By Sam Burnham, Curator @C_SamBurnham One of the late evening conversations during the Cracker weekend was about the Agrarian Ideals that we hold dear. Of particular note is the economic theory that we wish to espouse. Capitalism is, by far, the best economic system ever conceived in the minds of mankind. The freedom and incentives built into the system make it efficient, competitive, and, most importantly, free. But along with the liberty of capitalism comes a responsibility. While economic markets should not be weighed down with restrictive government regulations, it should still be regulated. But instead of the laws of the land, this economic system should be governed by things far more solemn and forbearing. It is this very regulation that we are missing in our society today. Our inability to implement this one principle is what is causing unemployment, wage stagnation, probably every economic shortfall in this nation today.The only way that free systems can survive is if we maintain them with the principles that must govern them. A system designed to work for good people must be maintained by good people. These principles are driven by the intrinsic value of a human being. This value is not something that can be measured in dollars, rubles, or yen. In fact, if you reduce this value down to a measurable amount of money, you have just destroyed the value entirely. Money is always going to be one of the restrictions that business leaders face when operating. And a budget will always have limits on how much a proprietor can afford to expend in salaries and benefits. But if we address the value of a person in terms of currency alone, we are missing the point. Mechanization and automation are both replacing people in commerce, industry, and agriculture. Banks use automated tellers, stores have self-checkout, factories employ robots, all in the name of lower costs, lower prices, higher profits. But what are the costs? Just the other day I saw a post on Twitter where someone was trying to communicate with their online bank - one of those new things with no branches, just websites. He wasn't getting much service. I had been in my local bank earlier that same day. Upon entering, two tellers greeted me by my first name, then they both greeted my coworker by his first name. They each helped one of us and in less time than it took for that other guy to send a tweet, we had both completed transactions and were on our way back out the front door. It's a human touch, a personal connection. That face-to-face transaction is backed by an interaction in a community, not a glint in a microprocessor. When we cut this human interaction out, no matter how menial we think the task to be, we are taking from someone a chance to provide for themselves. We are taking from ourselves a chance to interact with another person. In doing this we take a bit of the humanity out of our society. We continue the pattern of dehumanizing each other and in doing so, we dehumanize ourselves. In that act of turning "Amy" at the bank into a button on a touchscreen we have made our community a little less valuable. Yes, the bank may have more money because they pay one less person. We may even benefit because the bank can afford to give us a higher yield on an account. But a member of our community lost her job to a machine. There may not be another job for her because of all the other machines coming on line. Then what? What happens once a machine can do our job? A story I heard on NPR this past week was reporting on such technological advances and how these machines will free people up to do "more detailed" or "more important" tasks. But unless we eventually determine what these tasks are and how people learn to do them, all the advancements do is continuously replace people with machines. Another unintended consequence is that we devalue the art of manual labor. There are people who have an innate ability, even the desire, to work with their hands. These are people who don't withdraw from sweat and grime that come from physically handling their work. They don't take issue with being physically tired after an honest day's work. Who are we to determine that these tasks are better off done by machines? We have developed the erroneous, perhaps dangerous, assumption that everyone wants, even needs, to attend college and work in an office, that this is the way to wealth and enlightenment. That's not fair to a group of people who aren't wired that way, people we devalue and demean by suggesting their proclivity toward manual labor makes them somehow less of a human. It is time for us to change. It is time to stop mechanizing or automating every job out there. It is time to return to the idea that the human factor has worth, that the bottom line is not the only value that business has to budget into the cost of operation. We have to once again understand that our human resources are exactly that - human. Until we begin treating people as people, rather than as expenditures, we will continue to live in a dangerous world where people feel like and therefore treat others as liabilities rather than assets,
1 Comment
