.
I was gonna post a comment but Wifey is calling. According to her the A/C isn't acting right.
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Well we do have greater variety in beer.
Aside from that, though, I'm stumped...
Welcome to the beast my friend. And who can make war against it? Pretty bad when the most you can hope for is to become "comfortably numb". Good thing your not old like me. You walk around pissed off all the time; thinking is this all there is? Thats how i know there's a god. Boredom would be pointless without him. P.S. I did come up with a t-shirt i want to get printed. "MEXICO SUCKS,or else you wouldn't be here."
Huckelberry-- We only have greater selection of beer compared with 50 yrs ago. If you look at the regionl styles available before the huge proliferation of pilsners, you will see what we've lost.
sniff.
Consider what life was actually like for the Cherokee before modern man showed up... and then consider your cubical...
Lice...no lice.
Indoor plumbing.
De-odorant.
Not starving in the winter.
I like our way better.
Progress is:
No wiping yourself with a leaf.
No dying of smallpox or polio.
I get to read what someone in Tennesee thinks. 
I do agree about the homogenization of the world though. Good thing we have this here interweb thingy to relieve some of that boredom.
Isn't the survivability of the hunter gatherer lifestyle based to some degree upon travel?
yes. walking travel... the kind that actually takes time and effort... travel has no cost now.
I note that its the women that are disagreeing.
I feel ya, Nate. When I headed out to Boston last year, I did my best to stay out of chains both ways. It's hard on the interstate, but not that hard. Got some really good pizza, ham & bean soup and seafood. It's worth the effort to find the good stuff.
But I must say that my recent developments (good & bad, much more good) likely would never have developed w/out the internet. So it ain't all bad.
More on that good news later on my blog. And I actually have some questions for you specifically, Nate. I just have to remember to ask.
Nate: "Consider what life was actually like for the Cherokee before modern man showed up..."
Is this the same Cherokee that you've previously referred to as savages? The same one that you inferred was better off after the white man came -- you know, bringing progress with him?
Make up your mind, sonny.
Savages.. yes... Pre-historic man is also a term I've been known to use.
What I said was they were basicly neandrathals.
I don't recall saying that we wouldn't all be better off if we were still neandrathals.
Yeah, you travel by MOTORcycle and AUTOmobile. Pussy.
I walk. Try thru-hiking the AT (Appalachian trail). Forget telling which country you're in from the buildings, you can tell which state you're in from the terrain, mostly the rocks.
By the way, I do agree with your assessment. The phenomenon is called "Generica". Back when I was a whippersnapper my folks would ship me off to stay with relatives in New Mexico. I went back a few years ago (30 years later) and I was SHOCKED. There were Home Depots, Lowes, Dennys, etc etc, I may as well have been in a Philly suburb. And the rickety taco stands I loved were few and far between.
Bill,
I have a cousin who hiked the AT. I used to dunk his head in the toilet when he pissed me off.
Sorry... that hippy shit gets you no credibility.
I would consider off road, or gravel road motorcycling real travel... its not that much easier than horseback. You're still drasticly limited in what you can take with you...and you can't really make that much time.
Generica... I like that.
I agree Nate. I get pretty disgusted with new residential areas. All the new houses are not exactly alike, but too similar. Even in the richer neighborhoods, you have similar style houses, just bigger.
When I travel though, I am more interested in the countryside.
Looks like all this easy travel is going to make our world a little bit more homogenous as 7,000 Iraqi refugees are expected to be imported into the US soon.
According to this this article Michigan (where I'm from) can expect about half.
Don't worry Nate, the article says Nashville is gonna get a bunch too...
I see most man-made changes to this world as having unintended consequences.
Everything mankind does on his own seems to be like that.
"...and I'd rather spend my days lazing in the sun... chewing on some freshly killed beast.. and enjoying the occasional berry picked by the girls."
I wasn't disagreeing with you. In many ways, I feel like I was born at least a century too late. I guess I've read too many of the old stories. Your ideal is fine with a low population density.
Corporations share a big part of the blame for the borification. Every mall has the same stores now. I disliked malls before, but now the feeling is closer to loathing.
population density is where the evils of antibiotics comes in.
The so-called "problem" is not travel; it's success. A business model that works spreads like a virus, Home Depot can supplant mom-and-pop hardware stores as easily in Texas as they can in Vermont. And there's huge economies of scale. Once you spend a few million designing a Wal-mart that works, you have a cookie-cutter design that you drop in Albuquerque and Atlanta.
Gotta agree Nate. Hunting, fishing, resting, and an occasional raid on the neighbors when things get boring; and the women do all the work. How could the goofy colonists decide they had a better way? And Holli, Smallpox, polio, and measles were brought over by the europeans.
That's only part of it Bill... it doesn't account for the cultural destruction... like that of art and language.
Go to atlanta... everyone there talks like they're from New York.
ouch! that hurts, Nate!
