Wild Boars
The European Zionists who created the modern state of Israel may have been cursed from the beginning, not because they were Jews, but because they were urbanites. In other words, they were not then, and are not now, farmers or ranchers, to use the American term.
Not being farmers or ranchers is a big deal if you “create” a country with a self-sufficient pastoral fantasy on top of land populated by actual farmers and ranchers. Urban culture can be a blessing of cultural, artistic, and intellectual achievement, of politics and ideas, of excitement. On the other hand, urban culture is intensely uncurious about rural and farm life, not interested in the people or the culture that keeps food and fuel moving into the cities.
Just recently, our own Vice President JD Vance, himself direct from rural Appalachian poverty, caught heat from China when he said, “We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.” The Chinese were surprised because Vance is known for his “Hillbilly Elegy” that humanizes rural people, and reflects on their toughness and their strength. They were saddened because Vance’s words revealed the lack of mutual respect and understanding. Aesop’s fable about the city mouse and the country mouse comes to mind.
That fable speaks to the dilemma we find today in the modern Zionist state, where peaceful poverty for Israelis may increasingly be preferable to a higher per capita income and unimaginable levels of fear and uncertainty. Tel Aviv is security dependent on an American president who is mercurial and calculating. Zionist Israel is vulnerable to coming American generations who will inevitably end Zionist Israel’s special status, stop US wars on demand for Israel, and slash current outrageous levels of US taxpayer subsidy to a country of 9 million mostly ungrateful inhabitants eight time zones from middle America.
Respecting rural life is one thing, understanding the land and the environment is another. As a farmer, I glimpse the fundamental wisdom of the natural world, and its multiplicity of adaptations to climate and microclimate, land, livestock and wildlife. I am impressed on a daily basis by the sliver of interdependence and resilience that I see around me. I’m humbled because I perceive only a t
Article from LewRockwell
LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
