Why?

[goombla]

Why?

its a question ive asked myself for the last 4 years that this movie has been in my life.
I mean, deep down i know the answer, but i can never seem to manifest it into physical thoughts. I simply find myself reading chris' philosophies and find that I can agree with it.

that was a bit misleading...

i guess im asking what makes YOU want to be apart from society? and Why?
I have one year to formulate a letter to my parents to best describe my passions, and i just cant seem to get it right.

[pezar]

My answer is, basically, that our "society" is profoundly sick in the head, and unsustainable to boot. I mean, when you have the smartest minds on the planet saying that society as we know it can't go on for much longer, because it is using up resources faster than the planet can cope, yet every other ad on TV is for the latest and greatest electronic gadget that uses tons of minerals that exist only in Red China, and which the ChiComs control exclusively, and which they have been tightening supplies of to force companies to move to China, and the other ads are for pharmaceuticals which are being dumped in our waterways and destroying the marine life, and NOBODY CARES about any of that because the need to use Oxycontin to cope with it all is just too great, and the "need" to update one's Facebook status every 10 seconds is just too great, and people can't live without their drug and electronic fixes.

So many young people are so doped up on drugs that they are willing to kill pharmacists to get a fix, and you stand in line to pay for your groceries and literally everybody else is on Facebook or texting, and they can't be bothered to quit to give the cashier the time of day. You can't even go to the pharmacy anymore without worrying that some Oxy addict will kill you for his fix. Even worse, nobody cares, you just get blank looks when you ask people if a little preparation for hard times wouldn't be wise, you ask them if they can afford a $200/mo iphone contract and they're too busy surfing Facebook to answer you, and of course there's all the opioid zombies whose brains are so fried that they don't know what year it is. The only way that credit card usage goes down is for bankruptcies to go up. People still can't get over putting it on credit and paying later. Human civilization is dying, and nobody cares.

I think Chris knew this, he saw that Walt and Billie had all this money and success and Walt still got shitfaced drunk at every opportunity and fought with Billie and abused Chris and Carine, and he had the house and the boat and the vintage Corvette and he still wasn't happy. Chris knew that money doesn't make you happy, nor does houses and boats and cars and all the other shit, because his family had that and it didn't do a bit of good. Here we are, four years into a new Great Depression and people REFUSE to adjust their habits, lifestyles, and views on money and things. They still want to kick the guy who lost everything, they refuse to believe that they're next. So yeah, it's time for the conscious to say fuck this, and to disconnect from society before the Titanic goes down and pulls them with it.

[Magic_Don]

I agree with almost 100% of what Pezar said. I, personally, don't know if I'd want to be 100% off the grid for prolonged periods, that would come with experience.

Here's my problem. I work for Best Buy, have for a while. I consider myself a pretty decent human. I have my flaws, and I have things I can definitely improve on. But, let's think, for a second. A store like Best Buy, Wal Mart, etc. Think about what we\they sell. I have. The only thing(s) we sell that aren't totally excess, in my eyes, are refrigerators, and possibly something like a stove, or a microwave. While you don't absolutely need them, it's nice to be able to keep food, and cook it. TV's, computers, cameras, while all have their good areas, you don't need them to survive.

That aside, the thing that gets me is this. A lot of times, I work security (the yellow shirt guy at the door) now, one of my job duties, is to greet people. Which I think I do pretty well. But, I don't greet people who are texting/on their phone, unless they look up.

You can't believe how many don't even look up! I'm not that old, but, like most here, I imagine, we were old enough to know of not having the internet, cell phones, stuff like that. People are so disconnected, and full of them selves at times.

I do text, of course. Not long conversations, not often at least. But, if I'm on a call, or anything, and I'm buying something, I stop, I give that person 2 minutes of my time, to acknowledge them, or, even not to, just that I could if needed.

I'm gonna stop here, this is pissing me off. lol.

[goombla]

Fuck yeah guys this is exactly what I was looking for, thanks.
Keep it coming if you can.

[Wedelen64]

All the problems we are dealing with now have been already happened through out history, minus our "technology". The whole system is corrupt, just like all the corrupt systems in history. We are repeating history because we do not learn from it. Money is our "true" god. We all have to have money to survive and in nature it is survival of the fittest. Banks have the most money and therefore are the fittest to survive this insanity. If we do not send a message to society by getting off the grid then we are doomed to failure and are just sheep waiting to be told what to do by people who do not care about us, only our ability to make them money. If you are into money and all of its pitfalls then you will never understand Chris's message. I relish living in nature and do not wish for society's downward spiral but it is happening and I must deal with it accordingly.

