Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who in particular?
Tax collectors
His sister gets tax-funded care, multiple times a day, freeing up his time to do farm work. The tax collector might be alright.
I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
741–750 of 780 posts
Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
#742Earlier quoted context omitted.
He's almost certainly exposed to more cultures, though you are right: he could be extremely bigoted and xenophobic. It's just less likely, even if marginally.
"The bourgeoisie are probably smarter, better people than the proletariat"
This isn’t about bourgeoise vs proletariat. It’s about a completely asinine allegory that elides tons of real world context in order to push the ridiculous narrative that the simple country folk know something the rest don’t.
Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
#743Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like us (hyper connected city dwellers, constantly chasing personal growth or success or novelty) are the deluded ones. Why do you say he seems deluded to you?
The farmer has a lot of ideas about what it would have been like to leave or do something different and why there was no point in doing so. Having never left, these ideas are not based in experience, and there is likely an element of self-justification. It is very very common for people to come up with reasons to justify their choices. To the extent that these reasons are unexamined and not evidence-based, they are d…
A bird not flying outside it’s habitat is not delusion. Likewise any animal.
Just because there’s this modern idea that you need to travel and sample (trample on) everything, doesn’t make it more rational. Will going to Mars do anything for happiness? You haven’t been, you can’t know! That’s a fallacy, I’m not sure what, but it’s a fallacy because we know animals are adapted to their environment. We also are pretty good at knowing if we’re feeling alright.
You’re confusing scientism with reality. You can’t begin to claim to be right about some scientific thing without having explored a lot. But happiness can be found locally, in total ignorance. Your dog knows this. Only a human could confuse something like that through the curse of knowledge and modern culture.
What I will say is this man is rich. Not everyone, in fact almost no one, can afford to buy a farm in a beautiful area that’s surrounded by people and culture you like, with a temperate climate and natural beauty. He’s very lucky.
Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
#744"This valley is cut in the shape of my heart". I've known farmers like him, bachelors who are mild mannered and love their lives and the extended family that comes with living an entire life in one valley. He maybe goes to Sunday service for socialization and the local pub to watch the game, and as long as his sheep are healthy and the sky does what it promises (because he knows the day before always if it will rain)…
I appreciate the romance, but those of us who have children leave behind much more than stone walls we built in our 20s. He’s a 72 year old Batchelor who’s once stepped foot outside a Welsh valley. If happiness is a lobotomy then credit to us who don’t choose it.
Can you please not post shallow dismissals or personal attacks or generic tangents or flamebait, or call names, in HN comments? You did all of those things here.
I'm glad that you've found satisfaction in having children, but that's no reason to put someone else down.
Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
#745Earlier quoted context omitted.
well, maybe so but they say a stray dog come howling around Johnny Miller's house, 'bout midnight, as much as two weeks ago; and a whippoorwill come in and lit on the banisters and sung, the very same evening; and there ain't anybody dead there yet.
Great Tom Sawyer ref. It continues, "Well, I know that. And suppose there ain't. Didn't Gracie Miller fall in the kitchen fire and burn herself terrible the very next Saturday?" While Gracie Miller survives her terrible burns, who knows what happens to her after the novel? A ref I know you'll just love is: It was written in 1885 by Holger Drachmann as a midsummer hymn (midsommervise) called 'Vi elsker vort land' with…
Ok but I do not think I've ever met anyone who took Sankt Hans as anything serious - that is to say for them it is all tradition (see a thing burn, call it a witch, listen to some tunes, drink some beer, grill out yayyy) and none belief. Of course with my luck I'll end up having an Ari Aster Sankt Hans this year.
But it's a nice reference.
Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
#746Earlier quoted context omitted.
"The bourgeoisie are probably smarter, better people than the proletariat"
This isn’t about bourgeoise vs proletariat. It’s about a completely asinine allegory that elides tons of real world context in order to push the ridiculous narrative that the simple country folk know something the rest don’t.
No, it's about you calling someone a xenophobic bigot because they're a country bumpkin and assuming someone else is probably not a bigot because they're a city person.
Side note, you do know the definitions of the words "xenophobic" and "bigot" are right?
Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
#747Earlier quoted context omitted.
