More Then Words. Or so it would seem, as we try to capture the blood and sap of true life in our tiny hands (appologizes to Max Weber), and the problem it truly creates. Also, appologies to Mario—his book title, just seemed perfect for this piece of fodder.

My Political Theory professor on Friday concluded with his thoughts on Machvelli discussing the troubles of written and spoken language—something that only exists in symbolic form, something we can't really touch with are own hands.

I find this symbolic to reality gap increadibly difficult when writing on this website. I'm sure all of the words I say around these parts probably have a different meaning for each of our readers. Heck, even for me, the meaning of what I wrote shifts overtime, as I learn and gain experience and my ideology matures and changes.

I mean, think about it for a moment. My professor cited the example of a house. What is a house? Is it the one you call home? Is it an high-rise apartment in some big city (okay, maybe not)? A cape-style house? A colonial era look? A double-wide? A pretty farm house? I guess you have your idea, and maybe I do, but I guess we all have different visions in our heads.

As my professor noted, there is a heck of a difference between writing about a house, and actually building one. I've never really built a house, but I've seen those hard-working construction crews building one, read about building one, and seen pictures. But somehow I'm missing Weber's blood and sap of true of Life.

Or we can think about some more profound symbolic words and what they really mean in reality. Take freedom for example. We could go into a bunch of political theory, but I'm not all about all that fancy stuff around these parts.

Freedom Ad Nausea

I've discussed freedom ad nausea, but lets take another stab at it. We know what Janis Joplin said about it, what Easy Rider said about it, and so many other people. All those definations are kind of different, but at the same time are kind of interesting. It seems to be something you have when you have control over your life (something that we all seem to lack in our bureaucratic society), something near utopia (and something we will never reach).

Or maybe we will. I can't predict the future nor can I tell you what the definition of freedom truly is. Words are funny like that.

If your definition of freedom is to escape mainstream society, live somewhere in the boondocks where government's control can't get a firm grasp on you, somewhere were regulation is limited (as there is few people), so be it. You'll probably lonely, miss out in all society can offer you, and so forth, still live under a lot of government control, but you'll be free.

Or by a motorcycle and ride from coast to coast, camping along side the road. That sure as hell sounds like fun, and many of us would call that freedom. Of course you'll have to follow all those wonder traffic regulations, camping regulations, and everything else, and burn through a lot of gasoline, but I guess your sort of free.

If you were to ask Max Weber, he'd probably mention something about irrationality and privacy, certainly two important aspects of freedom. On it's head, privacy doesn't seem like much of anything, but looking different it's everything about freedom. After all, if the authorities don't know what your doing, they can't stop you from doing it.

Maybe freedom is a elusive state, that nobody can reach in modern society. I'm sure that's been argued before. But what about the people who are free? Do they really exist? I'm sure there are people who are perfectly happy with there lives, and have a large degree of control over there lives, and can do whatever they choose (within their society's social constrants).

So What About Farms?

I always run the risk of sounding like a hick, an aggie, or some kind of far out hippie, when I choose my language around here. Language is such a terrible thing for expressing stuff (catch my drift). I'm none of those things, I'm a college student who is struggling along, probably should be doing more studying, drives a Plymouth Sundance, and spends way to much time on the internet.

Okay, back to the word farm. That word has been bothering me for a long time, at least in my back of my head. What the hell is it suppose to mean? With apologizes to Aristole, I think my interest in this word and concept go far beyond what we conventionally think of a farm, not unlike his perspective on citizenship in Politics.

See, I'm getting even more crude with my language, as this fodder goes on. Lets see, I've looked at farms and freedom in previous pieces of fodder, and what all that entails (and how dairy cows are probably the ultimate thing of freedom and slavery).

Of course, all from the perspective of some highway, cruising on at 55 MPH, so I guess my view, is more from a car window, and not experience. Or so it would it seem. Somehow I guess that distorts things as much as words do. So your looking a double (or triple) distortation in this line of thought. But it's worthwhile to take a look.

As Weber would say, let's return to our discussion. Okay, I think the question I was posing what qualifies as farm. We could use the 1978 Agriculture Census defination of a farm is any place that has, or has the potential to produce, $1,000 or more in annual gross sales of farm products. Sounds like an interesting defination.

Sadly though, it's a technical defination, and won't really answer my question. See I'm looking for something more then words. It gets back to the privacy issue brought up by Mr. Weber, namely rural areas afford more of it, and there are fewer authorities around.

Wow! We went full circle, back to the freedom issue. Of course, every rural house isn't considered a farm—just those who advertise it. And the defination of the Ag Census is compelling—at least to a certain extent.

So freedom is an important part. But one aspect I didn't touch heavily on is the irrationality of agriculture. I'm sure whole books are written on this subject, and so have many other things (including some stuff by me).

Irrationality at least in a Weberian sense, is basically another word for unpredictability. While we as a society have tried to make everything predictable (nee... iron cage of rationalism), we certainly have failed on some grounds. I mean, can we really predict the weather with any degree of certainy more then a few days in advanced? Certainly with frost, floods, and the alike, that makes it irrational. Nor does that ever get into the seasons of the year—certainly lots of rain in May and June screws stuff up for people.

People like romance, they like things that are not predictable. Predictable is boring, after all. So people try to engage in activites that are adventurous, manly, and not so boring.

How come suburbs are plastic? It's because they are one of the ultimate forms of rationalism, almost everything is planned out for your life, everything is predictable. If you want a lifestyle you can depend on, it's perfect for you and your family.