“I hate being dependable, man.” – Black Hawk Down
If I had a dream about a nocturnal horse, would that be a night mare?
“Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the design of ambition.” This is from Thomas Jefferson’s book, Notes on Virginia, which I assume referred to some girl Jefferson was dating. Maybe it was Virginia Madsen, I mean, she was kinda hot in the 1984 version of Dune, so maybe that’s when they met?
One of the ideas that has been carefully cultivated here by the Left in late-stage Weimerica is the idea that individuals are weak. It has long been my observation that people who live in large cities are more dependent due to the facts of living in a large city, and this is reflected in the vote totals. This is part of the reason that Leftists love big cities, that and owning a penthouse on the Upper West Side.
In a big apartment, residents are slaves to elevators, sidewalks, and trash removal services whereas in Modern Mayberry I haven’t used an elevator in months, sidewalks are okay but not required, and if the trash truck doesn’t show up because the raccoons sabotaged it, I can burn mine (legally!) in the backyard.
Often, larger cities have restrictive laws that restrict the ability of individual citizens to protect themselves, leading to a complete dependence on the state for the most basic of human rights – the right to protect their own life. Powerful Leftists, of course, are surrounded by people that they hired that have guns, even when the normal folks can’t have them. This is what they call “equity”.
Surely, those two things above aren’t related.
Cities are thus an actual breeding ground for dependence, and here are just a few examples, since this isn’t the whole point of the post:
- Control – This is always and forever the goal of the Left. In large cities, it’s often impossible to contact actual decision makers, since it’s actually George Soros, and he doesn’t take visitors.
- Concentrates Economic Gains – When control is granted, the winners often cease to be those that produce, and then gravitate to those that run the systems, since it’s actually George Soros, and he gets all the cash.
- Sole-Source Education – I’ve seen some parents just leave education and discussion on important topics entirely to the schools, and be utterly ignorant about the discussions on values that take place there, which is what George Soros likes. (Education problems aren’t limited to big cities.)
- Splits Social Cohesion – Individuals become atomized, and the chance of seeing a random person on the street even more than once is minimal. There are millions of people, always in motion, so no one has the opportunity to think much about George Soros.
Obviously, this isn’t all places, everywhere, and some cities (those with 100% less Soros) are better than others, and the ‘burbs are almost always less dehumanizing than the ultra-dense cities that the modern world seems to favor.
Why did Elon move to the suburbs? He wanted more space.
This is not how people were made to live. We’ve spent the vast majority of our existence as a species living in smallish groups, and being responsible for each other and our own actions. Even as far back as 1500 Anno Domini (3405 metric years) the largest city in Europe was Paris. The population? A staggering 200,000 to 250,000 people.
Yeah, that’s bigger than Modern Mayberry, but the population density was only about 2000 to 2500 people per square mile, which I assumed still left them room for their snail ranches, and if you walked for a couple of hours, you could be in the countryside.
Regardless of where it happens, though, dependence can have a horrible toll, especially in someone who is was born and raised to be independent:
- Feelings of Helplessness and Hopelessness – I like to have as much control over my own destiny as possible. I realize that meteorites to strike, earthquakes happen, and PEZ® factories are bought out by Bulgarians. Regardless, people who feel that they control their lives are happier, more confident, and have better body odor.
- Anxiety and Fear – When there is a lack of control, people get afraid – I see that in people are dependent on others, I mean, you should have seen The Boy when he was a baby and I’d play “steal the bottle while he’s nursing”..
- Shame, Loss of Feeling of Self-Worth – One of the compromises for society today is that most people aren’t in business, they have jobs, and many people feel in control at work, especially when they are contributing and working with a great team. However, lose the job? The understanding of dependence hits in an avalanche. Likewise, being dependent on the state for life just turns a person into a dehumanized cog who votes for the benefits.
- Political Indoctrination – Upton Sinclair, a miserable Leftist himself, said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” He sniffed around the problem, but didn’t realize that the same problem existed with his beloved Leftism, but his book sales depended on him not understanding that.
