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Guest Post: Tune In, Turn On, Opt Out
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
What happens to everyone in the ruling Elites and those desperately trying to join the ruling Elites when the debt-serfs stop paying and the tax donkeys drift away to lower-cost, lower-income lifestyles?
Turn on, tune in, drop out was a famous slogan of the 1960s counterculture popularized by Timothy Leary, who stated that slogan was "given to him" by Marshall McLuhan during a lunch in New York City in 1966.
Tune in referred to gaining an awareness of the countercultural spectrum of ideas and values, turn on referred to mind-expansion via psychedelics and drop out meant to drop out of conventional society; Leary later explained that "drop out meant self-reliance, a discovery of one's singularity, a commitment to mobility, choice, and change."
In 1967, Leary modified the slogan thusly: Drop out. Turn on. Drop in.
Here at oftwominds.com, the slogan has been updated to Tune In, Turn On, Opt Out: tune in means to become aware the status quo is unsustainable and deranging; turn on means to become engaged in self-reliance and taking control of one's life and livelihood, and opting out means opting out of supporting our financialized cartel-state Neofeudal Debtocracy by being a compliant debt-serf and tax donkey.
People all over the world are tuning in to alternative narratives, turning on to self-reliance and low-cost/low-impact living and opting out of the status quo culture of consumerism, debt and complicity with a parasitic, exploitive financial-state Aristocracy/Plutocracy/Oligarchy/Kleptocracy (take your pick--it's still the same rapacious Elite whatever name you choose).
The most direct path to an alternative way of living is to opt out of debt and the associated consumerist fantasies of store-bought selfhood: multiple university degrees, brand name clothing, luxury autos, etc. This renunciation of consumerist consumption and debt is called Degrowth (May 9, 2013).
Once you opt out of debt and excess consumption, you need a lot less money to live; that means one can work less and have more time for family, gardening, self-cultivation, entrepreneurial enterprises, etc.
For many, the cash economy and generous state benefits beckon. I am not recommending any particular lifestyle or set of choices here, I am simply stating what can easily be observed in any developed nation should you remove the mainstream media/state propaganda blinders: people are earning their livelihood in the informal cash economy, avoiding VAT and sales taxes, and many are drawing some sort of state benefit for one reason or another: unemployment, disability, early retirement, etc.
Others are occupying housing units without paying rent or the mortgage, i.e. squatting. A tide of squatters spreads in Spain in wake of foreclosures:
A 285-unit apartment complex in Parla, less than half an hour’s drive from Madrid, should be an ideal target for investors seeking cheap property in Spain. Unfortunately, two thirds of the building generates zero revenue because it’s overrun by squatters.“This is happening all over the country,” said Jose Maria Fraile, the town’s mayor, who estimates only 100 apartments in the block built for the council have rental contracts, and not all of those tenants are paying either. “People lost their jobs, they can’t pay mortgages or rent so they lost their homes and this has produced a tide of squatters.”
As I have ceaselessly explained here for years, this is the inevitable result of financialization and state-enforced rentier arrangements in a Neofeudal Debtocracy:
Bernanke's Neofeudal Rentier Economy (May 7, 2013)
The Fatal Disease of the Status Quo: Diminishing Returns (May 1, 2013)
College Grads: It's a Different Economy (May 3, 2013)
What happens to everyone in the ruling Elites and those desperately trying to join the ruling Elites when the debt-serfs stop paying and the tax donkeys drift away to lower-cost, lower-income lifestyles? The ruling kleptocratic financiers and the vast political class of toadies, lackeys, apparatchiks and grifters that do their bidding will be like a bloated general staff who finds their malnourished army of conscripts has slipped away into the night; their parasitic empire will implode because nobody is left to do their bidding.
If you think Tune In, Turn On, Opt Out sounds ludicrous, check back in four years (2017) and eight years (2021) and see how many of your fellow debt-serfs and tax donkeys have quietly abandoned the bloated cost-structure, debt and derangement of the Neofeudal Debtocracy's twisted consumerist dream.
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I've been there for three years, and it's groovy!
It's also a bit cold in the winter and hot in the summer.
Wood stove, deep pond.
I stopped using toilet paper to help out Venezuela
You can easily and cheaply make your own. I made enough to last a few years about 8 months ago. It's really great for the skin. Much better than commercial paper, and it compared favorably with fiat papers I had borrowed in the past.
God gave you hand for that; well so my Indian colleges tell me.
