Wow, already the 3rd of December? Where did November go for chrissakes?
Went up into the Florida mountains today with a friend. Sot some orange berries I haven't seen before, and the seedpods from a similar-looking bush. There are barrel and hedgehog cacti up the yinyang there! Many barrels 4 feet high or more, and hundreds of smaller ones. This is just on the south edge of the range.
Didn't see any caves there, but there are some places where the rocks form a natural shelter... this got me thinking. Here there are thousands of acres of public land. Land ownership is a myth anyway -- there hasn't been true, allodial, private property for over 100 years anywhere in the world of which I'm aware -- so let's start forming small tribes on BLM and other public land. Burrow your house into the ground where nobody will see it -- power your electronics via small, easily concealed, solar panels, or use a bicycle generator (use ultra-low-power computers and routers built with chips like Chuck Moore's Forth circuits), so we can communicate with other tribes and prevent another disaster like this 10000-year-old "culture" that almost destroyed life as we know it, and start living a life that's more harmonious with the planet. You can catch enough rainwater, even here in the desert, to live, year by year. Food is still a problem -- we didn't see any of the ibex reported to be in those mountains, just some rabbits -- but as long as we maintain unternets (connected with the Internet until the Unternet becomes a world-scale reality), we can survive by buying and selling on eBay. Cactus and ice-plant cuttings can bring in enough income to survive.
I'm thinking that this could become very viable -- there's enough land to support hundreds of small tribes without stepping on each other's toes. You want to practice polyamory? Voodoo? Cannibalism? Whatever, find like-minded people using the [ui]nternet, form your own tribe, and go establish yourselves somewhere. Your tribe and mine may be at war someday, over land, food, or mates, but we'll always work things out and be at peace again. This is the way we lived for millions of years, and it works.
I was thinking today, up on that mountain, that some lonely guy or girl would come into the mountains looking for answers -- a way out of the matrix -- and my tribe could invite him into our bau, offer a cold Guinness, and inspire one more to leave the machine behind and start living.
The mantle heat is only a thousand feet down, or less, here in some parts of New Mexico. Dig a foot a day and in 3 years I can be safe from the chaotic weather that global warming is bringing to our doorstep. Something to think about on these freezing nights we've been having here lately.
My thinking has been a lot clearer lately, now that I'm programming again and drinking more coffee and less beer. Watch out, world!
last updated 2013-01-10 20:49:32. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com