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SeaGypsy wrote:I left my wife because she's too concerned with conformity. We get on better apart. I see the kids several times a week. I work in near zero stress job, make average wages, go to a millionaires gym in a millionaires car & have a lot of freedom. I'm not sure what I'm 'missing out on' which is so 'important to have a happy life'.

Just curious SeaGypsy, do you not have to have a home of record (a physical address) where you are? Even when I was a full time RV gypsy I had to have a mailing address to get a license, insurance and all that.

GHung wrote:

SeaGypsy wrote:I left my wife because she's too concerned with conformity. We get on better apart. I see the kids several times a week. I work in near zero stress job, make average wages, go to a millionaires gym in a millionaires car & have a lot of freedom. I'm not sure what I'm 'missing out on' which is so 'important to have a happy life'.

Just curious SeaGypsy, do you not have to have a home of record (a physical address) where you are? Even when I was a full time RV gypsy I had to have a mailing address to get a license, insurance and all that.

Saint Brendan's Isle
411 Green Cove Springs, FL

Me and about 8,000 other folks.

My mother's address. It's in a very wealthy suburb so I don't get any downmarket grief from the establishment.

Squilliam wrote:I - "Everytime I go back to the USA it slowly works on me in a negative way where I get drawn in. I feel like one of those Eusocial insects Newfie refers to, like some ant back in the colony and I slowly get drawn back into the dysfunctional consensus reality that is there. We have a few days off. Except for visiting family going back to the USA is the last place we consider going. "

i guess this goes back to the point that Newfie made with the media with respect to 'amusing ourselves to death'. It also goes back to the method that people are controlled with. Not only is it through the media, but it is also a form of social control. To get the things that represent genuine happiness and contentment for most people you need to opt into the system. To marry you need a good job, or conform to societal expectations of beauty. Buy a house/go to college you're participating in the system of debt and obligations. Then you're married and to stay married you need to continue on with that system. Then finally when you make it out the other side since you feel like you've gone through a river of BS to get to that point you don't want to change anything when you're older because you feel entitled to the spoils of others buying you out through taxes or property prices. Opting out of the system generally means also opting out of many of the things that make for a happy and healthy life.

One September evening (1967) I was sitting in my last period History, 11th grade, class, bored, when I had an epiphany. In a flash I saw how the "system" molds us from Cub Scouts through Little Leage, JV sports, varsity sports, dressing up right, into a military uniform, then college and a corporate uniform.

I went down the hall and withdrew from the football program. That was a defining moment in my life. My Father, who was a janitor at my high school, was summoned and upbraided for my loathful attitude. I became a trouble maker, someone to be watched and disciplined. It got worse the next year when I registered for the draft as a Contentious Objector.

I ended up in the USCG to avoid Nam and did well. I've had a long career in corporate life where I did well. But I never got in, I never forgot what I "knew" in the back of my mind.

Now I'm retired and sucking on the fat of my efforts. I don't have to listen to the corporate crap anymore. It feels sooooooo good!

Ibon wrote:The only reason the media and politics dominates so much American culture these days is because outside of this most folks have nothing culturally. It is breathtakingly sad actually.

It seems a bit strange to me that you spend so little time in the US, and yet you claim to have a better view of it than anyone else.
Even a dinky town like Spokane near me has a pretty vibrant cultural scene. Both art and athletics abound - Gonzaga you know.
Yeah, the majority overdose on TV, but we have a lot of people who don't even own one - me for example.
Maybe you are painting with too wide a brush?

Hawkcreek wrote:Yeah, the majority overdose on TV, but we have a lot of people who don't even own one - me for example.
Maybe you are painting with too wide a brush?

This is what my daughters sometimes tell me and you might be right. They have quite a rich culture and close community in the USA. Maybe it is just seeing that TV for 15 minutes and it made me make a whole caricature of the US society as a bunch of stooges. It really really looks bad from the outside believe me.

So to all of you who are enriched by a tight local community in the US my apologies. I do hope there are a lot of you out there!

Squilliam wrote: Understanding a broken system is one thing. Knowing what to do with oneself in light of this is another.

