I dont know who

Originally posted by TheOracle
star, flagged and friended!
that's how life is meant to be, not the slavery we are forced upon.

While I agree that people have to learn to take pleasure from the little things, I have to disagree that there is any truth in what the OP posted or what those people who claim "the western capitalist life sucks compared to the eastern socialist life"...

I was born in one of those countries were socialism/communism was fully embraced and only brought suffering and oppression to the people, and I am TIRED of the westerners who keep claiming socialism/communism is so good when they have NEVER experienced it...

What a great story and so true too! Of course, it wouldn't be completely wasting those 25 years, as you are giving them, in labor and time, to the elite or PTB.

--airspoon

First, the story is good and probably we all have something to learn from that, .....but :

I don't know why you have so many S&F for that story. It's so old and if you go to any bar there will be at least 3 drunks who knows that story.

Second, I don't see where is the conspiracy, what are the news or what is the data to be debunked. If we keep bringing down the level of the posts, soon we will be exchanging recipes and talking about "novelas".

A good story posted in the wrong place becomes junk.

I'm sorry, but someone had to say it.

[edit on 22-8-2010 by Trueman]

At one of the Jimmy Johns here (Midwest sub shop chain) they have this on a little laminated poster over one of tables. The irony of it being posted in an American fast food restaurant is, I guess, left for the diner to ascertain.

Originally posted by adjensen
At one of the Jimmy Johns here (Midwest sub shop chain) they have this on a little laminated poster over one of tables. The irony of it being posted in an American fast food restaurant is, I guess, left for the diner to ascertain.

Would it be any less ironic if it was laminated in the house of a Chinese rice farmer?...

Would it be any less ironic if it was laminated in any building in any socialist/communist country?...

I am still waiting for someone to show me the place that i asked about in my first response...

Please show me this place where i can live for FREE in a house that was built for FREE where I can use electricity for FREE, and where I can get all my nutritional needs only from fish...

Show me this place where I can go live...

Thank you...
for sharing this unique parable which illustrates the importance of direction & purpose in our lives...along with the significance of appreciating our life.
It echoes the simplicity of certain lifestyles (i.e. island and costal regions) where a less modernized (i.e. monetized) system remains as the means of exchange in supporting the choice life of the community.

WE ALL STILL CHOOSE


∞LOVE∞

Originally posted by wayno
Oh my God, I think this makes you a dissident revolutionary; maybe even a potential terrorist!

This simple point is so lost on most people in the modern world. I think its a charm. The problem I am having is that I have to spend all this idle time by myself because all my friends are busy chasing the rainbow.

By the way, I am not a ne're-do-well. I just took early retirement realizing that there was little to gain from continuing on the tread wheel, but lots to gain from getting off of it.

meh..... I get sick & tired of people always going on & on about how the modern world isn't spiritual enough.

Lets be more realistic, shall we? How about looking at the parts of the world that aren't dominated by Western capitalist ideals? People who are satisfied with very little & like to just live a simple life beyond their work, & only like making as much money they'll need tend live under the worst conditions life can offer. They end up living under the most corrupt governments in the world where politicians suck the government funds dry while everyone else suffers from poverty, they get their family members randomly beat up or gang-raped by law enforcement officials for not paying them bribe money every month (like paying protection fees to local gangsters), and their own corrupt leaders maintain business ties with foreign corporations by usurping people's rights to proper education, job opportunities, & even owning their own property. They also get randonly killed in wars, buried in mass graves because their corpses are hadly even recognizable, or during raids by police officers who have been paid bonuses by politicians in the market for some perfect real-estate. Their kids get harrassed, raped, or beaten to death in colleges & universities by other students who have better connections & can get away with it. Despite being married, such people get raped by government officials or sexually exploited by their female bosses at work. If they file lawsuits, they get killed in car accidents or are made to dissappear through other means. They mostly can't afford to pay enough bribe money to get higher degrees or get government jobs. And if they go save up money to pay their way into those things, random bad things do happen by coinscidence.

the pathetic little lives of such people & their families just end in the most hilariusly funny manners. And that's where aiming low gets you. We should all do more research on how the system works in the other parts of the world we're fortunate enough not to be at.





[edit on 22-8-2010 by killyou]

Originally posted by awake1234
Thank you...
for sharing this unique parable which illustrates the importance of direction & purpose in our lives...along with the significance of appreciating our life.
It echoes the simplicity of certain lifestyles (i.e. island and costal regions) where a less modernized (i.e. monetized) system remains as the means of exchange in supporting the choice life of the community.

WE ALL STILL CHOOSE

So are you claiming that fishermen don't have to spent more than 8 hours at sea to make a good catch and make a living?...

