| Author | Message | ||
     Cityxslicker |
So packing up my stuff I came across no less the 5 copies of Walden; obviously my favorite book. So could it be done today ? Could you for a year, live off grid in self sufficiency, self reliance, self determination, without employment, government intervention, and actually live happier than you were before ? This is not the socialist notion of disown everything for the sake of all; quite the opposite, it is the abandonment of the call of 'all' to find your own self and to take life to its simplest means, to off load all that is unnecessary, unwarranted, not enriching and not enlightening. I suppose my trek overseas is as close as I will get to it. And I have a high suspiscion that a 10x15 cabin in the woods by a small lake would gather the IRE of at least a handful of government agencies. First step on the quest - A Thoreau away party. All the stuff goes. Everything that will not fit into the luggage, back pack, and travel forward - is going. Money would be nice, less cr@p is the ultimate goal. And I am sure that all the money I ever spent on the stuff... well it will probably add up to pennies on the dollar - and we all know what the dollar is worth now. So what the f is the point......? Could you live simpler, without the government.... why do we trust them to do anything in our name ? Take a serious look at your life, pair it down to the essentials - tell Washington to do the same. If you took a year off to ride motorcycles around the planet, this would work as well  | ||
| Danger_dave |
>> and actually live happier than you were before ? << No. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-bl ogs/macro/australians-the-happiest-people-the-deve loped-world | ||
| Iamike |
Camping on my cycle trips is a far away as I want to get. I like to backpack but I can only handle 3 days (and that's been quite awhile). | ||
| Buellinmke |
Dick Proenneke did it for 30 years. | ||
| Pwnzor |
If it were just me, yes. Problem is, my family is so accustomed to all this STUFF. Good fortune and safe travelling to you sir. | ||
| Etennuly |
If it were just me and the situation arose to do so I could, but after a while I would be doing so in search of what I have now. I guess that means I am fairly happy where I am. Is it perfect? No, but perfection for me would be at a cost to others and visa-versa Government control is mostly a matter of perception. Become self employed, make your life as deductible as possible. Then hang in there as long as you can to where the economy makes sure you don't make any profit, fill out your forms, pay your accountant, and do it again. It is easy when the economy continues in the shitter and your corporate customers cannot pay you. Why do we trust the government to do things in our name? Well that seems to be an insult to WWII vets all over the World. You would prefer to be speaking German? What would have been the result of being number two early on in the Cold War? We have some pretty damn good roads to travel in this country and thanks to public education most of the US citizenry are smart enough in good times to get a vehicle to travel around to our beautiful National Parks. Most of those out of work are able to eat because of unemployment benefits, and old people aren't yet just pushed off a cliff when they can no longer contribute. I can go to a place to read books.....any books.....for free. Even the books that tell me that where they came from is wrong for me. My fellow Americans don't just take from me and my family the stuff we have paid for, because there are laws that allow us to own things that if stolen from us make for repercussions for the taking. That, as well as trespass and encroachment make property ownership a mostly fair entity. So yeah, I don't have a problem paying a fair shake on taxes. Yep, I do partake in being a member of society. No, I don't feel the need to hide out or duck g'bmt. Most of us are alive because of g'bmt imposing of laws a few hundred years ago about killing each other out of meanness or to take what another's possessions. I feel fairly comfortable not being on the endangered species list. Hell, I can even go out in public and spout out anti g'bmt sentiment.....and the g'bmt protects me while doing so. | ||
| Crusty |
+1 Vern!  | ||
| Strokizator |
My ancestors lived like Thoreau, and worse, so I wouldn't have to. My ancestors left Ukraine/Poland & Ireland for a reason. I think it would dishonor their memory and all they struggled for in just to getting to the US if I were to move back. | ||
| Jayvee |
I love those Proenneke movies on PBS. Absolutely fascinating, even amazing. From a city kid's point of view anyway. Anyway, don't some people live a bit like the Walden deal, if not as drastically, at some point in their life? Such as living in a small dorm room, completely focused on ones studies (yeah, right) or the two years I was in the Army, shared a tiny room, everything I 'owned' fit in a locker, even that wasn't private. When I moved to San Francisco, had only what I brought on a SR500 (not exactly luxo-tourer.) Lived with not much (well, access to a stove/refrigerator, but no TV) for a few years. Maybe not Walden, but fairly basic, compared to them dang young'uns now, don't appreciate nothin' I say... | ||
| Buellkowski |
I just saw this book review today: How Mark Boyle Lives On $0 a Year | ||
| Cityxslicker |
Buellkowski, good find, thanks for the link. The roads that I am allowed to ride on get fewer and fewer every year. they are talking about closing the entire Olympic peninsula National forest to 'classes of vehicle travel and over night camping' Any thing I learned in my youth that I value today was INSPITE of public education, not because of their curriculum. Obviously some people enjoy this current situation, hell they voted for it; I am betting many vote for it again. I am voting with my ticket out, bags packed, dictionaries, and exodus to the Ukraine. I enjoyed my time in the military, I never should have retired domestically. It was my mistake. It is not the place I left, it is not the place I grew up in, and it is not the place I remember. out. (and it aint just this party - its D.C.) | ||
| Etennuly |
Totally agree. The status-quo is junk. I'm gonna stick around and try to vote this crap out. Might even get close enough to  ! The same thing happened with the trail systems that I rode in my youth. They shut down the Allegheny National Forrest to off road trails and camping and all. We got a large group together and fought and won the right to ride in the forrest. As we found out it was all being drilled for oil and capped. I think at first they did not want people to know how many wells they were drilling. All of this hidden during the Cold War and behind Vietnam headlines, and while the Nation's Nuclear power grid was being built behind open curtains. None of it made headlines. |
