How to get pigs to surrender their freedom
Some years ago, about 1900, an old trapper from North Dakota hitched up some horses to his Studebaker wagon, packed a few possessions - especially his traps - and drove south.
Several weeks later, he stopped in a small town just north of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. It was a Saturday morning - a lazy day - when he walked into the general store. Sitting around the pot-bellied stove were seven or eight of the town's local citizens.
The traveler spoke. "Gentlemen, could you direct me to the Okefenokee Swamp?" Some of the old-timers looked at him like he was crazy. "You must be a stranger in these parts," they said. "I am. I'm from North Dakota," said the stranger.
"In the Okefenokee Swamp are thosuands of wild hogs," one old man explained. "A man who goes into the swamp by himself asks to die!" He lifted up his leg. "I lost half my leg here, to the pigs of the swamp."
Another old fellow said, "Look at the cuts on me; look at my arm bit off! Those pigs have been free since the Revolution, eating snakes and rooting out roots and fending for themselves for over a hundred years. They're wild and they're dangerous. You can't trap them. No man dare go into the swamp by himself."
Every man nodded his head in agreement.
The old trapper said, "Thank you so much for the warning. Now could you direct me to the swamp?" They said, "Well, yeah, it's due south - straight down the road," but they begged the stranger not to go, because they knew he'd meet a terrible fate.
He said, "Sell me ten sacks of corn, and help me load it in the wagon." And they did. Then the old trapper bade them farewell and drove on down the road. The townsfolk thought they?d never see him again.
Two weeks later, the man came back. He pulled up to the general store, got down off the wagon, walked in, and bought ten more sacks of corn. After loading it up, he went back down the road toward the swamp.
Two weeks later, he returned and again bought ten more sacks of corn. This went on for a month. And then, two months, and three. Every week or two, the old trapper would come into town on a Saturday morning, load up ten sacks of corn, and drive off south into the swamp.
The stranger soon became a legend in the little village and the subject of much speculation. People wondered what kind of devil had possessed this man, that he could go into the Okefenokee by himself and not be consumed by the wild and free hogs.
One morning, the man came into town as usual. Everyone thought he wanted more corn. He got off the wagon and went into the store where the usual group of men were gathered around the stove. He took off his gloves.
"Gentlemen," he said, "I need to hire about ten or fifteen wagons. I need twenty or thirty men. I have six thousand hogs out in the swamp, penned up, and they're all hungry. I've got to get them to market right away."
"You've got WHAT in the swamp?" asked the store-keeper, incredulously. "I have six thousand hogs penned up. They haven't eaten for two or three days, and they'll starve if I don't get back there to feed and take care of them."
One of the old-timers said, "You mean you've captured the wild hogs of the Okefenokee?" "That's right." "How did you do that? What did you do?" the man urged, breathlessly.
One of them exclaimed, "But I lost my arm!" "I lost my brother!" cried another. "I lost my leg to those wild boars!" chimed a third.
The trapper said, "Well, the first week I went in there they were wild all right. They hid in the under-growth and wouldn't come out. I dared not get off the wagon. So I spread corn along behind the wagon. Every day, I'd spread a sack of corn."
"The old pigs would have nothing to do with it. But, the younger pigs decided that it was easier to eat free corn than it was to root out roots and catch snakes. So, the very
young began to eat the corn first. I did this every day. Pretty soon, even the old pigs decided that it was easier to eat free corn. After all, they were all free; they were not penned up. They could run off in any direction they wanted at any time."
"The next thing was to get them used to eating in the same place all the time. So I selected a clearing. At first, they wouldn?t come to the clearing. It was too far. It was too open. It was a nuisance to them."
"But, the very young decided that it was easier to take the corn in the clearing than it was to root out roots and catch their own snakes. And not long thereafter, the older pigs also decided that it was easier to come to the clearing every day."
"And so the pigs learned to come to the clearing every day to get their free corn. They could still subsidize their diets with roots and snakes and whatever else they wanted. After all, they were all free. They could run in any direction at any time. There were no bounds upon them."
"The next step was to get them used to fence posts. So I put fence posts all the way around the clearing. I put them in the underbrush so that they wouldn?t get suspicious or upset. After all, they were just sticks sticking up out of the ground, like the trees and the brush. The corn was there every day. It was easy to walk in between the posts, get the corn, and walk back out."
"This went on for a week or two. Shortly they became very used to walking into the clearing, getting the free corn, and walking back out through the fence posts."
"The next step was to put one rail down at the bottom. I also left a few openings, so that the older, fatter pigs could walk through the openings and the younger pigs could easily jump over just one rail. After all, it was not a real threat to their freedom or independence. They could always jump over the rail and flee in any direction at any time."
"Now I decided that I wouldn't feed them every day. I began to feed them every other day. On the days I didn?t feed them, the pigs still gathered in the clearing. They squealed, and they grunted, and they begged, and they pleaded with me to feed them. But I only fed them every other day. And I put a second rail around the posts."