It's a funny thing about toilet paper: if you got shit on your hand, would you be content to wipe it off with a tissue? Of course not: you would wash your hand. But for some reason, the tissue is sufficient when you've got shit on your ass?
Thailand ass-sprayer all the way.
You also need a lot less toilet paper if your bowels aren't crammed with Big Macs.
Ask me, I know.
So far out dude! I've been surviving on 30 year old Twunkies and cheap tequla for years now.
Did you see my bong anywhere?
It's one of the main reasons why I moved to Bangkok 17 years ago and never looked back.
(To see if I needed another wipe)
The standard ass spray hose is one of the best aspects of Thailand.
i stopped thinking to help out the fed.
i stopped spending to help china
i stopped giving a shit to help out me...
I shower after I shit...fuck the Mexicans
Shitting is for savages, i dropped that habit.
amen, bro
haven't showered in weeks
take *that*, soap and shampoo cartel
You can easily and cheaply make your own soap. I made enough to last a few years about 8 months ago. It's really great for the skin. Much better than commercial soaps, and it compared favorably with homemade soaps I had bought in the past.
And it soaps up like crazy even in my shitty hard water.
Looks like you got junked by a Proctor & Gamble rep...
+1,000
How do you make soap? You know many of the baby boomers were filthy hippes who never used soap and have become the greatest scamming generation.
The Baby Boomers and seniors are in for a Hope & Change suprise but many of them voted for it. The you who voted for the Free Shit army are just as bad.
First step is to be sure and add water to your sodium hydroxide not the other way around.
signed-------Boomer
how to make soap:
is similar to making a security
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrXrS0kGyAA
spoiler: a worker painstakingly forms and polishes bricks of cleanliness that become municipal bonds
Did't Tyler show us how to make soap in the movie?
What movie?
The empire strikes back.
Gotcha, because that's one we can talk about.
Coming from a old hippy, blow it out your unhappy ass Freddie.
easy know.... don't need to raise your blood pressure...
Don't be bitter bro because your too many LSD trips blew out your prostate. Not my fault.
And I always hated that bagel boy LBJ who started Vietnam raging with his fake Gulf of Tonkin BS. While Jim's dad the Admiral ran Task Force Bull Shit in the Gulf of Tonkin that night.
Hopefully LBJ and McNamara are burning in hell with most of trust fund babies of The Grateful Dead.
All your shitty American hippy bands with the children of intel and CIA agents or military industrial complex stooges.
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1169856/pg1
Especially that fat f**king phony David Crosby. Old wealthy American family totally connected to CIA. That c**t Joan Baez old man ran CIA's cy-ops programs. These were the hippies heroes!
Your statements of fact seem to trump "Blow it out your ass".
>> blow it out your unhappy ass Freddie.
I have to concur with that thought. Old Fred is one miserable fuck.
Ha---I do the same. My favorite commercial soap (Favorito) with 3% shea butter is $17.50 a bar. I can make a ton of it with 30% shea, dirt cheap.
Better quality hands down.
Started making laundry soap too. Screw P & G. This stuff is great in extremely hard well water.
Rinse your hair every day, and you'll find that you don't even need shampoo. No joke.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-394226/Could-survive-shampoo.html
I think you meant beard, not hair.
I tried that once, but found my hair got too oily after two days. Better to wash it every other day, if you want pretty hair.
But IDGAF, so I wash it every day. Oily hair feels gross.
My wife and I stopped using shampoo about a decade ago. Usually, a thorough cleansing/scrubbing of the scalp every 2-3 days with vinegar is all you need. Rinse and repeat a couple of times. Dandruff free and tangle-free locks.
I haven't used shampoo or deodorant in 20 years.
You just have to go 3 or 4 weeks until your body re-normalizes.
My hair is never greasy and I don't stink, even after slinging hay bales for 10 hours a day.
Disclaimer- I am not a hippy
> Oily hair feels gross.
Real men have short hair and don't worry about how it 'feels'.
.
Or just run a bar of soap through it. F-U Pert Plus!
Well what do you use? Peanut shells or something? Flower petals? I don't have to kill a horse or nothin do i?
http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/coldprocesssoapmaking/ss/sscpsoap.htm
Thanks bro. Is it really cheaper? I thought some of the old hippies here were "bogarting" the knowledge like "the man" does.
Thanks.
Bogarting Google Freddie.
The knowledge & prostates went out with the LSD.