- Self-Censorship – When social or economic standing is based on not having the wrong opinion, people are afraid to stand up for what’s right.
I pretended to gag at dinner one night, but the family knew it was just another another dad choke.
This, in many more words, is what Jefferson was talking about. And this is what we have seen repeatedly in countries where tyranny takes hold.
Dependence is also a drug. When a person falls in love with their dependence, it becomes the easy way to explain giving up. I’ve met people who love their dependence, who list their medications and conditions with a pride like they’d been given a medal from the disability fairy. It’s a free pass to explain how they’re not responsible for their life.
Thus? Jefferson was right:
- Subservience comes from owing everything to the master,
- Venality, (roughly, being corrupt) is part and parcel of dependence, since the life of a dependent person is built around personal gain,
- Suffocates the germ of virtue, since life becomes about the material, and
- and prepares fit tools for the design of ambition. This is the lynchpin. This is the desired end state.
Thomas Jefferson bought a 2006 Ford® Taurus™. He called it his Jefferson Carship.
Dependence is everything that the Left wants, because is serves their purpose. To be clear, demagogues on the Right can use this, too, but most people on the Right are actually into individual freedom, and won’t follow a leader that pulls them away from that. Remember when Trump got booed at one of his own rallies when he brought up the Vaxx?
I remember.
But this isn’t about them. This is about us. My suggestion to every person is to look at areas in their lives where their dependence is unhealthy, and be aware of them. That’s the first step.
Then? Eliminate every one of them that you can, and rather than being ruled by fear, be ruled by your own choices.
That’s the opposite of dependence, and is better for you in every way.
Electricity… That is what I am dependent on…and that social security check, medicare health insurance plan, and that government pension. It appears the left has me right where they want me to be. It may be time to rethink some things.
thank you for your service
It’s always a good time for that . . .
Independence engenders personal responsibility for one’s actions, which forces one to confront reality and deal with consequences. All of the above is anathema in western culture. I’m not holding my breath that will change significantly this side of a complete societal collapse.
No, it’s the basis of actual Western culture. The fact that we let it move on by is to our discredit.
Amen! In her twenties and maybe early 30s, Virginia Madsen was smokin.
Yup. So was Sean Young, but that’s another story….
Self reliance tends to concentrate the mind like nothing else. But we can’t have that; once you start questioning the state, the questions never end.
Looks like I’ve had too much to think, eh?
We split our time between a condo & a marsh house on 6 acres, 90 minute drive south. Condo? Medical professionals, retirees, a lawyer or three, et al. Complete dependency culture. But great people in all.
So (seeing the “end” so to speak), 3+ years ago bought the Marsh Property w/ an 1,000 sq ft barn. Night & Day. Two neighbors raise chickens, we get free eggs. They get free fresh & canned veggies 10 months out of the year and greenhouse tomatoes year-round. Celery, squarsh, cukes, broccoli, collards too. We make our own slaw & kraut. And we’re all well armed. 15 minute drive to a city of 15,000 and Publix (and, Thank God, a Harris Teeter in 2024).
Plus, having a well (RO system) a 24KV Generac w/ a 500 gal.underground LP tank doesn’t hurt. As “The Firesign Theatre” said, we’re “your department of redundancy department” when it comes to a reasonable zombie -proof scenario. But it took a lot of planning and sacrifice.
And got rid of a lot of dependence . . . excellently done!
“owning a penthouse on the Upper West Side.”
Hmmmm. I distinctly remember that the goal was to move on up to the East Side to a deluxe apartment in the sky.
West Side – no doormen, heavily Jewish. East Side – doormen, more Anglo. At least that was the case 20 years ago. Today, God knows what.
Well, the West Side is near Columbia, so if you get tired of America . . .
We finally got a piece of the piieeeeee! — Mikie Obama and First Lady Barack
This is something I observed as well. The push toward forced urbanization makes people more dependent and easier to control and They definitely can’t allow that.
And you live near the folks who are least dependent – the Amish.
