Liberty Liberally - Vol I Issue X - November 2021

From the Journal of Joshua Fryfogle

Liberty, Liberally Volume I - Issue X

Written May 12, 2016, and published in The People’s Paper, as part of the Vote Local Campaign.

As this publication enters year 10, I consider the work that went into this business to keep it going these last 9 years. I can’t help but consider the hard work of a man I never knew, Vaughn Fryfogle, Sr., who passed away on February 13, 1975 - over 40 years ago, before I was born. So much time and heart and family goes into a business, and that’s what comes out of a business too.

If you work hard, like my great grandfather. Vaughn Franklin Fryfogle, Sr. He started a business in small town Mississippi. V.F. Fryfogle’s Hardware. From that lifestyle sprung a tradition of business ownership in my family. Of course, that was more common then, when my great grandad was in business, before corporate interests “invested” so heavily in our communities...

But I digress.

He was a “Yankee” in small town Mississippi, something that would certainly present some obstacles to success. Still, he was accepted and admired, despite his unorthodox religion, German heritage, or Yankee roots. My Pawpaw Fryfogle would only attend Jehovah’s Witness meetings, because the other church groups at the time were still segregated. He donated the land for their Kingdom Hall, and the materials from his hardware, and built it, too. But he was a freethinker, refusing to be baptized into their organization.

Before he opened the hardware store, he built houses all over the area, tearing down old buildings and reusing the lumber and nails. He learned efficiency when times were tough, learning to work hard and smart. The Great Depression was during the prime of his life, and he was the product of that time.

Looking back on my teens and early twenties - a life of ease compared to my grandfather’s boyhood - the time I spent working for family, I see how much it shaped me.

I worked with a man named T.A. Rampshure, who knew my great grandfather very well. He worked for him in that old hardware store. He installed carpet and vinyl flooring back then, a subcontractor for my Pawpaw Fryfogle, and continued to do so throughout his life. T.A. taught me to install flooring, and paid me a percentage by the yard. He taught me to hustle.

T.A. expected a lot of me.

T.A. was working primarily for older folks in the community, by the time I came to work for him at around 16 years old. As his helper, I hauled the tools, did all the running to and from, heavy lifting, and learned the skills of a carpet mechanic along the way. Still, I learned something more than that.

Helping T.A. allowed me to work in the homes of the elders of that

Liberty, Liberally

November, 2021

community. The people who requested T.A.’s services were usually of that generation, my great grandad’s generation; his customers from the old hardware.

I would walk in, and these older folks would look me up and down, and ask, “Who’s boy are you?” They knew I was a Fryfogle, by family features, so they didn’t bother confirming. They just wanted to know which of my Great Grandfather’s sons I had descended from. I would oblige politely, and they would always take the time to tell me how much they respected him, by telling me something about him.

“Hardest working man I knew!”

“An honest man.”

“All business!”

“You could set your clock by him. He was dependable.”

The compliments and admiration from these elders, heaped upon my young head as if it were my inheritance, was a heavy burden to me, because I was none of those things that they said about my Great Grandad. I was a reprobate, school drop out, good for nothing, dishonest, untrustworthy kid who only worked because I had to. I did not appreciate those accolades then, at least not for what they were. I might have pretended I was worthy for a moment or two, basking in the glow of someone else’s accomplishments. But I always knew it wasn’t deserved.

These elders expected a lot of me.

T.A. would always nod along in agreement during these predictable conversations.

These people who knew my great grandfather, they spoke so highly of him. They didn’t bring up his material wealth - but they did talk about his character, his unique characteristics, what made him someone to remember. His financial security was a side note in his legacy; his wealth was a side effect of his worth.

This alludes to something special for me. My grandfather built a good business as a result of his conscious character development. No one spoke of his failures when he was gone. They were forgotten. His business was remembered, but only for context in storytelling.

He died digging a fencepost. He died working. I’ve been told this by so many, a common theme after recollecting their unique stories. His death was the perfect symbol of the man I never knew. A simple, hardworking inheritance - a spiritual blessing of physical burden.

Years later the hardware store burned down. All his worldly wealth, consumed in a column of flame. Yet his memory is still here, his soul beyond the reach of that fire, eternal life.

