#depression scrip

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“"Reds” Endeavoring To Work Old Catspaw Game,” The Province (Vancouver). February 23, 1933.  Page 2. --- Police state that a plot, fostered by Communists to organise small hotels, rooming-houses and cafes against the acceptance of relief scrip from the city, has been uncovered in Vancouver. 

Efforts are being made to get proprietors of these places to refuse to honor the scrip at its present value, so that city officials will be compelled to issue it in larger amounts. 

It is said that threats are being made against any who may refuse to enter into the scheme.

[tea-cat-arts]

Shen Yuan getting transported into pidw isn't "the system punishing him for being a lazy internet hater," but instead representative of "step 1 of the creative process: getting so mad at something you decide to go write your own fucking book" in this essay I will

[paracausalwraith]

i like desperately need to get back on track wrt my transition and appearance.

[akanemnon]

Uh oh, looks like Kris is starting to let out their frustrations on others, or maybe they're going through the stages of grief?

Either way, I'm very curious to see how things will play out with the overwhelming amount of new information put on to Kris in a short amount of time plus having to deal with common mortality and the little time they have to save their dad. Seconds are valuable, fighting would be a danger to their lives AND the life of Asgore. Loving everything about the comic so far, and I'm also excited to see how The Other Scrip will also play out!

The five stages of grief are more of a spiral in their case. They're continuly going up and down between anger and bargaining at the moment. Depression might be hitting at some point.

But yeah, we'll see how all of this is gonna affect them throughout the story. They just started to enter the Bargain-Bin Ruins. The unkown lies ahead of them.

[helphelpquesohelado]

if anxiety and the others successfully got back to headquarters how would the ending play out?

would it be like the sequel. with anxiety having the confront joy during her mania episode.

or would it end with joy returning to normal after being confronted by anxiety. but becomes so distraught with regret that she feels like she can no longer lead headquarters and disappears into the deeper parts of Riley's mind a day after the incident without telling anyone. leaving anxiety to reluctantly become their new leader.

I know the last one might sound a bit sad, but I do love a little bit of angst now and then.

also, I really love your AU. especially with how you tackled mania. as well as joy's decent into mania. from how she starts off looking fairly normal (aside from the eerie smile) as seen in the art with the new emotions trapped in the jar. to how she slowly grows into a tall multi-armed monster as seen in the comics. it's these little details that really elevate the AU for me in a lot of ways.

Thanks! ima give you a warning for a lore related ramble!

Yes I'd imagine both of those sanarios! they'd have to go find joy right after! I haven't written a scrip or something but yes that's how I'd though it would go \.

_____________________________________________________

Also, if ima be honest,

I'm scared shittless of presenting mania and disorders in general the wrong way, that's kind of why I'm afraid to make additions to this Au. the only real experience i have with disorder's is dealing with my mother's BPD and my own autism n' depression (sorry if i phrased that badly).

And as for joy's physical growth. that's mainly because of the disorder. for example, Anxiety looked fairly normal, but she would be "overgrown" and "monsterly" like joy if say, the person had an anxiety disorder. I want to make it clear that these things are serious and in need of external help to manage. Such as therapy or meds. If it was just a regular old attack it would be just a normal version of anxiety. I want to make it clear that disorder's like these are not to be tackled alone and external care is warrened ya'know.

(Like that one concept art where they presented anxiety as a dragon! i don't have an image but I'm sure you can find it!)

my ideas for these things were inspired by all the art of "disorder what if's" for Riley's emotions, depicting what happens when something ain't right in the body. such as depression, anxiety disorder, mania, social anxiety, etc!

_____________________________________________________

sorry if I derailed the subject, but I'm so glad you asked!

[naamahdarling]

Today's roadblock is:

The Pharmacy; the doctors' offices. RESOLVED!

The issue is:

GAC/HRT doctor's office sent a prescription to the wrong pharmacy. Pharmacy screwed up a thing for my ADHD meds.

This problem was caused by:

Providers: Simple oversight. Pharmacy: Closing my location, so the prescriptions are being transferred and it's chaos, and all PAs had to be resubmitted.

The party likely responsible is:

I'm angriest with the pharmacy. Their issues caused the other issues. I'm assuming they had a reason for the closing, so I'm trying to be less angry. The other clinics, just whoever was putting through the paperwork made a small mistake.