I think it not fair to lump self-sufficient types under some vague "hippies" umbrella.
My wife made a ton of soap. She even renders lard (free pig fat). Recently she made a nice little brick chimney stove that she uses for rendering- lots of wood debris available: we're going to build an outdoor brick oven (it's a kit- I'm not That industrious!). She grew up in the Philippines, I don't think they'd ever had "hippies" there.
If one could only have one book it should be Carla Emmery's The Encyclopedia of Country Living.
Word of the day: Saponification.
The yard stick of civilization.
? Soap or Nexus 6 Replicants?
Stop shaving too! Gillette etc. will hate you, but you'll be a lot healthier with a reduced chance of getting the flu.
Flu?
Yep if your hands cant reach around to your face you are less likely to get the flu. BIG beard. /s
i call it Bankocracy. and opted out three years ago as well. i haven't a credit card, pay cash, never keep anything in the bank, stash physical, steer clear of facebook and cell phones, and media television, enjoy a walk along the beach more than a day spent in traffic looking to buy the latest bauble. i sincerely practise charity rather than 'donating' cash to interest rates and bank fees. life is good when you are no longer a banker's serf.
"The seasons’ difference, as the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind,
Which when it bites and blows upon my body
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile, and say
’This is no flattery. These are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.’
-Duke Senior form Shakespear's "As You Like It"
It's freedom.
been telling loved ones that the best trade is to buy 2 acres and a shotgun to prep for the post bernank world. opting out is the ONLY way to fight the parasite short of becoming a "terrorist".
The end of tyranny will not come with a whimper OR a bang.
It will come with a yawn and a nap and a pulling of the television cord.
I am a member of the choir.
Turn on, tune in, drop out with me
The whole thing's comin' down
So let's just get out of the way
~ Cracker http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-5Ikr_eI5M
This could be an anthem for zerohedgers.
Yes
I have been there most of my life. Debt free. Buy what I need, not what I want.
I've done it both ways- big debt, big expenses (few years after I was out of college) and my current lifestyle which is debt-free. No mortgage (own house and land outright), no car payment (paid cash), no carried balance on the credit cards (although I still have cards for certain situations) and no student or personal loans.
Let me tell you, the last 7 years (when I paid off the mortgage- my last debt) has been so much easier than cracking the monthly nut it's better than getting away with stealing.
I also got a couple plantable acres in back of the house (it used to be a small farm years ago), but I haven't gotten around to planting it yet. So, I'm not food-self-sufficient, but I could take steps in that direction if I wanted to try my hand at it.
All credit goes to my depression-era Grandfather on this. That guy was so right it physically hurts me just to think about it, although I didn't want to hear it when I was a kid. I like to think he'd be proud.
Better to use a cash-back credit card for all purchases at stores that take them; just pay the balance off every month.
(Unless, of course, a vendor offers a cash discount...)
I stopped doing that. I shop at a lot of local businesses. I decided I would rather the Business get the profit to stay in Business rather than have the Business pay the Bank surcharge on my Charges.
Kind of like a rebelion against large Bankers and a support for my Local Businesses.
Yup - even if you never pay a dime in interest, you are still doing the banksters' bidding by making them their 3-5% on each purchase. Better to pay cash (or check if you must) & leave that extra $ in the hands of the merchant, your neighbor.
Plus they have a lot less information collected on you. The less the sheepherders know about you, the more free you are. Credit cards and loyalty cards are another form of leashes.
" but I haven't gotten around to planting it yet. So, I'm not food-self-sufficient, but I could take steps in that direction if I wanted to try my hand at it."
Throw in some fruit trees now. They take a while to produce.
I suggest that the first two years after planting fruit-bearing trees that you remove any fruit that begins to develop. Allow the tree to put it's energy into it's roots; by the third year you'll have a healthier, better producing, more disease resistant tree for future productivity.
Just to give you a heads up on the plantable 2 acres - it takes a long time to learn to garden successfully. Start something now. Even just a 2000 square foot garden out of your 80,000 suqare feet will give you a lot of good healthy veggies and a lot of experience.
Nothing tastes as good or is as good for you as that which you grow yourself. I've been gardening for about 6-7 years (ever-more) seriously and each year I learn lots more about it. I do it organically, so that's pretty challenging to learn straight out of the gate but my point would be start now because when you need it, it's too late.
Good luck to you and I'm sure your Grandad would be proud.
