Phil801
01-02-2012, 09:30 AM
5 Reasons You’re Better Off Living in The Woods (http://bookstove.com/book-talk/5-reasons-youre-better-off-living-in-the-woods/)
Think life is too complicated? Sell your stuff and move to the woods!
Life is crazy, and it’s getting crazier. Technology is advancing every year, and that cool gadget you bought a few months ago probably will be obsolete soon, if it isn’t already. Look around your house and you’ll see at least a half-dozen things people did not have or need a hundred years ago Satelite, TV, computers, high-speed internet, Smartphones, Xbox, even the microwave – do we really need all this stuff? Certainly it makes our lives easier and more comfortable, but are we really happier than our great grandparents, or their great grandparents?
Maybe not. Henry David Thoreau makes some great arguments in his classic manifesto Walden about why a simpler life is a better life. The book is a true but probably embellished story about Thoreau’s attempt to escape the modern world by moving to a little shack in the woods near Concord, Massachusetts. There he stayed for two years, shunning society, carrying out both philosophical and practical experiments in self-reliance.
Here’s the kicker: Walden was published in 1854, over 150 years ago! Back then, Thoreau ranted on a whole host of issues he believed had become far too complicated in American society. Nothing has changed today. If fact, it’s gotten much worse.
Here are 5 Thoreau-approved reasons for selling your stuff and moving to the woods:
1. The Economy is killing us. Over the past few hundred years we’ve drifted into an economic norm where the needs of most people are met by relatively few. Wouldn’t it be better to step out of that altogether and get everything you need by hunting, gathering, planting and scavenging?
2. People have lost their minds. Is it normal to wake up to the buzz of a mechanical device, dress yourself in uncomfortable garments, risk your life by packing yourself in a tin can capable of traveling at ungodly speeds only to arrive at a place where someone you don’t like tells you to perform tasks you don’t want to do in order that you can make enough money to pay for things you don’t really need? No wonder so many people need medication to get through the day!
3. Our food is bogus. What’s phenylalanine and why do I need to be warned that it’s in my beverage? And why can’t I pronounce any of these ingredients in this bag of supposedly healthy snack? When you plant carrots you pretty much know what you’ll get. Ingredients: carrot. Would we be healthier if we produced more of the food we eat ourselves?
4. Less chance of dying in a car crash. Ever sit in traffic and look around, and think to yourself, “What the heck is going on here?” Why is it that if you put any other animal in a tiny cage they go insane, but humans voluntarily hop into rolling deathtraps for hours every day? Look at your fellow motorists closely. Does anyone really appear happy? Sure, if we all lived in the woods it would be tougher to get around, but we’d probably be a lot less stressed.
5. We live too long. At the same time our standard of health and nutrition is declining, medical science is advancing by leaps and bounds. The pharmaceutical and insurance companies love it. But is borrowed time really happy time? Nursing Homes are overflowing with people clinging to life 5, 10 or more years longer than normal. Many suffer horrible quality of life due to their illnesses. Is it better to live for 70 years as a healthy, happy person and then kick it, or to live for 90 years with the last 20 in misery?
You may not be ready to move to the woods just yet, but hopefully you now have something to think about.
And pick up a copy of Thoreau’s Walden sometime. It’s an interesting and thought-provoking read.
Think life is too complicated? Sell your stuff and move to the woods!
Life is crazy, and it’s getting crazier. Technology is advancing every year, and that cool gadget you bought a few months ago probably will be obsolete soon, if it isn’t already. Look around your house and you’ll see at least a half-dozen things people did not have or need a hundred years ago Satelite, TV, computers, high-speed internet, Smartphones, Xbox, even the microwave – do we really need all this stuff? Certainly it makes our lives easier and more comfortable, but are we really happier than our great grandparents, or their great grandparents?
Maybe not. Henry David Thoreau makes some great arguments in his classic manifesto Walden about why a simpler life is a better life. The book is a true but probably embellished story about Thoreau’s attempt to escape the modern world by moving to a little shack in the woods near Concord, Massachusetts. There he stayed for two years, shunning society, carrying out both philosophical and practical experiments in self-reliance.
Here’s the kicker: Walden was published in 1854, over 150 years ago! Back then, Thoreau ranted on a whole host of issues he believed had become far too complicated in American society. Nothing has changed today. If fact, it’s gotten much worse.
Here are 5 Thoreau-approved reasons for selling your stuff and moving to the woods:
1. The Economy is killing us. Over the past few hundred years we’ve drifted into an economic norm where the needs of most people are met by relatively few. Wouldn’t it be better to step out of that altogether and get everything you need by hunting, gathering, planting and scavenging?
2. People have lost their minds. Is it normal to wake up to the buzz of a mechanical device, dress yourself in uncomfortable garments, risk your life by packing yourself in a tin can capable of traveling at ungodly speeds only to arrive at a place where someone you don’t like tells you to perform tasks you don’t want to do in order that you can make enough money to pay for things you don’t really need? No wonder so many people need medication to get through the day!
3. Our food is bogus. What’s phenylalanine and why do I need to be warned that it’s in my beverage? And why can’t I pronounce any of these ingredients in this bag of supposedly healthy snack? When you plant carrots you pretty much know what you’ll get. Ingredients: carrot. Would we be healthier if we produced more of the food we eat ourselves?
4. Less chance of dying in a car crash. Ever sit in traffic and look around, and think to yourself, “What the heck is going on here?” Why is it that if you put any other animal in a tiny cage they go insane, but humans voluntarily hop into rolling deathtraps for hours every day? Look at your fellow motorists closely. Does anyone really appear happy? Sure, if we all lived in the woods it would be tougher to get around, but we’d probably be a lot less stressed.
5. We live too long. At the same time our standard of health and nutrition is declining, medical science is advancing by leaps and bounds. The pharmaceutical and insurance companies love it. But is borrowed time really happy time? Nursing Homes are overflowing with people clinging to life 5, 10 or more years longer than normal. Many suffer horrible quality of life due to their illnesses. Is it better to live for 70 years as a healthy, happy person and then kick it, or to live for 90 years with the last 20 in misery?
You may not be ready to move to the woods just yet, but hopefully you now have something to think about.
And pick up a copy of Thoreau’s Walden sometime. It’s an interesting and thought-provoking read.