[TheForge] Shortcut Sword?

Wed Nov 5 07:07:02 2003

Here Here!  Like minded people should work together to preserve what IS
worth living for.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Demon Buddha" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2003 6:29 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Shortcut Sword?

> On Tue, 4 Nov 2003 19:03:30 EST, <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > I'm just a lurker on the list, hoping to get started in blacksmithing
> > some day soon.  But this comment is so right on the mark that I had to
> > add my two cents.  Yes, our society in general encourages young and old
> > alike to become helpless and rely on someone else...anyone else!  We've
> > set aside important skills and have turned our collective back on the
> > value of becoming well-rounded individuals.
>
> True.  And what I have found most interesting is the fact that
> for the past thirty years that I have been watching, the various
> "experts" and authorities have been most actively encouraging
> people NOT to develop physical skills that hold strong
> applicability.  What is encouraged are physical skills that hold
> virtually no potential for significant change to the status quo.
> Skills in break dancing will almost certainly never exert a
> significant influence over large bodies of people for the better.
> Nor will those for playing football.  I think perhaps my point
> is clear, no?
>
> Knowing how to raise and slaughter your own animals, grow your
> own food, build your own house from soup to nuts, how to run a
> business effectively, etc and so on, are not openly encouraged.
> THey are not repressed, mind you, but definitely not encouraged
> in the larger media culture.  People with such skills either
> are ignored or regarded as eccentrics that are not to be taken
> seriously (the tacit snickering is applied to them, as if to say "look at
> Nature Boy... how unhip, how unsophisticated").
>
> I look at kids and see, by and large, young beings that are so
> utterly lost that it is amazing they can find their way from the
> living room to the toilet without assistance.  They want everything
> but don't have the patience or the drive to do what it takes to
> develop the necessary capabilities to get what they want.  They
> try something new and when after an hour they find they are not
> yet mastering it, they toss it aside and go on to the next twenty
> minute fantasy.  It's horrible to observe and what's worse is the
> thought that when they become adults they will be so easily lead
> by their noses, this way or that.  It's truly sad.
>
> > I refuse to let this happen to my two sons.
>
> Suggestion: send family away to some fun thing.  Go into living
> room with 12 ga, loaded with 000 buckshot and put an end to your
> televisions.  I think TV is one of the single most damaging
> influences on kids today.  It's absolutely horrible.  If I ever
> have children of my own, I will not allow a television in my house.
>
> > I don't want them to grow up to be helpless, incapable, and pliable.  I
> > want them to be strong, decisive, and self-reliant.
>
> Just know that you are dooming them to a life of utter hardship
> because they will not fit in.  I admire your ideal, and in fact
> would almost certainly do the same with any children of mine,
> but I recognize just how awful their lives stand to be unless they
> are able to cloister themselves away from the mainstream.  It is
> still possible, but it gets harder and harder with every passing
> year.  I do not envy the generations now coming up.  In my opinion
> their lives will be very close to not worth living.  I liken their
> prospects for free and good living to those of a Purdue oven stuffer
> roaster.  From hatch to butcher's knife, they live miserable,
> narrow, squalidly guided and corralled lives with no purpose other
> than to serve some larger entity the existence of which they have
> not so much as a dim awareness of.
>
> > I make every effort to teach them to be responsible for themselves and
> > their actions, to be able to care for themselves and to understand that
> > they should care for others, and to see the value and accomplishment in
> > doing things with their own hands and minds.  We engage in lots of
> > interesting hobbies (hoping to add blacksmithing and casting soon!) and
> > they've become reasonably capable in many areas from cooking and basic
> > auto care to woodworking and playing a variety of musical instruments.
> > They're both A/B students, Cub Scouts, play on sports teams (soccer
> > season just ended...basketball's next), and are respectful young men.
> > I'm very proud of them, and I'm certainly not interested in relieving
> > myself of accountability for their upbringing.  If our society's in
> > trouble, then the solutions start at home.  We're trying to do our part
> > here...and so far it's working out very well.
>
> You have my best wishes for success to you and your boys.  You
> are in a very distinct minority.
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