Even if you don't want to plant now, you could put up really good fencing now. A big challenge if you're growing your food, is beasties. Even if you're willing to poison and trap and shoot them, those methods are far less effective than a good solid fence. Better karma, too!!!!
We have a friend who is an elderly Italian lady. She has a huge area fenced: she has hundreds of blueberry bushes in it. It has been her joy for many years (she got good fencing). Her lot is largely wooded, and if it weren't for the fence she wouldn't get a single blueberry.
If things go south, good fencing will be in demand. It can make the difference between a crop, and no crop.
Right on! Let someone else work like a slave and get further in debt.
Yup, guess I'm an "early adopter". Been living off the grid since around 1980, on a farmstead I built up. Not quite self-sufficient, but a long step in that direction. Solar power, wood heat off my woodlot, my own artesian springs...wildlife should I decide to hunt it, and so on. Just one bill for internet, no other monthly bills *at all*. Nice to keep whatever money you make...
The family is addicted to convenience, or I'd be right with you. Not much will change for you when the unsustainable ceases.
Last kid is entering high school in the fall. I gave the family a 4 year notice last month. The debt train ends for me when last kid graduates in 2017. Wife isn't so sure if she wants to come. Told her that the invitation is open but I'm going regardless. She has a B.S. and earns a good living so I am not worried about her surviving.
Sounds like a good plan but the debt train or The Ben Bernank's Bigtop may end a lot sooner than 2017.
Just laid out that scenario myself...don't care either way. :)
I can only find shrooms none of the good stuff.
The good 'ol days of the 60's
When you could sell your soul to a voodoo witch doctor and be taken care of for life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZWL8WSAETY
I've been doing this for going on 5 years now and still haven't feel I've gotten far enough.
The basic problem is still rent/mortgage (and I don't even have one).
It's much easier when your shelter is paid for, either owned outright or government freebie. In a way I'm sucking on that tit, because when I work for agencies as an independent contractor, they pay for lodging, and they can afford to because the federal government pays them.
I upvoted you because many businesses and contractors don't have the intellectual honesty to admit where their paychecks really come from.
Know of many 20 somethings that have found this religion. They wised up and don't care if their driving a 20 year old car. At least there is no debt.
More and more joining and finding happiness.
There was a time, not even ten years ago, I called BS on the pursuit of personal happiness rather than great contributions to the advancement of humanity at all levels. Now it has become more difficult to know what cause one's labors are serving or one's sacrafices are advancing.
That's a great point. When everything you attempt to do is stolen or undermined by a criminal class posing as your government, all is futile. How does one stop a psychopath...
"How does one stop a psychopath..."
I heard the answer to that one once. Gosh, what was it? It was a V- word. Violet? No, that wasn't it. Violin? Violins? Something like that.
I hope they are doing so of their own free will and volition rather than out of desparation.
I've paid every bill up to the 01/01/2014 (except food) after receiving my redundancy and will be reassessing from there. The rest I have in cash to go to the blokes that sell stuff out the back of a van tax free.
Most of the stuff I've seen around here out of the back of a van was stolen.
I crawled out of the back of my van, which is parked down by the river.
I'm going homeAnd when I want to go home, I'm going mobile
Well I'm gonna find a home on wheels, see how it feels,
Goin' mobile
Keep me moving
I can pull up by the curb,
I can make it on the road,
Goin' mobile
I can stop in any street
And talk with people that we meet
Goin' mobile
Keep me moving
Out in the woods
Or in the city
It's all the same to me
When I'm driving free
The world's my home
When I'm mobile
Play the tape machine
Make the toast and tea
When I'm mobile
Well, I can lay in bed with only highway ahead
When I'm mobile
Keep me moving
Keep me moving
Over fifty
Keep me groovin'
Just a hippie gypsy
Come on move now
Movin'
Keep me movin' yeah
Keep me movin', movin', movin', yeah
Movin' yeah
Mobile, mobile, mobile, mobile....
I don't care about pollution
I'm an air-conditioned gypsy
That's my solution
Watch the police and the taxman miss me!
I'm mobile!
Mobile, mobile, mobile, yeah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRcgt5f3wjM
Dropping out of consumerism - or at least scaling back on it as much as possible - is a good way to starve the parasitic beast that gorges on taxation it extorts from people.
But don't think for one minute the parasites haven't thought of this one. They've devised plans to fill the gaping holes left by lower tax revenues.
Firstly they want more inflation, much more. This will encourage spending for obvious reasons.
