One of the reasons I enjoy my time around Fast Draw Shooters, as a sport, is that most of them have reverence for old westerns and the values of the gunfighter instilling justice against bad guys as typically defined by a social dedication to the Ten Commandments.  I was at an event in Cleveland this past weekend, and we had a friendly little discussion going on about the moral erosion that is obvious to everyone.  Now these events are fun because everyone is armed with guns, and we wear our gun belts all day, and nobody thinks anything of it. It is productive because it puts me in the right frame of mind to discuss these things.  And I reminded people that the world isn’t as different as it always has been.  I reminded them of my report from traveling around the world that most countries, including England and Japan, love American Westerns, especially old ones.  If you turn on the tv in those places, you will constantly find a lot of old American Westerns playing.  Hollywood changed along the lines of the BlackRock view of radicalism that has caused much of the modern trouble.  But people are still people, and they always will be.  And I told these old gunfighters what I’m about to say to you, dear reader.  Never forget the Law of Fallow Ground, which, if you are a farmer or know farmers, is the deliberate rotation or avoidance of planting crops into the soil to allow it to replenish its nourishment.  If you keep growing the same crops in the same parcel of land over and over again, the product that comes out of the ground becomes compromised and much less efficient. 

I told those old gunfighters that America was going through just such a period.  For many years we planted good things in the ground of capitalism, and the return to society was fantastic, and the world clamored to be a part of it.  Our old westerns were reflective of that culture.  People always did love them, and they always will.  The decision not to make those Westerns by a radicalized leftist culture of communist sympathizers run by financial tyrants is a kind of Law of Fallow Ground in the greater scheme of things.  This is a period in America where we are letting the soil rest.  For too long, Americans got used to everything coming out of America being good.  It will be again, of course, the yearnings of the Trump administration and his supporters represent that hunger.  But the world needed a break from what America produced because they didn’t appreciate it when they had it.  People are seeing how good those crops were and having conversations like the one I was having with those gunfighters, talking about how messed up the world is now, they are getting hungry for the good stuff.  They should have appreciated America when America was producing good crops.  They are not happy with this Fallow Ground period.  And when America is great again, maybe they won’t take things for granted as they have been.

I was getting a hamburger just north of Columbus, Ohio, at a Hardees, and I caught a conversation with a woman with the cashier complaining about how high the prices were for fast food these days, and she was shocked.  On the store sound system was a station playing 80s greatest hits because music isn’t very relatable these days, just like the westerns that used to be expected on television.  Occasionally something good comes out in entertainment, but most of it is garbage compared to how it used to be.  The people at that Hardees were far from political people, but they missed the excellent ol’ days when fast food was cheap, great music came out every week, and people had a generally optimistic view of things socially.  Human potential was celebrated, and American culture cultivated it in everything from hamburgers to pop music.  This was never more obvious than our plans for a Disney trip with the grandkids we had been planning for a while.  I have personally been very hard on Disney.  When I think of Disney programming, I think of Davy Crocket and the Zorro television show.  As a little secret that I don’t usually talk about, I was deeply inspired as a kid by the Zorro television show, and it’s no accident that my life as an adult reflects those values.  So despite all the woke garbage that Disney puts out now, I want them to see the amusement parks while they are still there.  Yes, I predict they will be gone in the not-so-distant future.  They will not survive this Fallow Ground period because they took people for granted.  People are moving on since Disney no longer represents those classic American values.  I have been shocked by how badly Disney has fallen on vacation planning.  Their brand damage is substantial and unrecoverable.   They haven’t planted anything new for a long time, and their crops are stunted, wilted, and not consumable.  So, they are dying.  Ten years ago, planning a Disney vacation was a much different experience.  They are almost begging people to visit now, which they never used to.  But in many ways, what is happening to Disney will happen to every American corporation.  This plot to collapse capitalism into a communist centrally planned society was destined to fail from the outset. 

Just because people see a barren landscape and that the Law of Fallow Ground was imposed on a culture by a hostile society, such as the levels of Marxism we now see injected into the American economy by radical leftists; the unfortunate answer is that we needed to let this happen so that we could restore greatness to the soil of our economy.  Giving the soil time to rest by allowing other things to grow, mostly garbage has been good because people will appreciate the good stuff when it returns.  And it will return.  Companies like Disney will likely be gone forever, as will many companies that have tried to take advantage of this Fallow Ground period and grow weeds in our gardens.  But once pulled and cleared, many companies won’t be there any longer.  But the values of our culture, shown in all those American Westerns which people worldwide appreciate so much, will return in whatever form they grow into.  And as I told those gunslingers, the values are still desired.  Because communist corporations have tried to plant weeds in our culture, people will tire quickly of their offerings and want a restoration of the good stuff.  So I don’t see all this depletion as permanent.  It’s a trait of the Law of Fallow Ground.  It’s a necessary period that people need to gain an appreciation for what America has produced in the past.  Once our culture makes those things again, people will appreciate it more because now they will have seen the option.  When Zorro was on television for the first time, produced by Disney, people expected a good society that understood why that show was essential and enjoyed.  Now they see the benefits and want more of it in the future.  The lesson is that corporations and communist governments are not in charge.  The market economy is the desires of people and values that most represent them.  And what we see today is just the Law of Fallow Ground, and the good crops from that ground will return. 

Rich Hoffman