Joe,
Okay, I agree with your analysis, completely. And at 54, with no retirement beyond some minimal pittance of Social Insecurity they grant if the age of elibibility doesn't exceed my life expectancy, I, too, am tempted to throw my towel in and find someplace that will accept an overweight, undegreed mook like me as a fellow communitarian.
After all, the joints creak enough that I'm tempted to think the social struggle gains no benefit from the joint effort of my mind and conscience any longer. In the blogosphere, I'm just the weird old guy screaming to invisible passersby of his shopping cart. What can any sex-obsessed, pop-culture younger consumer of rat pellets possibly gain from the likes of me?
Except I still keep looking for answers. Is it enough to define all that's wrong without any potential solutions? Certainly, refusal to participate is a personal solution -- perhaps, if there is a place to escape to. But even if 2% follow that and escape, soon the charms of escape places will be overrun by the wants of all the expats, changing the cultural dynamics.
What then?
Living in Oregon, I see many here who simply refuse to play the national game. They just try to create a local ecotopia and resist the overdevelopment of the corporate complex of the Rest-of-America. And I imagine people try to do that in other relatively wild states, like Montana. In reality, development is just slowed, federal taxes are still paid, and ecotopia is lost, albeit more slowly.
I compete only for air, undiseased water and food, plus a modicum of shelter requirements. TV and radio are available but little used and certainly not necessary. I long ago stopped asking who this or that gilded swan was, as I can be as easily entertained by a book or by watching and listening to lives not lit nor amplified.
Yes, there remains one prized possession that connects me to the grid: I'm soaking in it. Yet even as a comparatively small consumer, I feel a personal solution is insufficient if it can't be applied to a few billion others.
Evolution certainly begins at home, but is it just a billion personal refusals to take part that changes the dynamic? Is there no other way at all except the small communal approaches of folks like the Amish, who make compromises yet maintain a small footprint overall?
And also ...
My niece lived in Belize for several years. Now she's moved on to the Virgin Islands. Having spent several years in Florida, I found the humidity too oppressive. While the low cost of living in places like your new home are very appealling, I worry about my climate adaptability.
Before you cast off, did you consider other places, such as Sweden or Amsterdam? I'm curious about all the places you considered and what helped you narrow your choice.
At this point, the only factors tying down my mainsail are relatives. My mother, at 82, might need some assistance in the next few years. My youngest child, at 20, still does, to some degree. But all that can change pretty fast and I want to have a clear sense of the range of options for my next step.
I'd appreciate any and all of your thoughts on these matters. As a regular reader, I find your thoughts illuminating already and I hope I'm not being too greedy in asking for more.
Thanks,
Kevin
Oregon
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Oh man, that's a big, big order. I just can't fill it, not without writing a complete book on the subject, which I am considering.
But let me say this: non-degreed guys like you or me often have far more to offer than most of the indoctrinated products of America's universities. Really, our lives and experiences and skills in the working world often integrate very well with the Third World. Recently I taught a young man how to paint a house the most effcient way (I did a stint as a house painter when I was young) so he can go into the painting business. He taught me how to gather fuel for a quick fire to prepare an entire meal, and even create serving vessels fast with only a machette. (He also cut one of the cleanest dovetail carpentry joints I've ever seen with the "mah-chet," as they call it. All eyeball, no measurements.) Mutual respect for craft and labor goes a long way.
I gotta say this to you (and most of the folks who've been writing me in this subject lately): You're thinking too much. Outside the Empire is NOT inside the Empire. There are no guarantees, little comfort as we know it, but endless opportunities for growth and service. On the whole though, it is a calling, not a decision. Either it burns within you or it does not. I've only recently come to understand that.
Your life is your own.
If you make it so.
But there is no room for hesitation.
Not at our late age, ole buddy.
In art and labor,
Joe
