Freedom Quote: “You know you have a great country when even the people who detest it refuse to leave.” —Candace Owens
Sun-tanned kids romped outside the remote and ramshackle old farmhouse on the hill, their happy voices ringing through the summer night. Parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, and other adult relatives congregated outside the back door, sitting on wicker chairs, upturned buckets, even on the ground, laughing about old times and spinning yarns while the young played hide and seek, tag, and other childhood games, letting their imaginations run free.
Saturday night. When relatives and friends got together whenever possible to chat, laugh, and listen to Grand Ole Opry on a heavy battery-operated radio in an open window. The farmhouse was without electricity, which of course meant no air conditioning except for breezes whispering through windows; a wood-burning stove in the living room provided heat in the winter. Ma (grandmother) and Mom cooked over either a wood-burning or kerosene stove.
It was a different time, a different era, but not really that long ago.
These were raucous nights when kids possessed with imaginations pretended to be cops, firemen, airplane pilots, space travelers, boxers, movie stars… Anything and everything was possible. The sky was the limit. And whenever we wore out and the moon hung low, we piled around on the ground at the feet of the adults to listen to tales of when they were all kids. One by one we fell asleep and had to be carried inside and piled five or six to a bed.
We were busy and active by necessity. Not only in playing but also with chores—feeding the chickens, helping with the milking, drawing well water… Our lives revolved around each other rather than, as is so often the case in today’s world, around “smart” machines and “devices” and “social media.”
In today’s world, walk into any public place and more often than not be confronted with an almost surreal quiet—Mom and Dad engrossed in “texting” or “social media,” Junior and Little Miss hunkered over some electronic game punching buttons. The children are as pale as though sunshine has never touched their skin. Boys and girls alike are either overweight, childhood obesity being a national pandemic, or they appear undernourished from lack of physical activity and outdoor exercise.
Drive through many residential neighborhoods and the same silence prevails. We have become largely an “inside” world. Kids are more often than not isolated in their rooms over some device that serves as a baby sitter. Mom and Dad are likewise preoccupied each with his own “social media” device or in watching TV.
We have lost something vital in society between the era of the no-electricity farmhouse on the hill when children and adults actually went outside to play and interact with each other, compared to today’s world of “devices,” electronic games, social media, and the inevitable feelings of accompanying isolation and aloneness in which our young seem to prefer the company of machines over actual companions. When societal adhesion of lives revolving around each other meld into the chaos of lives lived through “devices.” Studies show that the United States has become the loneliest society in history.
Charles W. Sasser, professional writer and journalist, is author of over 60 books and thousands of magazine articles. He has written extensively on the collapse of civilization in books such as Going Bonkers: The Wacky World of Cultural Madness (2003) and Crushing the Collective: America’s Last Chance to Remain Free and Self-Governing. (2017). Both are available on Amazon or in bookstores.
Unfortunately, yes, my friend.
Morning, Sally, ol’ friend. I suppose I’m going through a phase, trying to point out how our lives are being destroyed, especially those of children, who have fallen victim to high tech rather than being children with imaginations and real fun with each other. These are indeed strange times–and we need to point out how, as often predicted in old SciFi movies–and in Revelation in the Bible–how knowledge will multiply but wisdom deplete, until we become slaves to ourselves. God blelss you, Sally–and please keep speaking out Chuck Sasser
Hey, Sally. Happy Turkey Day! chuck sasser
Sad but true I’m afraid
Morning, Dan.. .I really miss seeing all of you at Sunday School. Yesterday,Jim Lane was sitting up in a chair in ICU, and seems to be improving. Pray for him–and pray for all the kids who are being trapped in this surreal new world in which machines will soon literally rule everything–(such as, for example, the recent election). God bless, young friend. huck Sasser
Morning, Dan.. .I really miss seeing all of you at Sunday School. Yesterday,Jim Lane was sitting up in a chair in ICU, and seems to be improving. Pray for him–and pray for all the kids who are being trapped in this surreal new world in which machines will soon literally rule everything–(such as, for example, the recent election). God bless, young friend. huck Sasser
So sad but so true!
Morning, James. Happy Turkey Day. Unfortunately–and sad–but SciFi for years has come up with scenarios i which we are ruled by machines. Seems SciFi may be becoming reality. God bless. chuck sasser
This is the same thing I’ve been saying to my kids for years. Thank you for writing it so eloquently.
Morning, Jim. And a happy Turkey Day to you. God bless. chuck sasser
I didn’t grow up in a farmhouse but in a fairly small town in Oklahoma. Adults sat on the porch swapping stories while we jumped rope or played jacks on the sidewalk. My best friend and I would ride our bikes off into the country and wade creeks. Yes, those were good days. Then by the time my grandchildren were growing up, it was too dangerous for them to be out alone and unwatched. The world had become a dangerous place.
Morning on Thanksgiving Day, Carol. And we’re right now in one of the most dangerous periods of American history–what with all these goofy politicians acting like ignorant little Stalins or Hitlers. Do you think they might be machines? Anyhow, have a wonderful Thanksgiving–and remember to wear yhour masks, don’t touch each other, stay “socially distant,” don’t sing or laugh, have only immediate family for dinner. . . On and on. Yep, dangerous times. God bless, Carol, that some of us are beginning to notice before it’s too late. chuck sasser
Chuck, with Thanksgiving just around the corner, I am reminded how thankful we all should be for our “Truthtellers” like you. I am a bit less apprehensive about my grandkids and their electronic communications because they seem to be more aware of creeping communism. There is a long history of military service in their family tree and Grandpa Ford preaches that socialism is communism for slow learners. They are all confirmed Capitalists. Like you, I am increasingly appalled by our nation’s mindless lurch toward Orwellian authoritarianism. The CCP virus has encouraged even the lowest ranking local officials to try on tyranny for size. I am resisting by all legal means. Keep the faith, we need you.
Oh,Jim. And we need you and others like you. With Biden in the White House, imagine socialism in full bloom and our lives directed by this clown and his cohorts. I’ve been predicting this for years, since my GOING BONKERS book in 2003. It’s playing out before our eyes. Thank God for people like, Jim. Please, let us not give up. The best thing we an do to keep our freedom is not to shut up and go passive. God bless, and have a wonderful Turkey Day. chuck sasser