An honest evaluation quickly exposes the obvious disconnect that plagues the mindset of the individuals living in the centers of the modernized civilizations. Even the “American Dream” has become a sham and has been transformed into almost the polar opposite of what it once meant.
A goal of many was once to no longer be a serf, owned by the king and the lords which held authority over them. A dream of many who came to the new world was the opportunity of a new life, where a man could be his own king, have his own property, and live his own life as he saw fit. Many of the methods used in an attempt to obtain this goal may not have been appropriate, but the goal itself is a virtuous one.
If a man is to exist upon this earth, should he not have the opportunity to be a steward over a portion of it while he is here?
Over time, the original goal of owning a piece of land, having a dwelling place, and being able to provide for the needs of one’s own family from that piece of land was for the most part dismissed and replaced. The people were lured out of the country into cities. The industrial revolution pulled the men out of their homes and further away from their families. The government schools pulled the kids out of the homes. The women’s suffrage movement pulled the women out of the homes.
Eventually, everyone left home and the house was empty.
If the implementations of these transitions would have been attempted simultaneously, no one would have went for it, because people would have been able to see what was happening. However, when these changes are slowly implemented over time, many people remain unaware of the agenda. In one generation, the man is taken away from his family. This becomes common. The next generation accepts it as status quo and operates within the new parameters.
Step by step the family is dismantled and led away from freedom.
Zoning laws and ordinances restricted the use of whatever tiny portion of land the family now had within the city limits, and they were charged an ever increasing “rent” for that land in the form of property tax. Many of the freedoms people once enjoyed were restricted, and even things like the option of having beneficial livestock were restricted or removed.
In so many cities no goat, chicken, pig or cow is permitted. Basically, any animal that can provide you with food like eggs, milk, of meat is illegal. Other “companion animals” like cats and dogs are fine, but if the animal can be used in a tangible way to decrease your reliance on the system, it is simply not allowed.
As the cities become bigger and more densely populated, the cost of living increases.
Remember that in order to sustain a physical existence, physical needs must be met. The things we need are physical, like food, clothing, building materials and so on. These physical commodities come from physical land and physical space. The less of that land and space you can personally utilize, the more dependent that you become on others, and the more they can charge you to provide you with those things.
A densely populated city has an increased demand and a decreased ability to supply those demands for itself. Though many raw materials can be processed and refined in a city, the original material itself must come from some other portion of land elsewhere.
Over the years, I’ve traveled through a lot of major cities in the United States, from coast to coast and from Canada to Mexico. I fully understand that anyone is free to live in these cities if they so desire. I get that. Many will love the city that they inhabit and enjoy all that it has to offer. I understand that as well, and I have no goal to tell anyone that they are wrong for living their life in the location that they choose. Ultimately, it is their choice and their freedom to do as they wish with their one life here.
However, I also have the freedom to choose otherwise. My goals in life may be different, and my frame of reference may be different too. Therefore, as I evaluate existence and how to get what I want out of it from my opportunity here, I will continue to choose cautiously and wisely.
I would never desire to live in a studio apartment high in a massive city surrounded by concrete and skyscrapers. To me, that form of life appears to be too similar to being a portfolio in a filing cabinet or a box of cereal on a shelf inside a grocery store.
It also grieves me that many living in such conditions are so prone to passionately rant about protecting the earth. The actual connection to it that they possess is minimal, and I believe that they are living in the center of the destruction of the earth. They will fight hard for causes like preventing deforestation and yet they only see a few, conveniently placed trees on a daily basis. They fight for such causes because they have been trained to and it seems virtuous to them. Yet, almost all that they are exposed to is unnatural, over-processed and manufactured.
The wild, natural, and raw have no place in their lives any longer.
It is amazing to me that apartments in such cities can be so small and yet cost so much. When I consider a monthly rent of $1000, which is low in some places, and compare it to the places that still exist in the US where an acre of land can carry the same price tag, I marvel.
The money needed to inhabit the apartment for 30 days is equal to the amount needed to purchase the acre of raw land.
The environment, time limit, and options for use could hardly be more different. Again, I’m not saying that everyone living such a life has been tricked into it and I know full well that people have the freedom to choose such things. Still, from my perspective, I grow ever more concerned.
