An "Old-fashioned" Community.

Thank you for opening up this debate. I look foward to having an insightful debate. ================ Is it crazy to want to live better, live freely, live as I choose? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- It is not crazy to want to live life as you please. My question is, "who is stopping you?" Settlers had it right, taking advantage of "The Homestead Act", westward expansion, self-sufficient living, farming and animals, small close-knit towns and communities, hunting and gathering, etcetera. So why don't we live like that anymore? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The reason is perhaps, not all people want to live the life you have described. Myself, included. I enjoy being able to go to a restaurant and being served crab and lobster without having to "hunt and gather". 3,794,101 sq miles of land, in the US - just how much of that is actually taken up by all the cities and industrialization? I'd venture to say less than half. So what about the other half, why doesn't the government condone the "outdoorsy" types to buy a tract of land and live off it? What is so wrong with a family farm these days - or rather, Why do they repeatedly support the big companies over the "little guys"? Why is getting a "foot in the door" intentionally made so difficult? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I don't really understand what this means. I wasn't aware there were rules that forbade you from buying land and farming. As for supporting the big companies, please give sources and examples to clarify. Will we let this stop us? -------------------------------- I do not agree that 'we' should start farming when I have no passion or desire to. Have you ever felt like there just wasn't a job out there you could see yourself working in happily for the rest of your life? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- But we all have the choice to choose our careers, I am not going to be randomly assigned to a job I do not want. Why have we traded a "simpler time" for this modern materialism - because I sincerely feel we‘ve been duped. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some people enjoy "modern materialism". I do not feel we ahve been duped of anything. Was it even us who made the corrupt bargain, or was it the generations before us - in the pursuit of progress - whose repercussions we are now saddled with? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ repercussions? I thank Edison for creating the light buld so I don't risk setting my house on fire with candles. I applaud the wright brothers for creating the plane so traveling was able to become infinitely faster. I thank microsoft for making PC because I can't afford a mac. My point is the generations before us may have screwed us over for deciding to do something stupid like declaring wars, but I am genuinely pleased that I do not have to work in a farm all my life just to eat. I would prefer to follow my own ambitions. Why does everyone put up with the expectation of working a 9-5 with a car, a green lawn, and the stifling of our very human nature to /be/ in nature -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Because perhaps people enjoy working 9-5 with cars and green lawns. I certainly find it more appealing than working 5am-7pm on the farm with a hoe, and acres of land to be plowed, seeded, and harvested. finding escape and outlet in Role-playing, day-dreaming, video-gaming, movies, talk, idealism, or rash actions (ever heard of Christopher McCandless?) -- well, hasn‘t anyone ever Done something SMART about it?! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I will Role-play slaying monsters and blowing up terrorist's heads because it is not likely I would be able to do so in real life. I see no problem. Day dreaming, if I had to farm I would day-dream every second I would have to seed, plow, and harvest the field. Video-gaming, this relates to my role-play argument. Movies, talk, idealism, or rash actions and so forth, I do not see why we need to escape these things. But the meaning of this is not a "call to arms" or recruitment to some commune or idealistic "utopia". This is about a lifestyle, a mindset that you already have and a public announcement that - yes, there are people out there who think the same way you do and who want to DO something about it! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hippies, native americans, the amish? No one is stopping anyone from joining them (except maybe the native americans). "This is about a lifestyle, a mindset that you already have and a public announcement that" And it seems my opponent, for some reason, thinks he knows what mindset and lifestyle I prefer. I do not want to live as a 'hunter gatherer' or famer. Who among us would be willing to give up their comfort for the unknown? Is it too much to ask of like-minded individuals to discuss this matter in some measure of seriousness? Reply with opinions, constructive or otherwise, as to why this cant (or wont) be done! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Who among us would be willing to give up their comfort for the unknown?" What does this have to do with anything? I wasn't aware that anyone or anything was stopping you from "Is it too much to ask of like-minded individuals to discuss this matter in some measure of seriousness?" Reply with opinions, constructive or otherwise, as to why this cant (or wont) be done! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This can be done, but I will tell you why this is unlikely to be done by the vast majority. I might be wrong, but I got the impression that my oponent is proposing that we should abandon our achievements in science and technology, so that we can live life simply by farming, hunting, and gathering. If this is how people really wanted to live, if it were in our nature to do so, we would have never evolved from our stage of farming, hunting, and gathering. I am not saying that this is impossible, but this is impractical. People seek to live convenient and comfortable lives with the freedom to follow their passion and ambitions. By suggesting that we forget all our technological achievements, and live simple lives, you immediately destroy the ambitions and passions, and limit careers to farming, hunting, gathering, and so on. Not all people find what you propose as endearing or desirable. An "Old-fashioned" community is possible, but I do not see why people should CHOOSE an old-fashioned community over the modern community. The modern-materials exist for our comfort, I find it foolish to deny technology to live a "Simpler" life.