Many of you have enjoyed the writings of Mel Fisher (the Contrarian) in the Landowner Magazine and the online version, Landowner Voices. With these magazines gone, where do we go to get the wit and humour we so love?
Fear not! The self-professed retired engineer, retired farmer, retired politician, professional windbag has started a blog called the Dryden Contrarian https://drydencontrarian.wordpress.com/
Can’t get enough of the Contrarian’s comments? Check out Mel’s book for sale at a reasonable price at Freisen Press https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000413709518.
Here is a sample of the stories on Mel’s blog.
Things looking pretty good up here on the seventh concession, hay all baled, gardens all harvested, chickens ready for the pot. So I took the time to stop at Joe’s on my way to town, as usual he slapped the coffee pot on the stove before we sat down.
“So, what’s new around here?” says I, a sort of rhetorical question to get some gossip flowing. It worked, Joe came back with “I just got a big laugh out of an article online; guy is talking about the US. He says the big-government establishment have to save democracy by preventing Trump getting elected!”
“OK, I don’t get it, what is funny about that?” from me, coffee mug in hand. “Think about it”, from Joe, “democracy means the people decide, this guy says we can’t let the people decide, we have to lead the people away from Trump, doesn’t that make him the enemy of democracy?”
I had to think a minute, then “Yes, I suppose you are right. The real problem is we are being fed so many lies from all sides of the political spectrum, so we feel threatened when people like Trump take strong positions.”
From Joe “More Coffee? I got some nice homemade chokecherry jam from the Farmers Market, maybe some toast and jam? Anyway, the bottom line is the country is getting split more and more – it’s the people versus the smarty-pants upper class controlling the government. Trump represents the people, so they have to crowd him out!”
From me “But Trump is a zillionaire, isn’t he part of that smarty-pants upper class you speak so negatively about?”
From him “Not if you look at his history, and where he stands in most issues. Yep, he is rich, but he made it the hard way, basically he is a working type guy. I used to have a video of him being interviewed before he became a weird TV personality, looked like a really sensible young man then. Maybe some of that shows through to the working class folks out there.”
I had to think about that again, then “OK, I see what you mean, and I do agree that ordinary people are much smarter than the elite think they are in piecing together what is real, and what is just BS!”
Joe came back with “There was a book out a few years ago, I might even have a copy here somewhere, anyway it made the point that what he called ‘The Common Sense of the Common People’ is generally a more accurate assessment than the opinion of their leaders; the book has a lot of examples through history where this is so. So I guess you could say the Common Sense of the Common People is the root of Trump’s high standing in the polls in spite of all the negative press!”
Joe slapped some toast and jam on the table, along with more coffee, while he went on “yep, the Establishment sees the people as too dumb to govern themselves, so they have to run things, we should own nothing and be happy and so on. Our Canadian scene is even worse than the US, our media is even more corrupt and we don’t even have a Donald Trump to lead the common people!”
“Interesting idea”, from me “All my educated friends think Trump is the Devil Incarnate, I suppose they get that from that corrupt media” — Joe interrupted “You have educated friends?”
Is that an insult, or is he just pulling my leg? Anyway, I better get out of here as soon as I finish this piece of toast with that heavenly chokecherry jam.
Maybe Joe regretted that attack, anyway he came up with the last word, saying some of the pundits he follows think Trump will win the election, but the establishment will not let him take office, so we might see some kind of civil war down there, how scary is that?