Of the 11 Points, this one is going to seem like an odd tangent. Along with food, energy, immigration and all the more tangible, strategic pursuits we need to address aggressively, and quickly, there is our greatest short-coming. Those of us 18 and over need to start acting like adults.
As a people, we don’t. We just don’t. For generations we have been led by the nose into some of the most nonsensical social and intellectual rabbit holes. We will believe anything, the more outrageous the silly notion, the more grown human beings seem to flock to it.
Almost all of you will see yourself somewhere in this short narrative. You few who stand above all the nonsense - there are precious few - you will see most of the people you know and love here. And if you are among the few, it will frustrate you and likely already does.
A Few Examples
Item 1: Green Scams
We have people who despite the constant moving of the goalposts, despite the gratuitous claims, still believe the political whores when they tell us Climate Change/Global Warming (CC/GW) is an existential threat to humanity. By the most abysmal of prognostications, and the least likely to come to fruition in any foreseeable timeline, CC/GW represents an inconvenience to humanity that we can easily adjust for. If the worst comes to pass, our waterfronts will retreat from what is now waterfront, and do so VERY SLOWLY. And we will have longer growing seasons. Our knowledge of environmental change doesn’t equip us to realistically predict desertification or depopulation from CC/GW.
As an outgrowth of this nonsense, AND THE PROFIT MOTIVE IN PROMOTING THE NONSENSE, the same people are incapable of seeing (or admitting they see) the impossibility of Wind and Solar powering our grid in a realistic way. Further, and I’ve experienced this, when presented with overwhelming information gutting the concept, the same people seek the refuge of the tribe and simply refuse to see it.
As I alluded to in a previous article, do you have any idea what large wind farms do the surface winds downstream from their location, including the movement of seeds, pollen, soil and insects? Do you have any idea the scale at which the government and their cronies intend build these monstrosities? And we ALL know they do not and WILL NOT work as advertised. They will be utterly impractical. Like all government boondoggles, they will not become cheaper over time. They will become absurdly expensive. The power they will end up producing and the estimated income generated for the utilities will be wildly short of what is claimed now. They won’t be worth having. But the Nanny State will insist we keep them spinning or eating sunshine, AND YOU WILL PAY.
I’ll touch on this in detail when I hit the point about energy. But as a demonstration of our intellectual maturity, CC/GW alarmism is a considerable indictment.
Item 2: The SEX CHANGE Thing as a Measure of Our Maturity.
Adults are now looking the most basic, elementary school - hell, preschool - reality square in the face and pretending that reality does not exist. Talk about not following the science! We have a massive movement, actively encouraged by our political whores and their cronies and Instagram dipshits , to confuse and mutilate our CHILDREN based on the most naked, bullshit fad since the Pet Rock. They have taken a rare disorder that actually effects VERY few men and virtually NO women and turned into a money-making, population destroying, political distraction.
And recently, a few trannies have gone viral (and unchallenged by the cancel culture) calling the the arming of those participating in the fad to destroy those who won’t play along with the fad. Let me in the ladies room, claimed one transvestite, or it will be “the last mistake you ever make”.
Let me be clear. No one, not the teachers grooming the kids, not the parents trying to appear super cool at their next wine and cheese party, not the pop psychologists nor the quacks at the Josef Mengele School of Medicine at Vanderbilt University, actually believe that a man/boy can be a woman/girl or vise versa. They know clearly that they are damaging the lives of young people. But there is money to be had, likes the be garnered, coolness to be enjoyed among the woke tribes. So they pretend to believe there is any other driver than XX/XY. There isn’t.
By comparison, this is far more demonstrative of the mass immaturity of our population than GW/CC. To understand climate alarmism, you do have to be paying at least cursory attention to see the truth of the scam. For the the sex change scam, you need only consult your own genitals and you have all the valid information needed to see sex as an adult sees it. Manufactured genitals and fake boobs don’t count. But ALL OF YOU know this already. As does everyone else - the GOP, the Dems, Joe Biden, Budweiser, Target, all sex change activists, all groomers - everybody. We all know that no boy will EVER know what it means to be a girl - ever. No girl will ever know what it means to be a boy. We can speculate, imitate, pretend, we can even find lots of quacks to cut us. But we cannot KNOW. We will never KNOW.
Spending your adult life in a land of “let’s pretend” is not a life.
But we as a society are tolerating the ruin of countless lives because of a fad we ALL reject intellectually. And the non-participants pretend to be okay about it because we lack the requisite maturity to reject barbaric stupidity with adult argument.
Do I have to spell out the damage we are doing in an aging demographic while destroying a child’s ability to reproduce later? I hope none of my readers are THAT stupid.
Item 3: Drugs - Legal and Otherwise
When it comes to illicit drugs, we have no one to blame but ourselves…and in a few cases, Big Pharma.
I weary of the talk about drug addicts “self-medicating” and how we are all supposed to be considerate of that. Yeah, okay, it is an approach to treatment when a druggie want to get clean, but it is not incumbent upon all of us to tolerate zombies in the gutter because they are “self-medicating.”
