Individualism

.
Today as I made my rounds between getting my ears lowered and running up to he foothills I had a great time playing with the new GPS unit. Yes......I finally got a detailed map of North Georgia and parts of North and South Carolina downloaded. I can see where I am at all times.......whether it is within 200 feet ( accuracy to within 10 or so feet ) or on a map of the United States. Topo information is available at the 1 mile level. Gonna do some Geocacheing soon as well as locating prospecting areas.

This level of technology is amazing to me. While by no means an oldster........I've been alive since shortly after the jet age commenced to the point we are today. I wonder if I'm using this thing to pinpoint myself.........is anybody else watching. Don't have any reason to think they might. I'm not the only cracker out here with a deep distrust of the powers that be and express it. Just something to wonder about.

I was over in Walhalla, S.C. (coincidentally the place where I was wed 40 years ago)visiting with a nice Vietnamese lady. It's interesting to know people of different cultures who think much the same as yourself. Proving nothing I guess except that we all are basically the same no matter where we were born.

Later in Toccoa, GA I was buying some scrap when this ol' guy pulled out a chain and locket which he wanted me to test and buy if it was real. Although it looked like a cheap fake, we determined that it was 18 kt gold. Inside there was this picture.



We figured the locket was probably about as old as the picture appeared. ( I would show the locket but, it unfortunately is being being separated into it's molecular components even as I type this. Didn't realize I'd be writing about it.

I have to wonder what the old boy in the photo (and it appears to me to be the better part of at least 100 years old) would think of the advances in technology that have taken place. From automobiles to whatever miracle you wish to think of that exists today. What would he think for instance of the ability to do heart bypass surgery...... much less the ability to do it from outside the body using what amounts to robots which use minimally invasive techniques. What would he think of molecule sized machines which they will one day inject into a persons blood stream to cure.........whatever.

What would he think of the train of thought that we are not sovereign individuals....... but considered property of the State to be manipulated at will by the powers that be? I have no clue............just curiosity......which is not likely to be satisfied since I have no time travel device.


Today was one of those weird days for visitors. I had hits from London, Bucharest, Romania, Brazil, Italy, Dubai, Rio de Janeiro, Israel.........as well as from Washington State to Florida to Maine.

It would be interesting to read how people from those other countries think of topics like Individualism, personal liberty and freedom and how they think they have or have not those things where they live.

Oh well........if I were a better writer they might choose to comment. If I were better educated and more widely traveled I might have personal experience with them to judge by.

I hope someday they will comment. The world seems to be shrinking as information travels faster and faster. Somehow in too many cases it doesn't seem to be bringing us closer together.

Just scratching an itch here in the Kudzu Grotto.