Serious question: If hosting programs for the gifted and talented is discriminatory toward blacks and hispanics, how are remedial programs that benefit mostly blacks and hispanics not discriminatory against Whites and East Asians who mostly don’t need them?
No, I don’t favor cutting out remedial education, or free breakfast/lunch for the poor, or any of the numerous other very expensive programs that are specifically designed to not leave any [non-White] child behind. But give the White and East Asian kids a chance, too. They are our only hope for the future, not the dreamers and schemers pouring across the southern border, or the abysmally low IQ welfare wards being churned out like dun-colored Pez from cheap dispensers in every blue zip code.
Well, it doesn’t have anything to do with actual fairness . . . .
John, you apply Jefferson’s quote to individual people and come up with a lot of insights with which Jefferson himself would doubtless agree. However, that “dependency” quote was embedded in an essay where he was really comparing an agrarian future against an industrial future for the people of America – a somewhat different topic, but one still worth considering.
https://www.tomrichey.net/uploads/3/2/1/0/32100773/jefferson_on_manufactures_-_notes_on_the_state_of_virginia.pdf
Jefferson basically thought that, unlike Europe, America had boundless uncultivated land that was enough to occupy all hands in a wholesome lifestyle as dispersed farming families. The dependency he spoke of was that of “husbandmen” who ***depended*** on “customers” for purchasing the goods they manufactured. Jefferson hoped for America to remain an agrarian nation producing exportable raw commodities for trans-Atlantic trade with no on-shore manufacturing. “Let us never wish to see our citizens occupied at a work-bench, or twirling a distaff (a tool used at that time to make cloth).” he said, accurately noting that upon industrialization, “The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the strength of the human body.”
This ideology of course fits in well with the mindset of modern rural Modern Mayberry lifestyle and the prepper movement. But a couple of thoughts. In general, it was the agrarian South that adopted this lifestyle far more than the industrial North in the early 1800s after Jefferson wrote this essay. When the South got wiped out by the North during the Civil War a few decades later, it was the North’s industrialization that was a primary reason why. Then the Industrial Revolution turned into a Force of Nature. America went on to spectacularly embrace industrialism for a century after the 1860s and saved the world not only from slavery at home but fascism abroad. In contrast, 21st Century America is dealing with a post-industrial slump from hell with financialization and carrying a big stick to little countries that are all somehow connected to oil. We took Jefferson’s advice and left all the factories in China, not Europe, and became “customers”, not “farmers”. Now we are critically vulnerable as a nation. The touted solution is “onshoring”. And if we are perfectly honest, the country that comes closest in the modern world to Jefferson’s agrarian, commodity-exporting-raw-materials ideal is… Russia.
You’re spot on using the Jeffersonian quote as a springboard about individual dependency. But if you consider the whole essay from which that quote is lifted, well…Jefferson’s thoughts are a little impractical in today’s world, and it’s not obvious what other path would be better. We are stuck in a red/blue rural/urban big mess with no obvious path forward to achieve his “happiness and permanence of government.”
So says the man with a PEZ addiction!
Oh, I can put it down any time I want to.
Weimerica!! You didn’t trademark or copyright it, so I’m going to claim prior use license and claim it for use ad nauseum. Good article.
Reality is coming, and she’s a bitch.
It’s one I’ve seen on and off for a while – wish it was my original.
Individual independence in matters of daily life (food, clothing, shelter, communications) can never be achieved, so it’s a question of whom to depend on. And, by symmetry, who is to depend on us? I’d rather depend on a shoemaker in Wisconsin (Redwing, Footskins) than one in China (most other brands). I’d rather depend on a factory in Mexico to sew my bluejeans than one in Vietnam, or China. I’d rather depend on the old Saturn (archaic GM brand) that my local garage keeps running (after 200,000 miles), than buy a new car with components sourced from who knows where? I depend on a local farmer for my bacon and eggs. I depend on these people for Stuff, and they depend on me for Money. Being self-sufficient in squash, kale, and herbs is a step in the right direction, but a tiny fraction of our budget. There’s no way to be self-sufficient in auto, health, or life insurance!
