There it was on the corner of Crack and Meth, a shack. I used to drive by the shack and point it out to the Cadet, "Play your cards right, son, and you too could live there." But not anymore, the shack has gone, reduced to a small pile of inconsequential debris in this once prosperous farming community.
And it was prosperous, complete with shops, businesses and 20,000 people. All on a walkable, human scale too. You know the score or perhaps you've read about it, being able to walk around your town saying hello to friends and avoiding enemies, perhaps shooting the latter in this instance. Hey, it was the frontier.
Then the asset-strippers took over, King Cotton moved overseas and the town hollowed out as the socio/psychopaths in charge of the way we live now decided to turn our towns and cities into roads. What would you rather live in, a city or a road? Asked no one, not waiting for an answer.
Net result? Shacks, which are returning to nature. Imagine, if you can, how that'll play out in our vast suburbs over the course of the next few decades. Think Detroit on a continental scale. But maybe there's hope, maybe we'll turn this thing around and start living, approximately, as we should.
Who knows. Next time you drive into any one of our Mega Cities, look at the landscape to either side of the highway and ask, "Could we do any better? Or is there some kind of law that says, 'No, you have to create the ugliest possible environment to live in, otherwise you won't be so rich.'"
Demonic, eh? In the meanwhile, I thank God I'm in the country, shacks and all.
Cheers,
LSP
It was probably a very nice house at one time. On our return trip from the first time here, I was immediately struck by how dirty SoCal is compared to here. I was really depressed when we got off the 91 freeway in Long Beach, and saw all the trash, graffiti, run down buildings, etc.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the L.A. I moved to in 1982, when SoCal was still clean and prosperous. Now all the money is "Up In The Hills", Beverly, that is, and the poor people are sleepin' with the light on.....
Your might find a chat with the county assessor illuminating. As in, what tax burden must be shifted to the non shacks to keep the county running.
ReplyDeletePoor people sleepin' with the light on reminded me of this 'un:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnFbSVm0Yyc&list=PLfMFxPbnYDeJgH_456fRy_pKcvWNn-0u2&index=5
The small Ozarks town I finished growing up in is now infested with crack heads and, to serve the interest of the landed poultry processing gentry, imported labor from south of the border (a possible improvement, at least in the local availability of the cuisine they brought with) and Somali's, who have most definitely N-O-T attempted an assimilation with anything or anybody else. I guess that's the price of progress.
drjim, it's all going to a hell of their own making. Terrifying.
ReplyDeleteGood call, WSF. This town's taxes are really high, driving people out and the tax higher. Then they wonder why there isn't any more money. Good work, genius patrol.
ReplyDeleteI'd forgotten that, WWW, nice one. Jukebox material.
ReplyDeleteThe utter, brazen rape of our land and towns by our elite socialist leaders is almost beyond comprehension.