Would our ancestors have had any respect for those who did not plan, work and prepare for the future with their own proper shelter, adequate clothing, water resources, food reserves and fuel supplies for the care, defense and wellbeing of their families?

What might your ancestors have thought about our present behavior and systems' vulnerabilities?

-- Watchful (seethesea@msn.com), March 15, 1999

Answers

What is there to say?

-- Very (disappointed@youall.com), March 15, 1999.

Nobody called us paranoid, did nuthin fer themselves and lived.

By the way, ever thought about why you kids exist anyway.

Sure was a lot of hard work and you better do likewise.

Now git with it!------Grandpa

-- Grandpa (safe@home.now), March 15, 1999.

That talkin' box they call teevee is such depravation! The young 'uns sit in front of it for hours watchin' godfersaken things while the chores are pilin' up around the house and the blubber piles up around their atrophyin' muscles and brain. I told my kids not to buy that thing but they wouldn't listen! Now they git what comes to dem!

-- Great-grandma (knitting@home.com), March 15, 1999.

Durned glad that the outhouse wer'nt inside after all them beans. These warm seats on inside pots may just be temporary. Start diggin-----deeper. And one for me. I'm Real Old

-- Real Old (uncle@near.end), March 15, 1999.

Everyone helped each other out. Midwifing, selling eggs, sharing the garden, hogging, harvesting the fields, etc. Some were poor but they could chop wood and help with the harvest, canning, soap making, building barns, fixing fences, and feeding the livestock. What we are facing is a whole different scenario. Very few of us are farmers or homesteaders and we can take care of the chores ourselves. Face it, we're all dependent on the power, water, and supermarkets for our survival. Let's not kid each other about this fact. The lifestyle 75 years ago is long gone. Seventy-five years ago the top speed of anything was minimal, the top speed of everything today is out of sight. How many of us want to go back 75 years to slow carts and donkey's?

-- grannietoldmeso (grannietoldmeso@grannie.com), March 16, 1999.

Can you say "Rolling over in their graves"?

We have all become unwitting slaves to the gods of convenience, wealth and technology - which this government has convinced the dumbed-down apathetic American, THEY have given us, in order to keep themselves in political power. The more dependant we are upon them the more control they can exert over the populace.

Face it folks, we have become fat, lazy and apathetic to the real dangers that are lurking just around the corner. We are consumed with our own pursuits and pleasures. We have made our children princes over us. We fulfill all desires by defining them as "rights". We waste time quibbling about trivialities while placing blame for negatives on everone else at the expense of personal responsibility. We invite the elites and the government to sustain and nurture us. We have blind faith in the "System" that we've grown acustomed. We believe we live on an island - - nothing can touch us.

But the worst is that we have allowed history and experience to be rewritten by an elitist class of theorists who despised wisdom from their parents and elders, and demaguoged it as authoritarian and extreme. We ignored wisdom and prudence for quick wealth and comfort. A spoiled nation we are.

But the real world is about to bite, and ensnare a slumbering nation in a crisis for its very survival.

To all our peril.

To know what our ancestors think about this generation, the Founders waxed prophetic:

As Benjamin Franklin so aptly put when asked: "What sort of government have you given us?"

"A Represenative Republic" he replied, "- - If you can keep it."

-- INVAR (gudark@aol.com), March 16, 1999.

Grannytoldyouso.......Dont wanna go back but better have tools and stuf cause this systems contraption got bugs. Ever seen what a tribe of termites leaves after them? If yer doin nuthin..Dont

-- Dont (wanna@go.bak), March 16, 1999.

My dearest Don't: Please do not worry about me and how we will get along, we will do just fine. INVAR: Don't forget that those in political power don't even know what a hoe is (hahaha the probably do (whore)). Seriously, think back to all the great powers and how they met their demise.....tis ain't happy camping! I'm not worried because those in power will get what's coming to them because they failed to lead, failed to warn, and only looked after their own behinds. It's every man for himself, and every many willing to help those who cannot help themselves.

-- grannytoldmeso (grannytoldmeso@grannie.com), March 16, 1999.

In my day, we didnt have any com-pu-ters. All we had was a pile of wires and some busted vacuum tubes. Theyd say, Here, add up these numbers, and wed all gather round and shove our fingers in and out of the pile of wires and busted tubes until our hands was all raw and bleedin, hoping to get the numbers to add up.

And thats the way it was, and we liked it!

No, in my day, we didnt have no in-ter-net. All we had was some tin cans and rusted barbed wire. Wed say, Lets set up a network protocol so we can download dirty pictures. So wed string up a bunch of barbed wire and tins cans and plug the whole mess into a 10,000 volt power line. Then wed hold the tin cans up to our faces and our heads burst into flames, and wed go screamin into the night. And the dirty pictures didnt matter anymore, cause wed all be blind and on fire.

And thats the way it was, and we LIKED IT!

And in my day, we didnt have no Y-2-k. Our biggest fear was wed all go to sleep and wake up the next mornin to find the sun had burned out. Theyd say, Dont go to sleep, or youll be frozen solid by mornin. So there we was, our hands all a-bleedin from trying to add up numbers, our heads on fire from tryin to send each other dirty pictures, and our eyelids nailed to our foreheads so we wouldnt fall asleep and suffocate on our own frozen screams when we woke up and found the sun burned out.

