the grain crops.
Intersting. I’m not afraid of fungus, a virus or bacterium. Why? Because “it’s the terrain”. Go back and look at the debate between Louis Pastuuer and Buchamp, the wrong side “won” the non-debate the same way Central Banking is said to have “won” the money question in 1913.
If anything, the real scary object would be a person in a lab coat trying to inject you with a vaccine that does not work and likely makes things much worse. Goberment trying to help is the real bitch, nature has nothing to do with it.
I’m also not the least bit worried about all the grass being killed off.
Why? Because look how hard “they” try to kill the weeds and cannot. And “they” do it out in the open and try hard, unlike a secretive attempt to wipe out grass, which there is no doubt there are some who are trying,… as if they were beating their heads against a wall.
Round-Up Ready resistant weeds are the talk of the town in certain circles.
So get yourself a bowl of kudzu and enjoy.
Also, it’s not like grains are good for people anyway, the inflammatory properties are ugly, not too mention today’s crops such as wheat resemble nothing like the plants of 10,000 years ago. Heck, a person has to go to some secluded valley in Israel to get a glimpse of the real thing, so in that sense the grains are already being killed off. Not that I’m downplaying the effects from such a change if it were possible.
Now the effects from GMO crops on living things that consume or wear it, well, that IS a bit of concern.
I’m also not the least bit worried about all the grass being killed off.
Me neither. (Unless yur talking about happy grass, that is 🙂
And it’s not just what might occur naturally. I have a sense that all the talk about nuclear weapons in Iran and their open push to acquire same is all a feint. What other labs have they got, what Russian help are they receiving, and what antibodies have they inoculated into their own people?
That coronavirus mimicking SARS in Saudi Arabia came from outer space? Not likely.
‘The two greatest visions of a future dystopia were George Orwell’s “1984″ and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.”’
And even greater than those two is Levin’s “This Perfect Day”. More likely too.
When I was younger and a shiny new libertarian it took me 3 tries to get through “Atlas Shrugged”. The first two times I threw it down in disgust about a quarter of the way in. I thought it was a gothic romance for big time capitalists. But it finally caught the third time. Rand should have hired a writer to do it for her.
I re-read “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” and found it as powerful as when I first read in the ’70’s. The new edition I picked up at Powells had an appendix at the end though, where Pirsig explained that after his son went to college some lowlife stuck a knife in his heart. My hair stood on end. What a sad ending for that kid.