The consequences/benefits to me are:

I'm tired from chasing this for a week. I have been without ADHD meds off and on for a week, which gives me BAD rebound depression. I got both issues resolved, however, so the benefit is that I get my meds and don't have to fuck around with it any longer.

The consequences to them are:

None, except the pharmacy employees suffering with a horrendous workload. The employees at the doctors' offices fucked up, but it wasn't part of a pattern for them. Everyone gets a gold star for cooperating today and promising to fix their shit.

I am feeling:

Tired. Glad I could fix it all. Slightly hopeful I will have all my meds this week. Perpetually disgusted that "I hope I can get my meds this week" is even a thing. Shoutout to the medication desk at insurance, who found the problem with my HRT scrip. Insurance as it exists now is survival gatekeeping and utterly repugnant (The Purpose of a System Is What It Does, therefore insurance -- even the nonprofit kind -- exists to neglect and harm people in the name of money), but these specific employees at least do their job well.

[inspectorlyfra]

can I sue Meijer pharmacy for fumbling my antidepressant scrip 3+ times in the past week. it's like my 4th day without it and my brain is completely malfunctioning i am depressed and manic at the same time and i don't feel in control of myself and i fucking hate it

[gurggggleburgle]

me having a depressive episode and drinking since noon and eating coffee beans because i have so little left to live for in my life and i can't find the motivation to care that i'm going to be homeless and starving in about 3 days because rent no longer includes food and i can't find the will or just ability to get a better paying job so i might as well let my family choose my entire life from here out anyway because that's what is always the most relevant aspect of any attempts of my own to live my life. i fuck up because i'm a worthless loser of no value and should have finished ruining my body forever by sticking my hand in the meat slicer at work since i already can't draw anymore anyway but i can't let anyone know that because i still have to give some illusion that i'm still physically abled but i can't even hold chopsticks correctly anymore let alone draw for ten minutes:

and for the scum villain musical that lives in my head rent free shang qinghua and shen yuan confront each other post the abyss and as they're working on their plan discuss why PIDW became what it did but they discuss it in the terms of the hell of making a stage production and the changes that can happen between previews which implies shen yuan came to literally every preshowing they had which is a psycho move. the dialogue leading into the song goes something like

"What even happened to this play? I saw the initial showings. I saw what you had and every new viewing it got worse and worse! It's hardly the same play" SY

"You think I don't know that? You think I'm not aware of how many rewrites and workshops went on every rehearsal. You think I wanted it to turn out like this?" SQH

"Then why did you let it become like this?" SY

"Why? WHY? WHY?????" SQH we lead into song. i just have lyrics. i'm no composer so go with me on this. I imagine the lead in is like a twangy acoustic guitar

"The nature theatre is cutthroat and sharp. And to make profit you have to play it smart."

"And easy. Ambition is rarely- ever- awarded."

"Get too ahead of the game and you will be just shorted. The stage is limited and the score is set and match."

"You do what you must. The script that we trust, to put us in the place we need to be. Inevitably. A gamble that is meant to fail. But you stand through with and you do it so you can pay the bills."

"So what if the motivation doesn't make sense? So what if the final act is lacking in being tense."

"The sponsors say through out the drama- add a lotta- ROM COM ELEMENTS!"

"You cut and take all the things you like. Praying one more day to keep on the lights. Just for one chance at fame and to have people see your name."

He stops singing to hold up pages of the prop script, "Every showing a new comment from a new critic and investor was piled on. Oh, Shen Qingqui is focused on too much for being such a minor character. Is this supposed to be a thematic parallel? It's not very strong. Maybe just cut it. Maybe you need more comedic numbers in the third act? Have you considered making the play a harem."

"More anime. More wish fulfillment! More things that sell!!"

Lead back into singing but still kinda singtalking, "And you just go along with it. Because it's been three weeks and you haven't eaten anything but fucking ramen noodles and soy sauce packets you stole from work. The heat hasn't been on and it's winter and at this point you're just done trying to have an artistic vision in the collaborative joy that is musical theatre."

"So you cut and take all the things you like. Just doing your best just to get it right. Hoping one more moment that you can make it work all the same."

"The score is mess. I'm doing my best! And if it can still be a hit- that's all I want from this!"

"It's not okay but you go on through it. Push and shove all the thoughts put to it. Knowing that it's for the best to make it all a big success."

"The tentpole is awful which for this is unlawful. The opener's a rip off but you try just play it though. The script is manic- don't worry or panic."

