Mind Control EP57 : Monologue
Not all of us live in a land of sunshine. Existing where a key energy source like that in order to sustain life is probably a good idea. So why the hell did us humans decide to settle here in the North East for the Fall and Winter?
There could be lots of reasons why the original folks deciding to set up shop here would choose such a place and quite a lot of it had to do with the transportation of both goods and people. And no, I'm not talking specifically about slavery either, I'm just talking about getting around back then.
Crossing over rivers and streams for many in the northeast is no big deal nowadays. We have bridges and tunnels to safely transport us over what would be almost certain death if we fell into the waters below, especially in the colder months. Those waterways can carry you almost effortlessly vs having to walk or ride in a carriage but traveling on a not so predictable course still has plenty of risk. After the steam engine came about, the transportation methods of the past were left under a blanket of coal dust.
Machine based transportation that could move people and goods further cut into the territories of the North East. Railroad towns are all over the region as are the towns the made the iron and steel for the infrastructure necessary to connect everything. It really is a marvel of the human mind and capability to witness a locomotive move a car of freight, but in the North East now it might only just make you late for work while you sit at the crossing.
Our priorities change as a culture. They can change drastically with technology. Now that we no longer have to worry about stocking a cart full of goods in order to take a trip, we are free to worry about all sorts of different things that never would have taken priority before. Instead of studying a map we click a few imaginary buttons on a screen and we don't even have to transport ourselves any further than the nearest curb.
The proliferation of transportation technology further shaped the world I live in with roads and highways all around me. We know them often by nickname. We spend our time in traffic on them every day, we have stories of horrible accidents and deaths on them, but we choose to travel in our relatively safe little bubbles from one box to another and then back home to our home box staying out of the elements as much as possible.
How we prioritize our day is shaped by this. Our relationships with family, friends, and business all work within the understanding that you accept this modern way of transportation. Try calling off work because the horse you chose to ride there was sick.
We are somewhat forced to accept the circumstances of our environment as it is shaped by those that came before us. I was born into a time of roads, and cars, and trains were something old folks would buy a ticket for just for nostalgia. The railroad towns along with the coal, iron, and steel towns are falling apart. The technology and the industries supporting them had long since taken their money and ran. Left in the shadows of the Rust Belt are little ghost towns with empty storefronts, abandoned homes, and at least one Dollar General.
People still live in these places but their income is dependent upon other industries now. Services, medicine, trades, there's still plenty of jobs but nothing major like a place that makes the steel for all the new bridges that need built. The sad truth is that there are still plenty of bridges that need that steel, they're just not gonna be getting it from our own countrymen anymore.
See, with the advancements in technology, the owners and controllers of industry have figured out a way to cut cost. Its an old move but it typically works, you cut out as much of the middle man's share as you can or cut him out all together.
Even if we are the end user of the product or service nowadays our involvement in producing it has drastically changed along with our methods of transportation as well. Goods and materials can be shipped all the way to China now because of cost. The construction industry now relies heavily on those products making their way back here. This makes the shipping companies very important and powerful.
If you start learning more about the shaping of the politics of America it is undeniably intertwined with industry. From our separation from the world's biggest cartel at the time to one of our own the control of goods and services along with the transportation of people was a key driver of the decision to make ourselves “independent.”
The more I know about my nation's history the more I realize that dream of financial, technological, and even spiritual independence has never been fully realized. We live in the age of the FDIC, the Apple Store, and our holidays are nothing more than consumer spending sprees or identity politics conquests to further divide us and confuse our priorities.
There are pockets of culture that have escaped most of this. You can still find some folks in carriages going from their little town to the market. People still believe in something greater than government and industry to lead their direction in life. Perhaps there is hope in knowing those folks could hold as far the way they did?
The new economy might not include you and I. It might not include our nation as we know it. Even what we have now, in the shambles that its in when we talk about our country, may disappear within the next few years.
The people who control the industries and countries attached to them all over the world are looking to cut us out of the deal. That goes all the way to our very existence. We were born into this environment, if we are to survive it, just like our forefathers we have to figure out a way to live outside of the limitations of that environment.
The next greatest invention is living beyond government and industry and you can stamp my ticket to board that train. May it take us to where our children are more than “Useless Eaters” to the Global Corporatist Oligarchy.