The author John Ringo described a kind of people in one of his books as Locusts or Grasshoppers I don’t remember the exact wording. For the purposes of this post the difference between the creatures isn’t all that important.
I’m going to very liberally describe what I took away from Ringos book. With apologies to Mr. Ringo if I screw this up too much.
Ringo describes a class of people that are essentially users, They contribute little to the society except telling all the rest of us what we’re doing wrong and how the contributors in the world are damaging, the Earth, the sky, the water, crops, whatever… you get the picture.
At the very same time these people have high expectations. They believe that they will never have to go hungry or thirsty, or shiver in the cold. They believe that the system, the state, the world can , will, and SHOULD take care of them no matter what.
One of the characteristics of these people is that they will move into a nice area, consume the resources, demand changes in laws, rules, and local societies until the nice place they moved into is no longer nice.
Streets can’t be fixed because the asphalt is bad for the environment and stinky, besides.
Pesticides can’t be used to grow our crops because the pesticide is dangerous. We have to grow everthing organically because it’s better for the environment, (What? We get less edible food growing organically? you must be doing something wrong.)
People can’t smoke in their homes because the smoke might hurt someone living 2 doors down and you can’t smoke outside because it’s a bad example for anyone who might see you smoking. (As an aside I’m glad I quit smoking, but Damn! All the anti-smoking laws and ordinances are just plain wrong!)
After the locusts have been in an area a while, the very things they liked about the area are gone. Swept away in a tide of legalese and nonsensical Locust/User thinking. At this point the locusts move on, property values that were artificially inflated by their presence plummet. While the locusts don’t have an agenda of scorched earth… the effect is the same.
His description, is apt and I think I have a Locust or a perhaps groups of Locusts living next door to me.
It’s a pity really, because the former occupant / owner of the the house immediately adjacent to me was a love and I miss her dearly.
The house further up the block was occupied by a guy that was for all intents and purposes Crazy with a capital C but he pulled his weight and minded his own business right up until adult protective services put him in a hospital when the neighbors figured out that he was living in his car. Yep, he lived in his car parked in the driveway of his house, he only went inside to poo and get ice from his fridge.
Both of these people, one 70 years old and the other crazy as a loon would clear the snow from their driveways, and help in clearing the snow from the common street in front of our homes. Why? because it was in all of our best interests and neither of them were locusts.
They looked after their yards, they picked up trash they saw around the neighborhood even if it wasn’t theirs… You know, sometimes a bag or peice of paper gets away from the trash truck and ends up blowing around… It’s not a difficult thing to go pick stuff like that up and put in in your bin so that next week the trash truck does haul it away.
Give me old folks and crazy people rather than what I have now!
Right next door, there are at least two 18 to 25 year olds (one male & one female) Plus an older woman, older yes… but younger than me!
I don’t really know how many people are living there, the number seems to fluctuate fairly regularly. That makes me nervous enough… What annoys me is that these Locusts have not and apparently never will get their asses outside to shovel even Their OWN Driveway much less the little strip of street in front of their house.
The house of the crazy man has been purchased, donated, or by some fashion come into possession of an animal shelter.
The owner of the animal shelter came down and introduced herself. She had an accident last year and since then I haven’t seen her. What I do see is a single fairly young woman, in a red truck. Who on more than one occasion has treated me like THE HELP. Including suggesting that I started earlier on the shoveling since she couldn’t get into the street and had to walk up to the house.
SAY WHAT?!?!?!
I looked at her for about a millisecond and said “I’m not the groundskeeper, the road isn’t county maintained and you’re benefiting from my largess in the first place. Im not getting paid to do this.” She actually motioned for me to get back to work and walked away.
I was stunned… Then I figured lets just back this train the fuck up.
I stopped shoveling and pulled my 4×4 into position in my shoveled driveway. I can easily drive over 6″- 8″ of snow without even putting the transmission in 4Wheel LOW.
Screw ’em!
I’m an asshole! it’s MY Nature! I was trying to be nice… it’s a lot easier for me to think about their houses as potential food stores when the zombie apocalypse comes.
The point is. I’ve been mentioned in town as “The Nicest Neighbor…” and that seems to mean to these people that I’m their servant.
Well screw that! I’m only shoveling The bare minimum for my 4×4 to get out and they can remain snowbound by 2 inches of snow or get off their lazy asses. Fuck ’em!
If you aren’t prepared… you deserve what you get!
I cleared my driveway, and the road from my driveway down to the main road. All it took was 30 minutes simple… Why would I do it since I don’t need to go anywhere? I want to be able to take the fun car also known as the (Aryan Eco-Destroyer) out over the weekend if I feel better.
The sun hitting the pavement will make that happen. So I was being selfish….
Now I’m going back to bed to sleep the rest of this cold from hell out of my system.