By Sam Burnham, Curator @C_SamBurnham "In 1850, this redneck's great-great-great grandparents bought this farm..." That's not my line. It's the line I was told to open this story with by said redneck who still retains possession of the farm to this day. He hatched an idea a few months back. By most measures of our times it was an idea that was ill-advised at best. Gather a few folks that only know each other via Twitter, add some adult beverages, music, an ammo box full of cigars, and, of course, firearms. What could possibly go wrong? Let's talk about part of the title. If you are new to the term "Cracker" you might be worried that we are throwing around a racial slur but that isn't the case. In Southern History, the Crackers were the settlers who moved in and settled the land, took up agriculture, especially cattle farming, and learned the ways the land worked and how to make a living off of it. The Crackers were typically found in Georgia and Florida. That's what we mean by Cracker. So a group of men descended from those settlers gathered in Lowndes County at the beautiful Franks Creek Farm, not too far from Snake Nation, to shoot the bull, some quail, and maybe some whiskey. Our adventure begins on a Friday afternoon as we all begin arriving at the farm. I was dilly dallying in Turner County (as is my habit when I'm near Turner County) when I received a message that Matt, our host, was about to go and retrieve dinner. Keith messaged that he was near Lakeland. I realized it was time to get back on the paved road. So at Inaha I got on I-75 and headed south at a much faster pace. I arrived at the farm and was greeted by a man I've known for some time now, but had never met in person. Let me say this. Matt Lawrence is a master of hospitality. And should he decide to open such adventures for paying customers, you need to become a patron. I cannot imagine a better host for such an event. We sat in rockers and camp chairs on the screened back porch of the ca. 1890s farmhouse and drank beverages and enjoyed cigars from the ammo can. We had an appetizer of freshly fried pork skins with pepper jelly from Woodstack BBQ Tavern in Valdosta. After everyone had arrived we moved to the dining room where we partook of more deliciousness from Woodstack - brisket, ribs, macaroni and cheese, greens, beans, and a desert of banana pudding. Matt had made homemade cornbread and had local cane syrup to go with it. After dinner we sipped on Madeira and discussed how this wine came to America. We moved back to the back porch and began to discuss numerous topics - some of which will be revisited in future posts. We had a Georgia playlist for our evening soundtrack which made music and musicians one of the topics of discussion. There were more cigars, more beverages, more stories. The conversation was so good we were shocked when Matt pointed out it was 1 am. We turned in for the night.
The dogs are half the fun of quail hunting. Matt carried three along with us Mollie has a strong retriever instinct, so she came along just in case we needed to find a lost bird. Judge did most of the work with Jury coming in when Judge needed to take a breather. Matt used his whistle to signal the dog and we'd watch as he ran, the bell on his collar clanging so we never lost his direction, looking for a scent. When he'd find a covey of birds he would stop, body stiff and pointing at the birds. That was our cue to be ready to shoot. Matt would give the command and the dog would lunge forward, causing the quail to take flight. Then there would be gunfire...unless the quail flew back up in my face and toward my hunting buddies...or I pulled the trigger only to realize I still had the safety on...or the quail used the dog as a human...er...canine shield. Sometimes a bird would fall and sometimes they would get away. You might find them again for another shot or you might never see them again. That's all part of it. Between our turns we'd sit back at the wagon and re hydrate. We'd watch the other pair of shooters and laugh as the two dogs with us would bark after each shot. They were all so eager to be the one that made pursuit after a shot. But only one dog at a time got to do that.
By Sam Burnham, Curator
@C_SamBurnham What I'm about to tell you is based on a true story. I'm embellishing it to prove a point. The facts of the story aren't changed. I'm just unleashing the potential in the scenario. Let's assume for a minute that a couple is visiting Italy's beautiful Amalfi Coast.This couple has connections in Berrien County and therefore are in possession of some of the finest roast pecans in the world. Our couple is lodged in an Aibnb belonging to some citrus farmers in the Amalfi Coast area who therefore have in their possession some of the finest limoncello in the world. They leave a bottle of the nectar and a few lemons the size of your fist as a gift to their renters. As a thank you gift the couple leaves some fine roasted pecans and then a standing swap is proposed. Pecans for limoncello, strictly for personal consumption. Somehow the pecans make it through but the limoncello never sees its destination. (You're not fooling anyone, drunk customs officials.) Now, for the parable, let's assume that a pecan farmer in south Georgia and a citrus farmer on the Tyrrhenian coast of Italy realize this trade can make both of them some cash if their swap creates enough sales in each other's countries. Direct import/export. Limoncello available in farm stands in Adel, Nashville, Hahira and roasted Georgia pecans available in Salerno and Positano. The products could be shipped from Savannah to Naples or flown air cargo out of Atlanta or Jacksonville. This sounds like small money until you think there are, again, hundreds of these towns that can produce agricultural and manufactured goods that could be shipped to hundreds of locations overseas. But the rural areas need better connections to potential customer-partners overseas as well as better shipping options. We get enough people with small operations utilizing the expanded Port of Savannah or even a possible robust air cargo option in Tifton, Albany, Valdosta...it could become a big deal. But we have to look at connections, regulations, and logistics that are working against this possibility. It's a crazy idea, one that is admittedly a stretch but it is an idea. I'll be back soon with a report from a great weekend road trip and some details about cool things happening in South Georgia right now. |
Sam B.Historian, self-proclaimed gentleman, agrarian-at-heart, & curator extraordinaire Social MediaCategories
All
Archives
November 2022
|