Alaska

From ‘The Book of Lambspring’, 1599.

Written on April, 8, 2016 [Editor’s Note: The Vote Local Campaign was first launched as an effort to raise awareness about the real impact of shopping with locally-owned business, as it pertains to political outcomes. We intended to relaunch the campaign, in coordination with the election cycle, but world events disrupted that plan.

Now more than ever, and as a result of that global disruption of the economy, this conversation is more relevant than in 2016, when the Vote Local Campaign first began.

I played the role of a political candidate then, as a way of drawing public attention to the topic of supporting locally-owned business. Now, we’ve partnered with other local business owners to create a slate of ‘candidates’, none of whose are actually running for office... but they are asking for your vote.]

Nope, not a job I want. We, the Employers, need to do a better job at this self-governance thing.

But we want a hero! Someone to slay the dragons! Someone to lead us into battle!

A symbol of the best of us, a savior to the rest of us!

I imagine the Roman Gladiators must have felt a similar relationship with the people of their time. They were surely treated as gods among men. They probably were indulged in every vice and pleasure, made to feel honored wherever they went, relieved of worldly worries it must have been great!

Until it was time to be killed in public.

I’ve gotten the question, “Are you gonna run for an office?”

I mean, I am campaigning, so I get it.

“You could end up in a real position someday!”

Well, I am flattered, but, uh... have you seen what we do to those we elect?

Have you seen what we’ve done to families and friends near those people?

We treat our elected officials like fodder for a rumor mill. These people work for us! We are the worst bosses of all time, joining in on the melee. If it weren’t for our short attention spans and general apathy, it would be unbearably cruel to them.

It’s like the modern day Roman Colosseum... of the Mind!

We display their lives, show their weaknesses, curse them, blame them for failure - its a bloodbath.

Consider the contempt that might create amongst the elect towards the People our public servants towards the public.

Some unsuspecting but presumably sincere citizen takes on the task of public service, a triumphant winner of an election, cheered along by willing supporters.

Then, everything changes.

We send them off in fanfare, but should they fail, even in their private lives, we publicly shame them!

Imagine the feelings they felt, knowing that the same adoring public would cheer at their death.

We see the same mentality among ancient Mesoamerican cultures, where we’ve learned that they practiced human sacrifice. The ‘victims’ were seen as giving their lives for the community.

Public service, if you will.

Now we are not nearly as cruel these days. We’ve toned it down a bit. We don’t kill our heroes to please the gods anymore.

We are more civilized, and modern.

We just disgrace them publicly, dragging their entire families down from the pedestals we placed them on.

And their sacrifice is never sufficient, either.

We have these public pedestals, and there will always be more who are willing to be placed there, thinking it will be different for them. And maybe it will. I mean, we’re modern, and sophisticated, right?

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From the Journal of Joshua Fryfogle

Volume I - Issue X

Liberty, Liberally

This idea that each individual had certain inalienable rights (or responsibilities) was revolutionary.

The American Dream was, and always will be, the entrepreneur who can determine their own future! Yet we cast it aside so blasé, unimpressed with this honorable heritage we’ve been given. We trade it for the more comfortable traditions of blood thirst, televised with the support of corporate America.

We do our bloodletting in other ways, while our leaders play a role that the human psyche is all too comfortable with.

It’s human nature that we want our saviors to succeed or die trying. Those trusted few, who we send to battle, to return triumphant or not at all.

Of course this flies in the face of a supposedly self-governed People. This is completely inconsistent with the ideas and ideals that shaped our society.

We have simply reverted to our base instincts. And while we are distracted with the spectacle of it all, our real concerns and interests are not served.

Not at all. Instead, we get dramatic distractions - bread and circuses.

But, seriously, how does spending money locally have any effect on this problem? How can I suggest that this problem can be remedied by such a simple action? Further, how can I suggest that base human nature might be reversed by simply spending money with locally owned businesses?

These two topics are not as disparate as you might think.

This nation is "Of The People, By The People, For The People". Instead, we want to give that responsibility to someone else, and hold them accountable when society is askew. We want to get everything we can from the situation, without regard to others. We lack empathy. We borrow from the future, and then wonder why there is poverty.

We blame the poor for poverty. We blame the addict for addiction. We blame the politicians for politics-asusual.

