Tip of the Hat to The Sage of Mount Airy. Follow his blog. I don’t believe he’s on Twitter.
The Sage links to Mark Steyn’s assessment of the Occupy Wall Street rioters:
What’s happening in Oakland is a logical exercise in class solidarity: The government class enthusiastically backing the breakdown of civil order is making common cause with the leisured varsity class, the thuggish union class, and the criminal class in order to stick it to what’s left of the beleaguered productive class. It’s a grand alliance of all those societal interests that wish to enjoy in perpetuity a lifestyle they are not willing to earn.
You have to love this article by Abe Greenwald in Commentary. Here’s the thesis:
Watch any showdown between an articulate capitalist and an OWS-er. It’s not a political debate, but an anthropological event: present-day man reaching back through time to make contact with his primitive and superstitious ancestor. The capitalist understands the benefits of the free market but the Occupier doesn’t have to. The shamans of socialism have told him that Wall Street is populated by evil spirits. He’s been warned of the capitalist’s use of incantation and alchemy. If the capitalist seems to be making sense, it’s a spell. (And if the Tea Party seems to be comprised of thousands of voices it’s the wizardry of the all-powerful Koch brothers.) The Occupier will not engage a legitimate opponent because the opponent’s legitimacy is some sort of devilish illusion. Occupy Wall Street, therefore, literally has no need for logical argument.
Read the whole thing.
Please note that a fair observer of capitalism understands the limits of the free market as well as its benefits.
Most of us believe that the best form of government available to mankind is a modern democracy (or representative republic) and that the basis for such a government is rational discussion of issues amongst free and equal members. Greenwald’s piece opens a Pandora’s Box. What if, hypothetically for now, rational discussion is impossible for a violently assertive segment of society? In the past how did America deal with the American Nazi Party or the Communist Party or the KKK?
Well, for one thing we didn’t have a President excuse their actions as “broad-based frustration.”
In the end the superstitious will have to be made to accept the law and the politicians will have to be made to accept the will of the rational supermass of the people. In the end the people will again demand a government with enough stomach to “Secure the Blessings of Liberty.”
On the old game show “Truth or Consequences”, a contestant would be asked a question (“Truth”) and if answered incorrectly he would face the “Consequences.” Sometimes the Consequences could be an embarrassing stunt. At other times the Consequences could be happy ones — such as a chance to win money or a surprise reunion with a long-lost sibling. Host Bob Barker would often close the broadcast with the phrase “Hoping all your consequences are happy ones.”
In 1950, “Truth or Consequences” creator Ralph Edwards promised to do his national tv program from the first town that agreed to rename itself for the show. Hot Springs, New Mexico won the contest and promptly changed its name to “Truth or Consequences.” The game show is long gone but the town’s strange name remains today.
So, here’s the “Truth” of Truth or Consequences. “T or C” (as it’s known) is a dusty desert town of 7,000 people and the county seat of Sierra County, New Mexico. The nearby Rio Grande provides water and some recreation. Cactus patches speckle the rocky hillsides. The barren face of the Caballo Range towers in the distance, and beyond that lies the ancient Jornada del Muerto, or Journey of the Dead Man.
Sierra County in the state of New MexicoDesert scene, Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
Desert towns can be odd and seem to stretch reality. Walking down Main Street feels like walking through a kaleidoscopic canyon. Storefronts are mostly trinket shops painted multiple pastel colors and the aroma of burned incense and marijuana fills the air around them.
Dust & Glitter, Truth or Consequences
Across the street, a lawyer’s office is painted in red and white stripes as if it were a circus tent.
Lawyer’s offices, Truth or Consequences
Homes built of rocks cling to the hillsides above Main Street; their porch supports are stacks of rocks. Many of the residents seem to be retirees who came here for the blue skies and warm weather. Yet this isn’t a wealthy town, so presumably many of those might be retired schoolteachers living on state pensions.
Hillside rock home, Truth or Consequences
As I turned the corner onto Broadway, I found an open diner. I ordered some green chili or “chile verde” as New Mexicans call it. Chile verde is not simply a green version of chili con carne. It’s a stew with meat (usually pork), potatoes or other vegetables, and chopped green chilies added for a kick. This is perhaps New Mexico’s signature food — each restaurant seems to have its own recipe. Although you can find red chili on most menus here, it is referred to as “Texas Red” and is delivered to your table with some under-the-breath derision.
I overheard some waitresses chatting among themselves.
One said, “I think [man’s name redacted] might just claim my youngest to be his real daughter.”
“The one in first grade now?” another waitress asked.
“Yes.”
“Oh, she looks just like him.”
