sheepie to the left

 

feeble sheep up and left, awesome wolves head down and right. 

 If I understand the message of the proud boyz and the other right wing groups, they would like more freedom. much fewer laws. 

More like the old west. 

Well, pardner, that is Texas! 

I can see that it is about to go wrong in a big way if the right wing strategy comes to every area of the US. 

It is better than the reds and the blues do not duke it out any more, but each retreat to their corner. 

Build that Trump wall if that is what you want to do. 

But, build it along the edge of a new confederacy. 

We sheeple [as you call us] will fester here on the west coast, with no walls or moats or anything like that. 

You may live using laws that you choose in the southeast.

You wont have to get any shots, or wear a mask, [but you can wear a gorilla mask and carry an AR15 if you want to!]. 

Everything will be up to you in the promised land. 

Texas has a separate power grid, tougher laws for those pesky criminals, and much fewer mandates and laws for good people. 

You will never have to give up your guns there, and [since it is less socialistic] you will be able to keep more of your earnings. 

If we agree to split up, The new confederacy can have laws that are very different from laws on the hippie coast. 

Drive what you want to. We will use electric sissy cars, but you can keep drilling up oil and using the real cars. 

I am pretty darn sure that we will stop drilling in the next few years on the coast. 

It has not been working. We are going to let women marry women, and adopt kids, and fight in wars. 

Men will marry men, and adopt kids, and fight in wars. 

We are going to be big whiners about infectious disease. 

Diapers on our silly liberal faces. 

always whining and running off for injections!

Sort of like the Asians. 

Hell, a lot of us are Asian and Jewish and Black and Hispanic and ....... 

Lets just say a date, and draw some lines, and everybody get to the right side of the line. 

There are cities and rural areas in this proposed new confed. and on the Coast, so I am hoping that everyone can find a great spot with their chosen people.

Britain left their union. 

Russia lost some of it's satellites. 

Now, it is our turn to downsize. 

There need not be any war or economic sanctions or travel restrictions. 

Just some new borders, and we can slowly let our governments pass different laws. 

It is already happening. 

Texas is passing laws that directly countermand US law. 

There are also left wing law suits against right wing gangs! 

It is just costly and frustrating and inefficient to try to pass the same exact laws for Dallas and for Seattle. 

And, people will not follow laws now, unless they agree with them. 

And, Peoples paradigms have shifted along cultural and geographic lines, so that they believe things that are in direct opposition. 

 So, yea, lets take a few years to get our stuff in the right place and get what walls we like erected, and then split the heck up! 

No second civil war needed.

uncontrolled growth in the Methow valley of Washington.

 

is the boom in the Methow Valley changing the demographic ?
Who is leaving and who is staying and who is arriving?
Does anyone really care, or are we mostly counting dollars?

It is not as confusing for me, because I have already experienced a similar change in Telluride Colorado and then, in Moab Utah. No one causes the change. the free market economy is simply allowed to operate without much oversight. There are laws, but less sensitive folk with money can step way, way over the line without meeting up with enforcement.

when i arrived in all three places, they were each in a depressed condition. Real estate signs growing around the street signs like cancer cells overcoming and engulfing neighboring healthy cells. People wanting work, so that the price of labor reaches rock bottom. People with money end up with everyone elses stuff. But, no one is driven out. Anyone who wants to can live there. They simply have trouble earning money.

These are not areas of blight. I would not go to a area that has been exploited and left for dead. I certainly would not go to a city or a place that is chaotic and unpleasant.

Telluride was a real ghost town when i arrived in 1976. You could purchase a huge, ruined Victorian house on the main street for 2000 dollars. I was offered the place that i rented for something like 100 dollars per month. Why not stop paying my 25 dollars per month for the master bedroom, and purchase the building and the lot? No one would be that stupid, said clever young Alf! I was working for 25 dollars per hour, doing high risk roped painting and construction. So, i made my rent each hour!

