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There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone

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Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone

#151

Post by KhanMahGretsch »

FrozenVoid wrote: post #91

I don't want to live in a wilderness, but i would want to greatly reduce mandatory social interactions i have to do daily. Its emotionally draining and stressful. Almost everything we do can be automated, but people still insist on face-to-face interaction(or at minimum voice/video chat) and there is this herding behavior that forces people to adjust their beliefs and thoughts to conform to current in-group paradigms…

It appears to me that, like many others, there is an issue with the quality of your interactions, and you are unable to control when/where/how they happen.

I sometimes hear the phrase "People are social animals" to express the sentiment that living in densely-populated environments has a good/neutral influence on the human psyche.

The disclaimer should be that socialising with people we know well and trust is what's "natural" and yields benefits; being constantly surrounded by strangers has to be stressful for us.

Wether consciously or intuitively (See the excellent book "The Gift of Fear" for more), we are constantly scanning our surroundings for potential threats.

That, and a lack of accountability for how one treats their "neighbours", presents problems that can place a tremendous load on your mental health.

Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone

#152

Post by sgt101 »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #128
icebraining wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buying farmland and working in your fields 12 hours a day, is still an option :) Yeap. Or get some sheep and go graze them in the mountains. There are still people doing that in my Western European country. Plenty of free time to think, if that's what you really want.

I once watched a shepherd put his hand up a sheep's vagina to help with a birth during lambing time. If you think it's an easy or fun job, you might want to spend some time doing it before committing.

This isn't the difficult or unpleasant bit of sheep farming, delivering a good lamb is actually wonderful. Sheep in pain, dead lambs, malformed lambs, drowned lambs - these are harder. Carrying injured sheep soaked to the skin in a force 9, that's bloody horrible. Doing it once in a while is invigorating but the grind, year after year all through the winter.

Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone

#155

Post by spiderfarmer »

aw3c2 wrote: post #122
amelius wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't they have a camera crew around all the time?

Third sentence says "self-documented".

Still, the people who are willing to film themselves are more extroverted than necessary.

Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone

#156

Post by jandrewrogers »

wwwater wrote: post #96
nabla9 wrote: post #42

Being alone and hiking and camping in the wilderness without human contact for longer period can be amazing experience. There can be initial anxiety and intense desire to go back after romance goes away and your internal shit comes to light. When there is constant need for do chores to survive but also free time and no human contact, no books, radio or music, mind gradually settles into itself. It's like coming from…

I like very much how you describe this thing with words like "triggers" and "disappearing into network", that feels exactly this way for me too. Where is this place, where you can hike for a week without seeing any other human?

In the US, most of the wilderness areas, national forests, or the vast Bureau of Land Management areas will work. Especially in the western US, you are rarely more than a few hours from wilderness areas where people seldom tread.

While you do see people on the old mining/forest trails occasionally even in the remote areas, that quickly drops to zero if you leave the trails. In many regions there are semi-drivable trails that will take you to within a mile or two of lakes/rivers/etc that are completely off grid and never visited by people. Topographic maps are a good resource for finding these areas.

Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone

#157

Post by newman8r »

petra wrote: post #127
foodstances wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a TV series "Alone" where they drop people off in the remote woods (far from each other) and the person that can survive the longest by themselves wins $500k. As the season goes on, you can see a clear decline in the mental health of many of the contestants. Many drop out just out of sheer boredom or loneliness, even though they have decent shelter and can find food. The winners usually last about 2-3 months…

I'm curious how different the results will be if you could bring your dog, or maybe Kindle , or music player or instrument , or you're a praying person ,etc - what are the minimal conditions where many could learn to live happily alone ?

I don't think it would be that bad. I spent weeks at a time alone on my desert parcel with my trailer. I had my computer and other comforts.

There was always a lot to do if I wanted to do it, and I could spend hours at a time doing stuff like making dirt-roads, practicing my dry-stone masonry, coding and whatnot on the computer.

I think if you're alone and have some purpose (i.e. building your ranch, spending time to study or learn new skills) you'd probably be fine.

Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone

#158

Post by newman8r »

nerdponx wrote: post #76
nabla9 wrote: post #42

Being alone and hiking and camping in the wilderness without human contact for longer period can be amazing experience. There can be initial anxiety and intense desire to go back after romance goes away and your internal shit comes to light. When there is constant need for do chores to survive but also free time and no human contact, no books, radio or music, mind gradually settles into itself. It's like coming from…

Where do you learn the outdoor and craftmanship skills you'd need to survive on your own in the woods? Lots of backpacking trips with more experienced people?

as others said, youtube is great.

but take a look at permies.com and if you're interested, you can get into the permaculture movement. you can take advantage of an immense collection of knowledge.

these are some of the most resourceful people I know.

Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone

#159

Post by wwwater »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #156
wwwater wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like very much how you describe this thing with words like "triggers" and "disappearing into network", that feels exactly this way for me too. Where is this place, where you can hike for a week without seeing any other human?

In the US, most of the wilderness areas, national forests, or the vast Bureau of Land Management areas will work. Especially in the western US, you are rarely more than a few hours from wilderness areas where people seldom tread. While you do see people on the old mining/forest trails occasionally even in the remote areas, that quickly drops to zero if you leave the trails. In many regions there are semi-drivable tra…

Yes, I guess the US has a lot of uninhabited regions, while in western Europe I often have a feeling, there is not a single hectare of land without a village.
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