The farmer has a lot of ideas about what it would have been like to leave or do something different and why there was no point in doing so. Having never left, these ideas are not based in experience, and there is likely an element of self-justification. It is very very common for people to come up with reasons to justify their choices. To the extent that these reasons are unexamined and not evidence-based, they are d…
A bird not flying outside it’s habitat is not delusion. Likewise any animal. Just because there’s this modern idea that you need to travel and sample (trample on) everything, doesn’t make it more rational. Will going to Mars do anything for happiness? You haven’t been, you can’t know! That’s a fallacy, I’m not sure what, but it’s a fallacy because we know animals are adapted to their environment. We also are pretty g…
It's not the fact that he doesn't leave that's delusional, it's all the ideas he has about leaving that can't be based in reality as he has not experienced them.
It's similar to anyone who has strong opinions about something that they don't have evidence (scientific or experiential) to support.
Again, the delusion isn't that he's happy with what he has, it's that he appears to have some strong opinions about what it's like to, for example, live in London having never been there. A more evidence-based position might be "I'm happy with what I have and have no inclination to see or do anything else".
Also again, his delusions seem pretty mild.
Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
#748Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dogs and smell were one example. Maybe it’s sight related. Maybe it’s electromagnetic field sensitivity. I’m not seeking meaning, I’m seeking falsifiable experiment to conclusively rule out the possibility.
Maybe it was communicating with its own kind?
Oh I just remembered neuroscience has revealed we “sync” brainwaves just being in a room with another. We can take on others processing patterns.
No reason to assume similar can’t occur between species.
Perhaps the bird “read his mind” in such a way as to intuit something was breaking.
Perhaps applying simple cost/benefit analysis is too reductionist to reach a conclusion?
Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
#749Earlier quoted context omitted.
A bird not flying outside it’s habitat is not delusion. Likewise any animal. Just because there’s this modern idea that you need to travel and sample (trample on) everything, doesn’t make it more rational. Will going to Mars do anything for happiness? You haven’t been, you can’t know! That’s a fallacy, I’m not sure what, but it’s a fallacy because we know animals are adapted to their environment. We also are pretty g…
It's not the fact that he doesn't leave that's delusional, it's all the ideas he has about leaving that can't be based in reality as he has not experienced them. It's similar to anyone who has strong opinions about something that they don't have evidence (scientific or experiential) to support. Again, the delusion isn't that he's happy with what he has, it's that he appears to have some strong opinions about what it'…
He seems to be saying people have told him as much, or he's heard as much. It’s not like he’s stating it strongly either, I think mostly he’s just making conversation.
To even bring the word delusion is delusional.
Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
#750Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great Tom Sawyer ref. It continues, "Well, I know that. And suppose there ain't. Didn't Gracie Miller fall in the kitchen fire and burn herself terrible the very next Saturday?" While Gracie Miller survives her terrible burns, who knows what happens to her after the novel? A ref I know you'll just love is: It was written in 1885 by Holger Drachmann as a midsummer hymn (midsommervise) called 'Vi elsker vort land' with…
Ok but I do not think I've ever met anyone who took Sankt Hans as anything serious - that is to say for them it is all tradition (see a thing burn, call it a witch, listen to some tunes, drink some beer, grill out yayyy) and none belief. Of course with my luck I'll end up having an Ari Aster Sankt Hans this year. But it's a nice reference.
But if there's no belief to it, then why do it? If you stopped doing it, would you feel things were a little off, would other people? Would you sense your year might get worse, and if it did, kick yourself for missing Sankt Hans? Maybe not. Maybe it's just all tradition, no belief. But I think there's belief there, that although not fashionable these days to admit (not least because burning witches has gone out of style), operates as a motivation compelling people to do the same "meaningless" traditions year after year. They're not meaningless because people believe them, on some level.
But maybe Sankt Hans is an exception. But other things, like 7-9-13 why do that? It's not tradition. If you travel, you'll still catch yourself saying it, maybe under your breath if in another culture. But you'll feel weird if you don't do it. You'll feel you bring yourself some bad luck. Even if a person doesn't "believe" that it could be the case, on another level they do believe that, because they'll feel weird if they don't do it. It's a belief that it will affect things. It's not easy to admit in this context, I'm not asking you to "admit" it, I'm just saying it's part of who we are. We believe these things.
Have a happy (and safe!) Sankt Hans this year! :P ;) xx