[JesusIsLove777]

[quote="Wedelen64"]. Money is our "true" god.

you said it d00d. when you think of what money is, just mere paper, it is absolutely heinous that people spend there lives living for such finite THINGS. they are just things. we are putting our life, and our soul, into these things that aren't meant to sustain or provide lasting fulfillment in us humans.

we need more than money, possessions, drugs, your job, lust, to sustain happiness in ones life. i know from experience that none of those vices will satisfy a human beings life.

i live in a wealthy town, and nearly everyone around me is caught up in this fantasy world of materialism and greed that is sickens me. i blame the media, government, and school-systems for instilling this greedy, empty, purposeless, passionless lifestyle in us. i weep for those that are close to me who are so blind, blinded by conformity, that they are choosing the path for their life that was put into them by society/government.. they are choosing the less passionate, loving route, and going for the routine-based, materialistic, selfish route that this world wants us to indulge in.

when we're young we dream of doing the miraculous, the amazing, and while sometimes they might not work out, we at least have to put up a fight and go hard for our dreams! people undermine life the importance and vitality of life on earth.. and so many (im guilty) take their days for granted, living in fear, wondering what they could have been had they lived life more courageously, more passionately, and more lovingly, purposefully. as it stands, my entire family has/is chasing after the "american dream" of wealthy, "security" and materialism.

birth.school.work.death. that will be the summation of their life. total zombies. i am praying for them.

any thoughts?

[Wedelen64]

Jesusislove777> I just spent a week in the mountains and it has humbled me (again). I want to rant about the ills of society but the answer seems so simple: freedom. I only feel truly free in the mountains because we are not 'free' in society even though we think we live in a free country. We are not free just more free than any country in the world, but we are not free and that is what your previous post said to me. It's seems to me that freedom is our common purpose on this forum. But there is a price for freedom and this price is hard to pay and Chris paid it in full. The only way to be truly free is to give up wanting what everyone else desires. There are other ways to accomplish this without doing what Chris did but that is for other forums.

So this guy Chris rejects the ways of society, influences a few people around him, people reject him for being different then he dies doing what he loves.....then after death people hear about what he did and then finally understand the message and try to change their lives for the better.....remind you of anyone in particular?

I say this only to point out that we only learn the most important lessons after the messenger is dead instead of listening "in the now". We do not learn from history we only repeat it! Thanks for your excellent posts.

[goombla]

Yes a well deserved thankyou to all!!

However another little question has arised. While at a Chinese restaurant with my father, I eased into a convo about my future. In short, it ended in my dad calling the waitress over to try and help explain to me why money is important. She insisted to me that money is happiness and that one say I would understand.
I kept nodding to avoid going into deep detail infront of my father, but basically I was just wondering how I could explain to those with such dependence on material things my own view on life. I find it difficult to express my thoughts in brief speech. Ideas?

[Wedelen64]

Goombla, you can't explain it to them. It's like explaining why not to do drugs to a drug addict. Your father (like my father)has bought into this system that has become too corrupt to survive. People like our fathers cannot fathom that they have lost their country to greed/corruption. They want to believe that things can be fixed but how do you fix something that is run by corporations/lobbyists who payoff the politicians. Sorry if I am getting too political, I try to be apolitical. As individuals, I say that you can't fix what is wrong you can only react to it. This is why I have been planning my retreat since before I knew the Chris Mccandless story. I am just so grateful I am not alone.

On a positive note I bought "98.6 Degrees. The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive" by Cody Lundin (under $10 on amazon). So far lots of great knowlege for "surviving" off the land in an emergency. I didn't buy the book because I think I can live off the land entirely. I bought it to increase my knowlege in case my own plan fails or I get into a predicament and to decrease my 'fear' level.

[pezar]

Yes a well deserved thankyou to all!!

However another little question has arised. While at a Chinese restaurant with my father, I eased into a convo about my future. In short, it ended in my dad calling the waitress over to try and help explain to me why money is important. She insisted to me that money is happiness and that one say I would understand.
I kept nodding to avoid going into deep detail infront of my father, but basically I was just wondering how I could explain to those with such dependence on material things my own view on life. I find it difficult to express my thoughts in brief speech. Ideas?

LOL, like you can get a balanced view on money from somebody who the money system defines as a failure. I mean, a few, like us, choose to opt out, but there are millions who had kids too young, or who didn't finish HS, or any number of things, and they look at the mountaintop and see the billionaires partying, and they wish they had money, and they think that money is happiness. They don't see the kids of the billionaires who do enough drugs on a daily basis to kill an elephant, and many of those hedge fund managers are on drugs themselves, and the poor never ask themselves, if our system is so great why do rich and poor alike need drugs to tolerate it?

Many of the poor smoke tobacco which is a drug, and you look at the homeless and they smoke like chimneys and drink cheap wine, and you look at the other end and the rich are taking Quaaludes and washing them down with Remy, and people just accept that you need your drug and money fix to make it through the day, and the impoverished waitress insists money is happiness but what you don't see is the only way she can get "happy" is to smoke weed or pop Oxy or shoot meth, and she spends all her paycheck on dope and then goes to the govt and begs for food stamps to feed her kids, and when she gets that she buys frozen faux-food and gets $200 in "change" so she can buy more dope. And people just accept that that's the way things are.

You see the articles online about yet another pharmacist killed for Oxycontin, and all the comments say "well we all here are just so poor, and we have no options in life, and the only way we can deal with it is dope", and they take their drugs and then wonder where their lives went, why the waitress is still waitressing at age 40, and why every male in town is a useless sack of shit who smokes weed and plays video games all day, and then companies say "we need workers, but we have to go to China to get them since everybody in the US is stoned and has no work ethic". People then wonder where all the jobs went, through their drug haze. I once saw an ad on Craigslist from a guy who wanted to fix PCs in exchange for weed. You think he knows what he's doing? You look at every single town and people are barely functional through the purple haze, and then they say that money is happiness? HA!