So lately, with the shaky economy, this unending war, uncertain political times, etc, many of my friends have begun to purchase land, with the idea of "escaping" to the woods. Some of them seem scared, or a bit paranoid, but one of my friends just seems fed up. He is getting a large settlement from a company he was working for when he acquired a bad back injury, and he is talking about using his settlement to purchase land in Canada. He is talking about sustainability; a true sustainability, one which goes beyond changing light bulbs and eating only organic food (as good as these ideas are, I believe they are decades late if they where actually going to "save" the planet,) one which rejects consumerism of any sort, "green" or not, for a lifestyle in which the people on his land would sustain themselves by living on the resources which are only on his land; hunting and gathering and doing a tiny bit of farming to survive. When he talks, I feel alive. This is what I want to, in my soul, in my core, in the essence of my being, despite the blog I wrote less then a week ago about people needing to be kept "contained" in cities. But he and I do differ in options on certain things; for example, I believe I need more time to acquire the skills I'd need to live out in the "woods," whereas he believes skills needed can be learned as we go; that we can move to the woods and then learn how to stalk prey, how to fish, how to practice woodland permiculture, how to treat illnesses and injuries ourselves, etc. I'm frightened because of stories about people like the Donner Party and the early Pilgrims and how they starved; he tells me a story about a punk friend of his who left for the woods with only a poncho and a machete; he says his friend lived in the woods just fine for two months with only those two objects.
I feel so detached from wilderness areas I've visited lately, it is hard for me to picture myself knowing how to stalk an elk, much less spear or shoot it. When I visit the woods lately, I feel like a trespasser; like part of team evil, like a destroyer. This makes me wonder if I can (could,) ever adapt to a lifestyle in keeping with true sustainability.
But at the same time, I feel the mounting crisis all around me; the simplest things remind me of how stupidly destructive we are, and how we must make immediate and very drastic changes, or we are simply doomed. When I see oil in the gutters, running into the drains that lead to the ocean, when I step into a big box store and wonder about the amount of electricity needed to keep the place heated and lit (not to mention the resources used to put all of those goods on the shelf, and now multiply that by how many other big box stores there are around the globe,) when I wipe my ass with a dead tree, when I eat a ham sandwich and drink a jug of Vitamin Water, I am reminded of how truly catastrophic our current lifestyles are.
If we can't immediately drop all of this shit, we are, unmistakably doomed. Doom that creeps in slowly, generation after generation (we pay for water this generation, is it too far fetched to think our children may someday pay for oxygen?,) and admittedly, doesn't happen all at once, but doom that is growing, that is gathering momentum, as we speak. We have fucked the planet. How do we get off this ride? How do I leave earth?
We can't leave earth; so many for some of us, the best solution is to hide...
Love ya,
Carrot
Regarding the question of "To move to the woods or not," I think that your position is honestly the most appropriate. At the same time, i think people like your friend are important, and are the future stakeholders of the world.
It is my gut feeling that something big is going to happen that will change the face of the planet forever and many will die at the same time. Those who are left will have to figure out how to survive, and yes, at that time, your friend is right. Many will be able to "wing" it and figure it out themselves.
I consulted a spiritual counselor recently, and she said to me, "there is change coming, and a new life. You are trying to live your future now, and you need to stop. Your destiny is calling you from within, and you are impatient. Don't worry, your purpose will reveal itself to you."
I am sharing this with you, because I feel that you are often experiencing things parallel to me, and while I am not a rewilder of any sort, my soul cries out for that kind of living.
In essence, the message is that no matter what we do, the planet has its own destiny, and will do what she needs to do. We can try to be good to her, and should, but I doubt that human intervention is going to prevent a Yellowstone eruption, or a hit from a meteor.
I think you are living in the future, and you are anxious. If you let go, and just do what your soul asks you to, which is for now to learn skills and such as you say, basically gleaning everything you can from suburban living as we know it, knowing it's time is up soon, then when you wake up to the new world, you will only be that much stronger and able to coexist with it.
Knowledge is one thing that can not be underestimated in value. When all of our learning institutions are destroyed, we will need those educated minds to reconstruct and reinvent things.
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It is of course possible to survive off the land if you have enough of it. Land varies in productivity, but it takes an enormous chunk of most types of land to sustain a small band of hunter gathers. It is a hard scrabble existence and I doubt most most modern people could make a go of it. Most would give up, some would starve and a tiny few might actually make it happen.
In Canada he had better have quite a LOT of land because most of the forested land is pretty non-productive. (Their grain belt is a different story particularly if you stimulate it with vast applications of petrochemicals in the form of tractors, fertilizer and pumped irrigation.)
Most people grossly over-estimate the productiveness of land, particularly for a hunter-gather type of existence. I have frequently had "end of the economy" type of discussions with my friends and always been amused when they state that they would take to the local Big Horn Mountains and live off the land. They are dreaming! The local mountains are vast and packed (currently over-populated) with thousands of deer, elk, moose and trout with a few bears, whistle pigs, lions and various grouse and turkeys thrown in. If our small town of 15,000 were all to take to the mountains for survival, game would be extremely scarce after 10 days and completely cleaned out in 60 days. And then would come the eight months of winter where there is 3' to 6' feet of snow on the ground. The result would be 14,800 dead and 200 starving cannibals.
Your friend's version of sustainability might provide a miserable existence for a few people but it has nothing to do with a sustainable world that needs to feed 6,5 billion people unless his goal is to reduce population down to a few million by mass starvation.
We've talked about this countless times and I have no pie-in-the-sky idea that all seven billion people can become hunter/gatherers once again; the Earth cannot sustain this. But as I've said before, nether can the Earth sustain us the way we are now; seven billion is too many people, any way you slice the pie.
I myself am skeptical about this guys plains; he 's the type of guy who thinks if he just purchases the land, everything will take care of itself after that. I know, from some experiences I've had in my life, that survival isn't that easy, especially the farther North you go. And starvation sucks...it's a terrible way to die. And even if he was able to get all the food, clean water, etc, that he needs; that lifestyle isn't particularly nice either; being constantly covered with bug bites, always having to get a fire going to cook something, being cold a lot, being sick a lot, etc. Not fun! I'm not sure my friend has had the type of experiences which have taught him how hard it really can be; sure he's lived through hard things in his life, but not those type of hard things, as far as I know.
The other thing that worries me is he has a four-yr old son, whom he is planning on taking out "to the woods," with him. True, his son is much braver, tougher, stronger and smarter then most four yr olds I know, but he's still just four; gets sick frequently already, still is developing his immune system, etc. I can see living that lifestyle with that child will be challenging to say the least...and on the most extreme end of the scale, might be deadly..
Love ya,
Carrot