The strange situation came about because speculators had bought up the land around telluride, and then started a ski area that would make the land much more valuable. Then, the ski area went bankrupt, and was run by a skeleton crew simply to try to make some use of the huge land gamble. We could ski a few lifts that were not really connected into a ski area, and sort of cross country ski a few miles when we wanted to use a different lift. It was very unusual. When you skied across the flats to another lift, quite often you would find a lift operator that was needing company. They had not seen anyone for hours! just running an amazing ski lift without a single rider!

The speculators continued to market their business or scam, and in time, they succeeded. After about a decade of enjoying the unencumbered possession of a pretty nice valley, the residents were booted out. I documented some of it in a series of cartoons. It was so surreal. Heavily armed sheriffs forcing residents out of their single wide trailers at gunpoint, and physically towing them down the mountain.

The town council, which used to be stoned hippies [like me], were replaced with lawyers in suits. The laws changed, so that anything could be built anywhere. An airport went in, even though it was the most dangerous landing place in the US. After a few years, the runway literally fell down onto the company that had built it. The entire works of the company were buried. Trucks, buildings and all. The stupid perched runway was simply rebuilt. There was no one left who cared about the valley.

At first, there was no housing for the employees of the now successful telluride ski area. There were literally no workers of any kind in the town. They had all been banished to unpleasant blighted areas. But, there was finally so much money in the valley that the poor stayed as close as possible.
They built blighted communities in avalanche run out zones, and in dank, unpleasant side canyons that get no sun at all in winter.

A huge fleet of brand new white trucks drove up the hill each morning to serve the wealthy. The workers in those trucks would go to jail if they tried to stay over night. You have to try to picture it. the workers were ordinary people. banished from their valley, they often wanted to linger after a shift, get drunk, and then sleep in their vehicle. I was a restaurant worker during this period. So, i was part of this thing. I would get off at 2 am, after feeding and serving drinks to very rich folk. I would then recieve a shift drink. At least one! At 3 or so, i would get into my car. If i did not drive, i would be hauled out of my vehicle, and imprisoned. If i drove, i would eventually be killed driving super tired and a little drunk on the interesting winter roads.

i got out of there, became a professional rock climber, tried and failed to move back, and finally, after drifting around for a decade, came to rest in the canyonlands region. I liked the landscape, and the way that the self reliant Mormons leave you the hell alone. I became one of the best know rock climbers in the world. It was easy. I had always been stronger than usual, and trained very very hard. Then, i failed to die on a rock climb, or to kill myself. It sounds crazy, but devoted rock climbers like myself almost never make it past the age of 50. Middle age is not so good for unroped climbers. we tend to be stubborn peter pan types anyway. We refuse to stop climbing without a rope, and fall down [go boom!].

Boom, the town of Moab finally made it big. speculators went big on giant hotels and river companies and residential real estate. They finally repeated what had happened to Telluride. The laws were changed so that tiny homes could not be used, even if you bought property. Camping was forbidden anywhere near the town. The wrong types of tourism were expanded, so that the desert was not a desirable living place. Everyone like me had to leave. We could not abide jet boats coming down the river one after another, and super loud motorized traffic everywhere that we tried to go.

I want to make it clear that that these gentrifications are not straightforward. in other words, it is not the case that each worker looses their home and must leave. There are increasing traffic accidents, fights, spousal abuse, child abuse, etc. When you squeeze humans, this is how they react. The police change from chasing cannabis providers and speeders to enforcing the new normal for the very rich. They are still the same honest and helpful people, but their mission is changed. In Telluride, one of my best friends and a second officer arrested me after a shift at my restaurant job. i was too tired, and could not drive down. They kept me standing barefoot in the snow in tighty whities for a super long time, before i told them that they could hop into the drivers seat and drive me down, lock me up, shoot me, or get the heck away from me. They got the heck away and did not ever contact me again. I had another officer fired and removed from the valley after he started messing with local women during fake traffic stops.

