Country Boys
"[T]he egoism of Power profits by public insecurity." On Power, p. 142.
Lincoln, Wilson, FDR, LBJ, Bush II, and now Obama. All used public insecurity to bolster the federal government's power. And once the crises pass, the means to deal with the crises remain: social security, medicare, welfare, Department of Homeland Security (though, admittedly, that crisis hasn't passed), disregard of states rights, disposing with the gold standard, higher taxes.
It was in this way that the Hundred Years War, by multiplying the occasion on which the monarchy was forced to request the cooperation of the people, accustomed them in the end, after a long succession of occasional levies, to a permanent tax, an outcome which outlives the reasons for it. Id.
Bocephus and his ilk are Power's nightmare constituency.
The preacher man says it's the end of time
And the Mississippi River she's a goin' dry
The interest is up and the Stock Markets down
And you only get mugged
If you go down town
I live back in the woods, you see
A woman and the kids, and the dogs and me
I got a shotgun rifle and a 4-wheel drive
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
I can plow a field all day long
I can catch catfish from dusk till dawn
We make our own whiskey and our own smoke too
Ain't too many things these ole boys can't do
We grow good ole tomatoes and homemade wine
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
Because you can't starve us out
And you cant makes us run
Cause one-of- 'em old boys raisin ole shotgun
And we say grace and we say Ma'am
And if you ain't into that we don't give a damn
We came from the West Virginia coalmines
And the Rocky Mountains and the and the western skies
And we can skin a buck; we can run a trot-line
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
I had a good friend in New York City
He never called me by my name, just hillbilly
My grandpa taught me how to live off the land
And his taught him to be a businessman
He used to send me pictures of the Broadway nights
And I'd send him some homemade wine
But he was killed by a man with a switchblade knife
For 43 dollars my friend lost his life
Id love to spit some beechnut in that dudes eyes
And shoot him with my old 45
Cause a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
Cause you can't starve us out and you can't make us run
Cause one-of- 'em old boys raisin ole shotgun
And we say grace and we say Ma'am
And if you ain't into that we don't give a damn
We're from North California and south Alabam
And little towns all around this land
And we can skin a buck; we can run a trot-line
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
I've often speculated that much of the derision poured on survivalists and gun advocates stems from an intuition that they don't need Power to protect them. Because they don't need Power's help, they resist Power's attempts to take any ounce of their freedom--whether it's an extra tax dollar, their guns, or their right to associate with whomever they please--in the name of helping someone else.
And what's even worse for Power's incessant grab: those country folks are often poor, and the poor is normally Power's fodder and ammunition: in the name of the poor, Power rises up. But those country folks, they're often poor, yet they don't need a hand-out.
They can hunt for their food, they can grow their food. And when they're low on food, they have family.
Power also dislikes the family, just for that reason.
More on that some other time.
