A Life of Self-Reliance

I have felt an inner calling for roughly a year or so, to find some cheap land in the forested mountains to farm crops, raise chickens, build an A-Frame house for myself, perhaps a stable for a horse, and get into some profitable trade such as growing herbs so that I can be more or less fully self-reliant. What motivates me to do this? Many reasons, but the main ones being that I feel that this is something that will give me true meaning in life, as well as the fact that I feel that society is slowly rotting away to the point where the original order of nature will eventually give way. Here I am right now, in an apartment that is large, but old and barren, surrounded by college kids over a decade younger than me, a hivemind mentality stretching from the McMansion suburbs of the liberal professors to the dying nightlife on the main street that despises me and others like me, trying to remove me like a stain on society when they're the ones that are ripping the carpet to shreds. Do I have animosity for them? No. But we are incompatible, and I must go into the woods to find a new life while theirs will dwindle away due to their ideals that could only support their lives in an abstract LaLaLand. But how do I do this? I need money, but also knowledge. Knowledge is more important, but where shall I find it?

thb, doing what you want to do is very hard, I would recommend just living on edge in the woods with other people first, because if you fell a tree on your leg or something where you have a small accident, you will certainly die. Look into some of the following fields >remote tree harvesting/ oil drilling >alaskan fishing or surveying, you can get a license to operate machinery in a few weeks, then go up into lands that ave not been inhabited for hundreds of years if you want to learn survival skills, and are in the united states, look at your local FEMA civilian training program called CERT https://www.ready.gov/community-emergency-response-team self sufficient is not really doable in the modern era, and you are more likely to anhero after a month or so by yourself. bartering is not commonplace, and the best connection you would get would be through an iridium satellite link, which costs upwards of 200 USD a month some other things to look into are >antarctic expeditions (if you have a trade) >joining the peace corps (if you have a degree) >volunteering with non profits in a literally nowhere country. you wanted knowledge though, so i will provide you with some https://homesteading.com/homesteading-alaska/

>>7163 I did this for about a year in a place with no running water, toilet, electric, ect. it was great, I would highly recommend it. I feel like a problem with this sort of thing is that everybody who does it goes in with too much prep actually and then they don't actually learn anything. A lot of people treat it like 'camping with a full furnished RV' or something and this is just not the right way to go about it. So my advice would be go do it someplace within like 3-5 miles distance of a town and don't just like stock up on a zillion camping gadgets and tools or whatever before you go, if you do you won't get as much out of the experience, only use necessities those gadgets are worthless junk. Also do it without a car, so that you have to walk each way anytime you need something. It will make you appreciate the journey more and put more significance on what it is you are doing. Anyway, go in without much support or money and see what happens would be my advice, that was a really formative time for me I wish more people would do it.

>>7163 Self reliance is suboptimal and unnecessary unless society does actually collapse and everyone died. It's much more efficient to have a specialty to optimize and grind on and use trade to get your farm crops from the crop farmer, get your chickens from the chicken farmer, get your house from the carpenter etc. >I must go into the woods to find a new life This is just escapism. Your brain just wants something *different* and doesn't fully process how much worse it will be. Alain de Botton has a good explanation of how this works in The Perfect Home. The way people pine for rustic or pastiche houses is not because life is better in the country or in the past, it's obviously fuarrrking worse, the reason is only to temporarily escape the norm.

>>7163 You might want to check out https://lainchan.org/%CE%94/res/788.html

>>8040 Why is it "obviously" worse? Perhaps OP isn't like you. Your arrogance is unbelievable.

>>8040 the point isn't efficiency, it's self-reliance. It turns out, efficiency isn't very fulfilling for most people! Whoda thunkit.

>>8061 >Why is it "obviously" worse? Do I really have to explain to you what is so bad about soykafting in an outdoor privy which needs to be manually emptied every month? Or freezing in a wooden, single glazed house in winter or waiting 3 hours for your wood fire to heat your bath water or smashing your cloths against rocks to get them clean or starving because bugs ate your crops? >Perhaps OP isn't like you. Your arrogance is unbelievable. I'm not arrogant, you are simply displaying a lack of empathy and/or intelligence. >>8073 >It turns out, efficiency isn't very fulfilling for most people! Whoda thunkit. Efficiency frees up time to do things that are fulfilling. If stupid dumbass soykaf that someone else can do for you 100 times faster and cheaper makes you feel fulfilled then good for you but more likely it is a temporary illusion in your brain. First remember that you only have a finite number of days left alive and now ask whether you want to spend every Friday bashing your clothes against rocks. It might seem like a good idea the first few times just to get away from the washing machine and feel like you're doing real work for a change but that state of mind is not sustainable because sooner or later you will realize there are much more important things to do with your time. >the point isn't efficiency, it's self-reliance. I don't doubt that some people have defective brains which weight self-reliance abnormally high in priority, just like how some people horde cola bottles or clean their bathroom 5 times a day. Such people are a minority and definitely not acting rationally though.

