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Page added on January 25, 2016
Evidence of our Passing
The past two weekends Caleb and I have been engaged in a massive fencing project, rebuilding three hundred yards of woodland fence. Some of the fence line dates back twenty years and some perhaps as old as forty. Condition of the barbed wire, size of trees that have grown up in the old fence line, type of wood used for posts all give some indication of the age of the fence. Pulling out the old fence and putting in the new has had me thinking about the visual clues of human settlement. A more knowledgeable observer of the natural world could point out botanical interlopers on our farm. I have to rely on more modest powers of observation.
It is hard to say how long our particular valley has been settled. European settlers, before finally pushing out the Cherokee in the early 1800’s, have now been in the area for 250 years. The Cherokee in turn had pushed out the previous inhabitants a few hundred years before that date. And I’m sure wave after wave of earlier inhabitants engaged in the same activity. But any visual evidence of long inhabitance in this particular valley is slight. Our soil is poor and the land is hilly. Neither are virtues that encouraged settlement until the growth of our current population.
We have no grand antebellum homes in our valley or even prosperous 19th century farm houses. The housing stock dates back at the oldest to the 1920’s with most from around the 1950’s. My guess is that the older families moved in as improved roads and vehicle transportation made settling more marginal land viable.
Over these fourteen years I have found one flint scraper used to clean hides, an indication of at least the passing through of older Americans on this land. And we find the occasional mule shoe in a pasture indicating that the hills have been worked before the use of tractors. But in our locale that could be as recent as 1960, though that could once again become the preferred or only method. Other mechanical debris turns up from time to time: spring tines, cultivating harrows and other twentieth century products of an agricultural bent. In the back forty on the edge of one field is a pile of mattress springs now covered in leaves and dirt, hardly an item to stir ones imagination.
Walking through the woods we see numerous trees that have two or four main trunks shooting from the base. I am sure you have noticed that when you cut down a small tree it often sends up shoots from the stump. Same thing in our woods, they were logged thirty years ago. The remaining stumps that sent up shoots are now mature trees.
Across one of our fields is a long swale that cuts diagonally across four acres. This is evidence of a previous fence that existed long enough to leave a tangible mark on the land. All of which brings me to the reminder that our presence is somewhat tenuous on whatever land we inhabit. We can abuse the land under our stewardship or take care of it. But the reality is that sooner or later someone else will be faced with that same task and deciphering evidence of our own passing.
17 Comments on "Evidence of our Passing"
makati1 on Mon, 25th Jan 2016 7:27 pm
“…pushing out the Cherokee in the early 1800’s, have now been in the area for 250 years. The Cherokee in turn had pushed out the previous inhabitants a few hundred years before that date. And I’m sure wave after wave of earlier inhabitants engaged in the same activity.”
Salve for the fact that they STOLE the land, not purchased it. That they try to make it look like it was not a theft is typical of Americans.
That the Cherokee were FORCED to move onto land already occupied is not mentioned. Again typical of Americans.
That this all happened AFTER the thieves, sorry, “colonists” came to North America from Europe and killed off the owners for their land, is skimmed over.
That they too might be replaced is not even thought of. No, they will be allowed to die on their property and pass it on if they so desire to family. An option their forefathers never gave to the original owners.
ghung on Mon, 25th Jan 2016 10:01 pm
Mak said; “That they too might be replaced is not even thought of. No, they will be allowed to die on their property and pass it on if they so desire to family. An option their forefathers never gave to the original owners.”
Again, Mak pretty much describes the history of humanity (humans fucking other humans out of their land and resources),,, and somehow expects white Europeans to behave differently. Maybe it’s because he is one.
Give it up, Mak. You’re just as guilty as the rest of us. Sometime in the past some of your ancestors committed awful acts in order for their progeny to procreate. Otherwise we wouldn’t have to put up with your
ornery ass.
Pennsyguy on Mon, 25th Jan 2016 10:38 pm
I believe that evidence does exist that humans have become a bit less brutal over the centuries. Plus, there have been many great moral teachers who have shown ways for us to at least pretend that life has value. Of course they were usually killed for their trouble. IF we had more time, we could develop into a less blood thirsty group. At least we can still try to do better as individuals, for what ever it’s worth.
