Once upon a time, mankind came to accept that he lived in a world of physical laws, cause and effect being one of them. Once man acceded to these laws as inevitable, and learned to live within their framework, we had a Renaissance. With greater understanding of the givens of this earthly existence, we had an Age of Enlightenment and an Industrial Revolution. Individuals realized they did not need despots to micromanage their lives; they only needed enough government to protect each’s rights to the fruits of his own labor.
Now what? In Asheville, we have people with strange names squatting on another’s private property, purchased with his own money. These people share the text of a goodly olde spell book and hope blessing the crystalline form of water with love will save THE magnolia tree. Owner Stewart Coleman is given no credit for attempting to create jobs and stimulate the economy by purchasing materials for his proposed development. He wants to disrupt the viewshed of the commons. He is disdained because he is not cute enough to have people feed him while he does nothing all summer but lounge about in the beauty of nature’s splendor and participate in staged antagonism that exceeds McCarthy’s worst fears.