There's probably something to be said for chunking a big rock at someone that's trying to sneak into your cave, as opposed to just grabbing the revolver.
ouch! that hurts, Nate!
Darlin' Joy
Truth usually does, Darlin'!
While I think the decline of any rich and proud culture (like that in parts of the South, like Atlanta) is to be mourned, if I had to point out a potential positive, I might be tempted to say that greater cultural contact helps fulfill the Great Commission.
Although, in all honesty, I don't think God needs the help. Nothing like bankrupting your culture to make you appreciate the culture of One who is unchanging and infinite...
Nate,
Interesting theory. It made my mind spin a few gears. I could maybe think up some better ideas to add to the discussion, but I'm already enjoying my ATF friday.
I'm pretty shnockered by the way. Any how, do you think when Jesus comes back he is going to get rid of tech?
I think most of our serious hight level problems is anti-Goddism, Mega Federalism, and the Federal Reserve.
My reasons follow: First, If you don't have God, you walk through the chambers of your own imagination. This alone, will justify anything and everything. Second, the US Empire has consolidated the States into vassels. Third, free cheap debt with strings attached, courtesy of the Federal Reserve via credit and paper.
I don't believe communication and travel in and of itself is bad in itself. I know if it wasn't for the Net I wouldn't have met you or Vox. However it's not the end all say all. I see people lose all edicate when using a cell phone for example, or gals I know who do the Inet web cam porn thing.
I do think if today, Americans traveled abroad more, it would be a good thing.
There is nothing wrong with discovering Gods universe. For example, working electrical engineering or chemistry, makes the mind boggle at God's power.
I have to point out that I do believe that cities seem to be a good way to lose sight of God and the Law.
TheWesman
Go to atlanta... everyone there talks like they're from New York.
Well, to be fair, half of them are probably from Noo Yawk.
Cultural destruction is not necessarily a bad thing. I for one was glad to give up outhouses. They do have some pluses (no federal flush limit, the look on city folk's faces when they ask where the rest room is) but there's just no worthwhile upside to an outhouse in the winter. And look at it this way; Barbeque is just too good to keep to yourself, and fried chicken is something else that was bound to break out of the south. Coca-Cola started in the south, and speaking of drinks, where would we be without bourbon? (yeah yeah, I know; sober) And when was the last time you had a good New York cigar?
These things have spread all over, thus diluting southren culture, but it's not a zero sum game - everybody wins. Also, note that it's still called "southren fried chicken" in cookbooks, Memphis barbecue is famous, and Kentucky bourbon is practically a trademark (it might actually be). And now McDonalds is serving sweet tea.
Call me when I can get a decent cheese-steak in Atlanta, and we're good-to-go!
TheWesman said: I have to point out that I do believe that cities seem to be a good way to lose sight of God and the Law.
I agree. Note how many prophets sought God in the wilderness and deserts, away from cities. It is good.
I gotta defend the farmers in the world here.
You telling me you'd rather eat gopher, possum, and the occasional bambi that you killed with a club, than some juicy corn fed beef from a Iowa farmer?
Our how about a nice Iowa chop from the fatted hog instead of ground squirrel, pidgeon, and when you run out of everything else your dog?
Modern food production allows you to focus of some other thing in life beside starvation. Cultivating crops and raising domesticated livestock provides the ability for mankind to put the majority of his expended energy each day in something other than finding the next meal.
Man gets along just fine on bison and fruit.
Farming came along and suddenly we had to get up at the ass crack of dawn and work all damned day.
I see little to recommend it.
Nate, that's why we pay other people to get up at the crack of dawn and work all day. So I can roll out of bed around noon, stumble down to my computer, and design a new widget while microwaving a burrito. The division of labor is a wonderful thing.
Keep on farming Tom! Luv ya! Luv what you're doing! Keep it up!!
walking travel... the kind that actually takes time and effort... travel has no cost now.
Says someone who has never spent 13 hours on a plane with three small children 
.
Seriously though, I would still live where I live even if like in my great grandparents day, it meant that I wouldn't be able to see most of my family again.
Farming came along and suddenly we had to get up at the ass crack of dawn and work all damned day.
You're kidding right? Farming has been around for literally thousands of years.
Having travelled a fair amount, I was pondering the fact that while you see affluent blacks, there are almost no blacks on the planes to and from the US to europe. Having not taken an international flight to Africa I have no idea if this is true in the same way (I doubt it as there are definitely Somali's and such heading home or heading over here) but I thought it was weird. There is the attempt to emulate whitey in so many areas, but not that one.
"You're kidding right? Farming has been around for literally thousands of years."
It doesn't matter how long ago it happened. It happened. At some point we went from a hunter gatherer civilization to an agricultural one.
This happened at different times in different places... in much of North America for example it didn't happen till around 1492.
Timing is irrelevant though. I'm talking about the way agriculture changed the lives of humans.
Personally I'd prefer the far more free life of the hunter gatherer... especially when one considerers its agriculter that led to the need for government in the first place.
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