This campaign - the Vote Local campaign - is a real political campaign.

But I hope its not like anything you are used to. My role as candidate is my artistic expression, not to insult those who we elect, but to bring attention to the fact that our nation, our country, was supposed to be different. We were supposed to rise above the brutality of the past. We were supposed to realize mankind’s higher functions. Instead, we have reverted to the base barbarism we arrogantly forget is our shared history. My role as ‘candidate’ in this campaign is purely symbolic, not only of our psychological need for a hero, but of the futility of the same.

But really, poverty is a condition of a devalued currency - economic. [Editor’s Note: the current inflation of the dollar, following the massive, unprecedented ‘stimulus’ from 2020, has noticeably accelerated this devaluation.]

I am not condemning the People. I am one of you. Your weakness is mine, too. That’s the point of my ‘candidate’ persona. What does it even mean, in a free society, to be elected? Does it mean expanded power - or restricted? Does it mean public servant, or public master?

As I move forward with this campaign, I want you to know that I am not making any promises. I am asking you to make a promise to yourself. And it’s not a big promise. I am not even asking you to take any specific action. I am only asking you to simply think about your purchases, and adjust as you see fit!

And if we have it backwards, how do we move forward?

Again, I truly believe it is as simple as where you spend your money. That’s your vote, and it counts.

The basis of this nation’s system of government was not to consolidate power, but the opposite. The whole point of having different ‘States’, as referenced in the phrase “United 'States' Of America”, was that the same rule of law for everyone was too blunt, with the brunt bore by the individual. An unbearable burden, the People deserved liberty, and the best way to do that was to diversify the power structure localizing the power. But more than that, this liberty was further ensured through the acknowledgement of the rights of the individual, given by a Creator.

2

Written March 25, 2016 The big box stores don't accumulate a lot of storage in their so-called 'stores'.

The corporate model is designed to streamline the flow of goods in the most efficient way possible, the result of which is that supply is met without accumulating goods on hand.

First, by sourcing goods and services from outside of a geographic area - a local area - and Second, by supplying the resulting product only to immediate demand.

The problems with this model are as impactful as its benefits.

It’s viewed as beneficial in that we are given convenient access to an incredible diversity of products that would otherwise be simplified. It’s problematic in that it centralizes the supply chain, making a complete breakdown in that chain a catastrophe.

At normal rates of consumption, we have two or three days of food on the shelves of the big box “stores”. This is

precarious to say the least. Not secure, not stable, and worse, not discussed.

Political leadership would certainly consider these most basic needs of the community, right?

Nope. That's what we, the People, are supposed to do.

Building up wealth, storing goods and materials, producing basic necessities locally if possible - that's what the People do. This is our basic function, to till the soil, do the work, build the buildings, make our selves a life.

And it all hinges on our spending.

When we spend locally, locally-owned businesses will use that cashflow to secure supply and invest in production, as do large corporate chains. However, these resources will be located locally more often.

The Vote Local campaign is about taking the time to do this intentional spending, encouraging local business owners to continue to invest in our local community. This is how we store up wealth, by having stores of real wealth that local people control.

Addiction is a condition of a black market - economic.

Politics-as-usual is a condition of special interests - economic.

It’s all about the money. It’s always about the money. Where you spend it, how you borrow it, how it’s created to begin with...

Think about where your money goes, and what happens with it after you invest it through spending. Consider that you are casting a vote, a real vote, and the system of self-governance that makes our nation unique is still in effect through this mechanism - even while we are watching and waiting for the next trending topic.

While we’re all distracted with Palin, Trump, Obama, or whoever else we can watch squirm under the knife of public scrutiny, that old human nature is showing itself. We might blame the politicians, but in the end it’s We, the People, who will pay.

Vote Local.

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From the Journal of Joshua Fryfogle

Liberty, Liberally Liberty, Liberally

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From the Journal of Joshua Fryfogle

Volume I - Issue X

Later on in life I was told that my Pawpaw Fryfogle spent time in Oakley Training School in Oakley, Mississippi. Apparently he was a troubled youth, much like I had been. But that is certainly not how he is remembered. He was remembered in other ways...