Secondly, as we have seen in Cyprus, Greece and elsewhere, they are devising ways to expropriate peoples' savings directly from their bank accounts before you make the choice of whether to spend it or starve the parasites.
Thirdly, if that isn't enough, they are introducing so-called *wealth taxes* - taxes on assets like property. Again, to expropriate money before you even think about spending it or not.
The parasitic beast is addicted to taxing/borrowing/spending and will not reduce it, and it cannot repay its debts. Somebody has to fill the black holes. That is us.
Good post.
Unplug cable/sat TV first along with Hollywood. F them.
Good point. The vampires will get your slave labor one way or another.
An entire world war was fought and lost over it 70 years ago, and a long succession of tinpot dictators who refused to play ball with the jackals have been toppled over it since then.
One last ride. http://bit.ly/10VwlL1
Exactly. When they can't convince you to buy their wares, they enlist government to force you to buy their wares. Homeowners dealing with water/sewer/garbage/electric mandatesare staring that truth right in the face. That's what Obamacare is all about too. People out there who think it was to make health care affordable or make whites subsidize blacks are fucking fools. It's a handout to the parasitic insurance industry that owns Congress.
When the moon is in the 7th house....looking for a vw westfalia camper van, maybe follow the Dead WHAT!! Jerrys dead, Oh well is Fish still touring?
No but Jim Morrison was recently seen in Egypt.
And Jay Zee was spotted in 1939...
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/a-jay-z-sighting-in-1939-ha...
Does anyone know if there is any historical guide on how the soldiers that slipped away managed to regain the helm? It seems like a difference this time is immediate and comprehensive peer to peer communication. The soldiers don't want to give up, they just don't want to fight for the wrong thing. Any ideas?
It just ends and no one cares to find them and prosecute. There is a ton of history written about the fall of the Roman Empire but little written about history of the Romans after the fall. They were all still there, eeking out a living. All of the conveniences go away and you no longer hold sway outside of your borders but the lives of the citizens continues.
It's called "sustainable subsistence" an idea proposed decades ago by Hugh Nibley.
Chuck-You's recommendation. If you can't beat the Ruling Class, become one of their serfs! Collect welfare, live in Section 8 housing, live on food stamps! What a tool.
I think you missed the point. You have 3 options.
1. Become self reliant and off the grid - Opt Out.
2. Hop on the socialist gravy train and become a leech - Opt In.
3. Continue running on the hamster wheel but learn to run faster because people are doing 1 or 2 - Classic do nothing alternative.
Remember Frederic Bastiat called systems like our "legal plunder" and said the 3 options for that are:
1. The few plunder the many
2. Everybody plunders everybody
3. Nobody plunders anybody.
Number 3 sounds kinda nice. Has it ever happened?
#4 Go after the vampires
"when the debt-serfs stop paying and the tax donkeys drift away to lower-cost, lower-income lifestyles?"
Not to worry ... they will just make the illegal immigrants to step up to tax-plate by legalizing them ... and by promoting political instability around the central america the source of those illegal immigrants will likely not diminish for sometime.
This says it -http://m.youtube.com/results?q=weregoingwrong
John Galt is a better role model than anyone else I can think of. He didn't take his ball and just go home as much as he quit trying to kick the ball that nonproducers are always yanking around.
exhausted from the demands of off the grid living and more significantly utterly demoralized by the ennui of contemplating pre-apocalyptic (sh)America, i hear a slightly different riff on the Leary theme, one which i unfailingly repeat each welcome evening-Turn In, Roll Over, Drop Off.
There's seems to be a repeating message out there, I've certainly had it twice.
But if we know this, then we are already in Elysium.
But when earth had covered this generation also, Zeus the son of Cronos made yet another, the fourth, upon the fruitful earth, which was nobler and more righteous, a god-like race of hero-men who are called demi-gods, the race before our own, throughout the boundless earth. Grim war and dread battle destroyed a part of them, some in the land of Cadmus at seven-gated Thebes when they fought for the flocks of Oedipus, and some, when it had brought them in ships over the great sea gulf to Troy for rich-haired Helen's sake: there death's end enshrouded a part of them. But to the others father Zeus the son of Cronos gave a living and an abode apart from men, and made them dwell at the ends of earth. And they live untouched by sorrow in the islands of the blessed along the shore of deep-swirling Ocean, happy heroes for whom the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a year, far from the deathless gods, and Cronos rules over them Hesiod
“When we recognize that, just like the glass, our body is already broken, that indeed we are already dead, then life becomes precious, and we open to it just as it is, in the moment it is occurring. When we understand that all our loved ones are already dead — our children, our mates, our friends — how precious they become. How little fear can interpose; how little doubt can estrange us. When you live your life as though you're already dead, life takes on new meaning. Each moment becomes a whole lifetime, a universe unto itself. Steven Levine
The Pope and Nuns are weighing into the EU side of things (esp. Spain), on the surface at least looking like they'll be going the Liberation Theology route (well, the prophecy does say he'll be the last Pope, and biting the hand of finance is one way to go down fighting).
