Recreation or Hunting, & City Slicker Liberals

CONVERSATIONS

           WITH 

 CONSERVATIVE


 CONSERVATIONISTS

                    Will conservatives and conservationists continue to battle about our future? Neo-Conservatives   scoff at "the oppressive Endangered Species Act.” 

On the other hand,  Conservationists go too far with excessive regulation. Lawn mowing dudes, just scraping by, can be fined $5,000 for spraying some weed killer on a customers property; by USDA goons.  Gotta follow the regulations, right? Unfortunately we are encoding the assumption that people are too stupid to use good judgment.

        Is there a middle ground where peace can be negotiated, because America’s future strength will be when we embrace our diversity of viewpoints, while endorsing a modern American Dream. A vision that respects all opinions, not just the ones we like, because opinions are not wrong, they are opinions. 

            Tolerance and freedom would seem to go hand in hand, so please reject the Intolerant Minority and embrace our true conservative roots. That's right Progressives, at our core we are Libertarians. Libertarians with compassion and common sense, when it comes to sociological effects of laws, and the personal connection to all the people in our lives. 

                 Progressives seek to be Libertarian and Libertarianism is a concept that is quickly gaining steam around the world. A real Libertarian is contemptuous of Tea Party Types. On the other hand, the squishy soft urban liberal and city slicker greens, all need to understand the goals of the self-sufficient rural person and we all need to respect each other. 
                   “Ewww, you kill it…then eat it…Yuck!” Too many people squirm when it comes to eating wild meat, but find nothing unsavory about how pigs are raised for those baby back ribs they get at TGIFridays. 

 Then there are the Vegans who are beginning to understand that sustainably harvested meat can have no negative impact on the environment and conversely give income to small farms.

              Traditionally in this country, 25% of the population hunted for their meat. First there were the Native Americans and their respectful pursuit of game for thousands of years, and then the Yankee farmer and then other European settlers such as the German and Scottish.   

                           Personally, I am uncomfortable when I am eating a life that was tamed and tortured, such as chickens, this bothers me a lot more. To understand our meat factories and then continue to eat the same amount of meat is to endorse animal cruelty. 

                                 I would happily eat gator meat or venison if it was sustainably harvested by an unleashed small business effort. There is a new attitude that would have us creating resources with a Capitalist economic system that is driven by   precepts of sustainability. This viewpoint is being articulated more and more, and  will eventually raise awareness. You can have capitalism AND sustainability. Socialist leaning Greens need to rethink their views because Socialism can only breed a coral colony of self-serving government employees. OOPS, too late!
                                                                                 


             People hunting for their own food should not be treated the same as someone who kills an unsustainable amount of food (think tuna) (think rain forests cut down for hamburger) (think cornfields that stretch from stream to stream ) (think pig farms and fecal contamination in local water systems), that weaken ecosystems for those who could hunt or would like to purchase wild meat. Turkeys could eventually become so abundant that they are regularly hunted while still able to maintain a healthy population. It's our endangered wild lands that we need to fight for, not individual species.

                 Gluttonous windfalls of billion dollar “food” companies are the only concern of predatory Protestant capitalists, and not ‘feeding the people’ as they claim; and neither are they conserving the land. They had been saying that it’s the Land Values that are important, but unfortunately, that led to a large real estate bubble. It's the value of the land and its general health that must be considered.

        Those exploiting resources need to know America's future is tied to its land and water resources. Karl Rove and the phony conservatives are eager for an era of unregulated clear cutting of trees, pipes of toxic effluent leading directly into bodies of water and untrammeled exploration of oil and natural gas fields. We are responsible for allowing this sick evil greed if it continues. Don’t we arrest murderers and bank robbers? There were more bank overdraft fees last year than there was money robbed from banks!

 Maybe conservative conservationist sounds like a contradiction in terms, but I have a role model for the conservative conservationist. His name was Aldo Leopold. In his book, Sand County Almanac, author Leopold writes of his conversion from an exploiter, into a respecter and steward of our wild lands. He relates this conversion concerning hunting when he was young in the early 1900’s. “In those days we had never heard of passing up a chance to kill a wolf. In a second we were pumping lead into the pack, but with more excitement than accuracy... How to aim a steep downhill shot is always confusing... When our rifles were empty, the old wolf was down and the pup was dragging a leg into the impassable slide rocks.”

