Victor Davis Hanson
At that last dare, in the style of my dad, I began firing everyone over the next hour.
José their patriarch? “You are fired.”
Herlinda? “You’re fired too.”
The boyfriend, “You’re out.” The daughter and son, ditto.
I had turned from an unemployed Classical language Ph.D. failure into a stark raving madman apparently paying the world back for our stupidity in hiring Burton, the Lopezes, Hilario, and now the “pack.”
When the fit of madness passed, and with it, the Ramirez grifters, it dawned on me: in my frenzy I had now assumed absolute responsibility for a 90-year-old grandmother to feed and watch, a 60-year-old disabled aunt, and a house that had been ransacked (the druggy even carved his initials in my grandfather’s old desk) and needed repairs without the money for materials, and a farm that needed a third man.
I awoke from my insanity five years later, after fixing what I could of the house, caring for my wonderful grandmother after Lila passed, and relearning to farm. I all but forgot about Burton, Rodrigo, Hilario, and the Pack. I wrote about those subsequent years of peace and hope—and final catastrophe—in Fields Without Dreams and The Land Was Everything.
What followed was a quarter century of too many helpers rather than too few. Four of us in four houses that dotted the farm—with an aggregate ten kids, four spouses, every inch of land reclaimed, and childhood memories reborn amid a splendid oasis.
Soon followed three decades of a wonderful fantasy world, reincarnated, with our updated versions of the triangle gong, lectures on discing from the past master tractorist Manuel, a new version of Rusties, and Joes, and Lilas all over again in marvelous make-believe fashion.
For nearly thirty years it all continued without a memory of Burton or the Lopezes or the Ramirezes or the drunken Hilario—until the sudden collapse and the loss of everything, not due to these ravenous suitors, but perhaps due to us the lax custodians.
What did I learn from Burton, the Lopezes, Hilario, and the pack?
Magnanimity can be seen as weakness to be exploited rather than benevolence to be reciprocated.
Hilario’s logic was not exactly unhinged: if you own or live on the land and you don’t farm it yourself or at least monitor daily those who do, expect your proprietorship to be absorbed by those who do work it—regardless of whose name is on the title.
Life is like rust on a metal railing or mushrooms on the lawn after a rain, it is a constant chore of maintenance and dedication to rote, habit, custom, and tradition. And when such custodianship fails, even for a mere second, then nature, human and animal, intercedes as the lawn turns to mushrooms and the railings to brown rust.
There is a Hilario waiting for all of us. We all have a rendezvous with a Burton who will enter our lives at the slightest hint of weakness or need.
So there is no respite, no time-out, no reprieve from life. You must be in the arena, engaged, to the very end, preferably to watch over your own so as not to outsource those responsibilities to others.
Forget that and yours end up as those on Market Street in San Francisco or you finish out like the yupsters who shield their eyes from the catastrophes as they pass them each morning in their ankle boots and hipster high-water pant and sleeve suits.
Life is a war between civilization and precivilization and we are either warriors or spectators to our ruin.
Beware of the all-service Ramirezes, the sirens who spot you in extremis and serenade you onto their shoals. Keep clear of the Burtons who weasel and needle you to persuade themselves that you are as sick as they are, and therefore they are not sick at all. A Hilario undressed is a Hilario who can kill you.
But mostly remember their antitheses, the heroes in the shadows, the noble crippled in bed, the octogenarians who will not go out quietly, and the real strongmen in the shadows who will only emerge when there is no other choice to their needed remedy to the anarchy.
Discussion (17)
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Log In to CommentI enjoyed all these stories so much, thank you for sharing them.
You should publish a book of quotes VDH.
"Life is a war between civilization and precivilization and we are either warriors or spectators to our ruin." What a great line. What a great reflection on what we face today. The barbarians are not only at the gates but they are inside among us. I wish the younger generation could see this. As you have said before, prosperity has brought problems and our children are a product of it. Thank you for stories. One request, any chance of doing an interview with Thomas Sowell before we lose him? Chip Riedmann.
Bravo!
Victor, you are a national treasure. Your writing, especially your beautiful prose recounting your history on your farm, is deeply inspiring and validates those of us who continue to fight the real injustice in the world. As Winston Churchill said in his famous speech at Harrow School nearly 82 years ago: "...never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." We are in the fight of our lives to save this nation. And fight we must to preserve our liberties against the constant onslaught from the left to tear our nation down.
I think it's too late.
Your story of "The Pack" is that of modern society writ small. Perhaps that's a coincidence - or not.
All true. Thank you for the reminder. Were Big Mike to take the Oval Office, it would in effect give Barry Soetoro a total 20 years to complete his and Soros' mission. A scary thought. In his own words whether true or not; either he was lying to his audience or he spoke honestly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQcd41RO25k
Life does it best to teach us all, thru struggles and pain , but human response is never to live in memory of the pain , but of the lesson of survival. old saying is its never an adventure untill somethig goes terribly wrong !
The mass firing of the Pack reminds me a bit of Odysseus when he cleared his home of the suitors. And you're right. We need more men like you, your father, and Odysseus in order to clear out our crime ridden, dysfunctional blue cities and bring our country back to some semblance of normality and sanity.
What a powerful and apropos summation to your series.
What a harrowing tale. So sorry this was your lot, you and yours deserve better. It got me to thinking, the Amish and Mennonites perhaps have less of this sort of drama in their lives due to the strong family ties. Perhaps they have other types of drama.
Senator Ted Cruz has stated that he believes Michelle Obama will likely replace Biden as the Democrat Presidential candidate in the 2024 election. This makes sense to me, since Kamala Harris is such a complete dud. That opinion is nearly universal. So replace one black woman with another. Assuming Cruz is correct in his prediction, conservatives should begin today, as in immediately, in convincing the public that it is former President Obama pulling the strings through his loyal minions in the Biden presidency. Everyone knows it is not the enfeebled Joe Biden calling the shots. Obama did promise to fundamentally transform America, after all, and that is what is happening before our eyes, now. Barack just needs more time to complete it. Biden is giving him that, as will Michelle as president. If the public makes this Obama connection, then Michelle's appeal will be greatly diminished.
What a great story!
When I read your last paragraph, I could not help but think of Donald Trump "emerging from the shadows" with his election win of 2016. We must, we must, give this man his second term as our leader. DeSantis and others, your turns will come.
Pity the poor fool who enrages the quiet man who just wants to be left alone!
I am 69 years old. My father was a Drywall subcontractor after he got out of the War, and I grew up learning those skills to help Dad until I got out of high school. It wasn't that he needed help from me all the time, but that he wanted to show me how to work, and "do it like a man" as he would say when teaching me. He had crews working for him, but wanted me to learn also. It paid off over the years, paying my way through school and being self sustaining. All those people in general I am familiar with. Thank you for those refreshments on real life and the capacity of others to take from you unjustly if you show the slightest weakness.