This was written in 1968.

earthquake

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  • Jul 30, 2009
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    I'm always amazed when I read stuff like this from way back when.


    "I would like to introduce here an entirely new argument in what has now become a stylized debate: the wilderness should be preserved for political reasons. We may need it someday not only as a refuge from excessive industrialism but also as a refuge from authoritarian government, from political oppression. Grand Canyon, Big Bend, Yellowstone and the High Sierras may be required to function as bases for guerrilla warfare against tyranny. What reason have we Americans to think that our own society will necessarily escape the world-wide drift toward the totalitarian organization of men and institutions?

    This may seem, at the moment, like a fantastic thesis. Yet history demonstrates that personal liberty is a rare and precious thing, that all societies tend toward the absolute until attack from without or collapse from within breaks up the social machine and makes freedom and innovation again possible. Technology adds a new dimension to the process by providing modern despots with instruments far more efficient than any available to their classical counterparts. Surely it is no accident that the most thorough of tyrannies appeared in Europe's most thoroughly scientific and industrialized nation. If we allow our own country to become as densely populated, overdeveloped and technically unified as modern Germany we may face a similar fate.

    The value of wilderness, on the other hand, as a base for resistance to centralized domination is demonstrated by recent history. In Budapest and Santo Domingo, for example, popular revolts were easily and quickly crushed because an urbanized environment gives the advantage to the power with the technological equip ment. But in Cuba, Algeria and Vietnam the revolutionaries, operating in mountain, desert and jungle hinterlands with the active or tacit support of a thinly dispersed population, have been able to overcome or at least fight to a draw official establishment forces equipped with all of the terrible weapons of twentieth century militarism. Rural insurrections can then be suppressed only by bombing and burning villages and countryside so thoroughly that the mass of the population is forced to take refuge in cities, where the people are then policed and if necessary starved into submission. The city, which should be the symbol and center of civilization, can also be made to function as a concentration camp. This is one of the significant discoveries of contemporary political science.

    How does this theory apply to the present and future of the famous United States of North America? Suppose we were planning to impose a dictatorial regime upon the American people- the following preparations would be essential:

    1. Concentrate the populace in megalopolitan masses so that they can be kept under close surveillance and where, in case of trouble, they can be bombed, burned, gassed or machine-gunned with a minimum of expense and waste.

    2. Mechanize agriculture to the highest degree of refinement, thus forcing most of the scattered farm and ranching population into the cities. Such a policy is desirable because farmers, woodsmen, cowboys, Indians, fishermen and other relatively self- sufficient types are difficult to manage unless displaced from their natural environment.

    3. Restrict the possession of firearms to the police and the regular military organizations.

    4. Encourage or at least fail to discourage population growth. Large masses of people are more easily manipulated and dominated than scattered individuals.

    5. Continue military conscription. Nothing excels military training for creating in young men an attitude of prompt, cheerful obedience to officially constituted authority.

    6. Divert attention from deep conflicts within the society by engaging in foreign wars; make support of these wars a test of loyalty, thereby exposing and isolating potential opposition to the new order.

    7. Overlay the nation with a finely reticulated network of communications, airlines and interstate autobahns.

    8. Raze the wilderness. Dam the rivers, flood the canyons, drain the swamps, log the forests, strip-mine the hills, bulldoze the mountains, irrigate the deserts and improve the national parks into national parking lots."

    - Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire, 1968.
     
    “The city, which should be the symbol and center of civilization, can also be made to function as a concentration camp.”

    Poignant observation back then. Guess I’ll have to check some more of his work out
     
    there has been research & studies done on city pop density and crowding causing psych/social derangement. same as experiments overcrowding rats and making them insane and homicidal. wish i could find it.
    there is a lot of abbey's work available. don't know much about his work yet. a bit like ted kaczynski,who was an amazing prophet? ?
     
    That research and those studies have names we all know...
    1728418403247.png
     
    Our cities keep all kinds of statistics. You can view every large American city as a study in cramming people together to see the results. The more progressive the worse the statistics.

    Honestly, cities can work, but the best ones have an authoritarian bent to them. Liberty and freedom must necessarily be curtailed when people are piled up upon one another. People need to fear the police. The police need to mercilessly enforce the law. When you go to a clean and safe big city in the Far East you will likely be arrested (and maybe beaten) for chewing gum or spitting on the street. Sort of a Singaporean version of Broken Windows. The more dense the people the tougher you have to get if you want clean and safe.