During hurricane Camille, the most damaging hurricane on the Gulf Coast until Katrina, he reduced prices, rather than raise prices like other suppliers had done.

He was driven. He talked fast, and wrote faster. He was in a bad wreck when he was 13. He couldn’t walk for a few weeks. According to family, he promised God if he could walk again, he would never slow down. And he did walk again, and he didn’t slow down.

He wore grey and brown work clothing, Deecee work clothing, and a leather belt everyday. He was humble and reserved in his appearance. Practical.

He didn’t believe in having carpet in his car. Luxurious and extravagant. He rarely ate steak - again, a luxury.

He would serve his customers personally. He walked faster in that old hardware store than most jog. Every customer was treated the same, even if they were there for a simple bolt. He didn’t point a customer in the right direction, but led them there, quickly.

He was a man in charge, no matter where he went.

Liberty, Liberally

completely to hard work and humble living. He was no social justice warrior, but his day-to-day actions and behaviors reflected a deep respect for what was right.

I never knew my Great Grandfather, but I grew up knowing that he was Great.

Business is our moral fiber, it is the medium of our communal interdependence. It is so much more than a way to make money. It ties us together. Imagine how different your community would be if you had to deal with a community of neighbors to supply your needs. How would that affect the culture? To really know your neighbors, their weaknesses and strengths, and to build a community together! What stories would people remember? How many memories are never made because we’ve lost this medium of community interaction?

When he died, his room looked perfect, like no one lived there. It was in perfect order.

He paid retail for what he wanted, and he never knew anything other than shopping locally.

Investing in locally-owned business is an investment in our own future. Let’s not forget our past.

Clearly, my great grandad lived by a code. He believed certain things to be true, and he acted on those truths. He stood up to convention, but conformed

Let’s do something in the present.

He could take a square and compasses and design anything, and solve any math problem. He was a mathematical wiz, using that skill in his craft and a builder, and later in his hardware business.

He had hands like baseball mitts, rough and wide. He used them like tools, doing work.

And Money Is For Sale

I am amazed how a man can reach into his great grandson’s heart, across time and space, and obligate my conscience. To carry that burden with me, willfully, so that it might help my sons, and their sons, and even their sons - this is my opportunity as a man. Doing my absolute best, accepting my failures along the way. I hope the memories of my own human weakness die along with my mortal body, and that only my struggle and effort for good might obligate my own grandchildren, my great grandad’s grandchildren, to do the same.

That is at the heart of this Vote Local campaign, the core issue. Locallyowned business is community. We learn to communicate with each other when we trade with each other. We learn to shake hands, make eye contact, read body language and other subtle communication skills, set aside differences for the good of the community, and work together for stability. This is the natural expression of humanity, and the selfcheckout, self-serve, foreign-sourced economy that we currently live in is artificial. And the larger national economy, and still larger international economy are also vulnerable to inherent weaknesses in the macroeconomic system that supplies our needs.

He forgave all debts over seven years, because it was Biblical. He would not sue over debt.

3

By Joshua Fryfogle

Things we take for granted Ideas that we just use Daily without thinking These we do abuse

Like freedom of expression We use it, too, to silence Those with whom we disagree Leading us to violence

The right to face accusers We know it in our minds But most of us will stand accused Of victimless crimes

Or freedom of the market To try and win or fail But tax attacks and breaks our backs And money is for sale

Vote Local.

You can respond to what you’ve read, or write what matters to you.

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From the Journal of Joshua Fryfogle

Volume I - Issue X

Liberty, Liberally

If you can’t identify this man, then you shouldn’t be talking about the dangers of Critical Race Theory.

Michel Foucault, who died in 1984, made major contributions to the Critical Theorists from that time.

He is one of many academics who are responsible for the destructive critical theories that have intellectually torn down our Liberal societies, exploiting issues of class, race and gender as a means to an end.

The Republican backlash against Critical Race Theory is as ham-handed as CRT itself.

CRT is toxic, neo-Marxian mumbojumbo. Make no mistake, its illiberal and ill-conceived. The following is not an attempt to say that CRT is anything good.

My point, and the point that most Republican repeaters don’t realize is that what makes CRT so toxic is not the R, or “Race” part of the acronym.