        “We reached the wolf in time to watch

        “Since then I have lived to see state after state extirpate its wolves. I have watched the face of a newly wolf less mountain, and seen the south facing slopes wrinkle with a maze of new deer trails. I have seen every bush and seedling browsed, first to anemic desuetude, and then to death. I have seen every edible tree defoliated to the height of a saddle horn. Such a mountain looks as if someone had given God pruning shears and forbid him all other exercise. I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of

its deer.”

       A young hunter with trigger itch eventually becomes the most outspoken advocate of the real value of land up till that time. Restoration of some of the prairies and preservation of good forests that remain has to be very important to all future prosperity.
              Leopold was famous from 1935 to 1955, and he was a thinking mans rustic. He inspired many in their pursuit of conservation ethics during the birth of truly rapacious capitalism that arrived full blown after World War 2.

              Forests and watersheds that have been abused by corporations, rightfully belong to all people to enjoy as recreation, or to use for hunting sustainable populations of animals. There is an excess of 20 million deer in the United States and the alligator population is not endangered with an excess of 3 million alligators and would yield quite a few tons of meat.

                   
                                                                                                                                      
                 I propose a giant hunting park in the everglades where you can take home what you find, it would be a place where nuisance alligators can be taken. As much as I like bears,  there are rapidly growing populations and we don't need apex predators in populated areas. More for the survivalists, bear fat is useful for many things and bear meat is probably safer to eat than wild hogs.

                                                                                                                  

        I got a feeling though that there’s a propaganda effort going on to scare people about the wild lands; deer ticks, cougars, grizzlies, West Nile Virus and many other scary aspects to the outdoors are highly publicized, while you hardly ever hear of degrading facilities at National Parks. There seems to be scare tactics in the media to keep people out of the forests and to marginalize nature as something that is no longer important.

          I propose that conservatives and libertarians abandon their venom spewing extremes and take a stand, because our wild lands keep us free.  Republicans hope that you all stop going to the National Forests so this way they can buy it and strip them clean, their no damn good I'm tellin ya. 

                Never mind that people will be turned away at parks this summer and these National Parks are mostly full of visitors yet the government isn’t putting the money where it should. We spend way too much on war, and precious little on recreation.  To facilitate the enjoyment by quite a few Americans in our National Park System, unfortunately, we can only talk millions in federal budgets. 

              War has become more important than recreation, subverting our “pursuit of happiness and countering the primary capitalist precept of supply and demand. We demand recreational areas but we are supplied with war instead. So much hypocrisy!  
                                                               
                These war loving men have taken control of most societies for 2,500 years, but now we are becoming too modern. Too sophisticated. Too smart. Pilotless drones killing people for instance. War is not really normal human behavior anymore, wouldn‘t you say?  oing 

It is time to evolve and stop sending the healthiest off to die overseas, and develop spheres of influence where many countries contribute to peace in a region. Europe, India, China, Australia and others need to step up to the plate with organized relief efforts in their sphere of influence, and an authentic effort to end war. Talking to you China. The 99 are going to demand peaceful towns and villages.

        It was conservatives that finished the American Revolution.  The Liberals of that era wanted freedom, but with a managed liberty that would be facilitated by royalty; and they were ready to make our first president a king; called King George (Washington). It was the original G.W. that said, "A government is like fire, a handy servant but a dangerous master“.

The Libertarian Patriots would have no part of that and they said, gather in Philadelphia, and let’s get down to some business, and create a libertarian type of freedom for the individual. To shield every American from religious zealots, and their invisible friend that allegedly wrote the Bible. Is it any wonder that in polls today, preachers are rated very low along with car salesman? In 1776 they were on a par with the snake oil salesman of the day.

I am neither liberal nor conservative and I made up the phrase “Independent Majority” to describe many of us. Conservatives have corrupted the meaning of the word, conservative, and Liberal was not derived from the word liberty. In the Revolutionary Era liberals had a reputation for siding with totalitarians and royalty. In the 60’s liberals became associated with liberty and civil rights, a traditionally conservative viewpoint and an offshoot of the Progressive Era who were represented by conservative conservationist Theodore Roosevelt (Republicans take note).