As far as the Methow valley, it was in a bust economy when i arrived. Moab had become so noisy and filled with greed that this northern valley was the perfect refuge. About half of the properties where i lived [carlton area] were for sale, and a person could stay in a lot of places. A caretaker of land was in a good place. You know what happened.
Covid!
Now, the clusters of for sale signs are down, and the street signs can be clearly seen again. The handypersons and wood cutters are mostly gone. Some folks had to be locked up or evicted. A lot of poor people are not poor because they are of low intelligence or have a mental illness. They are poor for other reasons. some will not exploit others [the best way to get money!]. Some are not mentally ill, but require more space or serenity than average. And, of course, some are mentally and physically disabled. Some are quite old and their mate is gone. Some are single people with no family support. [hi!].

Should they all be forced out? Well, if money is allowed to sort out the residents without any human consideration, the answer is a big YES. the economy and the law are set up correctly. No one need lift a finger. Each couple can stay on their 5 or 45 acres with their 5000 or 10,000 gallons of water per day. The Seattle folk can swoop in on Friday night like secretive visitors from space. The automatic door whooshes open and they disappear into their fortress!

The labor shortage is a problem, but it will take care of itself. there are already out of town contractors coming in to fill the gaps. Bedroom communities will grow up down the valley. The brand new white trucks are being purchased now. They will serve the rich instead of 'dirtbags' with their damaged Tacoma's. If it is anything like Telluride's 'rise', the community based organizations will weaken and die. you will call someone in Omak or Brewster when you need shoveling or plumbing. The white trucks will not park here for the night.

We have some organizations that seem to promote diversity and low income housing. In practice, they are helping somewhat wealthy people become really wealthy, so that they can live here. It looks like the long fight to keep the valley protected from exploitive tourism and industry is lost now. We will soon have tourists in boats and motorized rentals wherever we go. The fancy buildings are already going up. it is interesting that the new influx of currency is being used for baubles like a super nice library and rich person public buildings.

In my infantile mind, there are ridiculous visions of the Methow with a diverse community and support for old and sick and poor residents. I did not hope for a really nice library. That is because i am one of those old sick and poor residents. I just hoped to stay here. Refugees during the coming wave of infection will not have the easiest time. The economy will get bad again, and even more folks will be unhomed and driven from place to place. This place will be more like Syria or Afghanistan.

It is so obvious to me. but again, i am a poor person trying to whine or vote myself rich!  please, go right on with the plunder!

is the US government simply a puppet show used to distract citizens while large corporations create the laws?

now the political pendulum has swung the other way. We see a second installment of stimulus payment #2 under consideration. One of 2 oil pipelines have been cancelled. The pandemic is finally being addressed. There is talk of changing border policies.

But, there is the lingering feeling that it is all a puppet show to distract us while the CEOs and shareholders of companies create laws, make treaties, and carry out whatever war that they want. It seems that Trump was a sort of Trojan horse that was rolled into the white house to take over the government more formally, and to drop the puppet show in favor of a never ending civil war.

From the company's perspective, that would have been cheaper than leaving an effective government in place, and spending lots to think up new episodes of the puppet show to distract citizens in new and disturbing ways. it was a strong try, and we got to see a government virtually shut down, international agreements ended, and policy set by an evil clown using tweets in broken english.

There was a pretty obvious lead in to ww3, with the US standing in for Nazi Germany in this act of the show. What is so scary is how close it came to working! Bullies were empowered, and then whipped by the president to overthrow the government after the election was lost. As a country, the US is a very nasty bully. 

How would one go about fixing this problem? 

Our civilization needs a basic restructuring. Corporations do not need to be broken up into bits. They need to be disbanded. The idea of the corporation was sound 200 years ago, when there were huge continents to cross with canals and railroads. More recently, corporations have become predators or farmers. They live off of the people like tapeworms, or keep them captive like livestock.  They are free to create huge messes, and then, after the riches are extracted, their livestock or hosts are left to clean up the mess.