It IS incumbent upon a mature society to separate these people from their healthy counterparts until they have cleaned up their act. There is nothing healthy about storefronts and streets where kids walk to school being inhabited by wretches actively ingesting, smoking or shooting up hard core drugs. It isn’t healthy for our kids to watch these creatures writhing in the gutter utterly unaware of the world around them.
And here’s the most unhealthy part. When kids do see this, it is MOST unhealthy to say these creatures are “self-medicating.” That plants, in the kids’ heads, an odd sense of legitimacy in the actions of the damaged creature in the gutter.
Another immature excuse that is becoming more common, as the Biden/Mayorkis drug epidemic grows, is coming from families of the victims. I have heard countless times over the last two years family members, usually parents saying something like, “My 16 yr old didn’t know he was taking fentanyl at that party. He thought he taking (some other illicit substance he had no business ingesting) but it was fentanyl - and it killed him!”
Most of our drug deaths started out as rebellious experimentation or outright recreation on the part of the user. (Note: I didn’t say victim.) And little Johnny died because he made what should be universally considered a monumentally stupid decision.
We cannot continue to be a successful culture while losing tens of thousands of adults and adolescents to drugs. To eventually end this lunacy, along with dealing with scizophranic hoemlessness, we must take two steps.
We need to reestablish LARGE mental institutions - yes, asylums - with the goal of getting these wretched creatures off the streets (there is no compassion in leaving them there) and rebuilding the ones we can. The ones we can’t rebuild have a roof over their heads, three hots and a cot.
Raise better kids. The same parent who entertains the notion that boys can be girls will raise kids who make stupid decisions elsewhere in life. But you don’t have to be grooming your own child to be a failed parent. You simply have to be a lazy parent. It takes REAL involvement in the lives of kids to bring them to adulthood in a healthy productive way. I and my siblings know first hand what a lack of involvement and mentorship from BOTH parents means. And I, for one, have the baggage to prove it.
I didn’t say raise perfect kids. That’s impossible. But we must provide them the foundation necessary to make good decisions. We are failing that on a scale never before seen in this country.
Sports, music, life skills like small engine repair, hiking, reading A BOUND BOOK for enjoyment; these are all things that build better future adults. If you are a parent and don’t know how to do these things, google them, learn them yourself, then let the kids see you doing it. In the process of mentoring better kids, you will become better parents and the reciprocating cycle will continue until they are adults and beyond.
Set boundaries and stick to them. Teach your kids delayed gratification.
It’s not rocket science. But if you want to rid the world of ills like drug addiction, you have to do these things. As adults, your kids may fail. But if you don’t provide the foundation for their success, then part of their failure will be your own. And their recovery from failure will be that much harder.
As for “legal” drugs? We are one of the most, if not THE most medicated society in history. We’ve replaced coping skills, child discipline, good eating habits and physical fitness with drugs. We have an obesity probelm among pre-teens. If you have to deal with anything more challenging than watching TV, there’s probably a drug for that.
The result of all this is self evident. We reinforce the weaknesses in people. We bend their perceptions of nature. I’d love to see a study of a large group of homeless (a growing percentage of our population) and find out how many of those poor wretches were the lucky recipients of Ritalin and other drugs as kids, as opposed to the cohort of schizophrenics a generation before them.
Also, the over prescription of pain medication (sometimes it’s best to deal with some pain) we have created addicts who are now using heroine or fentanyl when they can’t get a corrupt doc to write a new scrip.
Over medicating is the medical equivalent of government spending. It’s the easiest way to pretend to do your job, to pretend to care about the issues. But, like when Uncle Stinky throws money at a problem, by over medicating you just get more of the problem.
Item Last: Recreation/Distraction as a Priority.
We all should enjoy a healthy amount of recreation. A little escapism goes a long way in refreshing the mind and spirit. A camping trip, good food, a well-made film of any genre, music, hell - some uncomplicated recreational sex on occasion - are all good for us.
But when the distraction dominates our lives or becomes important in and of itself, when we identify with the recreation too much, then we contribute to the level of immaturity this post is condemning.
First among the most damaging distractions is electronic. This paragraph is almost a waste of words, but it must be included in the argument. Nothing has done more damage to our collective maturity and ability to relate to each other than cell phones, tablets and TV streaming services. You know it. I know it. But most of you, if you are not actively earning your daily bread, will have your nose glued to one of these things. Some will do it when they supposed be earning.
Some simple suggestions. If you prefer to text rather than talk, if you spend more than two hours per day (TOTAL) on some form of electronics (AND IT IS NOT YOUR JOB) you are actively contributing to our social immaturity.
We’ve gone through the looking glass of immaturity in other areas as well. For example, I’ve heard people complain that pro athletes make many times more than US presidents earn. (This doesn’t include scam artists like the last three Dem presidents.) But the reason these guys make so much money is because we, as a society, gleefully hand over so much of our hard-earned money to them. I think the wealth garnered by athletes and entertainers are a social symptom not unlike the Roman bread and circus.
A little is fine. But selling about a dollars worth of material and labor to you for $260 because it has the name of a man who plays a kid’s game associated with it shows a real priority problem.
You may ask, who do I think I am saying such things? If you do, then you are immature and prove the point. Thank you.
