lol prolly more true than I want to think.
my love for other people around me.
Scratch what I said, I like this better.
habit, comfort, security the enemies of liberty
the fear of fear itself? Oh yeah, and dying… from 5-oh, starvation or exposure. I can quell the fear of the latter two by learning, but the first will always demand my attention. That one I’ll just have to bite the bullet on (so to speak, ahem.)
and I would just die without my espresso 
(kidding. I do love it, but not that much)
My pretensions of financial success keep me going “to work”, that and kind of a deep distrust of the collapse coming quickly enough for my kids not to resent being street urchins (not that my mate would let that happen without fighting). The addiction to the comforts of domestication and fear of “the man” are psychological barriers. If I went feral alone today, I would have to deal with the pain but only for myself. If the time comes for me to leave society with my mate and children it would probably be to avoid prison or relocation camp, because going on the “permanent camping trip” would have to appear more comfortable than the alternative.
A few things:
-
“Industrial collapse is not a retirement strategy.” While I’d love to go squat land, until this shit comes down I want a method, even if it is a legal fiction, to protect the landbase I live on. That means, unfortunately, purchasing it. Which means work.
-
I work in muckity muck hi-tech land. You’d be surprised how fragile this all is from this stand point. Staying within civilization allows me the ability to wedge myself into a place where “oh… did I push that button. Whoops. cough” is a reality. It also gives me access to lots of information and people… placing oneself in the technocratic corps of the machine, learning where all the cogs are, how this all runs, is actually a somewhat novel strategy for me. We’ll see how long it lasts.
I’m apathetic and spend huge amounts of time being depressed.
I know people who are into living in the woods - but nobody SERIOUS about taking off to do it right now.
There are many fun things about civilization. I don’t appreciate industrial society as a whole, but I am really attached to my bicycle and I enjoy hi-tech music a lot. I really appreciate being able to get huge amounts of food from grocery store dumpsters every single day whenever I want to.
I have lots of problems with social interaction and am a hermit - and for all of the ills of civilization, it makes survival as a loner a lot easier than as a loner in the wilderness.
I know people who are into living in the woods - but nobody SERIOUS about taking off to do it right now.
There are still plenty of tribal people who live in the woods right now who still practice subsistence hunting and gathering (with a few nods to modernity, as is the case everywhere). In places like Borneo, New Guinea, Brazil/Ecuador/Venezuela/Peru/Colombia, Laos, and others. I imagine that if you were committed to finding such “tribal people” who hunt in the forest, it wouldn’t be too difficult to find them and connect with them, wouldn’t hurt to try anyways if you can’t find any suitable social group to live among in your own country.
Also in many other countries certain groups among the local people can be found living a good deal of their lives “out in the country” camping and living in tents/huts/etc, while hunting and sharing food, feasting with each other, sharing living space, etc.
There are many people who are doing it right now.
At the same time, why should anybody expect to be welcomed into a tribe that is already self-sufficient? Are they really going to say, “Sure, stranger, be a permanent guest here, even if your primitive skill level matches that of one of our 9-year-old children.” It seems a little arrogant if you ask me.
I really don’t see what is arrogant about wanting to connect with indigenous or tribal peoples. Whether or not any certain social group allows an outsider to interact with the members of that social group is up to them, according to their rules, customs and so on. If a person is respectful of those rules, customs and so on, I see no problem with it, maybe others do but that is their opinion, and since it’s an outsider’s opinion, it tends not to reflect the wishes or opinion of the social group in question.
I don’t think people should expect to be welcomed into every indigenous group, part of the way most modern tribal people preserve what independence they have is by excluding outsiders, yet they also adopt outsiders into their tribe in certain cases, depending on the group and the circumstances. You can’t say that this one does and that one doesn’t , because it’s up to those people to decide for themselves who they will accept and how they will conduct their relations.
Yet, what is wrong with talking to and learning from and spending time with those who are willing to share what they know, their life and so on?
In fact, how are people supposed to form tribes and “re-wild” without interacting with any sort of indigenous peoples? No offense, but I don’t think that many people in the re-wilding community (myself included) have enough experience and social skills to connect to each other in the manner of extended family relations. We certainly can’t learn that much from books regarding on how to live as extended family members, we have to see it being done here and now.
