The Ohio River being a massive cultural divider between north and south has been a very common and very strange part of history, but it's impossible to argue against. Whether it's going from Ohio to Kentucky or Ohio to West Virginia, the cultural distinction is immediate and observable. West Virginia is tragic, because in Southern Ohio you can see the ruins of Steubenville, but the surrounding poor, rural, community is slowly picking up the pieces. Cross over into West Virginia, and that effort is just lost. You can see it immediately with debris strews about, projects unfinished, unrepaired cars out front, and it's a sense of real depression in the state.
What's worse is that when you go north, you are starting to see the same problem, except it's related to weed. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not big on the drug war, but you can clearly see how Michigan has started to entirely fall apart, and all you've got left are pot heads. It seems like weed is the only functioning industry. Worse, I think the mass distribution of downers like weed may also be spoiling people's ability to be ambitious and productive.
The stunning lack of ambition of people was demonstrated to me in Iraq at it's worst, where I watched a man fail to fish for 12 hours. In that same town, you could see that the only person who was putting any real effort in was the imam and his sons, mostly trying to fix or improve the mosque. Even if you are a productive person, being surrounded by unproductive people is wildly disheartening and unhelpful.
I think the mass distribution of downers like weed may also be spoiling people's ability to be ambitious and productive.
This is what the normie morons who think weed is all sunshine and daisies don't understand. A drug doesn't have to be addictive, or physically destructive to your body for it to be dangerous. What weed does is make a person okay with being bored. It makes them okay with being stuck at their current level. Sure, you could bring up the argument that it doesn't always do that for everyone. If it did, none of the 60's rock bands would have kept making music. However, most people aren't Paul McCartney, or Keith Richards, or David Gilmour. Hell, even among the hippie rock bands, a good number of them ended up dead from drugs, etc. (part of the 27 club).
My former roommate smokes weed all the time. He still works at the fast casual place I left 3 years ago. He is coming up on 6 or 7 years now still working there at the same level position. My hourly rate at my job is more than double what I made there, but his rate has barely increased by a couple dollars. He spends all his time making sandwiches and salads, then going home and smoking pot. Occasionally he will go out and drive around to places to see them, but other than that, he doesn't really do anything.
I like him, but it infuriates me how he just doesn't want to try and lift himself out of poverty. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm on a career path that eventually will. The one big difference between us is that I don't do drugs, and he does.
Not that I defend the man but I think he truly does not give a fuck.
Modern Diogenes if you will.
Does he get enough food to live another day? Yes.
Are his clothes clean enough to not smell and scratch himself constantly? Yes.
Does he need more entertainment than he already has? No.
The Ohio River being a massive cultural divider between north and south has been a very common and very strange part of history, but it's impossible to argue against. Whether it's going from Ohio to Kentucky or Ohio to West Virginia, the cultural distinction is immediate and observable. West Virginia is tragic, because in Southern Ohio you can see the ruins of Steubenville, but the surrounding poor, rural, community is slowly picking up the pieces. Cross over into West Virginia, and that effort is just lost. You can see it immediately with debris strews about, projects unfinished, unrepaired cars out front, and it's a sense of real depression in the state.
What's worse is that when you go north, you are starting to see the same problem, except it's related to weed. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not big on the drug war, but you can clearly see how Michigan has started to entirely fall apart, and all you've got left are pot heads. It seems like weed is the only functioning industry. Worse, I think the mass distribution of downers like weed may also be spoiling people's ability to be ambitious and productive.
The stunning lack of ambition of people was demonstrated to me in Iraq at it's worst, where I watched a man fail to fish for 12 hours. In that same town, you could see that the only person who was putting any real effort in was the imam and his sons, mostly trying to fix or improve the mosque. Even if you are a productive person, being surrounded by unproductive people is wildly disheartening and unhelpful.
This is what the normie morons who think weed is all sunshine and daisies don't understand. A drug doesn't have to be addictive, or physically destructive to your body for it to be dangerous. What weed does is make a person okay with being bored. It makes them okay with being stuck at their current level. Sure, you could bring up the argument that it doesn't always do that for everyone. If it did, none of the 60's rock bands would have kept making music. However, most people aren't Paul McCartney, or Keith Richards, or David Gilmour. Hell, even among the hippie rock bands, a good number of them ended up dead from drugs, etc. (part of the 27 club).
My former roommate smokes weed all the time. He still works at the fast casual place I left 3 years ago. He is coming up on 6 or 7 years now still working there at the same level position. My hourly rate at my job is more than double what I made there, but his rate has barely increased by a couple dollars. He spends all his time making sandwiches and salads, then going home and smoking pot. Occasionally he will go out and drive around to places to see them, but other than that, he doesn't really do anything.
I like him, but it infuriates me how he just doesn't want to try and lift himself out of poverty. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm on a career path that eventually will. The one big difference between us is that I don't do drugs, and he does.
Not that I defend the man but I think he truly does not give a fuck. Modern Diogenes if you will.
Does he get enough food to live another day? Yes. Are his clothes clean enough to not smell and scratch himself constantly? Yes. Does he need more entertainment than he already has? No.
He's exactly where he wants to be in his life.