And thats the way it was, AND WE LIKED IT!

-- Grumpy Old Man (grumpy@retirement.home), March 16, 1999.

What's all this I hear about Wide Touquay?

I don't think it's anyone's business how big any part of my personal anatomy has gotten! Or anyone else's for that matter.

If you young people don't learn to show some respect for yer elders, why then you deserve to have some Linoleum Bug come down and eat your dumb computers and your TVs, and...

Hmmm, no TVs.... now that's not such a bad idea. Never mind.

-- Emily Littella (s@turdaynite.com), March 16, 1999.

Grumpy:

Loved it!

More Please!

RonD

-- Ron Davis (rdavis@ozemail.com.au), March 16, 1999.

Guess my ancestors would say:

Your pa let our tools rust and sent them to the dump;

Your ma sold the work horses for pet food;

Then you just ignored the basics and "enjoyed" your "systems".

Now, what are you gointo use to do what we did?

-- Just Worried (thinking@about.its), March 16, 1999.

Response to Are our ancestors crying out: "what have you surrendered"?

They would have been horrified to see how we have made a god of technology, and they would have believed (being believers in another God) that our 'god' would fail us, being a false god. They would have muttered "apostasy," and shuddered over our fate. We may choose not to believe this, but our ancestors certainly would have.

-- Spidey (in@jam.com), March 16, 1999.

Typical tripe from you Spidey.........

Who's made a god of technology? How is it a god? Technology is just a tool we use to be more efficient.

In your vein of thought, our ancestors made gods of their rakes and ploughs, and later their tractors etc.

Why do you persist in your ludditic mindset, that all that is progress is ultimately evil. You claim that God created our minds, but when we use them to become more efficient that somehow this is wrong!

Perhaps you prefer the dark ages when all the world was cloaked in superstition and fear. They had no 'god' of technology back then. O, what a glorious time that must have been!!

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), March 16, 1999.

Sure hope you hunt down them bugs and git them out of your contraptions

-- Gonna Be (down@and.out), March 16, 1999.

Response to Are our ancestors crying out: "what have you surrendered"?

Ah, Craig, once again I trust you have satisfied some unspecified libido by your spasmodic ejaculation. Your quixotic defense of electronic atheism brings forth rounds of applause; "Our handful of dust, Craig, self-creating, self-sustaining, skewers the troglyditian Christian on his large spear of Outrage." Skewer away, dear Craig, every thrust sends a frisson of delight down my Luddite spine. How angered you are by talk of God! Into what contortions of anguish we see you descend, at the mere mention of Christ crucified. "I will not serve!" you shout, a pathetic echo of an older, more ancient rebellion. But all is lost on you, my Uncreated man: I should not seek to rain on your Holy Day of Dow 10,000. Go and celebrate your non-gods, and their everlasting Triumph, by whatever atavistic formulae you please. Rejoice! It is the day of Craig, Craig without end, Amen.

-- Spidey (in@jam.com), March 16, 1999.

Somebody up there said: "How many of us want to go back 75 years to slow carts and donkey's?"

Hell NO, I dont't WANT to og back. Not many WANT to.

Unfortunately all this is not about what we WANT. It is about what IS going to happen. Or more accurately, what you think is going to happen.

What I WANT has so dam little to do with anything. Dealing with the reality of the future as I precieve it is the real problem for me and for any of you who are not setting around wishing you way into the future.

--Greybear, sorry, something there just hit one of my buttons.

- Got Grit?

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), March 16, 1999.

Sounds like fixing your bugs is the same as finding and picking ticks out of millions of big litters of long haired dogs

-- Good Luck (to@you.now), March 16, 1999.

Greybear:

Yes, I've got grit, and stubbornness (inherited from the most stubborn man on the face of the earth-my father), and lots of survival knowledge learned from my grandparents and parents-all learned from the 'ground-level' up at the family farm (yes, pun intended.) I intend to survive whatever comes, me and family-God willing.

Yes, I've got grit, and beans, rice, water, canned goods, tp, first aid supplies, fuel, clothing, garden, etc, and most importantly, ATTITUDE.

Thanks for the reminder-Linda

-- newbiebutnodummy (Linda@home.com), March 16, 1999.

Greybear & Linda,

Love to see the word that meant survival no matter the cost--GRIT !!!

Good to know that you folks listened, learned and know about the common sense that our ancestors strove to understand and practice.

Sure wish it was widespread. thanks for your posts.

-- Watchful (seethesea@msn.com), March 16, 1999.

WHY DO peOPLe liKE SPidEY SCarE DIEtER??????

-- Dieter (questions@toask.com), March 16, 1999.

I'm not sure DiETer....but whatever Spidey's smokin', I wish he'd share...might help when the rough Y2K-middle-of-the-night moments come! Mighty stingey of him....

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), March 16, 1999.

Them flaws aint jes in yer teknics, theys in yer head.

-- Knows (you@was.slo), March 16, 1999.

We figrd rite that youd breed up yer kids frum the wurst uv the inlaws buggy ansesters. They sure is dum kids with all them bugs.

-- We Knew (it@long.ago), March 16, 1999.

Hey Dieter, why are you dieting? You should stay nice and fat in case you run out of food later on.

-- gott (gott@know.now), March 17, 1999.