I have tried to talk about insurance as one of the ways that slavery has been able to continue into the modern age. Insurance is a great scam. People used to have stored wealth, that they would use when they needed a car or a medical procedure. Insurance, and expecially government mandated mandatory insurance is like a tapeworm, that eats the creatures food before it can be digested, and replaces the food with their poop.

This works because the people are not educated well. They are superstitious and fearful, and can no longer think for themselves. The few that bother to get a sound education are simply hired by the very companies that are making messes and sucking away savings. I know this because it happened to me. i was trained in computers and astrophysics at New Mexico Tech. I intended to work for NASA when i graduated. But, NASA was falling apart when i got my degree, and i was hired by a giant oil company instead. 

This happened to most of my friends at NMT. People that had hoped to help the environment were hired by Exxon. Folks that has always dreamed of using the most powerful computers on earth to solve problems ended up making weapons of war. This is a direct result of allowing a ficticious entity [the corp.] to get most of the money in the world. The people [or cattle] are left with empty bank accounts, and with insurance for any conceivable emergency. This economic drain does not stimulate the economy. The entities simply pocket the profit, creating an ever more unequal distribution of wealth.

Needless to say, these corps will fight to the death to stay in power. Rather than dissolving, they would destroy the environment, and instigate a series of never ending wars. The wars would not always be between countries. they could be between races, or genders, or groups that believe a certain set of things.

I honestly can not dream up a way to dissolve the corporations without them killing the world. Perhaps someone will comment with a good idea. I moderate the comments, so dont bother to pin the problems to a racial group or religion or ideology. 

why do you do it? a glance at extremely high risk activities

Why do you do it?

A glance at extremely high risk activities.

I was one of the nuts. I climbed cliffs like El Capitan with no rope. First, you have to understand that a very different kind of person WANTS to climb huge cliffs without any safety equipment, or jump off a cliff holding a parachute in their hands. 

One of my friends used to climb super tall, super hard routes with no rope. Instead, he carried a parachute. Think about it! When he began to fail on the climb, he would push off and try to deploy that chute. I am speaking about Deen Potter in the past tense because he eventually jumped from the  top of a cliff that was not steep enough, and he hit the cliff. So did the guy that was flying with him.

There were not that many 'high adventure' rock climbers when I partook, so i interacted with almost every one. 

I helped Todd Skinner to install his climbing wall just before he went to valley for the last time. I had dinner with he, his wife, and his 3 kids. 

I belayed Dan Osmond for some of his gigantic falls during the filming of Masters Of Stone. 

I climbed with Derek Hersey often, and did a new route in the Cloud Peak Wilderness with his significant other after he got stormed off of the Steck Salathe. I also free soloed that route. It was my most difficult onsight free solo. On sight means that it was my first time on the route, and had someone's hand drawn map instead of memories.

I climbed both pitches of supercrack with Hayden Kenedy and his dad shortly before he had his trouble on a mountain route. I had been climbing with his parents since before he was born, and then, BAM!  he was gone. All of us were left behind in a way.

John Bachar was the rock police all by himself when I learned to put up new routes. He would watch your style of ascent through binoculars, and remove the route if the style was not up to snuff. He liked my style, and began to mentor me.  It was I who trained him up for his still amazing free solo of Father Figure in Joshua tree national monument. John fell from an easy route after sustaining injuries in a pretty serious car accident. 

Indeed, eventually it was thought that i was mentor material, and i had a few proteges. One of them, Andrew Barnes, was one of the better climbers that i had even seen by the time he failed on a free solo in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. His mother became a good friend during the long morning period.

I can tell you, as a survivor, that it is awkward to rub shoulders with the loved ones of a high adventure athelete who has fallen. They were not a soldier, fighting and dying for some cause. But, there was something driving them to take risks. What is that something?

If you are not like that, it is going to be tough to understand. Here is a little history from my mom: Alf was a highly sensitive baby. He cried very readily in response to a light that was not that bright, or a sound that was not that loud. 

To me, the light was blinding, and the sound was deafening. I was always on alert, looking for danger. This sensitivity is great when you need to learn something, or are listening to a great concert. But, it sucks most of the time.