Critical (...) Theory, that’s the neoMarxian part. Race is real, but in a free (liberal) society, it ought to be as irrelevant in law as is an individual’s hair color. There ought not be any -ism about race, in a free society. All racists claim that their conception of race is to help all the races. It denies individuality to the individual, and it is inherently opposed to liberty of the same. But that’s Totalitarianism for you...

There are many Critical Theories, and it is this tradition of thought that deviates from our Liberal Society’s foundation.

Republicans have latched onto this very narrow slice of the problem, but when will they realize that it didn’t start with CRT? Totalitarianism is taking territory in the marketplace of ideas, and has been for decades, unnoticed or ignored by those in power: GOP or DNC. Now, the hoi polloi have become aware of the problem, but these Republican leaders are leaning into this bullshit bifurcation of Critical Race Theory from the larger tradition of Critical Theory.

Our court systems, social services, public policy pushed by Republican and Democrat alike, have allowed Critical Theory to become praxis in all of our institutions. Their ignorance of academic drift towards totalitarian thought, and their cumulative failures to advance the interests of Liberty all along, that’s what got us here.

If your Republican champion is against CRT, ask them to explain the larger Critical Theory academic tradition as a whole. If they don’t at least know what the wikipedia entry says, then they haven’t even started to root out CRT. (You might consider giving it a gander, too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Critical_theory) CRT is just another branch of Critical Theory, a school of thought that is not Liberal in the least, and the way they make people play Whac-A-Mole with words, they’ll just repackage the concepts as something else. When Republicans claim to fight against CRT, they’re preening, and pruning the tree of tyranny. They’re crystalizing the concept of CRT, helping it along when they succeed in passing unwise laws, made of words with changeable meaning, they’ll only set the stage for the word-wranglers to change their meaning, too. Those who would fight for us must be fit to fight, and this fight is philosophical.

Critical Theory is inevitably critical in nature. It is not a rational search for truth, as our Free (liberal) society proscribes, but an intentional deconstruction of this edifice of education itself.

It is called “critical” for a reason.

That’s all it is.

4

Written November 7, 2018 They say, “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain!”

I say, “If you don’t vote, you might be complaining!”

Almost everyone I know who rejects voting - at least those who own up to it - express a frustration with the system itself. They say they don’t trust the outcomes, the candidates, the parties anything about it.

So, they don’t vote.

This is not apathy, or laziness. This is a calculated abstinence. A conscious, intentional rejection.

If people who don’t vote because they lack confidence in the process could use their vote to accurately reflect their perspective, then guess what?

They would vote.

If we accomplished a vote of “no confidence” as the will of the majority, perhaps we could actually affect a change.

There are many people who have every right to complain, but whose complaints are never heard, because the system pretends like they don’t matter.

Therefore, reminding them that they don’t matter does nothing to encourage them to get involved. It only proves their perspective.

The problem seems to be that we voters, we think they owe us their vote - but that the system doesn’t owe them options that represent their perspectives.

I vote. I have my reasons. But if you don’t vote, I totally understand. You have every reason to be dissatisfied.

We, as voters, think that we are doing something lofty and good, by voting fulfilling our civic duty!

But voting is supposedly to determine the will of the majority, right? Democracy and all that?

Update, November 2021:

But do you know who doesn’t vote?

The majority. That’s who.

If you want to see voter turnout increase dramatically, add to every ballot, everywhere, at every level of government, a standard voting option: No Confidence.

The pendulum has swung to the right.

Guess what the pendulum does next?

The R and D party keep us in this conundrum. Voter apathy is not apathy at all. It’s disgust with an obviously corrupted process, where only two corporate parties (neither of which are constitutionally necessary) are the only options we’re allowed to hear about. “Voter apathy” is a myth. It’s a loss of faith, and it’s rational and understandable.

Troubles Of Man

By Joshua Fryfogle This hippie, he’s homeless A lawless libertine Vagrant, void of virtue Unnoticed and unclean He bares his bearded face For all the world to flee He is persona non grata But perpetually free

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Unburdened by convention The wild man will arise From the earth, right from the ground A being undisguised This homeless hippie he Will lead his lonely life Free from common folly Relieved of worldly strife

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Instead of the foibles Of humanity’s hand All his earthly troubles Are the troubles of Man