So once upon a time there was a Truth and now there are Consequences.
On my way out of town I saw, incredibly, some Occupy Wall Street protesters! There were maybe 10 of them, all old hippies, holding signs in the town park at the corner of Main and Broadway. They seemed to be a quixotic bunch, protesting Wall Street in a town too small to have a three-story bank. As I slowly drove by, I could overhear one of them explain “right-wingers” this way: “It’s in their genes so they can’t resist the urge to hate.” I’d hate to see the Occupy bunch turn into the next eugenics movement.
I tweeted about it later:
“I saw protesters today at Occupy Truth or Consequences New Mexico!! A dozen peyote-smoking middle-aged hippies. Truth!”
To my shock, I got an answer from one of them:
@que_taylor: “There were 18 of us and thank you for saying ‘middle'”
You’re welcome @que_taylor. I looked up @que_taylor on twitter. She describes herself as “K Taylor: Math teacher, single mom with grandchildren, fan of humanitarians, love to re-post good tweets”. I looked up some of her other tweets. They weren’t as friendly as the one she sent to me:
“For one thing, #OWS are testing local police forces and local authorities; exposing the thugs and police-state mentalities.”
“Don’t put the bread in the oven until it’s done rising. #OWS is far larger than T-baggers. No need to get personal.”
@que_taylor and the Occupy Wall Street people in Truth or Consequences might be having a problem understanding Truth. The police force here doesn’t seem to be thugs or the leaders of a police state. In fact, their headquarters are in the Sierra County Courthouse just 200 yards away. Although the protesters are clearly visible from the courthouse the sheriff isn’t marching out with his shock troops.
Sierra County Courthouse, Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
OWS might also be having a problem understanding Consequences. If they really lived in a police state they wouldn’t be able to protest openly in the town park, and their bodies would likely wind up at the bottom of the nearby Rio Grande.
In the final analysis, OWS is simply demanding things for themselves that others have earned for themselves. I was in other parts of New Mexico the same week I was in Truth and Consequences. Here are some alternative cause-and-effect scenarios.
There’s a burgeoning energy industry in the northwestern corner of the state, near the desert towns of Farmington and Aztec. Natural gas collection sites are dispersed among desert rocks and sagebrush. Pickup trucks servicing the sites invariably pass you at 15 miles above the highway speed limit. That’s all ok though. The ultimate consequence of the energy work is blooming desert towns with middle-class jobs and homes.
Main Street Bistro, Aztec, New MexicoResidential Street, Aztec, New Mexico
But suppose you don’t want a mortgage or a 9-to-5 job. Eschewing traditional occupations, both Jack Kerouac in the 1950s and the old mountain men of the 1830s chose to wander the countryside with a pack and a tough pair of boots. They demanded nothing from anyone. The consequences of such a life would include hiding under rock ledges during storms. However, after the rain stopped, they would be rewarded with sights like this:
Foliage and homes near Jemez Springs, New MexicoJemez Canyon, New Mexico
So in the end, the vocal residents of Truth or Consequences don’t seem to have a firm grip on Truth. Because of that, they experience only imaginary Consequences. It’s sad and I feel sorry for those modern-day Don Quixotes.
A list of all photo posts from the American County Seats series in TimManBlog can be found here.
I’m trying to travel to all of America’s county courthouses, and each month a post about my visit to the most interesting county seats. It’s only a hobby — but donations are greatly appreciated to help defer my costs. Thanks, Tim
“The Berkeley Earth Project [BEST] reported that they were preparing four papers, one of which confirmed that there had been a general rise in global average earth-surface temperature over the last 200 years…The results weren’t really all that dramatic — the general response was ‘well, duh!’ It was the PR that was flawed.”
For some of that “flawed PR”, see the Yahoo! News story “Skeptic finds he now agrees global warming is real.” As I see so often, a popular media outlet lazily distorts a story in order to reinforce their thought-template on the subject. The debate is not about whether the Earth is warming; it’s about whether the cause has been human activity. The Yahoo! article and most of the PR for the BEST studies misses this point.
Martin lists some examples of how the world was once warmer than it is today:
“In 200 CE there were wine grapes being grown in northern England, and about 1000 CE bread grains were being grown successfully in Greenland: is it really warmer than it was then? Doesn’t look like it — but that makes trouble for the idea that we’re warming unusually.”
So it was a lot warmer back in 200 and 1000 than it is today — and warmth back then could not have been caused by SUVs. Human-caused global warming seems like a passing hysteria that comes over us from time to time. Anybody remember the saccharine scare?
