It's Almost That Time...

I am, extremely thankful, to the one that actually deserves thanks...

And not to a society and government that doesn't...

good on oyu OP, do what you gotta do

but why the hell after every sentence do you use three periods...

The Right of Self Determination.

Well mine won't be instantaneous, it will take the rest of the year to complete, but it's going to happen now...

We wouldn't be "gaming the system" - we'd be cashing out on our own terms. And I'm not just talking about running down to COSTCO and buying a thousand pounds of bulk food... I mean buying seeds and garden tools, some chickens and goats, a good rifle and some ammo, basic first aid and medicinals.
I've done all that already, in preparation for the day when I 'cash out'...but that's not enough, in itself.

You've got to start LIVING IT. It takes some practice, and there are plenty of blunders and surprises along the way, but you've gotta grow into that kind of freedom, and many people will [sadly] find it rather frightening at first. Some will never quite get used to it. But if we manage to do this, our children will live in a much better world - they will be as unable to imagine the world of today as we are unable to imagine the hanging gardens of Babylon.

MOST IMPORTANTLY would be that we would have to be doing it as *communities* rather than individuals. No one is going to know everything they need for sufficiency, regardless of how long the take to prepare for their day to cash out - anyone preaching individual self sufficiency is a liar and a crook - go ahead and spend the $500 on their "intensive seminar" and see for yourself. God didn't intend for us to be islands of self - He intended for us to live together in small groups. Groups where everyone *knew* everyone else in their community, at least to some degree. Small enough to know each other, large enough to care for each other, to be completely sufficient as a group. This is the "secret sauce of success".

We have consistently violated that intent by building megalithic cities where anonymity and greed merge into opportunistic predation of man upon man. Babylon, ancient Rome, London - there are endless examples of how humanity can discard it's higher nature and become a swamp of predation and despair. When we drain the swamps of anonymous predation, and stop building newer, "better" ones, we'll be on the road to recovery.

There is a *Right Size* for everything - communities, companies, governments, etc. When we force everything to grow until it is "too big to fail", then it surely must fail, and it is our own fault for making it that way. Of course the opportunistic predators are going to love running massive corporations/governments which are "unstoppable" and "irreplaceable". They love it because it is the manifestation of man's weakness, inflicted upon itself ad nauseum, like one of those "Infinity Candles" from the 1960s.

Sooner or later, we'll learn that smaller is better, and less truly is more. Until then, this crap will not cease to sap our strength and creativity, and to sour our peace and our dreams...

Regrettably that is very likely to happen before chance is apt to occur...

As far as I'm concerned I don't owe this society a thing, all they do is attempt to bring me down to the lowest common denominator...no thanks, I'm not going to do it.

I may lament what's happening to my fellow man as I withdraw my resources from the economy, as I withdraw myself from the economy, but regardless of how much I lament, that doesn't mean they didn't bring it on themselves...

It's from Ayn Rand's classic, Atlas Shrugged...

It means dropping out of the system, not letting them exploit the most valuable resource you possess...You, your creative intellect, your skill set, your capital, your ambition...

The only logical way to kill a beast that has grown to the size and power that this system has, is to starve it to death...

With regards to self-sufficiency in a community setting, I think you hit the nail square on the head. I've recently received some flack from fellow "homesteaders" for not planting my own garden. Instead, we'll be working with a couple down the road who has an established produce farm. My kids and I will provide field help in exchange for produce. Self-sufficient? Not as the term is considered today. Yet not everyone needs to do everything, and it's a neighborly trade that was more common than not just a century ago.

You want to know what's funny, Saddletramp?

In an unplugged society I would actually have value as a human being, but being broken, in today's society, makes it impossible for me to be of use.

If it all came crashing down around us, I'd be better off. I'd actually have a job that I could do that would be directly rewarded from those who must be busy doing other things.

I know how to grow food, store food, and prepare it.

It seems so trivial, now, but when it all comes apart this stupid little "talent" I've had all of my life, that people refer to as "my hobby" since I'm on disability, will actually be in demand.

I'm really tired so I'm probably not making much sense.

You want to know what's funny, Saddletramp?

In an unplugged society I would actually have value as a human being, but being broken, in today's society, makes it impossible for me to be of use.

If it all came crashing down around us, I'd be better off. I'd actually have a job that I could do that would be directly rewarded from those who must be busy doing other things.

I know how to grow food, store food, and prepare it.

It seems so trivial, now, but when it all comes apart this stupid little "talent" I've had all of my life, that people refer to as "my hobby" since I'm on disability, will actually be in demand.