Another feature of this sensitivity is that you can be hypnotized by concentrating on something. So, an ant walking around on a little mound right by one eye might be all that you need for an hour or 2 of amazing entertainment. Do you see it? This trance can be used to block out the constant danger warnings. I have been after the trance because it quiets or  silences the constant  danger siren that otherwise dominates perception.

I know, i am writing it, and this makes no sense. A person such as I have described is the last human on earth that you would expect to take part in extreme activites. Wouldn't they turn off the lights and pull the shades; install earplugs; and curl up into a ball in bed? [i hope that you saw the semi colons!]

Some highly sensitive people do it that way. It does not work though, and those that try it kill themselves after a while. The secret is finding activities that put you into the zone for a long time, without killing you right away. I can attest that climbing a really tall cliff with just your fingers and toes fits the bill! You can zone out in perfect oblivion for hours if you have the right stuff. If you do not have the right stuff, what is the point of being alive anyway?

'Normal' folk work the same equation as highly sensitive people. But, they always come up with 'life is frigging great, please continue!' while the HSP constantly arrives at 'life sucks, it is past time to depart!' They get a break when they lift their violin, or create a sculpture, or pull off their clothes and try to tackle a tall cliff.

Normal people do not do that, because they have plenty of fun eating food and mating and raising kids. They do not require a trance to give them a break from living in a kind of Hell.

I have given quite a bit of thought to physical reasons behind this HSP phenomenon. The brain is actually made up of two totally separate lobes. The corpus colostum, where they join, is a kind of  filter than lets some thoughts through. Some of the really dark times seem like a fight between those lobes. The 'voices' that some hear could be the two lobes duking it out. In some respects, they are two different people.

In my case, i have very high eye pressure, and always have. My mother had the same. Gloucoma is the scary medical word. It is swelled up eye balls. Well, the eye balls are just a part of the brain that can be seen, and that sees. Who needs conspiracy theories with reality is this tripped out? Anyhow, i now believe that swelled eyballs indicate a swelled brain.

I looked at a bunch of new scholarly papers about canabis. It is the only natural substance that immediately brings down the swelling in the eye, and perhaps in the brain. It was funny, because the researchers also pointed out that it lowers brain size. They totally missed the point, because they seemed to be trying to prove that cannabis was a very dangerous thing to ingest. I suggest that the brain along with the brains light sensors are a bit swelled up in folk like me. It sure as heck feels like that too!

So, for people who are extreme examples of the Highly Sensitive Person, seemingly absurd risk taking actually prolongs life. Each climb or jump or whatever is like a suicide attempt that will not be considered suicide. If it is sucessful, there is a wonderful respite from pain, and a glow that lasts for a day or 2. If not, well, you are gone, and do not have to clean up the mess => You are the mess!

Each interesting occasion resets the clock, making life well worth living. Ordinary life does not have that effect. It puts the HSP further and further in the red, where a tremendous amount of fun is needed to 'break even'.

HSPs are not mentally ill. Their brains are different than normals, but they are not damaged. In fact, too much sense information gets through the filters, and that is what is unpleasant. HSPs make up roughly 15% of each species of animals. For deer, it is the skinny one with no mate that is always looking around nervously while the others are mating and gorging themselves on branches.

A researcher named Dr. Elaine Aron studies HSPs. When I typed the letters 'hsp' into google, she was the second entry from the top.

If you want more information, or wish to see if I made this HSP stuff up myself, you can look online. And in case you were wondering, i do have suggestions that can help HSPs to feel a greater sense of reward from life. It is possible to mitigate the worst risks, and to use mental tricks to put off the seemingly necessary semi-suicides, but an HSP can not practice, or try really hard,  and become a  'normal'. HSPs live short, very interesting lives. You know them, because the ones who survive long enough become your favorite actors/actresses, authors, film makers and artists. The need for the trance is a stronger motivation than money, fame, love, or anything else.

End of  'Why do You do it?'

by Alf Randell

alfrandell@gmail.com