>>8147 >Efficiency frees up time to do things that are fulfilling. such as, self-sufficiency? It doesn't really take that much time every day to be self sufficient, once you have your stuff set up. Maybe 5 hours of work a day, on average. Also, efficiency doesn't actually free up time. The average worker is something like 1000% more efficient than they were in 1800 but the workweek has *increased*, not decreased, in America. There's that study that people still take the same amount of time to clean the house even with all these fancy new technologies. >you will realize there are much more important things to do with your time. such as slogging through a job I hate to get money so I can live this "efficient" lifestyle? Basically, not everyone cares so deeply about being comfortable 24/7. Maybe you should stop posting in this thread if you don't think it's so bad?

>>8158 >such as, self-sufficiency? I would consider raising kids or making the world a better place through code or art or scientific discovery to be more fulfilling than soykafting in a hole and calling it "self-sufficiency" but whatever floats your boat. >such as slogging through a job I hate to get money so I can live this "efficient" lifestyle? I would still make the point that the rational thing to do is to leverage the people and civilization around you to improve your life instead of running away from it all. >Basically, not everyone cares so deeply about being comfortable 24/7. Maybe you should stop posting in this thread if you don't think it's so bad? You don't like it when people with a different perspective post in your thread? Do you want a tissue? Are you going to cry? Poor OP. Wah wah.

>>8147 Some people find fulfillment in self-reliance and your hostility to the concept that op wants to live a life of his own with hardship is pretty jewish. Why shouldn't op want to better himself and live a life that would make him better and sharper as a man? He'll be inconvenienced? People should learn that things they think are easy are hard. And its even cooler if they do it for fun. Someone who builds their own home is a million times more interesting than people who buy mcmansions. Lain is clearly at a point in life where he's looking to settle down. The way he sounds he doesn't have kids, so if he settles down in the suburbs or city he's going to have a constant reminder of misery. Sometime after 65 if not sooner he'll have the state or someone else call in Human Services and he'll be whisked off to an old folks home and lose all self-reliance he previously had. His funds will be spent frivolously on care or relatives taking advantage of him. If he goes off to live on his own he'll probably either make or break. If he makes he is more secure for old age than anyone else here. Go for it op, you'll be a better man for having tried and you'll thank yourself for it should you succeed. The inconveniences are solvable if you're capable of planning. >Such a people are a minority and definitely not acting rationally though where do you think you are?

>>8169 >Some people find fulfillment in self-reliance That's fine but given the context, OP isn't one of those people. >where do you think you are? Everyone is losing their soykaf over me injecting logic and rationality into a discussion and not blindly following the herd, so Reddit apparently.

>>8165 No... you're the one who can't handle a different point of view without getting emotional. Personally I've known lots of people who took the path OP is looking at and are happy there. They didn't start from the perspective of computers and posting on imageboards though. It's certainly not compatible with that perspective and apparently, not even comprehensible to some.

Not sure if I could go as far as living out in the woods but I do love the quiet environment that a semi-rural area provides, plus I'm still super close to large cities whether by car or train or whatever for general things like hospitals or stores, etc. Having land to separate yourself from potentially noisy neighbors is nice too, although I actually enjoy people but it's still good to have your quiet time as well as your social time. I think my life is a good balance between having distance from the silly celeb worshipping and wasteful consumption culture and practicality. I'd say, go to a town that focuses more on farming. Like say, a town in the Midwest or something. I think certain cities actually are paying people to move there and stay for a while. You'd likely get a lot of advice from people who deal in that sort of thing plus depending on where you go, the cost of living is pretty low. Oh, and maybe you'd get some pals who share similar ideas to you.

>>8171 yeah, it's "rational" if you care more about being comfortable than being self-sufficient. All of your actions are based on feeling. This is a fact. Humans are emotional creatures. If you think you're being rational it's because you took some feelings and called them rational. With that in mind, kindly stop telling people that your feelings are right and theirs are wrong. It's childish. >>8174 I've always wanted to buy a few acres just outside some town up in the Pacific Northwest. Maybe northern California, and just live there peacefully. Maybe garden. Still close enough to a town that I'm not completely isolated(and could get an internet connection if I shelled out the money). I could invite all my friends over whenever they're passing thru. Would be great :)