This debate illustrates two human tendencies I’ve seen over the course of time:
First: We emphasize our personal experiences over second-hand knowledge. People remark that Hurricane Irene was exceptional even though hurricanes have hit New York many times before. Same thing for the tornado outbreak in Alabama last Spring — we’ve seen similar tornado outbreaks before. So we insist that today’s warming is an exceptional event because we never personally experienced the climates of the Middle Ages.
Second: We tend to believe that we are the ultimate cause of events. It’s an arrogant belief but it’s often true. At one time there was a great plague and people believed their sinfulness was the cause of it. Flagellants went from village to village whipping themselves as a form of penance. When Muslim terrorists flew planes into buildings to knock them down and kill people, many asked “What did we do to make them hate us?” Even if it casts us as EVIL, we like to believe that we are the ultimate cause of events because it gives us the ultimate hope of control over those same events. It’s a similar impulse that propels the man-caused global warming belief: since it is getting warmer it goes without saying that humans are the cause of it, not natural cycles or sunspots, etc. Just ask Yahoo! News.
I sat at the soda counter at Clark’s Pharmacy, on the corner of Main Street and US Highway 50 in Cimarron, admiring the antique signs on the wall above me. One says, “Pop’s greasy spoon — It ain’t healthy but it sure tastes good!” Surplus antique Coca-Cola signs lay tucked away on a shelf above the front window. The ceiling here is made of textured pressed metal; it’s often found adorning 19th century merchant buildings but is considered too fancy and expensive for today’s construction. The soda fountain at Clark’s offers a dozen varieties of milk shakes and malts. All are too cold to enjoy at 9 am, so I look around for something better suited to the morning. I’d been walking about town and wanted something to eat, hopefully something homemade.
Clark’s Pharmacy, Cimarron, Kansas
Main Street Cimarron is a bit like a 1950’s movie set. (My mind started playing “Mr. Sandman” as I looked around.) The storefronts are in use; people are at work. The Vogel Accounting agency is open across from Daylight Donuts and next to the Farm Bureau office and the new Wind turbine company.
At the grain elevator down the street the foreman blows the horn as I take a photo of an American flag painted on the side of his office. This particular rendering includes bolts of lightning coming from a dark turbulent sky, reminiscent of the violent storms that rage through these plains. Tracks of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe service the grain elevators. These are working train tracks, not like the abandoned ones I am more used to seeing.
Grain elevators & office in Cimarron
The 1927 county courthouse occupies the lot across the tracks, atop a well-trimmed green lawn and enveloped by giant oak trees. Old photographs suggest that the trees were planted at the same time the courthouse was built 84 years ago.
Gray County Courthouse. Cimarron, Kansas
Just inside the front entrance, next to an American flag, is an Autumn tree. (I don’t really know what it’s called because I’d never seen anything like it before so I’m calling it an Autumn tree). Like an artificial Christmas tree, it’s supported by a central pole surrounded by green spruce fronds and decorated with Fall leaves and Halloween ornaments. The staff must have put this together. I hope it becomes a national trend.
Autumn Tree, Gray County Courthouse lobby, Cimarron, KansasGray County in the state of Kansas
Back at Clark’s Pharmacy I saw nothing to eat but candy bars and packaged cupcakes. I asked the lady why she didn’t sell donuts like the Daylight Donuts a few doors down. She told me she used to sell fresh, giant cinnamon rolls, baked by a local Mennonite woman, and had done so for twenty years.
“The best most delicious cinnamon rolls you’ve ever tasted!” she boasted. I could believe it.
But one day, she explained, a state inspector decided to ask about the rolls and found out that they were not baked on-site and thus not baked in a state-inspected kitchen. That was the end of the cinnamon rolls after twenty years of sales. No more. No ifs, ands or buts. Forbidden. The lady offered me a packaged pastry instead, its white icing smeared all over the plastic wrapper. I said no thanks.
So home-cooked Mennonite pastries are banned for public sale. Who knew? I sat there, hungry, wondering why the government would choose the nuclear option and actually ban this activity. Couldn’t they have just decreed some ridiculous warning labels be affixed such as “Danger! Danger! Food not cooked in state inspected kitchen” instead of leaving me hungry? Surely, I could decide for myself if risk exceeded reward.
Before leaving I overheard an excited conversation about the chance of rain rising to 70% later in the week. Fall is winter wheat planting season, and the seeds need moisture to germinate. Mother Nature is the greatest power out here on the Kansas plains, but the state is jealous to catch up.
A list of all photo posts from the American County Seats series in TimManBlog can be found here.
I’m trying to travel to all of America’s county courthouses, and each month a post about my visit to the most interesting county seats. It’s only a hobby — but donations are greatly appreciated to help defer my costs. Thanks, Tim
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