Okay, so…what?
This was an absurdly short list of things that contribute to our pan-societal maturity problem. But you know where I am going with this. When you look at your life or the lives of your children, ask yourself if their lifestyle or your parenting will help them thrive. If the answer is no, you have to make some changes. When you honestly assess your own views on politics and civics, do you see a person who is intellectually engaged or utterly tribal or disengaged?1
Remember, I have said repeatedly throughout the series, if we don’t get all of the 11 Points right, then we face real catastrophe. As the “boomers” age out and economies shrink and trade goods we used to take for granted become scarce or even disappear for a while, we will need to be pre-positioned across the 11 Points to maintain a healthy society.
You can look at the examples I have listed here, or consider other things. We won’t beat the maturity problems if YOU don’t actively participate. And an immature society CANNOT weather the storm that is coming. A mature society can not only get through it all, but they can teach later generations the lessons learned.
As an exercise in maturity, I’ll assess my present market reach and admit that my ideas will not get a lot of play across the internet. That can change. But my fear is that someone will read the 11 Points later and say, “Boy, I wish we’d read this back in the early ‘20s! We’d be far better off now!” Such is life for the voice in the wilderness.
Life Skills
I mentioned life skills in the previous segment as one of the paths to a mature society. Changing a tire, tuning a lawn mower, a handwritten letter, basic survival skills, etc., will not only be a measure of how mature we are when the socioeconomic shit hits the fan in the next couple of years. They will also be an important tool kit to getting through the mess intact.
“Repair or replace?” will be a much more critical question pretty soon. As things become more difficult to find or more expensive because of strained or vanishing supply chains, it will be real handy to know how to keep what we have running properly.
This has been complicated by how much of what we have, which is now based on the use of microchips. So simple and old school will blend well into answering the question, “Repair or replace?” I have committed to learning new skills on a regular basis that I have no need of presently. But I will need them soon.
I have a tune up kit for my walk behind mower. I was surprised how straight forward replacing the carburetor is. I intend to keep that running for as long as possible. When the motor itself fails, I will google the replacement of the motor and will have, for all intents and purposes, a new mower.
All the tools in my wood shop, except for the Shopsmith, are old - and simple. I am not worried. The Shopsmith is primarily an American company and modular. I can keep everything else running with basic care and feeding.
My wife and I have purchased a small hydroponic starter kit. We will use it to grow herbs to maturity and to start veggies for the outdoor garden. We’ve even kicked around the idea of a chicken coop.
Yes, it is fun to learn how to do these things. For now, a garden would be a good outdoor activity. But by 2026 (probably) it will also be an important part of a healthy diet. The more eggs, chickens and veggies I have, the less of the government/Davos mandated bugs I’ll have to eat later.2
I’ll share a lot of the eggs and high-producing veggies with the neighbors so they won’t complain when I rent roosters occasionally. Hey, the hens deserve a bit of fun.
Fixing a bicycle, repairing a window, stringing a guitar are all things your family would do well to learn. Doing so will have multiple benefits that go beyond just one of the 11 Points, as critical as that is.
The most immediate benefit of learning a new skill is a rewiring of the brain that adds a new facet of thinking and processing you or your kids never had before. It’s like learning a new language.
It also breaks the thinking that the only thing worth knowing comes from a class room and a degree. School is fine. And if your interests take you into academia, great. But learning how to use our hands provides alternative pathways to professional fulfillment, and often, skills that will prevent us from ever going hungry.
Let’s say that society fails to learn the lessons of this series and blows one or more of the 11 Points. If you acquire or provide for your children a good grounding in the skills we are now discussing they will be able to easily expand on the skill sets. They won’t have preconceived notions about college versus the trades. While your neighbor’s kid is trying to market their Militant Lithuanian Studies degree, you or your kid will be working and thriving.
Actually, thinking in a more mercenary light, if the world truly blows it, but your family prepares and doesn’t spend valuable time staring at their cell phones, you come out on top. The world will be utterly dependent you YOU or YOUR KIDS.
Again, this does not and should not supplant academics or an appreciation of the classic learning. But it will never hurt anyone to learn how to do body work, or how to cook well, or how to pour a concrete slab.
All knowledge is learning and therefor good. In this scenario, diverse knowledge could spell the difference between struggling to survive and thriving.
Perhaps in two weeks time, I’ll bring my energy piece forward and expound on it. That is a real issue for the future. For now, just remember your heard it here first, the “energy solutions” the government is blowing trillions of your dollars on WILL NOT work as advertised. The damage done by the “solutions” will be horrendous. You need to force your government to change course.
On that happy note, Cheers.
Don’t be too hard on yourself if you find you are actually too tribal. That is the default position of most people in this silly society right now. Admitting it is the first step to fixing it. Here’s a good frame of reference to measure from. Ask yourself if you call stupid things that carry NO PROOF “science” because your tribe does. Ask yourself if you put too much faith in any political figure because he says pithy or controversial things. If you answer such questions in the affirmative, make a change.
Here’s just the most recent mention of the bugs you will be expected BY YOUR GOVERNMENT to eat.
Rewiring Society For The Better