"That's how the whole game is played. If it's a satire too soon on market it will fail. For a social commentary the timing must avail. Romance seems easy but the market is fickle. Hamilton was big but Great Comet still failed."

anddddddd i don't have anymore than that..... please forgive but. basically song is 90% our hamster man being meta about creative industry because my favorite element of svsss regarding him is how he's a complete meta comment from the author about the hell of having to make art that makes money and not what you want. whether the original draft would have been a better book or not is irrelevant to the fact that his motivation was completely based in profit and if there is one thing musical flops make me think about is how being ahead or thinking up a new idea for a musical doesn't mean you'll succeed. Remember Dear Evan Hanson swept the tony's and The Great Comet shut down. The Grinch musical was weirdly a huge finacial hit despite being souless as hell but Elf the Musical which was weirdly a passion project struggled.

good art is sadly not always profitable

[jlilycorbie]

Hello! This is your friendly inquiry to answer this ask with whatever you'd like to talk about right now! Whether that be a story you're working on, something you're excited or worried about, or just something random you happen to know.

All the love,

~ toribookworm ❤️

Thank you for the ask!

I've put off answering this because I couldn't figure out what to talk about. There's weird stuff happening with my health that has me stressed, but no one wants to hear about my problems.

So. One of my current research holes. I want to write a story about unionizing the asteroid belt, but I need to know more about labor. I've got a whole list of books I want about labor, unions, company towns, the West Virginia Mine War (aka, the second American civil war the government worked really hard to memory hole), a biography of Mother Jones, stuff like that. I don't know how I'm going to afford all the books, because I've requested them from my library, but the library won't get any of them, and it barely has any books on the history of labor.

It started because I got to thinking about how a company could offer really great pay for miners and other workers in space, but all they'd have to do to trap people is offer them transport to the mines, then bill them for it. You don't actually start earning real money until you've paid the company back for your ticket. And meanwhile, you've got to earn your housing, food, environment, etc. Strangle communication back to Earth, only allow you to convert company scrip to cash if you're on Earth, and have people managing to support their families back on Earth while slowly sinking deeper and deeper, and you have to pay to get back, but how are you going to afford a ticket...

The stakes were high enough in company towns in West Virginia, where if you got turned out, there was nothing but mountains and other company towns that wouldn't let you in. Now you're in space and your choice is company colonies or literal outer space.

The most depressing part of this line of research, and something we've unfortunately seen play out in real time these days, is that the US government will never, ever show up for its people. It will always back companies and money instead.

[succubusted]

had a really nice and sweetheart doctor today, he saw me on short notice bc the nurse I made an appt with was gone and no one thought to tell me until I signed in, and he happened to have an opening

he saw 'major depressive disorder' in my file and immediately started in on "ok if you need help outside of our business hours here's numbers you can call ok" and I've been on treatment for 3 years now but that was still nice of him

he got me a scrip for my mystery rash (which he thinks is an allergy to something at work) and said "if they want to charge you a hundred bucks for this call us and we'll find you another one"

10/10 would recommend this dude

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“THIS IS HOW SCRIP WILL LOOK,” Toronto Star. March 7, 1933. Page 2. ---- This one dollar scrip that has been in use for some time in Atlantic City, N.J.. gives an idea of the new scrip in all parts of the country now that President Roosevelt has proclaimed notes of exchange that will be used a national bank holiday.

[yhwhrulz]

Charles Spurgeon's "Morning & Evening" Devotional for November 22

Morning

“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.”

2 Corinthians 4

The Second Epistle to the Corinthians was written by Paul from Macedonia, after Titus had returned from Corinth, and informed him how the Corinthian church had received his first letter. The news was of a mingled kind, and caused him both joy and sorrow. The apostle seems at the time of writing it to have been much troubled and perplexed. We shall commence our reading with the fourth chapter.

2 Corinthians 4:1 , 2 Corinthians 4:2

All underhand dealing and trickery Paul denounced. He said what he meant, and meant what he said. If we cannot spread the truth by plain speech, we cannot spread it at all.

2 Corinthians 4:3 , 2 Corinthians 4:4

If men do not understand the gospel, we must take care that the fault does not lie in our language; but wholly with their blinded carnal hearts.

2 Corinthians 4:7

The weakness of the preacher only shows the power of God when he uses such poor means to accomplish so great an end. Never let us refuse to do good, because our abilities are slender; let us the rather yield up our weakness unto the Lord that he may use it to his own glory.

