My father taught me to be responsible for myself and those around me… not just my family, but also my friends, and in my community, and even the greater world around me. But in the end, being taught to take responsibility for myself, to work hard, to stand on my own two feet, and succeed. Since having my own children well over a decade ago, I’ve grown in this and work to instill it in my children. If I don’t work, there’s no food. If I don’t work, there’s no house or clothing. If I don’t work, no electricity to power the TV or the Wii. If I don’t work, how can I care for my family and provide them the things they want and need? I can’t expect anyone else to take care of them but myself. I can’t expect anyone else to take care of me but me.

Over the years, Wife and I have desired to become even more self-reliant. There’s a place in town called Pioneer Farms, and we’re looking into things with them to learn various skills. A bunch of the books I recently picked up work towards this end. It’s also one of the reasons I want to go hunting. So when I came across this article from (Uncle) Ted Nugent, a paragraph struck me:

I need my water, cars, trucks, chainsaws, knives, crowbars, blowtorches, scalding hot water, guitars and guns, thank you. Amazingly, I have mastered them all, and they are all wonderful ingredients for my American Dream of rugged individualism, declared independence, and self sufficiency. They all serve me well, and I am not giving any of them up. Ever.

His American Dream sounds pretty good to me. Individualism, independence, self-sufficiency. I think by and large this is the growing problem in America. People desire to be individuals, yet there’s so much pressure (and people give into it) to conform to the group. There’s lip-service to independence, yet when you rely upon taxes to fund, government programs, handouts, bailouts, socialized medicine, socialized anything, mantatory youth service,  you’re not free — you’re a slave. And are people self-sufficient? They want me to provide for them instead of going out and getting it themselves, so I think not.

What has come of America?

And what are you doing about it? Do you think Mr. Nugent’s dream is a good one? If so, what are you doing to make it reality. If you don’t think it’s a good dream, then tell me what your dream is and how that fits into what America is supposed to be about.