Ideology and Reality

[BearBirch]

Hello fellow survivalists

To feel the pull of the freedom that the wild provides makes for conflicting thoughts. We all sell a little bit of our freedom for comfort and security. Its not a choice we make but an oak that is put upon us at birth.

When I see all of your inspiring quotes and sayings I feel a sense of belonging. A yearning for a freedom that has been stolen from us to feed society and its pillars. With time its second nature to belong to something alien and foreign. But I wonder, what is my first nature?

Do I belong to nature as the nature belongs to me?

Can I be at pair with the nature ever again? Can I leave my history and live in the moment from this day?

These existential questions and the ideology behind them is calling me but at the same time reality is beating me in the stomach with responsibilities and fear. I am weak. Can I ever be strong again?

I believe that with the expertise and knowledge of the members of these forums combined with my will to become a survivor, I can be strong again.

Freedom to all
Let the spirit shine

Yours truly
Bear Birch

[Rick]

All of us trade away ideals at some level for security. When you are 17 or 18 you want to save the world and do noble deeds. A few years go by and you find that you are married and maybe a kid or two and you want to be able to provide for them. So you trade your desire to run free with making a living. Maybe it's maturity and responsibility. Whatever it is, you'll find it changes throughout your life.

[kyratshooter]

Yep, it's hard to be one with the wilderness when you are short on vacation days and the wife considers "roughing it" a hotel with no room service.

I have been fortunate in being able to have time and access beyond the average, and several rescources for skill development.

One makes use of what is available, and though I have not had access to the uncharted wilds of taiga or jungle, I have found patches of green near home and hearth to exploit to the best of my ability.

Hows that for waxing philosophical?

[SARKY]

If civilization as we know it ended tomorrow would you adapt or just roll over and die? If you can answer that then you will have answered your own question.

[Sourdough]

I love your signature. I have read three times each of his many books. If you really want to be free......this is the wrong forum. Sorry, your going in the wrong direction. "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear".

[rwc1969]

If I'd have stuck to my ideals I'd be in prison, asylum or dead by now. The reality is, depending on your perspective, no one is truly free, not even the critters in the woods. They are slaves to nature and man.

[BearBirch]

I love your signature. I have read three times each of his many books. If you really want to be free......this is the wrong forum. Sorry, your going in the wrong direction. "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear".

Yeah, dont you just love the magic of his world?
I am a believer!

Maybe this is not the Ultimate forum for me but I think it contains all that I need to know. You stand for the knowledge and I take responsibility on how to use it.

[BearBirch]

If I'd have stuck to my ideals I'd be in prison, asylum or dead by now. The reality is, depending on your perspective, no one is truly free, not even the critters in the woods. They are slaves to nature and man.

Yes that is true.

But I have to believe that the world is more than how man chooses to describe it to me.

In Sweden you have the freedom to step on any land, as long as you dont destroy or hunt anything. So, in the freedom of the wild I guess its hard to be put into prison or the asylum, but death is one of the things that is true for all things in life.

[BearBirch]

If civilization as we know it ended tomorrow would you adapt or just roll over and die? If you can answer that then you will have answered your own question.

Yes, but waiting for civilization to end isnt my definition of living
But I see your point. I wont give up, thats for sure. If I havnt given up yet I dont think its going to happen. I just need to gather the tools that will make my survival easier.

[BearBirch]

Yep, it's hard to be one with the wilderness when you are short on vacation days and the wife considers "roughing it" a hotel with no room service.

I have been fortunate in being able to have time and access beyond the average, and several rescources for skill development.

One makes use of what is available, and though I have not had access to the uncharted wilds of taiga or jungle, I have found patches of green near home and hearth to exploit to the best of my ability.

Hows that for waxing philosophical?

You should have both Taiga and Jungle pretty close to you. Go north for the Taiga and South for the Jungle You have Jungle in Florida right? And Michigan should have some taiga, no?

[kyratshooter]

You should have both Taiga and Jungle pretty close to you. Go north for the Taiga and South for the Jungle You have Jungle in Florida right? And Michigan should have some taiga, no?

It is on the map, but that does not mean it is accessable. Both swamp and taiga are as far from me as England is from your nation. We live in a large land mass.

Other factors come to influnce the decisions, even down to when and where one can build a fire.

Except in extremely rare cases this entire thread is an imagineary trip into the world of dreams. Much like calculas; a fine mental exercise but little use in the real world.

As it is I am in the crossroad of climates. A week ago I had enough snow to build a snow cave and for three weeks the temps remained below freezing. 6 months ago I was rolling in my own sweat at 100 degrees F. In the spring we had excessive rain, in the late summer a drought. Our forest here are deceduious hardwoods with occasioinal softwoods. The local government is generous in providing me with 4,000 acres of woodland to roam and hunt as public land, all of it within 2 miles of my home. I have a public lake 1/4 mile from my door. All this was factored into my retirement plan and based on decision rather than chance. While others talk about their "bug out loaction" and the difficulties of travel to that location, I live in mine.

The truth is I do not want to live in Swamp or Taiga. I was in both areas under extreme situations many years ago. I have no desire to prove I can live through those experiences again. They nearly killed me the first time.

We do not factor disaster into our dreams; simple things like frostbite, jungle rot, fungus living on our skin or gangrene in out damaged tissues. I have friends that lived through the extremes as I did, who are now dying of illness that has lain dorment in their bodies for 40 years. SAR may save you now, or some other factor may bring you back to civilization with only small visible healing needed, only to allow you to sit in a doctor's office twenty years from now and have some strange questions thrown your way.

"Have you ever lived in a jungle region?"
"Have you spent any time in the tropics?"
"Have you ever been in the desert during a sandstorm?"
"Have you ever been forced to drink unpurified water while in those places?"
"Have you ever been to Guana? This cancer is only found in that region."

"Ahh, I thought so! We had to search far and wide to find what your aliment was."

Our survival is only momnentary at best. Our wilderness skills are the tools of a race intended to die at age 30, our bones crushed by a predator. From the nearby trees our children would look on and decide we had gotten a bit too old and slow, count us one less mouth to feed and travel on.

(Yep, I'm off my meds)

[Sourdough]

Yeah, dont you just love the magic of his world?
I am a believer!.

Have you read "The Peaceful Warrior", by Dan Milliman.....? (Note the movie sucked)