….when you think you have heard it all. Seen it all. Done it all. Of course, you have NOT, not in anyway can one person experience it all, but you can FEEL as if you have. That feeling must be some kind of Exposure Fatigue. Been there. Done that. Material goods just keep being marketed in your face. The news cycle seems to be on a repeat loop, politicians seem to be clones of themselves, economics remains the same kinda giant mystery and human tragedies play out much the same every day…like rain in Prince Rupert. “Geez, didn’t I read about that just last week?”
My father, as he lay dying, said he felt that way. He then pulled his own Oxygen mask off his face and said, (his last words) “Enough is enough.” At my age now, I have had more than a few contemporaries say virtually the same thing by availing themselves of the MAID alternative. Sometimes enough is enough.
I am nowhere near having had enough myself, by the way, but I am very near to having had too much more of the same ol’ crap. And I am feeling that.
In literature, story-telling, movies, they say there are just seven basic plots and every story is just a variation on one of them. I am in no position to disagree with that but I have to point out that the news doesn’t feel like there are even 7 different story-lines being told. It feels like less. It is starting to feel like ‘same ol’, same ol’ every day. Even when it starts out as ‘new’….
Case in point (HUGELY) is Trump. The con man who never shuts up. The story that never ends. If there is an actual and ironic twist in the anti-legend of Trump it is that it is turning out that he really WAS good for business. The rise and fall of Donald Trump has earned pundits and lawyers, TV celebs and government officials gazillions of dollars and lifetimes of attention. Newspapers have risen from the dead. Thousands of careers and reputations have also risen and fallen. You-Tube has exploded. Capitalism turned that great Orange Pimple into an industry and the media (all forms) fed off him like flesh-eating disease for almost a decade now…..well, it will be more than a decade before the story winds down – if it ever does.
Truly, this is the most bloviated (empty and vacuous as it is) story ever told (on the dark side, anyway.)
There is an element to Trump’s story and, for that matter, all political-leaders story’s that is now viewed quite a bit differently for me. And that is: the utter futility of entrusting your life and well-being to the ‘chosen one’, their ‘party/gang/cartel’ or even the larger but totally parasitic ‘system’ they figure-head. In selfish fools and corruption we trust.
We are blessed in Canada more than most other people on earth but the reason (I am currently thinking) we are so lucky is that we have a lot of empty space in which to roam. A Canadian can ‘get lost’. We can check out and never have to check back in. Of course, practically speaking, that is a silly premise because we all need a society to support us in some ways but it FEELS like I can get out. It FEELS like I am partially out. It feels as if I can get further out NOW.
That feeling is not shared by most people on the planet.
To a large extent freedom is really just possessing a feeling, an attitude, a sense of options. And I feel as if I still have that. I do not feel trapped. I am not chained or incarcerated. I could, if I wanted to, even leave our house and land and just go. Age and experience has put a perspective, a context, an attitude to most material assets and things. I still kinda want (and need) a few assets and things but I am more and more freed from that every day. I do not shop much anymore. I do not dream of owning a widget anymore, nor even an AWD electric hybrid widget-mobile. All that stuff now feels like weight and burden that a free man, ready to break out, doesn’t need.
If you don’t need much, if you don’t feel an artificial allegiance to a dear leader or even a country, if you do not feel like umbilicals and cobwebs are all over you and, if you get intimations of your limited remaining time on this earth, you might be surprised to experience that as real freedom.
I am.
Our Off the Grid Home 
I
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Hard to argue with that, John. Must be the briefest comment ever!
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Trump does generate publicity.
I’ll give him that.
I watched a youtube report on Trump appearing unexpectedly at a baseball game to wave at the crowd a day or so ago.
There were a lot of people in the crowd cheering but there were people within feet of him booing and giving him the finger.
And this was in a “safe” Republican State.
There’s a lot of undecided out there and if the economy burbs…..
I just hope people have tired of his endless babbling Bullsh!t
God help us if we have to suffer through another 4 years of that lunatic.
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Even if we are spared further Trump lunacy you can be assured Capitalism plus media plus mass idiocy will generate a new and profitable new lunacy. We are the source of our own GDP…and gross is the increasingly operative word.
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I am even more scared by the fact that there seems to be no “alternative” to Trump, Not with the Republicans and not with the Democrats. So people in US will need to choose between Biden and Trump? Biden is more sane, but really too old to be POTUS for another 4 years.
And this seems to be the case in most countries : the current leaders are crap, and no real alternatives on the horizon.
So in a lot of countries, extreme right seems to be on the rise…God help us
No leaders, an economy on the verge of collapse and a climate disaster looming…we are in for a very rough ride!
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Despite your dread, I am feeling better and better, freer and freer. I see the coming ‘rough ride’ more as a BIG CHANGE. To my way of hoping and praying, leaders and nationalism and old poorly-working systems and structures will fall from top-down power and more of it will emerge and sit with communities and individuals. I have no real basis for that rosier view other than most people are feeling increasingly dissatisfied with the way things are. Especially government. Something has to give. But, of course, part of my attitude is based on NOT being here in ten or fifteen years. My window is closing.
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I agree that most people are dissatisfied. And I can even see a community like on Read Island working without any government interference.
But this will definitely NOT be the case for most small or big towns or bigger communities
Most people will not know what to do, take care of growing or catching their own food, so there will be a lot of chaos
Like you said before, most people on-grid need the government structure to keep them alive
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I do not disagree with the concern expressed so much as I see it as a time of change…..it is looming….It is inevitable. I am not sure what it looks like when we morph into something new but I think it will be very different and I see a lot of familiar structures and institutions gone. That suggests a bit of chas at the very least. When I advise to get out, get out now, it is really to reposition and remove one’s self from the epicentre. Git yerself out of the bullseye. No move is permanent. We can all move and then return. UNLESS you are trapped in the centre of it all when the heat is hottest. As I said, I do not feel trapped in the centre of it. I could be further away but I am likely far enough. Just!
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I’ve embraced full on hedonism in this darkest hour. I plan to weed under an ancient eucalypt in a roaring wind and be felled permanently by a large branch ending our days. Not sure why I thought this comment relevant to your post. I’m done, I guess. Apparently there are many people who want to live surrounded by concrete and fake grass. That ain’t living to me. There must have been something about your thoughts that triggered my outburst. Just ignore it.
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Hard to ignore full-on hedonism followed up by pre-planned freak accident-demise. That’s visionary. And do not mistake having had enough of the same ol’ crap for having had enough of life-at-it’s best. I look forward to more of the latter while, at the same time, loathing and retreating from the former. But I think that statement is largely true for all of those who live off the grid or aspire to. I do not know your age, Untidy, but intimations of our own end are more than common amongst those of us 70 and over and I am sure such thoughts just increase as we get older. In other words, my thoughts merely allowed natural thoughts we all have. I will likely sound positively dreadful if I hit 90. Sheesh.
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Haven’t hit 60 yet, but I have a chronic illness so it is thanks to my family that I have survived this long. I love it under the trees so that is my hedonism. 🙂 Just keep moving, Dave. That seems to be the secret for a longer life.
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As I have said once or twice the human is insane and doomed to extinction. I sit here today on my boat in 20+ sunny weather overlooking the Surge basin(about 1.2 sq miles of waterfront) backed by magnificent tree covered hills. I do this behind 5 tall windows about 10 feet from the water, its a bloody magnificent view! Every day I thank the gods that care to listen for this place. I know we are dead but can’t care. I live NOW in Paradise. Just saying maybe find your Paradise and enjoy your time as none of us can change anything other than ourselves.
Scott
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A good view always helps. 🙂
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