         Liberals were disturbed by the mad devouring industrial machine and the need for full civil rights for all people once and for all. Liberals stewarded laws to reduce and slow down air and water pollution by the greedy corporations, and thusly, the Liberals modernized themselves. The land and air should belong to the people, not a waste bucket for the Protestant profiteers, even Richard Nixon knew that.                       

        The unseen cost of our “prosperity” is the degradation of our prime raw materials---air and water and the land. What about all these 50 year olds dying of various cancers? Maybe they frolicked on lawns poisoned by DDT and WW2 nerve agents. Conservatives can finish this modern age of reform with another Conservative Counter revolution, but the religious wackoes and apologists of the grandiose rich have stolen conservatism.

                        Growing crops to keep our trade deficit down has degraded so much land that soil scientists say we have lost 50% of the topsoil we once had. That unseen cost again. Profits of the last 65 years have come at the cost of pesticides in the people and water and half the good topsoil removed. The continuing soil erosion is a result of our cheap food policy,  that peculiar form of predatory capitalism that is all about profit and not compassion. Home and farm foreclosures should never happen, the bank will get their thirty years of payments, but there are going to be bumps in the road for everyone.                                                                                                                
                  The large corporate farms cry that their subsidies are being looked at again in 2011 as Progressive budget cutters eye the billions of subsidies that go to big farmers.  Why do BIG corporations have a problem with small farms, close communities and independence?

        A conservative should be a steward of the land. Restoring prairie ecosystems and protesting forest destruction since this is how the self-sufficient Native Americans and pioneer yeoman used to do it, and it should be available today as an option. 
There should always be enough fish for people to catch so they can feed their families, and it would be quite conservative to be an advocate to retain America's wild lands.  

              Planting trees as windbreaks so the soil does not blow into rivers and streams and suffocating fish, is one of the many ways to energize small business and so would restoring the health of trout streams and knocking down dams so Salmon can breed again. Schoolchildren get it. But the so called “greatest generation” never will. We want to bring as many species back from the brink of extinction.


Apologists for corporate totalitarianism, the post WW2 generation were the most easily brainwashed group of people ever. Could you convince this younger generation that we need nuclear energy? There is only one problem besides annihilation in a meltdown when it comes to a nuclear site.  We need to store radioactive materials for 10,000 years, not to mention the 50 billion needed for each plant to be decommissioned.   If there is a severe solar flare, nuclear  power plants may not be able to cool the radioactive rods.
                                                                                                                   Nuclear power fuel costs were lower for the 50’s and 60’s and 70’s but now  400 generations will need to inspect, reject, object and hire 10,000 years worth of people to keep an eye on the radioactive poison. The unseen cost; as we hope for no leakage problems for thousands of years. But money is so important, the nuclear industry is trying to subtly brainwash people to think that it’s okay. Our friend the atom. Yes the kids get it. They get what the creator was trying to do; 


     Maintain a balance of life. When you kill frogs you get flies. Let’s fill in more wetlands! Birds have confronted so many poisons in the last 60 years their populations have been halved with the most beautiful and interesting birds suffering the most.  Knock down more trees or plow the prairies to cultivate it to create a monoculture of 5,000 acres of wheat.  

Everything is a varmint to a large farmer

                         
 What are big farmers giving to America?  The prairie ecosystem was a deeply rooted mix of low growing plants; numerous grasses and small shrubs and a wide variety of perennials. The prairies were a very unique set of ecosystems that dominated the central United States, and now only 3% remains while greed mongers have profited from the destruction of the other 97% that have been cultivated.

         It takes 10 pounds of corn feed to make one pound of beef. (Cow muscle and fat.)   Instead of one beef patty you could have 10 corn muffins. Beef needs steroids and antibiotics, and veal is raised in cruel conditions. The world has decided that eating animals is important and Beef in general is grown as if they were tomatoes or peppers, where has respect for all life gone to? Oh yeh, Manifest Destiny and the belief that God wants us to use up Nature for profits. 

Trust me, you can be a conservative and be a vegetarian. Beef doesn’t have to be for dinner as the cattle growers continue to destroy ecosystems. Beef can be for breakfast too. 

