I don’t get too political on my blog. Only when, in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary. This is not one of those times, but I was moved by H.P. Lovecraft’s writing to post this. Clearly, Lovecraft had specific political views. A friend just pointed me to this quote from one of his letters:

As for the Republicans—how can one regard seriously a frightened, greedy, nostalgic huddle of tradesmen and lucky idlers who shut their eyes to history and science, steel their emotions against decent human sympathy, cling to sordid and provincial ideals exalting sheer acquisitiveness and condoning artificial hardship for the non-materially-shrewd, dwell smugly and sentimentally in a distorted dream-cosmos of outmoded phrases and principles and attitudes based on the bygone agricultural-handicraft world, and revel in (consciously or unconsciously) mendacious assumptions (such as the notion that real liberty is synonymous with the single detail of unrestricted economic license or that a rational planning of resource-distribution would contravene some vague and mystical ‘American heritage’…) utterly contrary to fact and without the slightest foundation in human experience? Intellectually, the Republican idea deserves the tolerance and respect one gives to the dead.

Letter to C.L. Moore, August 1936 quoted in “H.P. Lovecraft, a Life” by S.T. Joshi, p. 574

You may agree or disagree with the message, but you can’t deny the eloquence.

I digress, big time

Now, let’s go completely off point for a moment. He mentions one element that I’ve been thinking about: the loss of the agrarian life.

…dwell smugly and sentimentally in a distorted dream-cosmos of outmoded phrases and principles and attitudes based on the bygone agricultural-handicraft world…

He’s right, it is gone by, this way of living, for most of us. To be a farmer, to dig deep into the soil, live off the land. To trade with my local community, providing services and goods that I have in spades for the stuff I lack, and to embrace that dependency on my neighbors, helping them achieve their goals as they help me achieve mine. I cannot has that life at the local, simple level, but it sure would be nice. And yes, I have been listening to the Thomas Jefferson Hour a lot lately.

Who can say. We all might start thinking more agrarian, more simplistic, if we don’t solve some significant economic and energy-related issues around these parts. If it all goes south, I’m moving next to a farm and hoping my new farming neighbors will exchange their corn for a cartoon colored in Photoshop.

That’s the real point of this ramble, and it’s a sentiment that I first heard another friend of mine share. I think I get it now. If things got crazy and society broke down, I would be doomed! I can’t provide things that people need at a basic level. I need to learn how to sew or tan leather or something.

Anyway, as for the rest of this quote, if you lean left, you’ll probably dig it. If you’re on the right, you’ll likely hate his broad generalizations. For me, I say thanks to H.P. Lovecraft for sharing, as only he can, a well stated sum-up of modern day republicanism, 70+ years old, surprisingly accurate, and mournfully so.