"Now the pigs became more and more desperate for food because they were no longer used to going out and digging their own roots and finding their own food. They now needed me. They needed my corn every other day."
"So I trained them that I would feed them every other day if they came in through a gate. And I put up a third rail
around the fence. But it was still no great threat to their
freedom, because there were several gates and they could run
in and out at will."
"Finally, I put up the fourth rail. Then I closed all the
gates but one, and I fed them very, very well."
"Yesterday, I closed the last gate."
"And today, I need you to help me take those pigs to
market."
PeakOil is You
Dark Humor: How to get pigs to surrender their freedom
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Dark Humor: How to get pigs to surrender their freedom
by cador » Wed 08 Dec 2004, 11:19:43
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by cador » Wed 08 Dec 2004, 14:32:48
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateMan', 'I')nteresting story, moral clear enough, but unfortunately TOO LATE. Corn = Oil. The US will Totalitarian within a few years is my guess.
I agree that it's much too late. Totalitarianism will arrive without an actual formal declaration of sorts. We humans are domesticated and are no longer "wild and free". Once we hit the downward slope of the peak, most people will be volunteering to become serfs or slaves because we became too dependent on the easy oil--kind of like the pigs who surrendered their freedom because they became dependent on the easy corn.
Kiss the 40-hour work week goodbye. In many respects, it's already gone for many white collar workers who are salaried and they grudgingly work for unpaid overtime. Plus, they will be competing with the growing unemployed class who are willing to work for less for even more hours. The rush to outsource US labour to poor countries is one of the symptoms of the coming energy crisis.
The days of "working to the sweat of your brow" as described in the Book of Genesis are coming back with a vengeance.
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by Marco » Thu 09 Dec 2004, 00:01:00
cador,
a cautionary tale. But too late in the telling I fear. Most of the world is already trapped in the pen of slave wages and oppression. the rest of us are soon to follow.
Indeed, as the historian Perry Anderson notes- history is really the study of degrees of unfreedom. Throughout history peoples have been classed by their relationship to the ruling power elite. Class and stratification is the norm. Greek freedom was built on greek slavery- and western affluence has been built for 500 years on third world poverty and oppression.
On a slightly more positive note. Although I do believe we are heading (in the west) due south to tyranny- the history of popular struggles does give some hope. Social struggles are written out of most histories. Instead we get the glorification of nasty little overachievers like Caesar, Napoleon et al. The middle ages were rife with social movements struggling (sometimes with a few wins) against the worst of political and economic repression. The industrial age is no different.
In the world to come dissent will be regarded as terrorism. The rights of the individual will cease to be. This Nuremberg world will be ugly. already one can see the shape of things to come with the Patriot Act and FEMA. It takes no great imagination to see the shape of this looming state and corporate fascism.
I believe our masters know the world of money capitalism based on oil is going. They intend to retain control of a future economy based on state totalitarianism. Our relationship to the state in the west will come to resemble that in China and the old Soviet Russia- or even feudal Europe. Our lives will come to measured by the degree of unfreedon we have in relation to our masters.
This repression will breed dissent-however stifled. The new fascism will be build not on solid agrarian production as in ages past- but on a declining and turbulent economic and social base.
The shape of the longer term freedoms(if any) will come to depend on how effective is this dissent.
Have faith- we may be like the pigs- who think themselves free even while in captivity- but this little piggy has no illusions about what is to come. If I stick my head up from the corn long enough- i can see a few others who are thinking the same thing.
start digging under the fence my friends.
regards marco
a cautionary tale. But too late in the telling I fear. Most of the world is already trapped in the pen of slave wages and oppression. the rest of us are soon to follow.
Indeed, as the historian Perry Anderson notes- history is really the study of degrees of unfreedom. Throughout history peoples have been classed by their relationship to the ruling power elite. Class and stratification is the norm. Greek freedom was built on greek slavery- and western affluence has been built for 500 years on third world poverty and oppression.
On a slightly more positive note. Although I do believe we are heading (in the west) due south to tyranny- the history of popular struggles does give some hope. Social struggles are written out of most histories. Instead we get the glorification of nasty little overachievers like Caesar, Napoleon et al. The middle ages were rife with social movements struggling (sometimes with a few wins) against the worst of political and economic repression. The industrial age is no different.
In the world to come dissent will be regarded as terrorism. The rights of the individual will cease to be. This Nuremberg world will be ugly. already one can see the shape of things to come with the Patriot Act and FEMA. It takes no great imagination to see the shape of this looming state and corporate fascism.
I believe our masters know the world of money capitalism based on oil is going. They intend to retain control of a future economy based on state totalitarianism. Our relationship to the state in the west will come to resemble that in China and the old Soviet Russia- or even feudal Europe. Our lives will come to measured by the degree of unfreedon we have in relation to our masters.
This repression will breed dissent-however stifled. The new fascism will be build not on solid agrarian production as in ages past- but on a declining and turbulent economic and social base.
