Would You Be Willing To Leave It All Behind And Go Back To Basics?

Would you be willing to leave everything appertaining to your modern life behind?

Would you be prepared to live in a community as a collective where everyone is equal and everyone is prepared to work for the benefit of the community as a whole without pay or financial reward?

Would you consider living without modern technology or anything that runs on electricity or fossil fuels?

Would you know how to survive off the land, how to hunt and how to feed yourself to a high standard of nutrition without using any form of manufactured or processed food at all?

Do you think you could live amongst others and never resort to violence in any shape or form?

I'm talking about living life in the most basic sense of the word, almost as hunter gatherers but with the knowledge to provide good shelter for ourselves and each other. A community without money, without luxury possessions, where everyone is equal.

A community similar to a Kibbutz or to the Amish people but this community would have no religious beliefs at all. Where food is grown without pesticides and water is fresh and pure. A place where only homeopathic medicines are used and hospitals no longer exist. A place where alcohol and drugs are but a distant memory.

You could view this scenario in any number of ways, such as living on a new planet like Earth but uninhabited by man or perhaps the Earth as we know it today but an Earth that has undergone a series of massive CME's that have wiped out all electrical items around the globe pushing man back into a new age where absolutely nothing electrical has survived.

Does this kind of life appeal to you?
Do you think it would make us better people without a hierarchy of power or wealth or do you think man is destined to have leaders and followers?

I would appreciate your thoughts and ideas.

Personally, the idea of a back to basics life appeals enormously to me.The idea can appear idyllic but the concern is that the status quo can easily be shattered by the actions of others and the question then arises of how to deal with those who are disruptive or violent.
Does imposing penalties or ejecting these people from the community not alter the state of equality by giving any one person the power over another? How would we deal with the type of people that terrorize our modern day communities today?

Is this just a pipe dream never to be realized or is it achievable?
If our planet was subjected to such massive CMEs or perhaps even Alien interventions that rendered all electrical technology useless, how would we as race be able to pull through it and survive or would it simply be a state of mass chaos and survival?

So many thoughts.......

Look into what happened with the communes. There is a reason human beings have never lived like this and never will.

It's very achievable and there are several communities (if not hundreds) of people that live like that around the world.
Except for the exclusion of power, with Solar panels and batteries, there is no need to live without power.

Originally posted by Arkady
Look into what happened with the communes. There is a reason human beings have never lived like this and never will.

No true . The earliest south American ciry (corral or something it slips my mind atm) existed for hundreds or thousands of years with no war, no walls, no weapons.

just coke lime and farming. My kinda life.

Since I am currently homeless this life defanatly appeals to me . But unfortunately there is no place to do this.

Maybe a country or continent should be set aside for people who want this life.

I do. Grew up on a farm. Learned how to hunt and make shelter as play.

No place for people like us i guess.

Originally posted by Arkady
Look into what happened with the communes. There is a reason human beings have never lived like this and never will.

Russia has been doing this since the fall of communism.

There are 100s of large communities.

People were given land, by the government once the USSR split up.

I think given the chance, meaning all economic and psychological (tv0, radio, media) shackles are removed, that up to 1/3 of the people would live simpler lives in communities.

Originally posted by Arkady
Look into what happened with the communes. There is a reason human beings have never lived like this and never will.

Do you think this was due to religious attachments or misled beliefs?

This is one reason I considered the exclusion of religion as it always leads to conflict and in an ideal world I think it would be best avoided altogether.

Just my thoughts

Sounds nice but hasn't seemed to work. Throughout history, every culture has it's hierarchy, there will always be filthy rich, there will always be poor and every one in between. There will be the chosen, sick, and crazy. That's just part of being human. Returning to the basics would be the best thing to happen to us but it’s no cakewalk. However, there will ALWAYS be leaders and followers. Worshipped and worshippers.

reply to post by studio500

A place where alcohol and drugs are but a distant memory.

if were living off the land, alcohol could easily be made and would serve medical purposes, [snip]. so banning drugs and alcohol in your new world would only hurt us, not help. but otherwise i would love to get back to basics it beats doing a job you hate for some paper and have that paper taken from you for things you dont even want or need.

Originally posted by Sovaka
It's very achievable and there are several communities (if not hundreds) of people that live like that around the world.
Except for the exclusion of power, with Solar panels and batteries, there is no need to live without power.

Yes I have no doubt that there are places that live close to this ideal but power over others always seems to come into the equation.
I wonder if man by his/her very nature requires power to survive, like the animal kingdom and survival of the fittest.

I do wonder if a 100% equal community could ever function as to date history shows us otherwise.

Originally posted by Another_Nut

Originally posted by Arkady
Look into what happened with the communes. There is a reason human beings have never lived like this and never will.

No true . The earliest south American ciry (corral or something it slips my mind atm) existed for hundreds or thousands of years with no war, no walls, no weapons.

just coke lime and farming. My kinda life.

Since I am currently homeless this life defanatly appeals to me . But unfortunately there is no place to do this.

Maybe a country or continent should be set aside for people who want this life.