    Safety and security is #1. The rest falls to hell if people don't feel safe going there. That's what's wrong with most of our cities. The criminals are running them and lining their own pockets.
     
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    I was playing with Matchbox cars at the time...
    Notice I said "Matchbox cars".
    "Hot Wheels" didn't even come out till 69.

    They've been going off this plan almost my entire life...


    Assholes.
     
    Is there a good place to start with Abbey’s work, or just pick something?
    The Monkey Wrench Gang is a good read.

    Heyduke Lives!!

    Perhaps a little too radical, and the opposition to ruining wilderness beauty for “progress” and to hold water for cities is not all wrong.
    Like where we live. Would be bust if not for dams and tunnels pumping water….
    Lake Dillon - Roberts tunnel and NF of the S platte
    Lake Granby - Big Thompson water project, Lake Mary in Estes Park is part of it
     
    The Monkey Wrench Gang is a good read.

    Heyduke Lives!!

    Perhaps a little too radical, and the opposition to ruining wilderness beauty for “progress” and to hold water for cities is not all wrong.
    Like where we live. Would be bust if not for dams and tunnels pumping water….
    Lake Dillon - Roberts tunnel and NF of the S platte
    Lake Granby - Big Thompson water project, Lake Mary in Estes Park is part of it
    A short while ago my neighbor said that during a SHTF he was going to the lake to fish for food. The look on his face when I asked him if he knew how wide the river was before the dam was built was funny. Then I told him that it was only about 25 feet wide and there won't be any fish after they open the gates and drain the lake.
    Better come up with a new plan.
     
    Love Cactus Ed, been a fan since I discovered him in the early 80's going to NAU. Have read all of his books and he would be spinning in his grave if he saw what they are doing with windmills and solar panels. Funny how back then redneck country boys didn't like his "radical environmentalism" but now all the leftist greenies are trying to cover all that "worthless land" with that crap.
     
    The manipulation has been a long time in the making. Most have no clue who the puppet masters are.

    Well here is the clue.

    Genesis 4​

    16 And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

    17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.
     
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    Way back when, the rich and powerful elites of the day wanted to centralize power to control and extort the population of the then infant nation. The US constitution was the means to do so. The men that were opposed to the adoption of the US Constitution described prophetically what would become the future of the country after ratification. The collection of these forewarnings are the Anti-Federalist papers. @earthquake you may enjoy reading their what we know now to be true predictions.
     
    unfortunately, the government has more sophisticated and effective means of observation and detection than they had in the 60s.
    being "in the mountains" won't hide you from them.
    But… If things get real bad, the federales will have their hands full in the cities and won’t have the extra manpower to risk poking some small enclave of backwards hicks in the hinterlands. Hopefully…
     
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    The Monkey Wrench Gang is a good read.

    Heyduke Lives!!

    Perhaps a little too radical, and the opposition to ruining wilderness beauty for “progress” and to hold water for cities is not all wrong.
    Like where we live. Would be bust if not for dams and tunnels pumping water….
    Lake Dillon - Roberts tunnel and NF of the S platte
    Lake Granby - Big Thompson water project, Lake Mary in Estes Park is part of it
    Just downloaded from Audible. And fyi, it was included in my membership. Also included in mine was The New Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins, highly recommended.
     
    The real question is simple. They have made their plans known and they are executing them as we speak.

    What are you going to do about it?
    Been at the rally point for fucking years. Not a damn person ever showed. 🤣 just got to let it burn now. Sadly, we will have to go with it cause by the time people are awake it will be too late.,
     
    unfortunately, the government has more sophisticated and effective means of observation and detection than they had in the 60s.
    being "in the mountains" won't hide you from them.
    The sand people did fairly well at it. You could make the argument though that they never really used our full militaries potential. I'm sure we won't be shown the same mercies.
     
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    A bit of trivia, Abbey's book The Brave Cowboy was made into the movie Lonely Are The Brave starring Kirk Douglas with a cameo by Abbey. When Abbey died Douglas said it was a shame that Abbey never got the recognition he deserved.
    In the book when the sheriff demands the cowboy's ID he says "I don't need any, I know who I am".