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> But sometimes it seems that they are probably happier than the rest of us. I remember one episode of Anthony Bourdain from years ago. He was in some South Am
by rdtsc 10y ago
> But sometimes it seems that they are probably happier than the rest of us.
I remember one episode of Anthony Bourdain from years ago. He was in some South American country in a village and he went along to gather some yucca with a local farmer. Saying how great these people live in communion with nature and so on. And the farmer looks at him and says something to the effect of "you can have this, how about a trade". Meaning "you get to farm yucca and I go to live in your apartment in New York".
Not sure what my point even is, but I think it is about choice. It is ok if they end up living and doing that by choice, but if they are forced by circumstance they might feel trapped. We can go and start farming and living like this (I would certainly fail there quickly). But if they want to, they can't come and sit in cubicles and get paid for it.
- nickff 10y agoI think you are right, and that we should not romanticize poverty. Many people view a 'simple life' as being one of purity and virtue, but there are very good reasons for why so many poor farmers want to move to the city.
- shitgoose 10y agoit is not about living in NYC vs Mexican jungle. it is about living in Mexican jungle with or without gangsters/politicians/police. who knows, maybe we should try that too.
- rdtsc 10y agoSorry, I did diverge from the topic at hand. I didn't respond directly to the article but rather, the GP's comment made me remember something from a show I saw a while ago. So I wasn't talking specifically about Cheran but rather about the idea of how it might be nice to live a simple life like they do, and that often the simple part might be not as simple.
- shitgoose 10y ago- you are right, GP digressed first - our lives may not look that "sophisticated" to someone who travels to Monaco in private plane on a whim; all our "sophistication" is only in our heads - generally speaking, i was amazed how defensive most people in this thread became, when they faced the fact that somewhere really far away in Mexican jungle some people dared to chose to live without gangsters/police/politicians; people here are almost offended by that possibility and started coming up with poorly designed straw man arguments (like GP) just to take attention away from the subject
- rdtsc 10y ago> i was amazed how defensive most people in this thread became, I should have prefaced it with that I really admire what they did. When we protest in the West we go out and draw large sign and march in front of the White House. Then we go home to our warm beds. Or we write angry messages on the internet from the comfort of our own homes. I think what these people did is the real form of protest.
- shitgoose 10y ago"what these people did is the real form of protest" yes! and personally i would say, that they returned to normal.
- mc32 10y agoYou hit the nail on the head. Anthony can feel all romantic about because the second he has cold feet about it, he can jilt the his experiment in subsistence farming. That farmer has no hope, no way of parachuting out of there -as you say, the are trapped.
- babyrainbow 10y agoThe best way, like always, is to find a middle ground. Work part of your time doing physical labour in soil, farming or rearing animals, and part of your time doing creative/intellectual work. Because both mind and body needs to work on things they are supposed to. But finding that middle ground for themselves requires every man thinking for himself, which is kind of frowned upon in modern societies....
- mseebach 10y agoSteve Horwich has coined the phrase "rich enough to play at being poor". I think it very nicely captures both the dynamic of romanticising poverty (sorry, "simple, happy living") and the dubious ethics of doing so. http://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/the-calling-in-defense-of-complex-global-fast-living/ http://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/the-calling-in-de...