Walden

Loneliness, Depression & Relationship Forum

Help Support Loneliness, Depression & Relationship Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Meskito

New member
Joined
Sep 14, 2011
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Dated: April 7th, 2009

I have been thinking lately about withdrawing from society, temporarily or permanently, to an uninhabited island off the southern coastline. I've seen many of these people-free havens while fishing for marlin and albacore.

I see this conceptualized land as my personal Walden Pond. Though Thoreau's motives for reclusion are different than mine, like him as death approaches I do not want to realize that I haven't lived deliberately and for myself.

Society is a sentient being, much like the beings that compose it, and I feel that it deserves no more criticism than its constituents do. I do not want to withdraw from society because of its flaws, but because of my own. I am practically incapable of many social norms, and for the most part I find little happiness through interaction with others. I find the most enjoyable times of my life usually take place when I am alone.

I want to secede from society to spend my days reading, writing, thinking, and enjoying existence free from the social pressures that haunt everyone else. I will teach myself new things and every day I will better myself. I will feel the pride of the self-reliant man as I raise my crops and build my shelters. I will rely only on the natural cycles that make all life possible.

I will have no responsibilities other than to keep myself alive; this is a freedom most men will never even dream of. And in my subtropical Walden I will find the wisdom to truly understand and appreciate that freedom.

My current responsibilities and obligations prevent me from realizing my dream. If, by some miracle, I do make it to my Island, I will make sure those who love me understand that I leave only because a "normal" life, cast to society's mold, will just perpetuate my (by most counts illogical) feelings of inferiority.

I will secede.
 
im afraid thinking about it is a lot more romantic than actually doing it.
going to be a hard uncomfortable trying to survive kinda way of living i imagine.

ofc laying on the beach underneath a palmtree sipping coconutmilk catching fish, roasting em on a nice little fire enjoying the sunshine and a cool breaze...
i doubt its going to be like that.

no toilet paper, wet sand everywhere hunting rabbit squirrels cause your potatos wont grow and bugs everywhere, freezing your but off cause wet wood wont burn.

im not a survive in the wild kinda guy i guess :p

 
paulo said:
im afraid thinking about it is a lot more romantic than actually doing it.
going to be a hard uncomfortable trying to survive kinda way of living i imagine.

ofc laying on the beach underneath a palmtree sipping coconutmilk catching fish, roasting em on a nice little fire enjoying the sunshine and a cool breaze...
i doubt its going to be like that.

no toilet paper, wet sand everywhere hunting rabbit squirrels cause your potatos wont grow and bugs everywhere, freezing your but off cause wet wood wont burn.

im not a survive in the wild kinda guy i guess :p

Have you ever tried growing plants without Monsanto's poisons? It works as beautifully as it has for the last few billions of years. I've created quite a little garden behind my home where I grow tomatoes and potatoes and corn and some other vegetables (btw potatoes will grow anywhere) which I eat now. Not enough to live on, but with enough time and dedication I could easily live mostly off my (relatively small) land.

No fear of freezing due to it being a few miles out into the subtropical ocean. It will never even get cold enough to freeze my crops. Even if it does, it won't rain because stormclouds have a very difficult time forming in the subtropics during wintertime, so I will have no problem getting firewood.

Anyway, you've missed my point. Living deliberately doesn't require wiping one's behind with soft paper. The rough parts of my experience would be just as enjoyable and enlightening as the easy ones.

It's incredible to me how much people rely on minor conveniences. The worst is with technology; we've almost become a race of cyborgs. We're plugged into the Internet at all times through the smartphones in our pockets and we have delegated most manual labor (ie factories) to automated machines.

Anyway, back to the topic. I graduated from college in the spring/early summer of 1996 and walked from Atlanta to LA with nothing but a few quarters in my sock just in case I needed to make a phone call (I didn't have to make one)...I'm not hesitant to do what I feel is right and best for me. I have little doubt I will eventually go to my Island, but I doubt I will be able live there as long as I'd like. Beside the people that need part of my paycheck, I feel like I owe it to my parents to stay "socially productive" and to keep in touch with them.
 
admirable.
you obiously have given it a lot of thought, no doubt you could actually do it and be happy.

relying on conveniences, maybe.
id like to see it as using them cause theyre there.
if they werent i would find another way.
this way what needs to be done is done efficiently and fast and there is more time to do what i feel i need to do in my life.
i do have a little more room to distence myself from "normal" society at the moment.
that makes things a little different for me i guess.

i do get the point of leaving al this behind to find the life that truely means something to you.
at least i think i do.
but i also feel like i would be giving up a whole lot of usefull things.
 
What if you get sick and you wouldn't be able to get out of bed? What will be your source of medicines and who will provide you with medical care?

I think you could very well live as a loner in this society, maybe move to the countryside if you find it more enjoyable.
 
I will take the risk. There's little point in survival if it means you're not really living.

Most people wouldn't do what I have done or still want to do, I understand that. It's a matter of personal preference. I just ran across this site while searching for something unrelated and I figured I'd share some thoughts.

Also...people aren't my problem. For the most part, I like people and they like me. What I hate is the capitalist (or insert your form of economy here) machine which piece-by-piece turns us all into identical products like a production line at a factory. Buy land, buy a house, buy a car, buy insurance and work your 9 to 5, where all your effort is funneled into improving your company, not yourself, to pay for it all. Why? Why shouldn't we just live off the land, always learning and experiencing real life? Or, at least, why can't we have a little leeway to do things differently?
 
Very interesting thought. It's somewhat going from one extreme on another, though. This is not to say that people haven't or don't live in the fashion described. I'm sure there are some. I would think that most recluses prefer something more in the line of balance where they have the best of both worlds, so to speak. Misanthropy is not one of my inherited traits. I do live in a fairly remote area with national forest all around me. It's nice to have the option of venturing into the forest or jumping the car, and driving down to the movie theater. I do need to have interaction with others.
If living on a deserted island sounds appealing to you, who am I to say you wouldn't pull it off?
 
Have you lived in the countryside in sparse population for any length of time? That may already have some of the challenges that you seek. Nothing wrong with wanting to live life a bit differently, however.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top