                Richard Hofstadter is my favorite author. He’s able to sum up the Midwestern culture in one long complex sentence, He said, "If a rural culture means an emotional and craftsman-like dedication to the soil, a traditional and pre-capitalist outlook, a tradition directed instead rather than career directed type of character, and a village community devoted to ancestral ways  then the prairies and plains never had one.”  Those college professors sure can construct some convoluted sentences. But do you see what he means Vern?  It became about profits. The heart and soul torn out of the community replaced with the bottom line greed of the Predatory Capitalists. Globally these corporations are doing the same thing to small farmers everywhere.  Small farms are disappearing around the world


The Predatory Capitalist Dream is to have everyone grow for one store and foreclose on every home so they can  erode our freedom and independence, as everyone begins paying rent to vicious and pernicious corporations. Corporate fascism, as long as people got a lot of stuff to fill their busy life they will follow any law. They will give up the dream of home ownership.

        I’m trying to answer the oft asked but never quite completely answered question; can a conservative be a conservationist? Hell yes, a real conservative would be in favor of restoring the prairies more to what it was. Remnants and fragments are being saved and enhanced in many areas.  Maybe we have abandoned too much of the past. Going back to Thomas Jefferson’s time, Hofstadter wrote this about the yeoman farmer, “Making at home almost everything he needed, buying little, using each year but a pocketful of cash, he would be independent of the marketplace as he was the favor of others." 

        It is ridiculous to have these giant fields of crops that are exported for the profits of the mega farmer and corporate overlords. People drive by these farms with their wave after wave of corn or wheat or something, then remark how marvelous a sight like this is. But to a growing number of people who read about the devastated prairie ecosystem, they can only imagine what was lost. Just a few hundred years ago there was an ecosystem here, with bugs and bees and birds and flowers and buffaloes and a sustainable population of game animals, and how large and marvelous the native prairie once was. Then you conservatives would support its preservation and replanting. 

You see, I am  trying to nudge my left leaning libertarian self to give a clarion call to conservatives to join us in the effort to stop destroying ecosystems for profit. Glenn beck spews venom about Progressives,  and he is so absolutely wrong. Progressives are chomping at the bit to show conservatives how to restore and conserve. Search the word progressive in the search bar near the top of this page to learn the truth. More truth in this blog  than anything he has to offer on his new network.   These neo-con phonies need to go.

        Another fine writer I enjoy is Peter Drucker. He died recently at 95 and he wrote more than just about business, which he was well known for. Here’s what he wrote about the Revolutionary era Patriots in his book from 1942, The Future of Industrial Man. “In the first place, while conservative, they did not restore nor intend to restore. They never did idealize the past: and they had no illusions about the present in which they lived. They knew that the social reality had changed. They would never have conceived their task as anything but the integration of the new society on the basis of the old principles: never would they have countenanced any attempt to undo what had happened.

        It is their unconditional refusal to restore which has made the founding fathers appear radical, and which has obscured the essentially conservative character in their work. Their social analysis was indeed radical, extremely radical. They never accepted the polite conventions or the wishful restorative dreams which were based on the assumption that the old society was still functioning. The founding fathers of America were conservative of the present and future.”

  The Libertarian conservative and the anarchic green fringe, are trying to funnel this government power back down to state, county and local government, eventually leading to states taking care of education, state roads and other functions. Let's see if the moniker "Agrarian Libertarian" gains any traction as this unity occurs. In a truly civilized world there will not be a need for this intrusive government and The Greens particularly have solutions that will eventually have us taking care of ourselves. Who needs the Gross National Product when food, furniture, hardware and items for daily living, can be gotten locally?

        

             In   1700,   With virtually no government, there  was agrarian freedom, it was virtually anarchy. Agrarian Anarchy. Trade, barter and self-sufficiency greased the wheels of society. Today, can this type of freedom be replicated without the nonsense of religion that ruined that century? 

        Developer delirium will always dwarf agrarian anarchy unless the good people advocate and implement changes. Future generations will puzzle over the recklessness of 20^th century people allowing forests to be leveled. Progressives, Conservatives, Agrarian Libertarians and Hillbilly Liberals finally united, can restore freedom for the farmer and homeowner.  Agrarian Anarchy asks the question, “What is better, 700 farmers, truckers, small store owners and others making 40,000 dollars a year or one “export executive” Making 10 million dollars? That one executive is somehow as valuable as an entire small community who actually produce goods? Look for the holes in this Predatory Capitalist system we have now and rid ourselves of these white collar parasites.