Dependency upon the Government is indeed a demoralizing drug that generates slavery.
As far as health and life insurance, the strong self-supporting family was that before we devolved into the “American Dream” of a home for mom, a home for me and my vacation home, lifestyle.
Divide and conquer sound familiar?
The multi-generational home took care of the elderly, provided a strong economic base for the whole family and a safe supportive child rearing system of grandparents involved with the kids.
Dependency upon your faith in God (something the Gov.com frowns upon), your trusted friends and family (also Gov.com frowned upon) is a self-correcting dependency as in “GET A JOB” corrections that breeds a self-reliant fully human experience.
Abandoning your parents to live “somewhere else” don’t ask those hard questions if they are doing well and socially happy. Might not like the true answers.
Is evil Biblically. (No wonder the Gov.com supports a freedom to let your parents rot away).
Proverbs 23 (and plenty others)
True Riches
…21For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe them in rags. 22Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. 23Invest in truth and never sell it—in wisdom and instruction and understanding.…
In the Great Depression the roaring 20’s of free sex, homosexual cabaret, wild dancing and get a new car, we’re RICH era stumbled back to the real world of hunger and loss of income.
The Tax man and the Bankers GOT their pound of flesh. Many a home and farm were sold on the courthouse steps PROTECTED by the Sheriffs. Bonnie and Clyde were ruthless murderers and thieves. They never gave to the “Poor”, or such yet were Celebrated as they were “Sticking it to THE MAN”.
The smarter families decided what homes to keep and what to LET GO as to sell them before they were worthless or worse a tax bill the family couldn’t pay.
Muli-generational homes became “Normal Again”.
AND will become a wise move again as Great Depression 2.0 arrives as our “Beloved Government” is doing all it can to destroy the US Dollar as the world reserve currency.
“An evil enemy, will burn his own nation to the ground….to rule over the ashes. “ Sun Tzu
A useful link to read and think about.
https://sevenwop.home.blog/2023/04/13/the-great-depression-was-one-of-the-most-traumatic-events-in-american-history-50-tips-from-the-great-depression/
Hermits would beg to differ! But, yes, it’s a hard life. And a family or community can approach independence. And probably will need to.
Hermits often were found in the spring with a broken leg a few 100 feet from their homes.
If successful hermits were common, they’d not be famous in lore.
Strong families have greater resources to handle the “Awe Shits” of life, like a broken leg or a serious “I wanna die” flu.
Hahahaha! Point taken. But it’s not like successful hermits had many stories told about them.
Tailgunner blew coffee out my nose Bravo!!!!
Glad you enjoyed – you might want to consider keyboard insurance?
JW: <>
HUZZAH!
To which I would add only this: as part of this plan, remember that the only ‘dependencies’ even worth _considering_ are those that enable you to draw another breath, so to speak. All the rest, no matter how embedded they may seem to be, are weaknesses that can be exploited by the FoE.
Yup, dependence is control. Simple as.
sweet plus funny/TY
Thank you!
John, could not agree more. I shudder to hear the word “interdependence” used. True interdependence is recognizing we need others but respecting their own freedom and practicing the true equality of common respect. Interdependence as actually practiced is the dependence you list above: We cannot do anything with anyone and in fact need to pack into smaller and smaller spaces because that is true community.
Cities – modern cities anyway – cannot produce their own food, supply their own water (largely), generate their own energy, dispose of their own waste. Good heavens, they cannot really even make most of their own goods, those being shipped in from thousands of miles away. They do nothing but concentrate power and abrogate freedom.
We are beginning to see the fringes of what happens when the inability to supply things – and thus exercise control – begins to manifest itself. I fear this shall only become more intense.
Yup, and thus tomorrow’s post . . . .
Not sure that industrialism has helped us be a better people . . . perhaps a nation of farmers would have been far better.
Nah, it’s cool
We’re good – shows up fine.