Monday, April 14, 2014

The Importance of Controlling Your Micro-environment

A funny thing happened to me whilst driving both ways through Utah.  While listening to the radio or my podcasts about the outside world and how liberals in DC were doing X, the socialists at the UN were doing Y, and feminists in academia were doing Z, right there in front of me was the most beautiful scenery on the planet.



And while Michelle Obama was spending millions of our tax dollars taking her and her daughters on a whirlwind trip to China, there I was talking to Alvin, the proprietor of my favorite fossil and rock shop in South Dakota. 

And while more accusations in North Minneapolis were made about white privilege and economic justice, I was sitting with two of my best friends in Vegas smoking a very smooth and tasty cigar.

Slowly, but surely, over the course of my 2 week wild-west road trip, this juxtaposition between what I heard on the radio/podcasts versus what my eyes saw and what I was actually experiencing brought forth to my frontal lobes another important epiphany:

The importance of controlling your micro-environment.

Understand that although your "macro" environment (the government we live under, the economy we endure, the culture we're born into etc) has a profound effect on your life, your "micro-environment" has a much larger and determining effect on you, your life, and your happiness.  And the reason why is simple - you personally interact with your micro-environment more than you do you macro environment.  Thankfully, your micro-environment has an additional advantage over your macro-environment - it is nearly 100% under your control.  Ergo, while there isn't much you can do to about the idiot Millineals voting in an anti-American socialist into the presidency, there is a lot you can do to ensure such idiots play no role in your personal life whatsoever.

These facts about the micro-environment (let alone realizing there is one) is often underappreciated, and therefore, undercapitalized by most Real Americans.  They, naturally and logically, focus on the general decline of the US, the destruction of their culture and the demise of the former-greatest country on the planet.  However, if people were to step back, clear their eyes, and take a look at their lives, they'd soon realize that for all the dire news they hear in the media, practically none of it affects their daily lives.

All the Marxist hyperbole of "privilege" does nothing to change the fact you're still employed and current on your mortgage, while those who constantly invoke "privilege" are still dead-last place in society with student loans, a worthless degree, and no future prospects.

All propaganda about "global warming" may drive up your taxes and costs, but in the end you can still afford infinitely more sushi and martinis than the unshaven, dirty, and impoverished "professional" environmental activists.

All all the whining about race, class, gender, ethnicity, etc., will not change the fact that regardless of your color, you made the right choices in life, didn't get/get somebody pregnant before marriage, majored in the right thing, and never have to live in the ghetto, section 8 housing, or send your kids to some crappy inner city schools.

There is certainly more, but if you take inventory of your personal life and your micro-environment you'll soon see that no matter what happens at a national level and what leftist, hate-filled vitriol is spewed by the media or academia, in the end your life is infinitely better than most others simply because you are better than most others and you surround yourself with people who are also better than most others.

Your friends, for example, increase your standards of living more than most tax cuts because they provide engaging conversation, safe reliable friendship, don't deal drugs, and genuinely hold your friendship in high esteem.  The same cannot  be said for "friends" dealing meth in the trailer park or crack in the ghetto, constantly landing you in trouble with the law.

Your neighbors, again, higher quality people who keep their yards tidy, respect your property rights, and keep quiet at night.  They also are likely to vote to keep local taxes low and the majority of money in private citizens' hands.  The same cannot be said for denizens of leftists communities who are looking for more bike paths, community centers, and other forms of wealth transfers while keying your cars, graffiting up the hood, and rioting like feral animals.

Your lovers play a vital role in a superior micro-environment.  Always hotter and sexier that what most leftists tend to offer, not to mention they tend to be more mentally and financially stable.

The proprietors and businesses you patronize are part of your micro-environment providing you superior products, superior food, superior entertainment, and superior service.

And while "society" may demand the likes of Miley Ray Syphilis, nobody says you have to listen to her or her subhuman musical filth, permitting you to listen to jazz, engaging talk radio, or the(*COUGH COUGH AHEM AHEM*) world's greatest podcast.

In short, bar fiscal and monetary policy, nearly every other aspect of your life is within your control.  And as long as you don't majorly screw up, insist on making the right decisions, and surround yourself with quality people, your life will forever be superior to those on the left no matter how much they try to improve theirs at the expense of yours.  Better yet, your life will be your ultimate revenge as it will forever burn a hole of envy in most leftists' hearts.  They'll never be able to attain what you have, thereby relegating them to villainizing and mocking it.

Enjoy the decline.

16 comments:

  1. Well done Aaron.

    My attitude today is that those leftist scum and zombies are what they are because they won't learn or adapt. There will be no reasoning with them, no associating actions with consequences or anything resembling critical thought. Even when their beliefs have landed them in the worst of circumstances they will blame somebody else.

    Best thing for us now is for conservative and libertarian patriots to get some kind of compromise ironed out and for us to be prepared to look after ourselves. We are outnumbered by liberals and stupid people and we need to work together in the days ahead.