I do. Grew up on a farm. Learned how to hunt and make shelter as play.

No place for people like us i guess.

Now that's very interesting.

I know very little about Native Indians but I understand that they were very spiritual rather than religious, perhaps this is the answer toward mutual harmony where the elements lifeforms are appreciated for their spiritual form rather than an iconic image of man.

Sorry to hear about your housing situation, I hope you are keeping safe.

reply to post by studio500


You could do without power for sure.
You'd need to ramp up your Corn Oil and Bee Hive production so that you could constant produce candles or lantern fuel.
Where-as most would prefer Solar + Batteries as it would be less work and nonpolluting.

I do wonder if a 100% equal community could ever function as to date history shows us otherwise.

There will never be a 100% equal community as there will ALWAYS need to be a leader to make the tough decisions.
Else-wise you could run a majority democracy where every member of the community has a vote.
Not just on the big stuff, but with everything concerning the community as a whole or the people.
Then EVERYONE votes and the majority rules; there would be people upset with the outcomes.

Anything is possible, as long as you put your mind to it.

Originally posted by Gridrebel
Sounds nice but hasn't seemed to work. Throughout history, every culture has it's hierarchy, there will always be filthy rich, there will always be poor and every one in between. There will be the chosen, sick, and crazy. That's just part of being human. Returning to the basics would be the best thing to happen to us but it’s no cakewalk. However, there will ALWAYS be leaders and followers. Worshipped and worshippers.

Agreed but how about a collective vote by the community as a whole to those who do commit serious actions against others such as rape or murder. I would imagine laws would still need to be in place but even so what would be the maximum punishment other than exile. We would probably end up surrounded by the exiled enemy and that would probably lead to war or bloodshed which is one aspect of humanity that a new world would be better without.

I sometimes wonder if it is inevitable that we are where are now and nothing could ever truly change by default.

I live the daily grind, clock in, work the day and head home
cell phones, traffic, stupid people,..

Yes I would leave it in a heartbeat. head back to living off the land

Jus waitin for the day

A place where alcohol and drugs are but a distant memory.

I'm suppose to be all dirty without power and I can't even get drunk or high? No thanks.

reply to post by studio500


Your original question..

Would you be willing to leave everything pertaining to your modern life behind?

The answer is no.
I like my comforts of our modern society.
When the time comes when I'm forced too,I'll be as ready as I can.
But,I'm not really concerned about me,but concerned about my kids,and those younger than me who have grown up in an electronic and computerized world.
I shouldn't say that.
I have plenty of friends out in the sticks with kids who have killed more deer than me.
I worry for those not able to get out of urban areas and living off the land.
Go spend a weekend in the woods far away and try your survival skills.

reply to post by studio500


This is also one of my passions, along with foraging for wild edible plants , natural springs.I would love to
live like this, not sure how it would all work out with other personalities. I live in Northern Canada, it s -26
and did a 2 hour hike 0n snowshoes today. New experience walking on snowshoes. Didn t get too far . Next is camping overnight in a tent. That got cancelled a couple
weeks ago . I m doing this to test and challenge myself an d my survival gear. I think this situation would work best
with people who have tried doing it themselves and know their strong and weak areas. Ego is a hard thing to
get rid of tho. I find that the cleaner my diet becomes the more time I want to spend outside in nature and I become
less interested in consumerism. Maybe that s the key.....?

reply to post by Sovaka


I tell you what Sovaka, I would elect you as president straight away, unpaid and with only slightly raised powers of course!

That type of life would be perfect using only natural energy sources and no pollution. Being in tune with the planet and its surroundings.

It seems that greed and power are two very formidable forces that could perhaps be eradicated in time and with the right community attitude.

reply to post by studio500


You'd have to handle it by majority vote as well community trials with local jury.
Result would either be Guilty/Not Guilty.
From there, you have 3 options;
Punishment (Hard labour, food rationing et c), Exile and lastly, Execution.

When you talk about running a community and your survival, you can't exile rapists/murderers et c.
Because as stated, they will return.
We all know gaols (jails) do not work for the crimes that would warrant execution.

The difficulty would be in proving guilt/innocence in a community where the evidence gathering would be limited and likely not be able to support full forensics.

I think that both mentally physically the vast majority of people in the Western World just wouldn't be able to cope with this sort of lifestyle.

I work in customer service, and speak to many people all the time who don't even know the most basic information without having to resort to their smart phone to look it up - even about themselves. Many people can't even tell you their street address, and I mean just every day, regular people. People across all ranges of age and income level seem to be forgetting about how to use even the most basic of every day life skills.

In the Western World, we are also massively out of shape as a rule, finding people who are physically fit, or even capable of getting themselves in such condition easily is becoming more scarce.

A huge percentage of people are unnecessarily very heavily dependent on modern medication and their electronic devices, and wouldn't be able to survive more than a few weeks without them in such an environment.

reply to post by studio500


Thank you for the kind words.

I have put a lot of thought into how such a community would be run as I intend on running such a community.
Though in our current society, the only change would be that the local constabulary would handle any crimes (if any).