america
 

It was the circumstance by which one could self-deliberate (rather than be deliberated by another). This circumstance was not equitable, enlightening, or fulfilling. Simply: the door was opened and one was left to his own devices to navigate what he found on the other side. Win, lose: mostly (if not all) on you.

It is the circumstance in which equity (of thought, of economy, of selves) is the prime concern (never mind the nascent politburo in the corner), overriding any and all other concerns. In particular: the idiosyncratic interest must always give way to the communitarian interest. A wireless node in every home (and, soon, in every head).

Piss-poor echo of what it was; betrayal of what it could have been.

J B Klyde, is that you?

HA!

:D

Indeed, that was the American experience that the white men had, and they talked about it and wrote about it at length. Except for the Irish, and the Polacks, and the Jews. A good 40% of the country were self-made men and by God, their worth was everything that they had built. Built often using the labor of those not-self-made people.

It was always a prime concern of everyone other than the white men; we have only just now noticed it.

And for a handful of Daniel Boone/Jim Bridger types that worked. Sure some were going for gold or adventure, and some like the Mormons and slaves were running away from things. But most weren't looking for fame or fortune, thriving would be great but surviving was the priority which meant land to grow food for themselves and their livestock.

When Jebediah got sick of growing rocks in New England, got off the boat with 27 cents in his pocket, or pissed off the town folk enough, he didn't run off to the great wide open. He remembered Mom telling the children to keep your pants up, skirts down, and go out west in a group.

So Jeb looks around for birds of a feather to flock out west together. Birds of the same roots, language, religion, occupation, the more the better. They were successful because they pooled their efforts for help and protection. They knew they had to build communities complete with a store, school, and church in order to convince women it was civilized enough to come west.

So the rugged individualist conquering the wilderness is misleading, everything was accomplished by groups large and small.

Toad, Bruce:

'This circumstance was not equitable, enlightening, or fulfilling.'

Try as any one might to make it so, it never will be.

In the end: every one will be sewn together and still there will be no equity, enlightenment, or fulfillment.

You'd have better luck bottling sparrow farts and ghost whispers.

a favorite of mine right now, mr C is.

Nor was it promised to anyone by anyone. The founding fathers only promised to try not to prevent it, after considering the good of all the people(the Republic) first.

I can't decide if I liked that, or, if I have a problem with 'Mr. C'.

ETA: Some of that guitar was pretty damn cool, though.