JuanP on Mon, 25th Jan 2016 11:08 pm
Pennsy, There is no time left, it is decades too late. People who are not used to it, or expect it, will be cold, sick, hungry, and thirsty. And, there will be blood when that day comes because many will be very angry, too, and out of drugs to keep them happy. I hope we still have TVs working at that time. That would keep a bunch on their sofas. 😉
If we were going to change our behavior as a species, we would have done it decades or centuries ago. Now it is already too late!
makati1 on Tue, 26th Jan 2016 12:01 am
JuanP, you are correct. The human ape is not much more “advanced” than his stone age ancestors. Perhaps even less so. Then, survival meant you worked together or died. Today it seems to be every person for themselves in most instances. At least in the Western world which is the one taking us into the coming extinction bottleneck at ever increasing speed.
We are locked into our fate at this point in time. No amount of sitting around campfires and singing “kumbaya” will change it. No amount of wishing or wanting will matter. Defeatist? Nope! Realist.
makati1 on Tue, 26th Jan 2016 12:03 am
ghung, the us has been
makati1 on Tue, 26th Jan 2016 12:14 am
ghung, the Us has been plundering and killing since the day Columbus stepped ashore in the New World. That is not taught in US schools or mentioned in polite company because it proves just how unexceptional and bloodthirsty Americans are and have been. If there is anyone to blame for today’s world, it is America.
America’s <5% consumes more than 25% of the world's resources and pollutes more than China's billion plus. It wages war constantly and kills tens of thousands every year. No humanity, just 'collateral damage'.
It cannot be taken down fast enough to save the world, but it can pay for it's crimes against humanity, and it will. Mother Nature doesn't respect borders or governments or even the human animal. The results of our greed will be shared equally by all, and maybe more by those who have the most to lose. That is, IF we don't end it all in a suicide bouquet of mushroom clouds before then.
Northwest Resident on Tue, 26th Jan 2016 1:16 am
makati1 — The entire human race has been plundering and killing since way before Columbus. And will continue to do so, much more so than ever before in the near future due simply to the fact that there are much more people with far fewer resources combined with a plethora of weaponry that humans up to 200 years ago could never imagine. Your one-sided and myopic condemnations of America are as boring and lacking in objectivity as ever.
makati1 on Tue, 26th Jan 2016 2:53 am
NWR, no nation on earth has done as much killing in the name of power and money as the Us has, None. It uses the excuse that it is “Bringing democracy to some poor 3rd world country” most often against the wishes of that countries inhabitants, while in reality it is only using it as an excuse to plunder and steal. The US is so used to lies and propaganda, that it has no morals. No religion except power and money. No right to call itself a democracy or “the land of the free”. It never was and never will be.
This time, those wide oceans will not protect it from final retribution if it dares to try to take China and/or Russia on. It will be nuked out of assistance. A missile leaving Moscow hits LA in 22 minutes. From Moscow to New York, 15. From a sub, almost instantaneous. The exchange may take out the rest of us in the other countries eventually, but the Us will be gone. A nuclear exchange will only move our extinction date up a few decades. No great loss. We will be gone by 2100 anyway.
Davy on Tue, 26th Jan 2016 5:24 am
You can worry all you want about who is to blame for histories wrongs. I love the above anti-Americans version because it is so tabloid. Tabloid is hilarious because it is so wrought with fiction and petty passions. The usual right and wrong plays out with our tabloid anti-American and the NUK’s fly and the wrong is obliterated then his Asian Phoenix rises. Some people know no humility, empathy, and or compassion.
The finger pointing for past wrongs can’t stop on its way back into time. In the here and now we are all guilty. I guarantee most of you if put in the right situation would be consumed by the system and corrupted. The system is human nature in the flesh. We were never meant to be in the population numbers we are in. At the numbers we are at corruption rises to the surface like cream. Our instincts were honed as semi-nomadic hunter gathers in smallish groups over many thousands of years. Agriculture and the beginnings of civilization were only possible by a brief window in earth history that allowed us to become what we are today. Blame the climate then.