I was born, experienced and lived in an island where socialism/communism has been fully embraced, Cuba, and where life is less modernized, and still people are more oppressed than in western countries...

The fable that the op posted is nothing more than that, a fable. There is no place in the world where you can live in a FREE parcel of land, work for only a couple of hours, and then enjoy the rest of the day with your family in your FREE home, with FREE electrivity, and then go to a bar where you can get a few drinks for FREE and play the guitar you got for FREE and enjoy the night with a few friends...

Unfortunately you have to work MORE than a couple of hours a day to make a good living, unless you are a multimillionaire...



[edit on 22-8-2010 by ElectricUniverse]

Hmmm....

A Mexican spin on a Buddhist parable.

Yes, wherever you are now is wherever you will ever be and wherever you were. There is no time but the present.

Caveat...that doesn't preclude planning, it just means, what is the point to all the excess when living your life is really all that there ever is (was/will be).

reply to post by ElectricUniverse


What is "free"? What does it mean really?

Land is land, why put a price on it? I'm pretty sure the land is there whether or not you pay for it. And, despite the fact that you did pay for it, is it really ever "your" land?

reply to post by killyou


I hate to break it to you, but our "Western" culture is their plight. We prop up their dictatorships, we externalize our costs (pollution, resource mismanagement, etc.) to their nations, and we dump our useless surplus with them to make up for it.

There's ample evidence if you do a little research that this "modern" world of which you speak...whatever "modern" means, is the very cause of their "primitiveness."

Ask yourself this question, between all the crime, social problems, cancer, pollution, car accidents, obesity, large scale war, terrorism, and so on...is this "modern" world somehow more ideal and safer than our old way of doing it?

I think the only conclusion is that we've just replaced one set of problems with another.

I have never heard this story put quite this way, but this may be my favorite rendition heard so far.

I would like to add however for the people who will take this story treat it as a way to live their lives that this fisherman had everything he needed already, and was living happy. Happy is the key, you dont want to stay where you are just becuase you may end up there anyway, you must first find happy, then never let it go no matter who trys to tell you otherwise.

Originally posted by ElectricUniverse
reply to post by 12voltz

 

Please do show us where we can move to live in a place where people don't have to do much work to be able to live a full life...

Seriously.. WHERE can I move where they will give me FREE a parcel of land, i would be more than content with 40 acres of FREE land...

First off you are right that nothing is truly free, but ...

I do not know of any free land, but it can be had for under $1,000
an acre in rural areas of several states including the one I live in.

Have a few struggling families buy a plot together and then one
by one they can get their own nearby, families that are friends
and share the same belief system work best.

Show me where I can go and get FREE all the materials I will need to build my house in this new place, and to have people with knowledge help me build the house for free...

A conventional house you are right, a Cob or Underground home
can be made for very little money but will require a lot of labor.

www.undergroundhousing.com...

en.wikipedia.org...

Show me where I can go and have FREE electricity all year around. At the very least I will need light, and to live in a place where it NEVER gets too hot or too cold, otherwise my family and myself will NEED AC and a heater...

Cob Homes, Rammed Earth, Bermed Earth, Underground Homes
do not need AC or heating.

Nothing in this world is free, but you can get a 400 watt wind generator
of Ebay for around $500, some batteries and an inverter would be
needed thou.

www.amazon.com...

For me this is about one weeks work.

Please show me a place where all my waste, and I am not talking about plastic bottles but the waste that comes from my rear end and front end, will be sent through the FREE plumbing to a place where it will be processed for FREE...

Composting toilets are being used in Canada right now, and some ppl
are using them here in the US in areas where the land will not "perk"
for septic systems.

en.wikipedia.org...

Please show me a place where i can get a few drinks for FREE, and where i can stay for FREE with a few friends and enjoy the evening...

Please show me a place where all my nutritional needs, and those of my family, are met by only eating fish...

Again nothing is free, but a raised bed garden makes for some
easy gardening and the food is nearly free, if you sell the extra
as organic at the farmers market or to friends and neighbors
then it is better than free.

You can make your own wine, beer, or booze, but it does take
some effort. Some who make good spirits even sell it and
make a tidy income off it. One person I know makes
pomegranate mead that is AWESOME and they sell it under
the table of course...

I don't believe in living beyond my means. I also don't believe in expending lots of money to live my life, but I do know that somehow people need to work for several hours a day to make a living, unless they are truly disabled.

Unless you show me such a place I have to say this is nothing more than the lunatic ramblings of someone who doesn't know what it takes to live ANYWHERE in this world...

Some work of some kind is required, and all land is taxed as far as
I know but here the taxes are around $100 a year for a small parcel
far from the cities.