Sandwalker, very well said. I have found what you say to generally be the way it works. Relating as one human being to another is where it’s at. We have a lot in common
While there’s nothing arrogant about wanting to connect with a tribal group, there is something arrogant about expecting it to happen, at least in a way that makes you a permanent member of the group. I guess it depends on what you mean by “connect” - I think most people/groups would have no problem with talking with you or accommodating you for short periods, at least initially. But you really can’t expect to just be able to move on in.
I haven’t found that to be true from my own personal experiences, SilverArrow.
I have been accepted for the long-term with the Zalabiyeh Bedouin tribe for example, I know two other outsiders from Europe who have been living in villages among Bedouin extended families for 7+ years. I also know of other people who have lived among present-day tribal peoples in other parts of the world and some of them have been adopted long-term into those tribal social groups.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
It’s just about wakeup time. A bat told me I’ve been babbling in my sleep, mostly DMXs ruffridersanthem over and over. I informed that hanging fool that I’M NOT THAT EGOTISTICAL! I’M BETTER THAN THAT! So yah in my HO the internet blows so I’m off to greener pastures. Best of luck n grace to you all, whoever you are. Should we somehow cross paths, I don’t see how but should we, I’ll most likely give my full confidence and share my treasures unconditionally. Inna sense that’s leaving civilization.
Wildy wildy hateciv wildy. ;D
Me & mine still have to develop more skills. My closest friends and I have considered ourselves to be “family” long before any of us (at least voiced) interests in getting out of Civ, but only recently have some of us realized a similar goal. So, this summer and beyond we’re dedicating to learning and practicing skills and such. Also, I’d like to integrate at least one more female into our group, heh. So far I’m one of only two! Some of us are more into the idea than others; my boyfriend, for example, is supportive but his goal is to build a recording studio, but he’s still all about learning how to hunt and such, so I’m fairly optimistic even then. And really, as a musician, I can’t argue much with a recording studio at my fingertips :-\
It’ll still be awhile (like, a few years) before we’re ready, but we’ve all been talking about throwin’ down for some land in the future, so I am optimistic that we’ll get to actually do it when we’re ready.
If something goes wrong, though, I’m keeping Russell Means’s invitation to the Lakota Country he extended the folks of NE, SD, ND, WY and Montana in mind. He’s controversial, but the impression I’ve gotten from the Lakota I’ve met is that so long as you’re genuine, the door is open. At least up there.
On the topic of being ‘arrogant’ in wishing to join an already-existing group of Indigenous, you’d be surprised at how open people can be if you’re sincere. Of course, you can’t exactly waltz right in and expect instant acceptance; but it is possible. 30% of the population of the Santee Reservation in Nebraska is white. And the Indians I have met that attend Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, KS are eager to share their culture with non-Indians who are interested. At least, that’s been my experience.
I’ve seriously considered the Lakota invitation, too.
What keeps me in civ/Soc?
Great question. Fear–that’s the biggest. Lack of skills. Lack of community that I’ve bonded with and trust. As long as civ exists, I want to at least remain in contact with it, in part because I want to use my skill set to help bring it down, but also because many of the people I love consider themselves civilized.
My friends, family, and everything I aspired for my in my life. My community, and my life’s goal–to teach awareness about autism wherever I go.
Though I do suck with many things in Civ. My autism makes it hard for me to earn money.
I actually will ask everyone: How do you earn money and do so in the midst of attempts to rewild? I’ve currently tried to carve a niche on the “edges” of civ as a nomadic traveler, living hand to mouth by the support of families afflicted with people with autism, which is what I am doing, and earning money as an author (writing about autism), and musician performing music related to my work.
Family. I’ve been blessed enough to find a mate as wild as me, and if it were just us, we’d live on the road. But we’re not alone. A group is too big to wander around with nowadays, rich, wild, untainted resources far and few between cities and highways, many government and police threats for people like us. So we wait until we can buy land with pointless paper money.
I find myself doing the same thing. I’m currently stuck in a small town in Arizona, where I have no friends, or even like-minded acquaintances. I frequently find myself just driving around mindlessly, and looking at/purchasing used books that i’ll never get around to reading as a form of distraction.