How to drop out!

[CyberHippie]

A great read!

http://ranprieur.com/essays/dropout.html

[Davey Boy 2.0]

that dude's my new hero

[timouse]

ironically i can't read the whole thing as it's a busy day at work

the first few paragraphs have ame hooked, i'll get to it this evening. thanks for posting this, CH!

[questcequecest?]

interesting read, i just can't see myself eating out of a dumpster.

[CyberHippie]

Totally agree QQC. Although it's like he said, it's all about degrees. You don't have to be that extreme to successfully drop out.

What a great read though, it's nice to read someone elses ideas that echo a lot of my own.

Out society truly is insane and on a collision course with reality.

What I do for a job is so far removed from achieveing my basic needs of food and shelter it's rediculous. My unimortant job earns me credits which I can then exchange with the man for the things I need, but that's not the same...

I often think of the primitive tribe in the jungle. If you want to eat, you'd better get up and catch some fish. If you want shelter, you'd better get your roof fixed. If someone in your community needs something that you can provide them, you do. Seems so much simpler than the complex system we've created of unatural needs and wants.

[bradm]

It may be simpler, provided you don't mind spending pretty much every waking moment scrounging around for a barely minimal existence.

And how is a need or want for things like health, light in the dark, warmth in the winter, and the ability to travel to exotic locales (like, say, the next county) "unnatural"? (Your efforts to get these things be unfair, if they deprive others of things they need or want, but I dispute it's unnatural to need or want them.)

Aloha,

Brad

[mattm]

I've been thinking about this a lot in the past couple years. I wouldn't hit the streets and eat out of a dumpster but I hate that no matter what I do I'm governed by some law or rule.

I was at a birthday party in Thailand and one of the guys brought up a great point. He mentioned that he had visited Canada and the US several times and the thing he found that stuck out the most was that we call ourselves free. I agree with him. There's really nothing you can do here that isn't governed by some law or rule or red tape. Hell, if I cross a street where there's no traffic light, I'm breaking a law.

Now I look at the Canadian flag tatooed to my shoulder and wonder if I should give it up for another one. I REALLY want to go live in Thailand as it is much more free than here and the people are much nicer.

Reading that little essay brought it all back. Now I'm jonsin to hit the road again.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

yeah upon further reading, this guy's folks travel for 5 months/year and he housesits for them and gets paid for it.

to me that's not really 'dropping out'

good ideas though, it's just tough to live up to that kind of philosophy without crossing the line from time to time (he also is a gamer and runs a website)... but yeah the overall message is worth soaking up

[CyberHippie]

Fair points Brad...

However those societys tend to be much more co-operative and share their resources. There is a lot more to existence than just having lots of stuff that makes you happy.

As far as health care goes, I found these comments really interesting...

-----------------------

What if you get hit by a car? I hope the doctors and nurses haven't dropped out.

I hope they have! Because then we will learn to care for each other cheaply and autonomously instead of submitting to a profit-driven elite with a monopoly on healing.

We are in a terrible, difficult position. If I get hit by a car, I will end up tens of thousands of dollars in debt for services that our ancestors gave each other for free. If I don't pay it, maybe they will put me in prison, and if I try to escape they will shoot me. So be it! I'll take that chance, rather than sell myself into slavery. How pathetic are we? We are descended from risk-takers and adventurers, we fantasize about people in heroic life and death struggles, and here we are, cringing through a life of meaningless toil and the best justification we can come up with is that if we quit our jobs we won't have health insurance!

We should be furious that the medical system was ever permitted to cost so much. We should sympathize with people who want to live outside the system and lack basic health care, instead of sympathizing with that system and suggesting that people are fools for not utterly submitting to it.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

I'd say with the Patriot Act in place the States is one of the least free western countries and it's just getting worse

[ollie]

Now I look at the Canadian flag tatooed to my shoulder and wonder if I should give it up for another one. I REALLY want to go live in Thailand as it is much more free than here and the people are much nicer.

Doesn't Thailand have insanely harsh drug laws? I'm not being a dick, I'm just curious how its more free. I've never been there, enlighten me.

Interesting article even if I couldn't swallow it whole. For example, I don't agree with the basic assumption that you can't have a meaningul and enjoyable life within the system.

The biggest thing I got out of it though is just how insidious it really is to avoid doing the dishes. I'll think of this article everytime I do that now.

[kookycanooky]

Fucking brilliant. Great read

[SmoothedShredder]

I don't believe in the word free. Everything costs something, if only time.

[mattm]

Yup, harsh as hell. The only thing I managed to do was smoke lots of greens and drive around an island and to the top of its mountain (motorbike) on a shroom shake I bought at a bar. On a side note, this is something I highly recommend if you ever get the chance. Driving a motorbike on shrooms is crazy, crazy, crazy fun. Try not to do it where you might kill others.

That's the only real problem with the place. If, say, you're driving home and there's too much traffic but your corner is just a block away, what do you do? Hit the sidewalk baby.

Sick of paying tonnes for drinks at the bars? No problem, just get your bottle of poison and bring it in with you. You then pay only for the mix (some places charge a bottle opening fee but only the really big ones and tourist traps).

Sick of bars closing at 2am? No problem, they just can't sell bottled alcohol past 2, in glasses it's just fine.

Want to just disapear? To not have a SIN number, or have companies able to track you because your name and other info is in tonnes of databases (perhaps even RCMP)? No problem, you can live your whole life on tourist visas and you can get other people to get them for you for virtually nothing (or just visit the neighboring country and bribe the border official, bam, more time and it's kinda neat bribing someone).

There are lots of examples but I can't think of too much at the moment. You have to try it for yourself to really understand.

It isn't just what I mentioned about being free that I like, though. It's the people and their take on life. Nobody really steals because they actually have to work for what they have so if you steal you're scum of the earth and not worth associating with. This may not apply to the tourist trap areas as there are more poor folk there as well as tourists who are fully willing to take things.

Need to go somewhere? Cool, just wait on the side of the highway for a greyhound type bus and flag it down if it's the right one. You pay the driver very little and take a seat. Hell, some guy with a pickup we randomly talked to drove us all the way back to where we were staying (about an hours drive at insane highway speeds) because we offered him beer and a night of guitar. Granted that could also happen here though.

Don't like to cook? That's cool, it's almost cheaper to eat at food markets than it is to make your own food and all the ingredients are fresh from that day unlike the preservative filled sh!t we often get here.

I don't know, you have to try it to really understand. I've toured lots of the world and so far that's the best place I've been. This is all just my opinion though.

Also, jail for drugs costs roughly $1000 to get out of on the spot which isn't all that much, just make sure you have some money in reserve. The easiest thing is to just bribe the cops near you not to notice anything.