For all those whose noses wiggle, there's a lot going up to the 24th, apparently.
From water does all life begin.
The Pope's new Verve.
Try to make ends meet you're a slave to money then you die.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyP3g6oiQck
Interesting fact about that song:
After “Bittersweet Symphony” became a hit single, the group was sued by former Stones manager Allen Klein (who owns the copyrights to the band’s pre-1970 songs because of aggressive business practices). He claimed the Verve broke the agreement when they supposedly used a larger portion than was covered in the license, something the group vehemently disputed. The Verve layered nearly fifty tracks of instrumentation, including novel string arrangements, to create a distinctly new song. In fact, the song’s signature swirling orchestral melody was recorded and arranged by the Verve; the sample from the instrumental record is largely buried under other tracks in the chorus.The band eventually settled out of court and handed over 100 percent of their songwriting royalties because it seemed cheaper than fighting for a legal ruling that might not end in their favor. As if things couldn’t have gotten worse, they were then sued by another old Rolling Stones manager, Andrew Loog Oldham. Klein went after the Verve for infringing on the songwriting copyright, which he owned, but Oldham possessed the copyright on the sampled sound recording. They totally lost everything. [source]
If you didn't know that already, it was a very prescient pick. Music biz is one of the snakiest ones out there, barring Hollywood. If already knew, I see what you did there.
Interesting note on the industry...
I had a friend in the military years ago, who had was to front a "boy band", before they got big(late 80s). His producer/manager had managed the guy who sang "In year of the cat" in the 1970s(turn on am radio in the 70s or 80s, and you've heard it) His father was wealthy and had lawyers, so he took the contract to dad's legal guys. They said "You'ld owe him, even if you sold a million copies...don't do it". So he went to art school and stayed in he ocean front house of Dad's, neglecting to go to school. Eventually Dad said to hell with that and he ended up enlisted. True story.
Lol ... in a word "cannibalization". They will try the whip first. They always do... but in the end, they will eat their own.
Personally I started to drop out over 20 years ago. Getting out of the rat-race, gradually elliminating debt, living without credit, getting out of the big city. I'm now 65 and fully retired. I own a small house (around 650 sq ft) in a small (<600) community. Have no debt. Pay cash or use a debit card for internet purchases. Grow much of my own food needs in my own back garden (organically). Do not subscribe to TV in any way; I see it as government propaganda and indoctrination.
I live at, what is considered to be, well below the poverty line, but live very well.
The baby boomers are continuing to change society in very profound ways. We are healthy and active. We will most likely be the generation that is the longest-lived in history. The generations coming after us are all sick from eating garbage food laced with chemicals and toxins almost from birth. Their health is being destroyed by STDs and toxic vaccinations etc. Not to mention indoctrination into unhealthy lifestyles.
P.S. This article does not mention the rediscovery of religion, especially Christianity, by many who opt out. This is another revolution that is happening very quietly. The new Christians are not joining the old established churches who are seen as the corrupt Pharisees of today.
P.P.S. I'll get off my soap-box now.
There is a lot we could do in short order. Take all money/investments out of big banks and put them in small/regional banks and credit unions. Cancel your jp morgan chase credit cards and get local/regional bank based cards. You can move your 401k's and IRA's from the big banks as well.
Secondly, get active in your local Republican precinct to transform the party to a true conservative one. Look up precinctproject.us About half the local precinct committee spots are vacant, all you have to do is show up. You can help recruit conservative patriots to run for office, be a delegate etc.... This wields tremendous power collectively that is why the current DC establishment NEVER tells you about it. All they want is your money and your vote.
Doing these 2 things would radically transform this country for the better in 2 yrs or less.
Those spectacles with one red lens and one blue lens do not make you see 3D dude. Take them off, and start looking at the world lying beyond the shadows on the cave wall. THEN you'll start seeing in 3D.
