The Founding Fathers Would Be Ashamed At How Few American Men Still Hunt…

[Ark]

The difference is land has simply become impossible to obtain or access. It's not complicated. Acreage was cheap and abundant for prior generations and now it's a luxury for the very wealthy only.

Just like everything else boomers got to enjoy for cheap and are now complaining younger people aren't doing anymore.

 

[Ingomike]

I don't want to detract from Mike's thread, but your point is spot on. It's all cultural.

My family roots are in NW PA. I just crossed into my 40s. When I was growing up deer hunting was nearly religious. Opening Day, the first Monday after Thanksgiving, was an unofficial state holiday. No school and no one in the mills, foundries and tool shops.

We'd be up at 4am. My uncles, my cousins, neighbors, and guys from the church would meet at my Grandparents - 15-20 guys in all and we'd set out for the woods on foot to be in place by 5 or 5:30am. One of my uncles and his buddies would push entire blocks towards us. Once that drive was over we would head to another block and start another drive or meet up with a neighboring party. We'd head in at dark. On Opening Night, we'd go to the County Market on the town square to see the best harvests of the day. We'd do that the first week of buck and head back two weeks later for the first week of doe.

It's different now. I'm not waxing poetic and yearning for yesteryear. It's just different. My Grandpa and my remaining uncles and the guys at the church are getting old. My Dad passed away. Only one of my cousins hunts.

When I was a kid, we'd all be in the garage cutting up deer. I'm not there any more but now my Grandpa cuts up deer alone. Our biggest protein source growing up was deer. I didn't have store bought ground beef until college. Now I raise my own beef and have no need to fill the freezer.

The guys I know out here are losing their hunting ground and it sounds like public land is overwhelmed as well. I also know guys that pay a premium to head out West to hunt elk or go shoot supplemented deer that live on fenced venison farms because they just want the wall mount. The latter is not hunting, but I've got bigger fish to fry.

People do not have the free time they used to and they more to stimulate them. Now kids play multiple sports year 'round. Adults play fantasy sports, gamble on just about anything from their phones, play video games, which adults didn't do when I was young, and have all sorts of digital entertainment. None of that occupied people's time 20, 30, 40 years ago.

Your assessment of the situation is spot on. 50 years ago my city uncle’s knew about many things that now are not known by many today.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Thermodynamics is not a flexible science, and BBI is right, it's surprising sometimes when people don't understand it.

I've always felt that if you could explain thermodynamics to socialists, they would understand why their political and social systems don't work.

I suspect many people who have very strong feelings on various issues could not pass a freshman level final for physics, chemistry, biology, etc. Even those who could, we all have serious gaps in our knowledge. When the founding fathers were alive you could be on the cutting edge of multiple sciences simultaneously. Now? You can't be on the cutting edge of multiple disciplines within one science. The depth of human knowledge is truly incredible at this point, but it is by necessity silo'd. We'll all be long dead before we have the time to dedicate to learning a thimble full of what's available to learn.

 

[Ingomike]

No. I simply offered an alternative to addressing the issue that I believe is more pertinent to the level of society, technology, and social manipulation of modern times.

Basic scientific and economic illiteracy is widespread, even among intelligent people. Twice in recent time in real life conversations I've had to explain to people you can't run a generator off a car wheel except during things like downhill or braking. These were not stupid people. They were intelligent and successful in other venues of life, but had so little understanding of physics that didn't know you had to put energy in to get energy out.

Got it. A side point being that as teens we understood your example. Why? We tried perpetual charging for fun in the shop at the farm. Hooked up a battery to a motor, running a generator (meaning predecessor to alternators) charging the battery. LOL

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Got it. A side point being that as teens we understood your example. Why? We tried perpetual charging for fun in the shop at the farm. Hooked up a battery to a motor, running a generator (meaning predecessor to alternators) charging the battery. LOL

I think I really grasped it when I had one of those dynamo things that would power a headlight on your bicycle. You noticed the difference in effort when you put the dynamo to the rim, it was readily apparent even to a child there was no free lunch with electricity. And I readily admit I don't understand electricity to this day. I mean I understand how we harness it and how it behaves in a given situation, at least enough to do some basic wiring, but I still don't get what it *is* at a fundamental level.

