i guess i'm just too old. when i was five, i ran around in the woods all day, BY MYSELF, even though we lived in western towns. my first books were about mountain men - jim bridger and kit carson - and legendary indians - black hawk and rain-in-the-face. our family camped out all over the united states, canada, and europe, exploring natural wonders. once i lay for hours in yellowstone park, waiting for a tiny geyser to explode, as it would do unpredictably once a day.
this world is no longer available to today's kids. they're trapped in parental surveillance, not to mention city streets and asphalt. so they're attracted to the virtual world, to computers and hacking where they can travel the universe. they want to be astronauts, settlers on mars, have artificial-intelligence lovers who do everything they say, the outdoor to be lived represented by footprints on the moon.
the forests, years ago, in the 19th century, the creation of a divine being. americans were the chosen people, and this was god's country. at the same time they loved their machines, especially the railroads. the forests were sold to the railroads and they've huge domains today, with which they can do whatever they wish. with the cry, MANIFEST DESTINY, the united states has the right and duty to keep expanding, it rules us today with a huge army, navy, air force, and border guards.
alas, that last, manifest destiny, means all our resources devoted to the reality, ownership, and conquest of the rest of the world. conservation groups have lost the power of mythology and memory to off-the-road vehicles, snow-mobiles, campers, and the logging industry, nobody is left to root for nature. thoreau and emerson kept the country going for a long time. now they are ghosts of the past.
the power of myth has shifted from the natural world, to the imaginary heroics of technology. america has grown away from it's roots:
i've often thought japan won wwII by inventing the off-the-road vehicles which rampage across our sand-dunes and deserts, and whose owners believe they have an eternal right-of-way.
the symbol of american has become the cut stump. it definitely should be put on the flag.