I'm really tired so I'm probably not making much sense.

You want to know what's funny, Saddletramp?

In an unplugged society I would actually have value as a human being, but being broken, in today's society, makes it impossible for me to be of use.

If it all came crashing down around us, I'd be better off. I'd actually have a job that I could do that would be directly rewarded from those who must be busy doing other things.

I know how to grow food, store food, and prepare it.

It seems so trivial, now, but when it all comes apart this stupid little "talent" I've had all of my life, that people refer to as "my hobby" since I'm on disability, will actually be in demand.

I'm really tired so I'm probably not making much sense.

Sounds righteous OP but this one is for you

I completely empathize with how you feel for entirely different reasons. When I was married, I was "just a housewife." Now I'm "just a mom." It doesn't matter that I work, because I work for myself from an office in my bedroom. That disqualifies it as a "real job."

What madness do we live in that we squirrel ourselves away in offices for 8 to 12 hours per day, interacting only to gossip about someone or trade notes, then spend the money to buy things we could create ourselves, in less time? And if we don't do that, we're not "valuable" members of society?

You do have value. You have skills that connect you to the earth and create useful, necessary, life-sustaining products. It sucks that people devalue your skill, but they only do it because you aren't "producing". Producing what? I'd like to know what's being "produced" in 75% of the offices in the US. Seems like it's just shuffling money from one hand to another, with nothing of actual, tangible value showing up.

You want to know what's funny, Saddletramp?

In an unplugged society I would actually have value as a human being, but being broken, in today's society, makes it impossible for me to be of use.

If it all came crashing down around us, I'd be better off. I'd actually have a job that I could do that would be directly rewarded from those who must be busy doing other things.

I know how to grow food, store food, and prepare it.

It seems so trivial, now, but when it all comes apart this stupid little "talent" I've had all of my life, that people refer to as "my hobby" since I'm on disability, will actually be in demand.

I'm really tired so I'm probably not making much sense.

Yes, admittedly this is a "selfish" decision, but I can't help but think if we all took care of our own "selves" first, perhaps there would be much less of this rationalization towards the lack of responsibility that is bringing this society to its knee's...

Physician heal thyself!

Why should we contribute to a society that no longer values us? That merely seeks to draw us into dependence through the illusion of political pull or outright purchase of our freedom of self determination with fiat currency based on the credit of that same society that secretly, and sometimes openly, despises the very hand that feeds it. The very engine of the world is what's at stake, and they have taken every opportunity to neglect the maintenance of that engine.

That engine is me, and you, and our creative intellect, our skill sets, our capital, our ambition...

I'm sorry to say, this societies full faith and credit no longer has any credit in my books...

Loan denied...

One man is easily assailed...100 men is harder...1 million men is almost impossible...10 million is entirely impossible...

So what good is me just doing this without trying to tell others about the reasoning for my decision?

I may be going Galt, but I don't intend to live like a hermit...

Or go into hiding...

I've suspected this was coming for some time now, and I've contemplated the ramifications of this inevitable decision ad-nauseum.

After reading the story about Obama unabashedly promoting food stamps, and other welfare programs, for illegal aliens. And the fact they are even using and operating these welfare programs inside Mexico through monolithic retail outlets like Walmart...

After the orchestrated crash in precious metals, and other recent financial events that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the "Free" markets are completely controlled by a very select few...

After Martial Law being declared through "Shelter in Place" orders in Boston, the home of the American Revolution and the Shot Heard Around The World...

And after watching the people of Boston come out in an "impromptu" parade, complete with miniature United States Flags, apparently in celebration of the gross over-reaction of the Feds and local police...

After watching my tax dollars go to useless programs that are entirely meant to enslave masses of people into a Neo-feudalist Serfdom, and watching these people sell their birthright for a pittance that goes almost entirely for the benefit of Walmart and J.P. Morgan Chase...

After dealing with government bureaucracies that would seek to hamstring my business through needless regulation so that I am less competitive with larger business' that have Political "pull"...

After watching story after story of serious voting irregularities, and numbers that simply didn't add up, in the Presidential Election of 2012 be swept under the rug by a subservient propaganda media...

After a complete loss of faith in the government of the United States of America and a majority of her people...

I have made my decision...

I am going on strike...

Not one more penny will I generate for the unlawful government of the United States and the looters that would seek to destroy me, my livelihood, and my life's work...

No longer will I generate products, value, and capital for a society that seeks only to bring me down to their level and thereby enslave me...

I'm going Galt...

If you don't like the United States or our President, you should get out of our country traitor!

^^^looter who is scared this might be a trend^^^