My point is the finger pointing is useless for what is ahead. Any significant change put in place now has consequences and unintended consequences to a system already destabilized. The alternatives to any disrupted status quo are catastrophic. People here who point finger with desire for class warfare and war between nations always think good will prevail. Their good will prevail and their idea of evil extinguished. Their righteousness will be venerated. The meek will inherit the earth because it is these types that will kill each other off leaving the helpless and unimportant to carry on. I am not saying don’t try to change wrongs what I am saying is don’t expect that to save us. It may satisfy your injustices but it will not save you. Fate has it and our populations and corresponding consumptions will be rebalanced.
These righteous and proud are also be the ones absolutely sure that it is fate for us to kill each other. What we have in front of us is another day of trying to survive. It is the summation of billions of survival decisions that keep this world going. It is the summation of millions of people with attitudes of death and destruction that threaten this existence. Our board Phoenix is one of the millions desiring retribution and death.
Those of you that are men know the weight of providing and protecting is on our shoulders. Some of us who have chosen to take care of our families and love ones and have not deserted them know we must put our lives on the line. This has always been the description of manhood. We are now entering that time when all that provides security is going to be called into question.
Collapse processes are about decay and dysfunction. These processes are random in nature. They cause economic abandonment that leads to irrational outcomes. Human nature is pressured to both the worst and the best in times of crisis. You have a choice whether you will chose higher ethics and morals or follow the psychopathic and narcissistic paths.
If you are a narcissist with psychopathic tendencies enjoy your thoughts of warfare. They fit in nicely with our Hollywood society. They don’t connect with our local and our family and extended group. What we should be doing is worrying about the here and now in the nearby not the global macro.
You can opine on who is to blame and who should be punished all you like but that will not change things. We are too late for change. Any change good or bad is going to bring down the status quo and with it the industrial food chain that requires exactly what we have now to feed 7BIL people. Go ahead and point fingers and talk boldly about killing and lynching the bad guys. Your energy would be better spent doing something productive.
Davy on Tue, 26th Jan 2016 6:14 am
“Earth ‘covered in plastic’: 5bn tons of waste has contaminated marine life, entered food chain”
https://www.rt.com/news/330134-environment-plastic-pollution-study/
“Plastic was found on the ocean floor, remote islands, buried underground in landfill sites and even in polar regions which used to be considered as pristine zones before 2014, when significant amount of plastic were found frozen in the Arctic Sea.”
“The results came as a real surprise. We were aware that humans have been making increasing amounts of different kinds of plastic – from Bakelite to polyethylene bags to PVC – over the last 70 years, but we had no idea how far it had traveled round the planet,” The Guardian cited Zalasiewicz as saying.”
“It turns out not just to have floated across the oceans, but has sunk to the deepest parts of the sea floor. This is not a sign that our planet is in a healthy condition either,” he said.”
“Plastic doesn’t just pollute the planet, the scientists say, but has become a part of the food chain – a factor that has a colossal environmental effect.”
“Zalasiewicz and his team believe that the spread of plastic in the last 70 years has had such a grave effect on the planet that it can be viewed as a marker for a new geological epoch on the Earth, called Anthropocene, which has put an end to the Holocene era that began about 12,000 years ago.”
“Plastics are already present in sufficient numbers to be considered as one of the most important types of ‘technofossil’ that will form a permanent record of human presence on Earth,” the study concludes, according to the Daily Mail.”
PracticalMaina on Tue, 26th Jan 2016 7:45 am
Makati, I think Russia will probably just wait for LA to flood. I hope countries will be far more concerned about the massive relocations that are going to have to happen within their own borders.
ghung on Tue, 26th Jan 2016 8:07 am
Mak: Guilty! Just as guilty as the rest of us. Cash that check this month?
Cloud9 on Tue, 26th Jan 2016 9:03 am
Rome is still a city long after the barbarian invasion. When the lights go out, the die off will be rapid. It will peak and then the remnant will begin again. Same as it ever was.
GregT on Tue, 26th Jan 2016 9:39 am
“It will peak and then the remnant will begin again. Same as it ever was.”
Except that the 6th mass extinction event is being caused by one of the Earth’s species. Homo sapiens. (The wise man)
makati1 on Tue, 26th Jan 2016 6:54 pm
ghung, yep and it is MY money that I was forced to ‘invest’ over 50 years. Do you take money out of your savings or 401K? Odds are, if you are employed in the Us, you are financing my retirement. Thanks! ^_^
Davy on Tue, 26th Jan 2016 7:36 pm
“MY Money” just another welfare bum spouting off.