You see, it is within these massive concentrations of population that the real decisions are made. When I consider how little so many of these people actually possess, I can’t help but wonder. Many have just become serfs again. Though they are no longer servants of the king and the lords, they are basically servants to the governments and banks. A rented apartment is not an actual possession. Neither is a rented or leased vehicle. To only own some furniture and clothing seems strange, when we have the capability and opportunity to acquire so much more.
I do not say this in a greedy way, but instead in a way that contemplates the wisdom of certain investments. There are people out there that will spend more on vehicles than I would on a house, or more on a wardrobe than I would to purchase 10 acres of land. Is it greedy for me to choose such a plot of land instead of some pants and shirts for the same investment of finances?
Or, is it wise?
I cannot feed my family with a pair of pants unless I sell those pants and give up my possession of them. I do not need to sell land in order to feed my family. I only need to plant some seeds in the soil on it and allow some animals to enjoy that patch of the earth. Such thinking has recently become my default setting.
I know that preserving the earth and the resources in it can be an important and virtuous endeavor, but when legislation and designation removed the possibility of utilizing that land to be used, I wonder at the wisdom in it. There are many ways to use the resources that the earth provides without destroying it. When the end result of these activities will be taking all “land rights” and opportunity for self-sufficiency away from the inhabitants of a country, the people themselves will once again become the possession of the governments rather than free people living within a country.
When those in control grow tired of a people, they need only to restrict the food supply and life is quickly over. Time and time again such has been the case, and history will only continue to repeat itself.
The inspiration for this post came from an apple. I picked the apple with my dad and my children. Three generations of us were there enjoying that experience. As we finished the portion of the apples that is generally considered to be edible, all that remained were the stems and cores. Inside these cores is where the seeds are, and this is the part that the vast majority of people discard.
When is the last time that you enjoyed an apple and saved the seeds?
Have you ever?
For many of us, the thought never even crosses our minds. Why not? Often, we have no opportunity to use these seeds. If we do not have land available to plant the seeds in, and if we are not familiar with growing our own food, why would we ever consider the value or potential of such things?
It is in these moments that the incredible has become unimportant.
To drive this point home, let’s do some simple calculations.
If a man eats two apples a month from the time that he is age 5 until the time that he is 50, he will eat 24 apples per year for 45 years, or 1080 apples in that time. If each apple has just four seeds in it, that means he would have wound up with 4320 apple seeds. If he chose to plant each of those seeds and only half of them survived, he’d have grown 2160 apple trees. If those apple trees took 5 years to bear fruit, lived for only 20 years each, and only produced 20 apples a year, how many apples would he have wound up with by the time that he was 70 years old and the last of those trees had died?
Each tree would bear fruit for 15 years, at 20 apples per year, so each tree would have produced 300 apples. If you have ever seen an apple tree, you know that many will produce this many apples or more in a good year, but I’m using conservative numbers to illustrate my point. In those 65 years of life from when the man first started planted the seeds to the time that the last trees died when they reached 20 years old, the man would have grown 648,000 apples. If the price of an apple is $0.50 each, that’s $324,000 worth of food.
To me, that is incredible even if it has become unimportant to others.
If the man was like most people these days, he wouldn’t really have been throwing away $324,000 by not planting the seeds. In fact, he would have had no opportunity to really do so. Personally, I do not want to have no opportunity. I do not want my freedom to be further restricted.
In short, we have removed the seeds from the apple cores. These seeds will be planted. Eventually we will either have apples to eat or trees to sell or trade (hopefully). When those trees die, perhaps I’ll butcher some pigs and use the wood to make my own apple wood smoked bacon free from GMO feed and Sodium Nitrate. I’ll pick my own apples, save the seeds and give the hogs the cores and stems to eat.
If someone in a city somewhere would rather buy whatever mass-produced, insecticide soaked apples at the local super-center and dispose of the cores and seeds in their garbage can so that they can help fill a landfill somewhere, they certainly have that freedom. However, I have the freedom not to listen to them when they tell me how to save the earth.
The goal of this post is not to offend city-dwellers, I've lived in them too. I was simply hoping to provide some food for thought.
Thanks for your time and for giving me your ear for a moment.
As always, I’m 
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