Going to the national forest and collecting nuts can make for a
tidy sum of money as pecans are a few dollars a pound.

As long as you do not build any large obvious buildings the appraisers
can see it stays that way.

Out of sight out of mind.

Going off grid and getting to know your neighbors can make for
some good deals like one has chickens, another has cattle,
and yourself could have the veggies.

You can do this on a small plot of land too.

Good Luck to all the good ppl !


[edit on 22-8-2010 by Ex_MislTech]

[edit on 22-8-2010 by Ex_MislTech]

makes perfect sense to me. wisdom is beyond what is taught in a classroom. wisdom is beyond anything materialistic. the earlier you figure that out the better. nice post

To live simply and be content would mean to give up looking for answers.

I don't give in to the notion that ignorance is bliss. I crave understanding, and I want to know what else exists in this universe. Does that mean that I approve of the state of current society? No. And that's why it is essential that we not retreat to isolation, but rather figure out a way to improve all of humanity.

The meaning of life is not to simply exist. The meaning of life is the search for the meaning of life.

[edit on 8/22/2010 by yadda333]

To the posters who are looking for this utopia,you will not find it on an island in a fishing village.This lifestyle is for a lucky few,just like you will never be a famous Hollywood actor.Its not about the fishing village ,its about the moral at the end "Know where you are going in life ,You may already be there".In other words dont spend your life waiting to enjoy it,enjoy it now ,this may be as good as it gets.

Originally posted by ElectricUniverse
So are you claiming that fishermen don't have to spent more than 8 hours at sea to make a good catch and make a living?...

My grandfather with a hoop net would catch enough fish in one
go to have a fish fry to feed all the ppl around him.

I was born, experienced and lived in an island where socialism/communism has been fully embraced, Cuba, and where life is less modernized, and still people are more oppressed than in western countries...

Sorry to hear that, glad you got out.

The fable that the op posted is nothing more than that, a fable. There is no place in the world where you can live in a FREE parcel of land, work for only a couple of hours, and then enjoy the rest of the day with your family in your FREE home, with FREE electrivity, and then go to a bar where you can get a few drinks for FREE and play the guitar you got for FREE and enjoy the night with a few friends...

Again, you are right nothing is truly free, but you can live
very cheap, set up a fish farm and a raised bed garden
and live pretty damn cheap.

In the windy areas and the sunny areas you can setup a low
cost Wind Generator and solar panel with a charge controller
and inverter and some batteries.

Unfortunately you have to work MORE than a couple of hours a day to make a good living, unless you are a multimillionaire...

The good living is based on perspective.

It depends on what you value in life.

Do you need a $40,000 SUV or can you drive a used $1,500 older
truck that is easy to work on yourself with no high priced parts ?

Do you need a $250,000 Mc mansion or can you take material
from nature and build a Earth sheltered home that needs no AC
or heat.

You can move from a full time job to a part time job, and if you
get a few friends and family working together then a VERY part
time job for all of them.

That is how this can be realized by most ppl.

reply to post by 12voltz


its sad you have to clarify yourself, 12voltz. I dont understand how anyone made it this far in life without able to understand the difference between a metaphor, and a literal piece of information.

reply to post by Sphota


Those dictatorships were abusing those people before our corporations showed up on their shores to barter with them. They were more than happy to trade their stone age weapons for metal knives and fire sticks to kill their ancient enemies just down the road. Oh, and sell their neighbors into slavery.

Sad, but humanity always fins ways to screw things up.

reply to post by ElectricUniverse


God**mnit man... stop turning this into some rabid anti-commie thread in the defense of Capitalism. First of all, Capitalism has PLENTY of blood on its hands and tyranny at its fingertips.

The appeal of the this thread is a VERY REAL feeling amongst Capitalist countries who feel that the ECONOMIC model is tyrannical. NOBODY IS ARGUING that many communist regimes aren't tyrannical, they are. But in your blind, one-sided mind you completely ignore the fact that Capitalism has been JUST AS oppressive in its own ways as Communism has been. It is also very worth mentioning that many examples of oppression/destruction in third world countries can also be traced back to 1st-world/Capitalist forces. So... I ask YOU to take your head out of the clouds of the myth of western exceptionalism, boundless/endless Capitalist opportunity, and the false notion that Capitalist nations have it good and anybody who complains is just lazy and doesn't believe in the system enough (THAT sounds more like Communism than anything else).

The OP presented a story about appreciating the simple life and not getting carried away with unnecessary greed. It's a simple concept of having limited wants and therefore unlimited means. If we are to avoid both tyranny (economic and governmental) and environmental collapse, we will need to embrace some of the implications of such a story. It resonates with people because it's a very human tale in a modern world that we can all identify or at least empathize/visualize with.