Reading comprehension is your friend.
It's a workable tactic to take over the Republican party with true conservatives, patriots, libertarians. The tremendous infrastructure is there. Building a 3rd party from scratch is a total waste of time.
Dr Timmy was a libertarian
These assholes are going to find out austerity means no soup for you when people refuse to spend on the shit you want them to buy to sustain your control over them. Me personally I haven't been too much on the grid to begin with and just out of principle will pull off as far as I can now whether needed or not for the simple reason, fuck them and everything they think is important that they use to try to control you. You can flap your lips all you want but doing and gum flapping aren't the same thing. If enough people took that approach this shit stops real quickly and doesn't mean going to extreme lengths. Small changes have big repercussions throughout the system when enough people do them at the same time.
I've got a book for that: MicroSecession: Simple Ways to Liberate Yourself, Your Family, and Your Community from Government Idiocy
Living a simple life creates Happiness and contentment. Your Health and quality of life improves.
Many people think that to make or have more Money that they will gain Happiness but it is quite the reverse.
Anyone heard of Jordan Maxwell?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgwMr_gdiv8
this is why i own the url inonout.com
If you make or have a lot of Money everyone wants their share of it. You have the IRS and Tax authorities that will hound you to death (sometimes literally) to get their piece of it.
There are a battalion of Attorneys that will sue you for anything at the drop of a hat if you have Money.
You have Family's break apart over large Estates. Causing heartache for all involved. Brothers and Sisters never speaking to each other again.
You have years in Divorce Court if you have Money as the Attorneys will pit each Spouse against each other so that you cannot get Divorced until all of the Money in your Bank Accounts is in theirs. Both Spouses walk away bitter enemy's and broke.
Almost, makes you wonder why anyone would want to have a lot of Money as it creates so much unhappiness and discord in ones life.
Well, I bailed out 2.5 years ago. Not everyone can pull it off, but it's been great for me. As someone else acknowledged, all credit to my grandparents, who raised me, and were products of the depression.
I willingly closed my business (actually gave it to the last two guys who worked for me, and they still have it going), sold two houses and a commercial property (two were free and clear and that's my living stash), unloaded a ton of material garbage, cancelled a bunch of insurance, including health, and moved to the close in country.
Five acres, a nice triple wide trailer, barn and sweet well. I've planted 40 assorted fruit trees and 30 blackberries. I've got a 110X70 vegetable garden that's brimming with produce right now. I couldn't be happier.
Before the big economic downturn my dream was to reduce my 7 day a week work week to four days a week. Admittedly I live a much more frugal life now, but I've reduced my work week from 7 to 0 days a week. But I still get up and hustle 7 days a week, just a different hustle.
I'm saying this to encourage anyone who has a chance, but is scared, like I was, to give it serious though. It is the best thing that every happened to me. Good luck all.
Oh, and Freddie, I'm one of those old hippies that you, for whatever reason, hate so much. I've done my share to fight the borg, what have you done that would give you the right to pontificate from your biggoted perch?
I am not hatin bro. Good for you in the changes that you have made. I am looking to do the same thing.
I just hate hearing about how great Woodstock was. It wasn't.
>> I am not hatin bro
Well, I guess that clears that up, my apoligies, I mistook your sentiment. I hope you make it.
>> I just hate hearing about how great Woodstock was.
I can understand that. Peace.
Good stuff Charles, thanks.
I am getting off the Washington/Wall Street Calliope as fast as I can.
No doubt, many of you all have seen this wonderful fable...
What Really Matters in Life? Mexican Fisherman Meets Harvard MBA
A vacationing American businessman standing on the pier of a quaint coastal fishing village in southern Mexico watched as a small boat with just one young Mexican fisherman pulled into the dock. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. Enjoying the warmth of the early afternoon sun, the American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish.
"How long did it take you to catch them?" the American casually asked.
"Oh, a few hours," the Mexican fisherman replied.
"Why don't you stay out longer and catch more fish?" the American businessman then asked.
The Mexican warmly replied, "With this I have more than enough to meet my family's needs."
The businessman then became serious, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"
Responding with a smile, the Mexican fisherman answered, "I sleep late, play with my children, watch ball games, and take siesta with my wife. Sometimes in the evenings I take a stroll into the village to see my friends, play the guitar, sing a few songs..."
