(no subject)
You might call me a simple man if I told you that at age 19 I gave away every possession that wouldn't fit into my pack. I've lived that way, more or less, for ten years. You might be skeptical if I said that what I've abandoned materially I've reaped instead in wild varieties of experience. But, by the curve of my hitchhikers thumb, I can attest only to the most absurd and random stories. The "adventure" that many a duty laden person has envied me for has certainly not occurred in the manner of a novel. Nor has it been an entirely wasteful experiment in the art of living. In fact, as I approach the mythical age of 30, I have concluded to continue this course of living in the face of the modern American workweek. I refuse to submit the hours of my life to the whims and preconceived notions of a decidedly self-destructive form of society. I play my part nonetheless. I remain American, Californian by birth, Oregonian by choice. If I can be said to have an occupation, it is not defined by the reception of a paycheck. Most of my "work" has been volunteered to such organizations as the Buffalo Field Campaign and non-organizations as the Rainbow Family Tribe. I've also worked in socialist communal arrangements such as East Wind Community, for a small stipend and a relative wealth of shared amenities and comforts.
This "work" has consisted of planning and cooking meals for large groups, baking bread, gathering firewood, helping in the garden, watching and caring for children, house cleaning, dish washing, film documentation for a media campaign to protect the genetic wellspring of the North American Bison Nation that resides predominantly in Yellowstone National Park and the Greater Yellowstone Area, and an ocean of other tasks. I am proficient enough (by my own judgment) in these skills to attain employ and some resemblance to what they call a "more conventional life". Instead, I choose to retain complete freedom of mobility. The world is an enormous sphere with an inexhaustible span of contrasting environments and cultures. To me, it almost seems a waste of vital energies to limit oneself to one general method for survival. I even speculate that the wellspring of human creativity evolved from the dynamic "struggle for survival" that preceded what we so anthropomorphically entitle "history". That is to say that when confronted with the raw world, devoid of the infamous misconceptions of civilization, man's potential for creative tasks becomes an essential part of his existence. The simple act of living becomes a string of creative discoveries that even today knows no limits.
This is to compare this regression towards an active "struggle for existence" with the much more common "resignation to circumstance" that dominates our age. For example, how many at our universities have a genuinely defined purpose in being there, and how many attend out of a complacent acceptance of the dictates of modern American norms (surely attending college is an American norm). How many at your place of work are there out of a primary need to perform their exact task, and how many are there, more honestly, for the reason that selling one's labor seems the only course for survival under these prevalent circumstances.
I am not motivated by any naive idealism, but rather I am effectively repulsed by the general, quiet resignation that permeates every North American city and town that I have ever chanced upon. My judgment concerning this system is that it is self-destructive communally and individually. It places too little emphasis on man's capacity for creative thinking (with an enormous population of dull, uninspired, and underfunded public schools) and far too much emphasis on obedience to all manner of rules and norms. It pits us against each other in what is called a "healthy competition". What seems more healthy is cooperation.
This "work" has consisted of planning and cooking meals for large groups, baking bread, gathering firewood, helping in the garden, watching and caring for children, house cleaning, dish washing, film documentation for a media campaign to protect the genetic wellspring of the North American Bison Nation that resides predominantly in Yellowstone National Park and the Greater Yellowstone Area, and an ocean of other tasks. I am proficient enough (by my own judgment) in these skills to attain employ and some resemblance to what they call a "more conventional life". Instead, I choose to retain complete freedom of mobility. The world is an enormous sphere with an inexhaustible span of contrasting environments and cultures. To me, it almost seems a waste of vital energies to limit oneself to one general method for survival. I even speculate that the wellspring of human creativity evolved from the dynamic "struggle for survival" that preceded what we so anthropomorphically entitle "history". That is to say that when confronted with the raw world, devoid of the infamous misconceptions of civilization, man's potential for creative tasks becomes an essential part of his existence. The simple act of living becomes a string of creative discoveries that even today knows no limits.
This is to compare this regression towards an active "struggle for existence" with the much more common "resignation to circumstance" that dominates our age. For example, how many at our universities have a genuinely defined purpose in being there, and how many attend out of a complacent acceptance of the dictates of modern American norms (surely attending college is an American norm). How many at your place of work are there out of a primary need to perform their exact task, and how many are there, more honestly, for the reason that selling one's labor seems the only course for survival under these prevalent circumstances.
I am not motivated by any naive idealism, but rather I am effectively repulsed by the general, quiet resignation that permeates every North American city and town that I have ever chanced upon. My judgment concerning this system is that it is self-destructive communally and individually. It places too little emphasis on man's capacity for creative thinking (with an enormous population of dull, uninspired, and underfunded public schools) and far too much emphasis on obedience to all manner of rules and norms. It pits us against each other in what is called a "healthy competition". What seems more healthy is cooperation.