2 Corinthians 4:12

Paul rejoiced that good came to them by his sufferings. He loved them even as a mother who strips off her own raiment, and exposes herself to the cold to screen her child.

2 Corinthians 4:13 , 2 Corinthians 4:14

He feared not death, for he expected resurrection.

2 Corinthians 4:13

His ruling passion was God’s glory, and this sustained him under sickness, depression, and persecution.

2 Corinthians 4:17 , 2 Corinthians 4:18

See how little Paul makes of trial; he calls it light and momentary; but how much he makes of glory! he labours for expressions, he cannot with the utmost exertion deliver himself. The way to live above trouble is to look up: we shall grow giddy if we look down upon earthly things, for they are tossed to and fro like waves of the sea.

Afflictions may press me, they cannot destroy,

One glimpse of his love turns them all into joy;

And the bitterest tears, if he smile but on them,

Like dew in the sunshine, grow diamond and gem.

A scrip on my back, and a staff in my hand,

I march on in haste through an enemy’s land;

The road may be rough, but it cannot be long,

So I’ll smooth it with hope, and cheer it with song.

Evening

“Willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”

2 Corinthians 5

2 Corinthians 5:1

For we know not we think or hope only, but we know

2 Corinthians 5:1

Our clay cottage will come down, but our heavenly mansion is ready to receive us.

2 Corinthians 5:2-4

We cannot be satisfied here, for we are exiled from the glory land and compassed with infirmities. We await with expectation the summons, “Rise up and come away.”

2 Corinthians 5:5

God is preparing us for heaven, and has given us already a sure pledge of it in the possession of the Holy Ghost.

2 Corinthians 5:8

The exile longs to return, the child pines for his fathers house, and so do we pant for our own dear country beyond the river, and sigh for the bosom of Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:9-10

With this is view, we cannot afford to trifle or to sin. Every day should be viewed in the light of the last day, and then we shall live as we should.

2 Corinthians 5:13

The apostle did everything for Jesus and his church, and if any blamed his actions, he bade them remember that love to them was the sole motive of all he did.

2 Corinthians 5:14

then were all dead or rather, all died

2 Corinthians 5:15

The death of Jesus for us has made us reckon ourselves dead to all but him, and for him alone would we exist.

2 Corinthians 5:16

Everything was spiritual, even his sight of Jesus with his mortal eyes was no longer cared for, in comparison with faith’s view of him after a spiritual fashion.

2 Corinthians 5:21

Are we thus made righteous? These verses are wonderfully weighty: do we understand them by personal experience? Are we new creatures, reconciled by Jesus, blood, accepted in the Beloved, and one with him? These are points which demand immediate inquiry.

Copyright Statement This resource was produced before 1923 and therefore is considered in the "Public Domain".

[halcyon-digest]

2021

Art Klaudt: Job interview at a telemarketing firm on Halloween with a man wearing Joker facepaint

Anonymous 1: complete nervous breakdown upon acknowledgement of death

ava: ran away from home under the influence of an ill-willed ex-friend

kate: I was prescribed an anti-anxiety medication for the first time in my life this year. I also finally worked up the courage to ask for a testosterone prescription. The endocrinologist was really uncomfortable to talk to. It was a televisit and she demanded my video be on. I was outside because it had been scheduled during work and I didn't want to be overheard, but it was also chilly out and I had my hood up, so it felt very illicit. She was asking me questions like she wanted to confirm I knew what T did and that it would be what I wanted. And I'll be honest, I didn't know if it would be (it wasn't), but that's why I was trying it out. All my answers felt deeply embarrassing. Anyways I got it prescribed and then the next soul crushing thing I had to do was go to the pharmacy and pick it up, and the thing is that it cost fucking $326 so I got a goodrx coupon to bring it down a little. Well obviously when you show up picking up a prescription with a girl name but the scrip is for testosterone their first thought is that it must be some kind of mistake. And then I'm there at the front of the line with everyone waiting behind me and they're like uhh are you sure?? and then I also have my little goodrx coupon for them to plug in so that's a whole deal they need to call over another pharmacist for help with, and that caused problems the next time I went to go pick up a different prescription and I had to tell them to switch it back to my regular insurance. But I got Androgel. And wrote the date I started it in the fog on my bathroom mirror. After a couple weeks I got scared that my voice was changing and my eyebrows were darker. I was also getting bad cramps. So I stopped taking it as regularly and heavily as prescribed, but I kept it around past its expiration date to use at times when the dysphoria started to hit hard again.

