opinion:
No one comes to Alaska for handouts.
America’s final frontier won’t be easy. Inconvenient. Not for the faint of heart. Not for the weak.
It is a land of non-negotiable nature, fiercely hostile to those who fail to grasp the threats around them or forget to plan ahead.
Indeed, the big cities here have built a reliable bulwark against nature. Hot water, streetlights, garbage pickup, and indoor plumbing are just as regular in every city. Police usually respond to 911 calls.
But outside places like Anchorage, Wasilla and Talkeetna, you are alone.
you want electricity Please understand it. I want water? It would be nice to know how to use a bucket and hose. Want gasoline for your generator? you carry it
Alaska is an opportunity, a vision that can only be seen by those brave enough to pursue it. Alaska is a clean canvas, like a quiet snowdrift rising under the bright moonlight of an endless winter night.
Not surprisingly, Alaska draws people in for a blank canvas. they are creators. Restless Misfit. A fearless visionary. relentless worker. And, of course, many people come to Alaska looking for something more than what they left behind.
Here’s what it says about the dating situation in Alaska:
And this is very true. As far as ‘weird’ is concerned, people here come from everywhere, escape every imaginable backdrop, and dream the wildest dreams they never thought of. they are true individuals.
When most Americans look west, they see Wyoming cowboys. When Alaskans look west, they see Siberia. And beyond that: Asia. Mysterious, immeasurable, emerging Asia.
Sure, that Asian orientation makes Alaskans a little weirder to most Americans. But it also makes them smarter about the great wilderness that awaits America in our inevitable future. .
Too many people in America today are enslaved by government welfare, fattened by laziness and decadence, and drifting through life with no purpose or urgent obligation to guide them. , a generation of Americans with strong thumbs and weak spines was born. You switch mindlessly between the virtual world and reality.
Here in the Alaskan wilderness, neither strong thumbs nor weak spines help. A 1,200-pound bear isn’t confused about how many genders it has, and doesn’t really care what its pronouns are. he’s just hungry
People in Frontier Alaska are very individualistic. But they are not selfish. These people hear gunshots from above their neighbors’ lands and come running if the rhythm of the gunshots suggests their neighbors may be in distress.
Yet they remain very individualistic. Anyone who survived here knows that if you don’t do something, you won’t get the job done.
Those who do not work do not eat. And if you don’t get eaten first, you’ll probably freeze to death. No one here expects the government to solve the problem.
This line of individualism is part of what Alexis de Tocqueville described as “self-interest properly understood”, the magical element without which autonomy does not exist.
Alaska is the most perfectly preserved self-interest understood. These modern frontiersmen have an insatiable appetite for exploration. I am exploring not only the next ridge, but also the limits of my power and the boundaries of my soul.
Through giant swarms of mosquitoes, past ferocious beasts, over mountains of snow, and against spring “collapses” of ice floes, Alaskans march along the ridges rising to Denali. And they build huts by hand.
This is still the land of the brave, the home of freedom.
• Charles Hurt is opinion editor for The Washington Times.