The shape of the longer term freedoms(if any) will come to depend on how effective is this dissent.
Have faith- we may be like the pigs- who think themselves free even while in captivity- but this little piggy has no illusions about what is to come. If I stick my head up from the corn long enough- i can see a few others who are thinking the same thing.
start digging under the fence my friends.
regards marco
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by gg3 » Thu 09 Dec 2004, 07:03:46
Yeah, good story there, and good lesson.
The 40-hour workweek is already gone; the average family has since the late 1980s needed both partners working fulltime in order to provide even the bare hint of an economically stable existence for themselves and their kids. So in fact it's an 80-hour workweek.
Back in the 50s and 60s we were told that, thanks to technology, computers, and automation, it would be a 4-day work week and a middle class standard of living for all. We now have technology, automation, and computers far beyond the wildest dreams of the mid 20th century, and productivity has soared: and yet, the average wage-earner and even the average salary-earner gets doodly-squat for it, and the middle class has shrunk while more and more people are struggling to even keep a roof over their heads and food on their tables.
Clearly the vast sums of money saved through productivity have gone somewhere. Ahh, but where...?
And whilst this vast theft of labor has been proceeding apace, the powers that be narcotize us with television and distract us with "social issues" designed to pit each against each so we don't look up and see who's been building the fences and sharpening their butcher knives.
The 40-hour workweek is already gone; the average family has since the late 1980s needed both partners working fulltime in order to provide even the bare hint of an economically stable existence for themselves and their kids. So in fact it's an 80-hour workweek.
Back in the 50s and 60s we were told that, thanks to technology, computers, and automation, it would be a 4-day work week and a middle class standard of living for all. We now have technology, automation, and computers far beyond the wildest dreams of the mid 20th century, and productivity has soared: and yet, the average wage-earner and even the average salary-earner gets doodly-squat for it, and the middle class has shrunk while more and more people are struggling to even keep a roof over their heads and food on their tables.
Clearly the vast sums of money saved through productivity have gone somewhere. Ahh, but where...?
And whilst this vast theft of labor has been proceeding apace, the powers that be narcotize us with television and distract us with "social issues" designed to pit each against each so we don't look up and see who's been building the fences and sharpening their butcher knives.
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by cador » Thu 09 Dec 2004, 10:30:59
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Marco', 'T')he shape of the longer term freedoms(if any) will come to depend on how effective is this dissent.
Precisely. You control food, you control people.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')ave faith- we may be like the pigs- who think themselves free even while in captivity- but this little piggy has no illusions about what is to come. If I stick my head up from the corn long enough- i can see a few others who are thinking the same thing.
start digging under the fence my friends.
"The future belongs to those who are willing to get their hands dirty"
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by cador » Thu 09 Dec 2004, 11:12:46
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gg3', 'T')he 40-hour workweek is already gone; the average family has since the late 1980s needed both partners working fulltime in order to provide even the bare hint of an economically stable existence for themselves and their kids. So in fact it's an 80-hour workweek.
Or maybe a 120-hour work week, perhaps the father and mother are both "salaried" and they're forced to work unpaid overtime.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')ack in the 50s and 60s we were told that, thanks to technology, computers, and automation, it would be a 4-day work week and a middle class standard of living for all. We now have technology, automation, and computers far beyond the wildest dreams of the mid 20th century, and productivity has soared: and yet, the average wage-earner and even the average salary-earner gets doodly-squat for it, and the middle class has shrunk while more and more people are struggling to even keep a roof over their heads and food on their tables.
The 1950s was the zenith and nadir of Western Civilization (the "American Dream"). Vice President Nixon was speculating that eventually we might achieve a 24 hour work week that could be sustainable for society. It's so funny that I'm nostalgic for a time period that existed several years before I was even born...
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')learly the vast sums of money saved through productivity have gone somewhere. Ahh, but where...?
Lifting costs for oil in the 1950s was 1 barrel for every 40 produced. That number is down to 1 barrel for every 4 produced today. I think that technology helped mitigate the rising cost in energy, but not enough to sustain our 1950s standard of living.
Of course, the rest of the saved productivity went to those who own the banks and the big companies.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')nd whilst this vast theft of labor has been proceeding apace, the powers that be narcotize us with television and distract us with "social issues" designed to pit each against each so we don't look up and see who's been building the fences and sharpening their butcher knives.
"Social issues" are just cynical pieces of political window dressing to get the masses to go out and vote. The common people think they have a say in the matter, but the truth is that the elites are the ones who are really pulling the strings.
Excerpt from a "King of the Hill" episode:
HANK (reading the reply from his Congressman because he wrote a letter complaining about a $5000 bill for having gotten his hair cut at an army base): "Representative Jim Powell thinks your problem and flag-burning are among the biggest problems facing America today. That's why Jim Powell has introduced House Resolution number 11461. It would ban flag-burning in all..."
Matt Savinar said it best: "Bush is not the problem and Kerry is not the answer"
