A Night Unremembered
13 years ago
Saturday, August 10, 2013
A Bit of This, a Dash of That
I was chatting with the guy who sprays my lawn the other day. We have the lawn sprayed because it keeps it healthy, minimizes the pests which eat lawns, and greens it up a bit... and because the guy across the street made me feel guilty that my lawn was splotchy and looking terrible. The chat turned toward the swale and the water in it. He joked about how I should stock it with fish. I mentioned how I got my pond in West Palm Beach stocked.
Soon after we moved into that house in West Palm Beach, I took a common kitchen strainer and gathered some guppies and polliwogs from the drainage ditch on the eastern border of our property and put them in our pond. These attracted the wading birds which picked up (unknowingly) fish eggs from the numerous ponds in the area and left some behind after they finished grabbing up some of the polliwogs and guppies. The eggs hatch and we have fish. Nature thus stocked my pond. Much cheaper than buying fish, trust me.
This got me thinking about Libya, Egypt, Syria, and the American Revolution. Seems odd that it would do this, don't you think? Well, maybe. But a revolution is like stocking a pond. At least, that's what I thought tied them together. You create a new country (the pond) out of an old one and you try to "stock" it with ideas, principles, and hope. These things should attract people who add, perhaps unwittingly, more ideas and principles (and expand hope). Out of this should rise a nation.
It worked out well for America, I think. But not all revolutions are as successful. Much depends upon the "birds" the pond attracts.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
As you know, I often make reference to the forced assimilation of peoples by those in control during the era known as the "Roman Empire." There were both positive and negative consequences, and of course, being of a qualitative nature, it is difficult to quantify and measure in terms of better or worse.
I recall that one of the original concerns about the Internet was that it would encourage people of similar views to engage one another, and that race, religion, and national origin (along with geographic barriers and borders) would become of less significance. Interesting stuff.
I still recall Radio Free Europe, and various efforts over the years by forces to drop leaflets (and food items) with propaganda on them.
I guess that some people are always trying to influence the lives of others in some form or fashion.
Rome was a "magnet" throughout its glory years (even in decline, I believe). People flocked to Rome; many wanting to be a part of it, share in its glory, to be known as "Romans." Some (perhaps many) "barbarian" leaders desired to bring their people to it, to benefit from its power and perceived protection.
The internet, of course, is still in its infancy. It is an open design that is subject to the democratic principles of mass popularity dynamics.
Your last sentence speaks volumes.
I'm glad that I returned to this post, because you made reference to something I think we often forget in our daily discussions, that being " the desire of many wanting to be a part of something." I sometimes characterize it as "sufficient motivation." Lots of our problems in society exist because a sufficient number of citizens are not sufficiently pissed off leading to sufficient motivation to do something about it.
I think that one of the great things to observe in society is that energy or synergy that comes about when lots of people "flock" to something or some place, wanting to be a part of "something."
We're so pissed off at so many things right now that one has to wonder whether....
I prefer change that comes through the ballot box...Now that I am getting old. But I wonder too...
Post a Comment