Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Where did we go wrong?

A hell of a lot further than you can imagine. Do a search for eminent domain, the new way to screw people out of their land, be ready for one heck of a wake up call.

We raised chickens when I was a kid. I knew how to kill, pluck, and clean chickens. Ater I got married we raised chickens, rabbits, and some lambs. I found some really good books called Raising *insert animal here* The Modern Way. They had some good tips on designing chicken houses or things to watch out for with sheep, etc.

I learned to raise trout commercially mostly from a California State Hatchery Manual. We did OK with that. We made our own incubators (commercial ones cost too much), spawned our own fish, and made some of our own demand feeders. You can learn a lot in books if you have some common sense to go with it.

I'm with JOG.

FDR's New Deal started us down the slippery slope of getting something for nothing.



Bill

I would also agree that is when we changed our thinking (average joe) with the change in govt and how it deals/thinks regarding the populace (sp?) being the Civil war. I must admit I never really though bout most of this a lot so I am in a little over my head!

All well and good Sir, if you can read and comprehend beyond a fourth grade level. That however is becoming the exception rather than the rule in todays society. We as a society have been "dumbed down" by the growing big brother "nanny state" form of government for so long that I doubt more tha 20% of Americans would be able to cope alone or in family units if the electricity went off for more than two or three days!


So used to the centralized government alluded to by brothr teal meeting 90% of their real or imagined needs they are helpless on their own. Not all, there is a core of folks like us that still can and will do for themselves, but we are becoming the anomaly.

Not only is the problem that people can't take care of themselves - they don't want to know!

They don't have the skills to do things for themselves and rather than learn them they spend $$$$ to go on an "extreem" vacation. Usually just walking over a hill and spending a night or two in a tent with a "survival guide" . All of this could/can be learned in the boy scouts.

Heck pick up a book or bother to ask "Hows that work?" rather than " What's a tire jack, why can't somebody help me raise my kids - its the schools job!!" You get the point.

My point exactly!



Growing up I thought milking the cows, slopping the hogs, feeding the chickens and cleaning out the hen house was "normal", not to mention chores, field work and going to school. ( No I did not walk miles in all kinds of weather uphill both ways) I did ride a horse or drove the "old" pickup when I got older. A week in the woods hunting was a welcome rest from REAL work and dint need no guide to do it!

I wonder if the proliferation of television helped us along too.

I would say that "helped" us get away from the family. Never a good think IMHO.

There's so many things that need changed, there's no way that a guy can point to just one thing and say "Here's where we screwed up".

Lee has a good point. The ACW left us with a federal goverment that could and would run ruffshod over the rights of states and localities to govern themselves.

Several others have pointed out other places that we did what seemed like a good idea at the time, but no-one bothered to think through the consequences.

FDR's socialist programs spring to mind as another.

I can't say exactly when liberal ideas became so powerful as to control the people's thinking. I doubt anyone else could either. But IMHO that is the ultimate root of the problems we face as a nation.
7mm

Once the people found they could vote themselves largess from the public treasury. We were warned about that BTW.

Stick,

While I do not disagree that religion has been used as an excuse for much violence, it pales when compared to the atrocities committed for secular causes.

During WWII, Hitler killed 13 million Germans because they were not the correct race. Yes, he may have loosely alluded to some Bible passages, but these were an afterthought. His well understood motivation desire was to create a master race.

Russia lost what, 20 million fighting WW II, which was clearly a war for gaining territory and resources.

Stalin killed millions for a most decidedly anti-religious reason.

Pol Pot killed 3.3 million Cambodians in his efforts to return to an agrarian society.

Then again, the extremist muslims are forcing their own genocide, and it is very early in the 21st century. While they are fighting with religion as an excuse, we are fighting to preserve civilization. I don't know how to categorize this war..............

Correction,friend Stick.Jesus said He came to bring division,not Peace.I don't get a chance to straighten out a heathen very often so I couldn't resist!
[I still can't make the smiley faces]

You know, reading through all of these "reasons," it came to me in two simple words:

Population density

150 years ago, folks had to figure it out or die. If their mistakes didn't kill them, they damn well had better learned from them. Of course, there were cities then too and within the cities things were going to hell, but....

Look, put too many rats or damn near ANY other animal in too close proximity and they're going to kill each other. If they don't, nature will step in. I don't know if it'll happen in our lifetime, but either animal nature (I don't call it human nature, because I don't think we have the corner on the market) OR nature itself will find a "cure."

I can't remember where, but I do recall reading it somewhere that humans are the only animal that kills others of its kind over ideas, or something to that effect. To me that statement, dismal as it sounds, kinda sums it up, for the past, the present, and most likely, the future. .......joken2

Not for the first time, I disagree with the general sentiments. True, many of the reasons given for the "decline" are problems, and I can bitch for hours about some of them, but I suspect that we will overcome them in the fullness of time.



We are the greatest and most powerful nation in history and will probably remain that way for a good while. I think our kids are smarter and far better educated than we give them credit for. In spite of our current misadventure in Iraq, I think our military is a finely honed weapon that, like any weapon, can be misused but is incredibly powerful and can be used as a force for good in the world. Any system as complex as ours will have many "squeaking wheels" but they will get grease and the system will endure. Religion, in any form, is not the reason for our greatness, capitalism is. The nearly certain knowledge that with hard work and sacrifice and just a bit of luck we and our children will have it better and easier than our parents did is a driving force.



America the Beautiful.















Of course, everything would be better sooner if we kill all the lawyers. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Hi, Steve. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

While we may be the greatest nation this world has ever seen and will be for a long time - that ain't saying much when you are being compared to France and Germany!!

I need to flesh out my point that FDR's "New Deal" is where things started to go wrong.

While an argument can be made that the Civil War is where our government started to go wrong, "We the people" are independent from the government. The Founding Fathers, by virtue of their character, rose above a much more repressive system to claim their freedom. The government cannot be fingered for our current predicament � we only have ourselves to blame.

The �New Deal� was a wondrous program designed to protect America�s citizenry and aid in the advancement of our infrastructure. �We the people� have bastardized the system with our demands of government and by our vote. We can�t fault a democratically elected government for acting as a mother bird feeding its clamoring chicks. Our government is only doing what we tell them to do.

I believe it is closest to what Muley Stalker and JOG have described it only a combination of those thngs. And to sum up JOG:
Once the people found they could vote themselves largess from the public treasury it was really downhill.
We were warned about that BTW.

Im sure no one will agree with me, but our moral decay began in the early 70's when the 60's hippies became teachers and started corrupting the minds of our kids. The environmental movement also is destroying jobs and opportunities in this country as they distort scientific data to support their environmental positions. Untruth in reporting by our liberal media, yada , yada, yada.