 

[Twangbanger]

I do not think this article is about the decline of hunting, it was a case in point to a broader point, that being, in our affluence, as a society, large swaths have no connection to the earth, life, or death. They have no idea how nature works.

This makes them vulnerable to manipulation on a whole host of levels, including climate change, food production and processing, with no practical mechanical knowledge they have no way to assess regulations of appliances, automobiles, and even homes.

This isn’t about hunting, it is about knowledge that gives the power of understanding…

I think Vegans, for example, perfectly understand the realities of how animal life works. The ones I've known, know far more about commercial farming and animal protein production than the average soccer mom Steak n Shake customer; they first have to understand it, before they can attack and economically undermine it. I don't think "modern society" is a lack of understanding of those realities, but rather a change in peoples' feelings, thoughts, or whatever you want to call it, about them.

How many people in this thread who don't hunt, do you think are probably involved in "rescue dogs," etc.? I'd set an over/under at 3. People have just gotten "softer" on the issue of animals. It's much more of an emotional thing now.

Thermodynamics is not a flexible science, and BBI is right, it's surprising sometimes when people don't understand it.

I've always felt that if you could explain thermodynamics to socialists, they would understand why their political and social systems don't work.

Same deal here. I don't really know what thermodynamics has to do with socialism, unless it's the old "no free lunch" saw. But again, I think socialists _know_ the lunch isn't free. It's not that they don't understand. They just don't care. They know somebody has to pay the freight. And they're ok with that. Just give people money. Somebody will have to pay. Yes! "Let's do it."

Global warming, same deal. They know wind, solar, etc. aren't practical, and perhaps that they never will be, relative to what we enjoy now. But practical isn't the goal. They know it's not practical. They are just _ok_ with that. They know the laws of Thermodynamics can't ultimately be violated. Wind and solar cannot replace what we're doing with fossil fuels. The point is they don't want to replace it. They want to abolish it. They want us to do less. Lower standard of living. De-growth. Managed decline. Less fossil fuels. Less travel and mobility. An intelligently-managed state of perpetual recession, whatever you want to call it. "Our lifestyles are too consumptive, it's not sustainable." We need to settle for less.

The lefties aren't dumb. The just want us to kill less animals / redistribute money / tie employers to the pool table / consume less energy / live less like our parents, and more like our grand-parents. It's why BBI spent eons back then trying to explain to people why some industries "don't have pricing leverage." It's shorthand for, "If we tie employers to the table and ream them, there's nothing they can do about it, they can't raise prices, so let's tie them to the pool table and Do It." If we pass a law, it becomes the "Social Contract." It's the power of the Government Boot. Let's seize it!

They understand. Thermodynamics, economics, animal life, all of it. It's a feature, not a bug.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

It's why BBI spent eons back then trying to explain to people why some industries "don't have pricing leverage." It's shorthand for, "If we tie employers to the table and ream them, there's nothing they can do about it, they can't raise prices, so let's tie them to the pool table and Do It."

...why a pool table?

 

[LEaSH]

...why a pool table?

I like the way the felt feels on my skin.

 

[Denny347]

 

[Twangbanger]

...why a pool table?

Exactly...

 

[breakingcontact]

I think they would be ashamed at much more before folks not hunting.

They wouldn't recognize our country and all of the big government we (including republicans) are now comfortable with.

 

[Ingomike]

I think they would be ashamed at much more before folks not hunting.

They wouldn't recognize our country and all of the big government we (including republicans) are now comfortable with.

INGO not big on metaphors, even after they are pointed out…