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  2. MikeSr11:54 AM

    Yepper; married fifty years; travelled to the significant Western Countries (my own Grand Tour) except Israel and Egypt. Every time I made plans some one was going to blow up something or through something at me.
    Impressed with the engineering, labour and thought which went into the human made sights/sites. Noted how generally smaller than expected.
    Reached the age and stage of life where I do what I want and do very little I don't want.
    Get cranky with Bureaucrats, both private and government, but more so with those being paid from mandated sources of money.
    Yepper I will gently go into that long night and either enjoy the sleep or if the salve of an after life proves real reestablish my gentle persona in the new place. Cheers;

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  3. Anonymous12:37 PM

    This piece almost sounds snobby to some extent. I rather like it. Why would someone choose to live among theo 'poor'? As outlined by the Captain, those are the folks who do most of the crime and dwell in misery and fear.

    The whole point of tryong to prosper is to have a higher quality of life ... And that means living apart from the srotes of the world.

    The suggestion to surround one's self with quality people is i,portant. Howver, that can be tricky. Many good people sometimes are im the identity trap and may not present as whom they really are. Pretending to be someone you are not will not attract the people who would actually like you for who you are.

    So ... Be honest about yourself and look for the folks who are also honest avoit themselves. For more information on this ... Check out Harry Browne's How I Found Freedom zin An Unfree World. You van google up hid basic Identity Trap definition. It is interesting stuff and right on point with what Cappy is talking about .... Avoid the burning issue people .... And just live uour life.

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  4. Anonymous1:03 PM

    Yup. And if the stupid leftist buggers start a war we will win it.

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  5. Anonymous2:56 PM

    Yessir.

    This is why I think fitness is important: Your body is also a micro environment. It is where your brain lives.

    Sweet article.

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  6. Anonymous4:27 PM

    where is that picture taken , it looks great.

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  7. Dan Lavatan4:52 PM

    I agree with most of what you are saying but not the drug dealer thing. My friend who is a drug dealer doesn't get me in trouble because 1) being friends with a drug dealer is not a crime 2) she is smarter than the cops, and 3) US drug laws are only loosely enforced. You might be surprised how many heart surgeons are doing blow. It isn't that much different from caffeine.

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  8. Torgo5:56 PM

    It's easier to put on a pair of slippers than to carpet the whole world.

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  9. Sylia6:11 PM

    Life is a finite resource. Use it wisely.

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  10. Anonymous:

    Or declare peace and go the hell home.

    Richard Nixon got us the hell out of Vietnam.

    If Princess Obama has another snit-fit and starts WWIII, our best hope of getting out of it is impeachment.

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  11. Anonymous10:26 PM

    While having drinks with a good friend, I had the misfortune of having to listen to a random other person- an asian woman talking at me, telling me that I have "white privilege."

    The fact that I'm from a dirt poor background and am last of ten children and this person had just also spent time talking about her prowess at the sport of polo made this ridiculous.

    Even more ridiculous is that I met this person two weeks earlier in a job interview. This person clearly does not like white people... but that is not racist (because only whites are racist, right? haha)

    For me, controlling my environment is avoiding a**holes.

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  12. Agreed. I have had to continually remind myself of this. For us on the right, I do not think this is just beneficial but obligatory because it is a core part of the reactionary/conservative ethos: maintain an 'internal locus of control' (ILOC). If we fail to do so, we mark ourselves as hypocrites.

    To be honest, everyone could benefit from maintaining an ILOC, but the most common side effect of a leftist philosophy is to externalize that locus. (Side note: my wife has ranted on several occasions to me how frustrated she is with feminists, on account of them trying to upset the genuine happiness and freedom she feels in life by telling her that she is oppressed. To her, they are the true oppressors, because they try to force her into the mindset of the victim, rather than leaving her in the mindset of the free individual she is.)

    I am friends with or work with a number of leftists, and I care for their well being, yet I see their mating strategies, financial decisions, and the causes they choose to champion to give their life meaning, and I see the harmful effects it has on their mental health. I am concerned for them, but ultimately ranting on the Internet about leftism won't do them much good.

    Rather, living a life marked by ILOC, and by trusting in the wisdom of those who have gone before me, I try to live as a positive example to them. When they see that I'm not caught up in the dating drama, or dealing with consumer debt, or constantly worked up over some media-manufactured crisis, they notice. At the end of the day, that's the most I can hope for.

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  13. That was really good.

    Every now and then I have to be reminded of stuff like this.

    It makes life a little easier.

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  14. grady4:05 PM

    Great post. The advice to control your own life/environment is the best takeaway I had from reading Enjoy the Decline. This is the greatest way to maximize your enjoyment of life regardless of income level. Just minimize the bad things you have to be involved with in your life, maximize those things you love and all we be well. Incredibly simple, incredibly wise.

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  15. Anonymous6:43 PM

    I am in violent agreement with you. Saw a tshirt years ago, had a picture of Conan the King on his throne, and the slogan "Living Well Is The Best Revenge".

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  16. Anonymous4:03 PM

    That picture is taken from Observation Point in Zion National Park and just so no one gets the wrong idea, you definitely can't drive there, lol.

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