This is the challenge and its a big one. Here are some things that work and have worked for me.

The knowledge should empower you but not overwhelm you

The knowledge should demotivate you to join the consensus reality of consumption culture but motivate you to create an alternative where frugality and conservation are your principal virtues.

The knowledge should guide you toward the footloose freedom of exploiting the cracks and guide you away from the chains of debt that will put you in a golden cage.

The knowledge should make you tread lightly on the planet but at the same time not turn you into a Jainian fanatic where you sweep the floor in front of you to avoid killing any bugs. Just because abundance is the source of our problem does not mean you have to deny yourself of some reasoned material pleasures.

The knowledge should increase your compassion of our species plight at the same time as you cut through the sentimentality with a sword. Be honest about how ignorant most folks are and be unforgiving toward them because reality will punish them far more than any criticism you generate. Internalize this truth and cultivate compassion. Be rude and arrogant if you have to in order to awaken ignorance but follow up with compassion.

The knowledge should make you be in it but not of it. If you can earn a bit of wealth use it wisely to insulate yourself from the macro trends of decline.

Tune your entertainment and recreation toward our natural world and reject societies material values. This costs you nothing and the entertainment is all around you, even in the weeds that so tenaciously grow in the cracks of the concrete. Those weeds are metaphors for natures resilience to one day recolonize human landscapes. This should be a source of joy.

SQ....What's your major?

SQ,

Good observation on theory. Innovation is much the same, it's a talent.

Two of the most intelligent and resourceful people I ever met were illiterate. Both could intuitively solve problems that stumped college grad coworkers.

Someone once said that the heart of problem solving is asking the right question. I think there is much to that. It reflects an open mindset, flexibility.

There is no right way to go about life, you have as good a start as any. Life and circumstance have a way of dictating our choices for us. The culture will try to bend you to its desires, it may effect your body. But your mind remains your own IF you work to keep it flexible.

Mostly we are a group of cynical geezers. While sometimes interesting one should not confuse us with wisdoms or role models.

You have been a member a few years, but only recently joined the conversation. Years ago I said here it is kind of like a perpetual after dinner party. People come & go, some stay & don't say a lot, but what they do can be very potent. The physical distances between us are global, but in some ways we are like family. You are correct I think, we are carrying on an ancient pastime, having very long conversations.

Or gossip!

Squilliam wrote:I wonder though if in many ways one significant reason why people congregate here is the sense of community. You know before television, and even radio, apparently people sat around and talked about things.

I agree. My grandfather sharpened saws for a living. This was back in the day before carbide teeth ruined the business. His shop was about 25 feet from the screened in back porch of their house. When someone brought him a saw to be sharpened the visit would usually stretch out for an hour or more, and usually involved coffee on the back porch. No subject was sacred on that porch, and I learned things there that have stuck with me through my entire life.
No more crowded back porches, but this helps a bit.

Hawkcreek wrote:

Squilliam wrote:I wonder though if in many ways one significant reason why people congregate here is the sense of community. You know before television, and even radio, apparently people sat around and talked about things.

I agree. My grandfather sharpened saws for a living. This was back in the day before carbide teeth ruined the business. His shop was about 25 feet from the screened in back porch of their house. When someone brought him a saw to be sharpened the visit would usually stretch out for an hour or more, and usually involved coffee on the back porch. No subject was sacred on that porch, and I learned things there that have stuck with me through my entire life.
No more crowded back porches, but this helps a bit.

That is exactly the organic community that we have lost. Your grandfather's back porch was like a church, the barber shop, the diner, the town square, the fishing hole from the bridge, the pharmacy on main street, etc. etc.

How many passive listeners sat there and learned the ways of the world as you did?

Pops always said Peakoil.com is a social media site.... and I fully agree with SeaGypsy and Squiliam, we are carrying on ancient long conversations.

These "organic communities" exist in many parts of the world because most people earn less than $10 a day. Several of them don't even have diners, pharmacies, or barber shops.

Haven't been back to rural Asia for a while obviously Ralphy. It's suddenly got millions of smart phone users, a lot of who dream of making $10 a day.