The American businessman impatiently interrupted, "Look, I have an MBA from Harvard, and I can help you to be more profitable. You can start by fishing several hours longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra money, you can buy a bigger boat. With the additional income that larger boat will bring, before long you can buy a second boat, then a third one, and so on, until you have an entire fleet of fishing boats."
Proud of his own sharp thinking, he excitedly elaborated a grand scheme which could bring even bigger profits, "Then, instead of selling your catch to a middleman you'll be able to sell your fish directly to the processor, or even open your own cannery. Eventually, you could control the product, processing and distribution. You could leave this tiny coastal village and move to Mexico City, or possibly even Los Angeles or New York City, where you could even further expand your enterprise."
Having never thought of such things, the Mexican fisherman asked, "But how long will all this take?"
After a rapid mental calculation, the Harvard MBA pronounced, "Probably about 15-20 years, maybe less if you work really hard."
"And then what, señor?" asked the fisherman.
"Why, that's the best part!" answered the businessman with a laugh. "When the time is right, you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions."
"Millions? Really? What would I do with it all?" asked the young fisherman in disbelief.
The businessman boasted, "Then you could happily retire with all the money you've made. You could move to a quaint coastal fishing village where you could sleep late, play with your grandchildren, watch ball games, and take siesta with your wife. You could stroll to the village in the evenings where you could play the guitar and sing with your friends all you want."
Is that you Mike? If so, you told me the abridged version of this last night. We were in a place of grace.
No, not me..
===========================
WTF!?! As of 3:28 PM, there was BUT ONE reference to "John Galt" in this thread of discussion. Kinda surprising, IMO. Two years ago, there would have been at least half a dozen. Not anymore. ZH is declining fast.
-- Paul D. Bain
PaulBain@PObox.com
=========================
Ron Paul lost & retired dude, that's the reason.
Tune in, Turn on, Opt out...is there an app for that?
Therein lies the problem. Although I surround myself with others who choose to avoid consumerism and aren't infotainment zombies, what I see in the vast majority of people is not encouraging.
I never was impressed. I got out of skool, did a Jack Kerouac couple of tours around the country over a few years until I found my spot and I'm still here. I sleep well at night and I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Stay off my property and you will not get hurt.
Need a sidekick? I'm a bit of a jack-of-all trades from medic to gardener to "gun knowledgeable"
Check back in 4 or 8 years, huh? After the lights are all off?
Lost
Stand still.
The trees ahead and the bushes beside you are not lost.
Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers.
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still.
The forest knows Where you are.
You must let it find you.
Native American Elder Story translated by David Wagoner
There isn't enough decent, privately held, homesteadable/farmsteadable land in the continental US for all 310 million to do this. On the other hand, does anyone really believe there are that many people up for it, in the continental US of our day? Hahaha. No. It would be the first time in history that a population voluntarily abandoned the instant gratification lifestyle - rather than rushing headlong toward it and never looking back.
You think people will just walk away from the spectacle? That's not how it works. Paraphrasing the scorpion and the frog - "because it is their nature". How many major cities in the world are not growing? How many people are not being raised addicted to the western capitalist mode of life - the one which best suits the western capitalist world we live in, to mind-numbing entertainment and gadgets? How many would you want for a neighbor in your new alternative community?
Building communities is hard, even communities bound by the strongest ethnic and ideological ties. Building any from this fetid hodgepodge of public-school educated debt-addicts would take not one but many miracles.
When a nation collapses, what is to stop other nations simply plundering its resources by force? That would be the entirely natural outcome.
Time to Reject them. Just quit paying and obeying. Let them prop the bitch up on their own backs instead of ours.
Four Rs: Rejection; Revolution; Retribution; Restoration of the Constitutional republic
hujel
Does anyone really need to be told this though? Do we need a degrowth-ism paradigm, or some global social counter-movement? Wouldn't living within your means be enough, rather than zealously hobbling the economy via puritanical self-austerity?
VISA definitely sought to destroy sensibility and introduce dissonance via seeking to make people everywhere think that high credit-ratings matter and will determine your happiness level, and how bountiful life will be for you "in the future". When on a long enough timeline, it often amounts to doing just the reverse (the ride can be fun though).
Sorry author, I'm jaded with the "here's the solution" model to basic issues of our own making, due entirely to listening to others tell us what matters and what we should be doing to remedy said important (but entirely artificial and contrived) 'problems'.
A man walks into a bar with a huge reptile eating away at his side. The bartender asks, "What's that thing eating you to death?" The man says, "Sorry, I'll get in trouble if I say."