Over the years, Americans in particular have been all too willing to squander their hard-earned independence and freedom for the illusion of feeling safe under someone else's authority. The concept of self-sufficiency has been undermined in value over a scant few generations. The vast majority of the population seems to look down their noses upon self-reliance as some quaint dusty relic, entertained only by the hyperparanoid or those hopelessly incapable of fitting into mainstream society.

I feel like a tick on a dog.

It's like walking through someone's small intestine.

You get diarrhea out here, you dehydrate from the inside out - you leave the gene pool.

So I'm pampering myself to a homemade stone pumice session, to sand down my feet because I'm worth it.

It's like I'm in a closet in a college dorm room.

I know I look like a piece of sausage to those lions. A sausage with braids.