Anonymous 2: waking up to a message conversation telling me a friend had taken her own life. from fear at the first message to anguish & powerlessness. precipitated my first relapse into self harming

Lucas: Weirdly not many memories of this year, I remember I was smoking a lot of weed around this time though, no specific memories pop out of 2021 though

Anonymous 3: Lying down in the polytunnel amongst the radish flowers so depressed that I couldn't even stand up any more.

Anonymous 4: JV soccer with the best coach I have ever had

Anonymous 5: A depressive haze experienced primarily at a desk with my computer

superswag: January 6th

v0w0v: Squatting in my girlfriend's apartment and hiding from the landlord. I remember the smell of vomit and soiled rodent bedding. Most of the good memories are from when she was in the psych ward or at rehab. I would spend long nights on the porch with her downstairs neighbor, chainsmoking and drinking and talking about music. He was a middle-aged metalhead roadie who had a pin-up poster of Joan of Arc.

Anonymous 6: My best friend Wolfy describing how she wanted to put a coat around my shoulders as I was walking home in a blizzard.

Anonymous 7: discovering my favourite band while falling in and out of love with somebody.

binnie: A blur

Anonymous 8: Reconnecting with an old friend and smoking lots of weed

April M. Mildew: Listening to The Resident's Demons Dance Alone while playing the space stage of Spore (2008) on a laptop held together with duct tape. I am alone in the world besides people who press the like button on posts I make on a tumblr blog. The world has shrunk to a single room. There are no months.

[xlittle-roach]

Anyone have experience with obtaining meds without a scrip? Specifically anti-depressants. Plz.

[autumnrose11]

iloveeddieredmayne:

David Colman: How’s Budapest?

Eddie Redmayne: I spent the day in trenches. We’re filming a World War I miniseries, and, to be honest, I haven’t seen much of Budapest. It’s been head-down working, so I’m hoping to get a weekend at some point soon and have a proper scout.

Colman: How long have you been there?

Redmayne: About three weeks. We’re shooting an adaptation called Birdsong, from a British book by Sebastian Faulks. It’ a beautiful love story set in France - the guy goes out to fight in World War I and comes back to Amiens and finds it completely different. It’s the first time I’ve played a soldier, so we get to have guns and bayonets and things like that.

Colman: But you had some practice - you know, killing Julianne Moore like you did inSavage Grace.

Redmayne: I did have some practice killing Julianne, that’s true.

Colman: You’ve done a lot of period films, haven’t you?

Redmayne: Yeah! I feel like I’ve worked my way through the Medieval period into the Elizabethan period, and now having done My Week With Marilyn along with Savage Grace, I’ve done the ’50s and ’60s. I was just on a film in North Carolina, and it was set in the ’80s. I’m sort of, step-by-step, working my way into the modern day.

Colman: Is there another time you could see yourself living in?

Redmayne: I kind of loved doing the Marilyn stuff set in the ’50s. One of the great experiences was shooting in Pinewood Studios. Michelle Williams was in Marilyn Monroe’s dressing room, and we were shooting in the studio where The Prince and the Showgirl was shot. In the studios next door, you had [the production of the fourth] Pirates of the Caribbean, and you wandered down this long corridor, and you would literally see a dismembered pirate come out of one door and some turn-of-the-century French something-or-other come out of another.There was an eclectic romance in shooting there. It also really reminded me of the romance of working in this industry where you meet all these people and become very close very quickly, and then you all spin away again three months later. That makes for some intoxicating friendships. None of my family works in this world, and they always question that side of it. I always try to describe making movies like summer camp, or some holiday where you spend all day, every day with a group of people whom you kind of love and then never see again.

Colman: You were living in New York when you did the play Red on Broadway. How was that?

Redmayne: I’ve got to say, I had the most spectacular time of my life. I was living in the East Village in a great little flat by Astor Place, and I’d always had this romantic dream about living in New York at some point. When I was living in New York, I had this slightly wannabe bohemian existence and took up painting, at which I’m appalling. I also bought several guitars.

Colman: Wow, the whole nine yards.

Redmayne: I figured if I was going to live the cliché, I should probably live it all the way.

Colman: Did you start smoking hash?

