This man lived in the Canadian wilderness for over 60 years

[Mac_Muz]

I agree, and many things we depend on these days are all based on imitation and artificial from the bare basics, to everything else.

This old geezer is lucky to have never known the modern world of man.

[Escort Rider]

Originally Posted by countryboy73

My point exactly, Mac. It's a shame more of us do not get it. I get that some want to live this unsustainable imitation of a life. It is easy, comfortable, and who doesn't love a safety net, especially when they get older? But along the way, we seem to have allowed life to take more and more control of us, rather than us controlling our lives. Works pretty good for some, not as well for others.

Escort Rider, all I can say to your post is that it is normal for group thinkers to attack and attempt to marginalize views or ideas that do not validate their group's established philosophy. The Spanish Inquisition and the Salem witch trials come to mind as examples. Such tactics rarely achieve the desired result for the user. As already stated, many of us ARE taxed at close to 50%, and no amount of dismissive sugar coating by you or anyone else changes the numbers. Just this week, the fact that tax rates in multiple areas of this nation exceeded 50% was headline news. It will only get worse after the first of the year, and since our elected(!?) officials refuse to quit spending money we do not have, you might want to get ready for a continual upward trend in the tax rates. Enjoy...

Well, Countryboy, it's quite a stretch from my post detailing the taxes which I as an individual pay to the Inquisition and the witch trials. The Inquisition and the witch trials meted out severe punishment for people who dared to differ from the established norm. I was proposing no punishment whatsoever to anyone, and in fact, if memory serves, I said I was glad that you are able to pursue the kind of life which makes you happy.

Your extreme reaction (use of the Inquisition and the witch trials as examples) is especially ironic in that I support the freedom which allows us to choose different paths. I wonder what has made you so irrational about all this? At least you didn't bring up the Nazis under Hitler. I suppose that would have been no less egregious though.

Let me try to make this understandable. Suppose I had compared you to the Unabomber because he chose to go off away from civilization and live in a cabin in the wilderness. That would have been totally absurd because there is no connection between you and the Unabomber. In similar fashion, there is no connection between me and the Spanish Inquisition or the Salem Witch Trials. Some modicum of objectivity would be like a breath of fresh air here.

[Escort Rider]

Originally Posted by City Guy997S

AKA Ted Kaczynski comes to mind (the Unabomber)

Originally Posted by Mac_Muz

The whole problem with that idea is Ted was a city boy too......... All the time city boys who can't cut it in the city come to the woods to play out one last shot at being a Big Shot. Rural folks are not that dumb.. In fact we are rather proud of being a bit more independent.

I don't follow your reasoning. Far from being a "big shot", Kaczynski went to the wilderness where he lived in a cabin (no electricity, no running water) and where he shunned contact with others. It was there that he created, and then went into town to mail, some of his bombs. He was a psycho, a murderer. He was, in fact, able to "cut it" extremely well in the city; he earned a Ph.D. in mathematics and was a standout even among that elite group. He got a job teaching mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley, which he gave up after a year or two to pursue his madness. As a newly minted Ph.D. teaching at Berkeley, he was the epitome of success as a city boy. He had prestige and a bright future.

I don't believe a nut case like Kaczynski proves anything one way or the other about city people and rural people. He is sitting where he belongs right now, in any case, and will continue to sit there until the end of his miserable life.

[Mac_Muz]

Originally Posted by Escort Rider

I don't follow your reasoning. Far from being a "big shot", Kaczynski went to the wilderness where he lived in a cabin (no electricity, no running water) and where he shunned contact with others. It was there that he created, and then went into town to mail, some of his bombs. He was a psycho, a murderer. He was, in fact, able to "cut it" extremely well in the city; he earned a Ph.D. in mathematics and was a standout even among that elite group. He got a job teaching mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley, which he gave up after a year or two to pursue his madness. As a newly minted Ph.D. teaching at Berkeley, he was the epitome of success as a city boy. He had prestige and a bright future.

I don't believe a nut case like Kaczynski proves anything one way or the other about city people and rural people. He is sitting where he belongs right now, in any case, and will continue to sit there until the end of his miserable life.

Ted was moonbat crazy before he ever came to the last rural life style he had. The common point is a lot of big city big shots do the same thing, but most of them fail, with out bombing other people.

The point was city dwellers who fail in the city also will fail in the rural places. Most won't become bombers.

The other guys point was rural people are moon bat crazy just because they are rural and of course stupid to want to live rural.

Ted like other city people while being a success also made enemies because he was a success.

Today there are some people who just can not live with out artificial products, and flush toilets, and they would be willing to kill over the idea of total loss.

These are the very same people who would not condone a guy leaving society and making that a success, because it places risk on society. If one guy can do it, then more people might try to do it, and if enough people do it, then social order will break down and the people who can't get by living that artificial life are feeling threatened. Their way of life might go away.

That was my point.

A more personal example was in the dead winter of I think 1993/1994 The court was interested in me over a divorce of 1990. My x liked me in court 2 times a year for her amusement.

I was all busted up still from getting crushed on the job in 1987, and cheated from back surgery, out living off the land.

Typically the court would send me a summons a day after the hearing, and I would miss the hearing of course. I am speaking in terms of the post mark date on the mailed envelope and the date of the hearing inside the envelope, not the date I was able to get to the post office.

Cute huh?

My x wife had a lawyer who was also the Northern county Judge and he could pull strings pretty easy.

The point, When I did learn of the news, and did show up on time the court was already prejudiced against me. The court demanded to know where I lived and I fairly stated In the Woods. The Court demanded I give them instructions to get there, because the court refused to believe i could live in the woods at the well below 0 temps it was at high noon then and it was much colder at midnight.

I told them everything they wanted to know and to send anyone they chose at 3AM so I would be certainly in camp. No one ever showed up ever...... To have sent someone would have meant they would have suffered risk, knowing one man could do it. We just can't have that can we?

Escort Rider..... I rode the USA in one long trip 10 months over all, and lost track of the miles after 15,000. At that point I had gone from NH to Cal, Cal to Fla, Fla to Ok, and I was in Arkansas when I lost track.

From Ar I went to Tn Ky Va NC and Ga, and then ventured to NH after winter.

ASAP I registered my long term stored car. On my way to get a state safety inspection sticker, I got bagged by the state police for a out of date sticker. I showed them the new reggi I just got, and was interrogated as to my whereabouts and the long delay.

I told them about my mc trip... At that point i was warned that no one has the mental awareness to cross the country and come back on a motorcycle. I created a risk to that officers ideas of what is reasonable ad what is not, and that is all it takes.

So if you had any notions to do that, yourself, you have been warned You will be risking everything and everyone you know because you will be different.

[ChrisC]

Originally Posted by Escort Rider

The Inquisition and the witch trials meted out severe punishment for people who dared to differ from the established norm.

So, similar to Obamacare? Of course, the Spanish Inquisition simply tortured and killed the heretics. The IRS will only imprison the heretics (for differing from the established norm) who don't believe in our new gods (the insurance companies and Big Medical). Hey, I can look at the bright side... I've always wanted to be a witch.