I nearly did, but didn’t for two main reasons:
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Women. I’m not a monk, and it’s really hard to find a woman who wants to live in the woods, especially when you live in the woods.
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Empathy for the rest of humanity. Can’t make the world a better place from the woods.
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I’m in the woods right now, waiting for you to come help cut firewood and get next year’s garlic and potatoes in. December-Febuary I’m gonna go be homeless somewhere warmer though. For real, if you want a taste of woods life and are able to pitch in hmu. “Other people” are kinda the main thing missing from the equation atm
The only woods where I could do that in my country are part of the Amazon , and the uncontacted tribes living there are not exactly friendly
Clean water really.
With solar and battery tech, self-sufficient electricity isn’t some impossible thing anymore. But getting clean water is the real trick. All my life I’ve just had to walk a few steps and turn a faucet. I took this for granted for so long until I actually looked into what it would realistically be like living off grid in the woods.
Sure you can collect rainwater, but what happens during a drought? You have iodine tablets? Where did you get them? I doubt you made them yourself in the woods lol. You’d have to live next to some freshwater stream or luck out with some kind of artesian well on the property.
Sure food could be an issue too, but you die from thirst long before you die of starvation. Idk but I guess I’m at the point of appreciating tap water lol.
A mortgage and a family.
If you want to see what it’s like to live without modern conveniences, go to a really poor country and observe the lower-class civilians. Having been to Honduras where poor people live in the mountains (with amazing vistas) with dirt floor huts and no clean drinking water, I can tell you that it is a terrible existence. Half their children die before they make it to 10, because of parasites from the dirt which get in their feet, and contaminated water that they have to hike down and up the mountain for every day. I feel like everyone should see this at some point to reset their perspective.
Mostly getting shit delivered. My current ideal spot is far enough outside town that I’m still able to get pizza delivered and have good internet… but not deal with JW’s.
Jehovah’s Witnesses?
I had enough with where this society is going and I no longer want to be part of it. But I like:
- fine spirits
- good food
- cooking nice steaks
- eating in restaurants
- drinking in bars
- traveling to places that are exotic or interesting to me
- traveling to places where it’s just nice to wind down
- swimming in tropical waters
- hiking snowy mountains
- driving
- listening to hi fi music
- reading books
- doing video calls with friends and family
- being able to follow my curiosity and learning new things
- playing video games
- being able to take my dog to the vet
- providing my kid with good education
- keeping my kid safe from injuries and diseases
- seeing a doctor when I get sick
- access to a dentist, a pediatrician, a barber, an ER when necessary
- taking a shower
- hot tubs
- having a washing machine, a dishwasher and a refrigerator in my house
- having heating and air conditioning
And probably a bunch more stuff because of which, while I truly enjoy being in nature, I keep choosing living in a city and going to work instead. The common thing with all these items that you need money for each. The only ethical way I know of for making money is working hard and building a career relentlessly for decades. if you’re lucky. There are no guarantees.
I’m not sure if it’s worth it, but I do know for sure I couldn’t give all of the above up, as long as I have a choice.
Moving to a rural area and realizing how fucking hard it is.
The hill I will die on: rugged individualism as strength in a post-disaster world is a lie that is sold to appeal to ego in an individualistic society, and also to prevent the formation of community.
That doesn’t apply to many existing rural communities, who of course know better.
What? You mean prepping isn’t just another form of participatory consumerism?
That too! Why not also make money from it?
It is impossible to gather food for yourself. We don’t live in pre-civilization or even the wild west. Everything is owned by someone, regulated, etc.
How do you expect to feed yourself? Not like you can just gather all day and get lucky hunting.
It is objectively harder to ‘live on the land’ then it was centuries ago. Borderline impossible, especially if you want to… you know live and interact with people.
I have a wife and cat to look out for, hard to do that when I can’t pay rent.
I like enough of the civilized world that I’m still willing to participate in it, despite being relatively removed from a lot of it.
Also, living in the woods in a lot more work than people think it is and I’m lazy.
Indoor plumbing. Seriously. Go without for a couple of weeks and tell me how you feel about hot showers and flush toilets.
Also, people really underestimate how difficult it would be to just fuck off into the woods. You’d need a good amount of planning and knowledge to do it. What’s edible within what time range. Where the animals are at what time of year. And if you’re up north you always gotta be laying in firewood.
Also civilization has taken over most of the good hunter gatherer/ subsistence farming spots. River valleys, estuaries, anywhere with good fertile soil. Most of the places with good desolate wilderness to fuck off into was left desolate because it’s fucking desolate.
There are fewer than 10,000 people who, if they just like weren’t around anymore, would inprove everyone’s quality of life like ten fold. I cling to the hope that one day enough of us will realize that and save the world.
Getting rid of those 10,000 people is relatively easy. The hard part is preventing 10,000 replacements from popping up.
You realize that’s entirely cope right.
Some dead rich people just means their money will go to their kids/family, it’s not going to you in any way ever other than through changes in tax law and enforcement. And well, if you’re already middle class, you won’t really see any benefit because you already generate more taxes than you consume.
Further dead rich people and more tax money won’t fix the massive inequalities and inefficiencies and corruption that makes government and social policy so limited and ineffective in many places.
The idea is that watching what happens to those 10,000 discourages replacements. But of course it’s cope. Fortunately, I don’t live in the US so am at least insulated somewhat. I’ll be dead before things get too gnarly. And no kids. Good Lord, no kids.
Fortunately, I don’t live in the US so am at least insulated somewhat.
The rise in authoritarianism and surveillance is worldwide, the US is just where the people funding it live. You’re barely insulated now, and will be much less so if they succeed.
i don’t think you understand how people work.
Convenience. The people I could do without, but I’m a creature of habit.
Living in the woods alone without food input from civilization is incredibly hard if not impossible.
Realistically you’d need like 10-20 people to help out, livestock, a field to grow cereals, large garden and a vegetable field, just to keep everyone surviving.