Redmayne: No. It doesn’t work for me. But I did end up trying to fly back to London with an absurd number of guitars.

Colman: You live in London now, right?

Redmayne: I live just near the River Thames, down by the South Bank. But I haven’t been there much. I’ve been living out of suitcases.

Colman: How do you do that, living out of a suitcase?

Redmayne: When I go to these new places, I leave with crap that I didn’t arrive with, and I’ve actually invested in a load of bags that fall apart about five minutes after you use them. So I’ve ended up with that incredibly depressing scenario where you’ve landed at Heathrow and your bag comes out with that clear film wrapped around it. 

Colman: Like Saran Wrap?

Redmayne: It’s happened at least twice, and I always feel like it’s a metaphor for my state of mind at the end of a job. It’s this battered, barely-put-together thing.

Colman: So how did you come to this Marilyn Monroe project?

Redmayne: Originally, when the script came in, I read the book and I was fascinated by this character Colin Clark. He’d grown up surrounded by people like Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier and Margot Fonteyn, who were friends of his parents, but he wasn’t intimidated by their fame. He went on to become a runner in the film industry. The film industry is incredibly hierarchical, a bit like Eton [College], which is where Clark went to school - and also where I went to school. But as a runner on a film set, despite the fact that you’re the lowest of the low, you also have access to everything, so what was challenging for me was that guy is kind of an observer and a cipher.

Colman: Were you a Marilyn Monroe fan going in?

Redmayne: I have to put my hand up here. I’m getting better, but I remain one of the most ill-educated filmgoers in the world, so it was a wonderful excuse to watch a lot of Marilyn Monroe movies. What’s amazing is this whole movie is about how she was going through this incredibly desperate, dark time, and was a nightmare from all accounts - and yet when you watch The Prince and the Showgirl, she has this lightness and frivolity and this kind of sexy effortlessness.

Colman: She does that sort of effervescent quality - especially in Some Like it Hot [1959],The Seven Year Itch [1955], and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes [1953]. She was such a brilliant comedian. It’s interesting in this movie to watch her go to such lengths to be seen as serious - you know, having Paula Strasberg there on set the whole time. And it’s not that she’s a bad actress, but everyone just sort of wants her to do that thing that’s so amazing.

Redmayne: I know. “Do that thing!” “Be sexy!” - It’s such a damning moment when Olivier says that to her. It can be a miserable profession , acting, because you always want what you can’t have.

Colman: I just watched Savage Grace last night. You were amazing.

Redmayne: That was a really special project for me, which I chased and chased and chased, and finally got, thanks to Tom Kalin, the director, and to Julianne. It’s one of those scripts that you read and you become sort of embarrassingly protective of it, like, “Please don’t let anyone else get this!”

Colman: I can see why - It’s such an amazing role.

Redmayne: It is, but it’s also the kind I love. In England we have this saying about Marmite: people either love it or hate it. That’s like a lot of the movie work I’ve done. People either find it repulsive or find it really interesting and get engaged in it. 

Colman: Incest tends to do that sort of thing. Either you love it or you don’t.

Redmayne: And now, in this film Hick I’ve just done, I play this Texan meth-addict pedophile with a limp …

Colman: Oh, is that all? No skin conditions? Teeth missing?

Redmayne: He does have all his teeth - I thought about getting a few knocked out, but no. I remember a friend was curious as to whether I was going to do it, and they were like, “Well, maybe the subject matter’s a bit intense,” and then they were like, “No, he’s doneSavage Grace! He’s done incest - come on.”

 Interview Magazine, September 2011

Eddie Redmayne Interviewed by David Colman

[gravitascivics]

OH, OHIO

One might argue that a chief challenging reality to the values and aims of federalist thinking is bigness.  If to be federated means a populous shares a sense of partnership, then large social/political arrangements undermine the supposed interpersonal requisites that such a sense would intuitively demand.  One is more apt to federate with others who see the world through similar lenses, and geographic settings would affect the level of “usness” one would presuppose to be necessary.

          In retrospect, probably from the beginnings of the American republic, its fate was sown-in in the treaty with Great Britain to end the Revolutionary War.  Mostly through the American minister, John Adams, the resulting treaty with Great Britain ceded the American nation just about all of the land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River.  Of particular interest to this posting is the expansion of land north of the Ohio River or what would become to be known as the Northwest Territory.

