So I know it's not an option for most people (it's not for me; might have been at one time but I made the mistake of believing the rat race had purpose), but after doing lots of reading (Marx, Rousseau, Aristotle, Plutarch, Livy, etc..) and re-evaluating my historical studies I think honestly the only true way a man has to freedom is to own his own natural resources and means of production. If that's not the goal of what people call, “Homesteading,” I'm not sure what the goal is meant to be.
I'm 27, but my life epitomizes the adage, “It's not the years, it's the mileage.” I've put on a lot of that. I've worked for income since I was 11. I had my first pay stub at 14. I was a full-time student and full-time working man until I ended up in prison over some dumb shit that I regret. Just about all I can say to make that chapter of my life worth something is it unplugged me from a lot of harmful influences and showed me what really matters in life.
I'm starting a 5-year plan to save money to take my family and everyone else to some family land I have (everyone else is dead, much to my regret) that I know is good for, “homesteading.”
I get most people here are all about organizing and such and I support you 100%, especially if, “fleeing to the fields,” isn't an option. But I have a wider perspective I think than a lot of people. For me, the whole Postmodern Late Capitalist world is a ticking time bomb and we're heading for something akin to the Bronze Age Collapse and the Fall of the Roman Empire. The people who survive that are going to be the people with the natural resources, the means to defend them and a willingness to embrace the virtues of austerity and who are willing to forgo luxuries and ease for their independence. That's my personal opinion.
The real final straw for me was seeing just how much worse the working world got in the 3 1/2 years I was gone and just how bad employers are toward felons. How we're all just expected to be OK dependent on the welfare state and act like there won't come a day where there are strings attached. I'm literally expected to live at lower than poverty level because of some shit the people I hurt forgave me for years ago to the point of trying to all but get me pardoned. My kids and I are just supposed to slide to the bottom and be thankful for it because of some nebulous idea that we live in a, “free country,” whatever that means to the people telling us that.
What are your thoughts on that approach to getting out of being a draftee into the Surplus Labor Army?