          A nation that didn’t even exist before the war was now a significantly large one.  And while on paper that seemed just about unprecedented, it left that nation with a demanding challenge – how does one extend control over that vast expanse?  And here, what would be considered as an added challenge, an extended post-war economic depression, turned out to be a motivator for people to behave in just the way this expansion challenge needed them to behave.

          Here is what the historian, David McCullough, describes took place:

Unprecedented financial panic had gripped the new nation since the end of the Revolutionary War.  The resources and credit of the government were exhausted.  Money, in the form of scrip issued by the government, was nearly worthless.  The scrip the veterans received as compensation for their service was worth no more than ten cents on the dollar.  Trade was at a standstill.  In Massachusetts the situation was worst of all.  Farmers were being imprisoned for debt.  Only a few months earlier, an armed rebellion led by poor Massachusetts farmer and war veteran named Daniel Shays had to be put down by a force of loyal militia commanded by General Tupper.

            As it was, the severe economic depression that followed the war would last longer even than the war.  But out west now there was land to be as never imagined – vast land, rich land where there was “no end to the beauty and plenty” – that could be made available to veterans at a bargain price in compensation for their service.  West was opportunity.  West was the future.[1]

And this opportunity and how it was exploited portrays a number of the attributes of the prevailing construct among the American population having to do with governance and politics.

          As this blog has argued, that construct can be given the name parochial/traditional federalism.  Yes, it ascribed to sustaining a federated populous but mostly only among the nation’s Western European descendants (including the recent immigrants from that area).  It excluded blacks and indigenous peoples.  While indigenous people’s rights were mostly neglected in the process by which the Northwest Territory was incorporated into the American system, there was an element of the process that addressed the rights of blacks.

          And this concern was also extended to other demographic classifications.  McCullough explains:

It was intended that this ordinance, now called the Northwest Ordinance, should stipulate that in the whole of the territory there would be absolute freedom of religion and particular emphasis on education, matters New Englanders considered fundamental to a just and admirable society.

Most importantly, there was to be no slavery.  In the plan for the creation of a new state northwest of the Ohio River, the proposition put forth by Rufus Putnam [war hero who led the Ohio Company of Associates] and others at the time of the Newburgh Resolution, total exclusion of slavery was an essential.

As would be observed by historians long afterward, the Northwest Ordinance was designed to guarantee what would one day be known as the American way of life.[2]

And a couple of points should be emphasized.  One, this area would initially be inhabited by migrating New Englanders.  And two, various states would eventually be formed in this area and all of them were organized and developed under a culturally federalist mind set.

          The New England base was to be highly Calvinist and as such highly based on covenantal thinking in the formulation of political arrangements.  As the political scientist, Daniel Elazar, points out, the northern stretch of states as one moves from east to west in the US can be considered an extension of New England’s moralistic political subculture. 

That is, it highlights the moral bases of governance.  That view more specifically emphasizes the interests of a commonwealth, that governments are to advance the public interests, that the polities are to have very low tolerance of corruption, and that citizens have a duty to participate in politics.[3]  And these characteristics became common among the New England colonies and then states from the time of their earliest settlement and extended westward among the northernmost layer of states.

As for the landmass in question, it is sufficient to list the states that eventually were formed in this territory.  They are Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.  Significant shoreline on the Great Lakes would prove to be of economic advantage to these states.  This became particularly true with the building of the Erie Canal, which was completed in 1825, and opened trade lanes out to the Atlantic Ocean via the port of New York.

Of course, these developments were done with concerns over the “Indian menace.”  Among the indigenous peoples a certain belief prevailed, that “considered the Ohio country their rightful, God-granted domain.”[4]  This aspect of the American expansion – of its parochial character – deserves its own separate analysis.

[1] David McCullough, The Pioneers:  The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West (New York, NY:  Simon & Schuster, 2019), 8.  Historical claims in this posting rely on this source.

[2] Ibid., 12.

[3] “Explaining Policy Difference Using Political Culture,” West Texas A&M University, n.d., accessed January 27, 2024, URL:  https://www.google.com/search?q=elazar+moralistic+political+culture&rlz=1C1RXMK_enUS966US966&oq=elazar%27s+moralistic&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgCECEYqwIyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQIRgKGKABMgcIAhAhGKsCMgcIAxAhGKsCMgcIBBAhGKsC0gEJMTQxMThqMGo5qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8.  

[4] McCullough, The Pioneers, 7.