You remember the old adage, “You don’t get something for nothing”, right? And in today’s world you don’t even get something for something! Whether it’s job numbers or economic growth it is all a shimmer, an imaginary glow built on shifting sand. And as often than not your castle will take a hit if not fall down completely.
So you listen to the predictions and the forecasts and you think that you are “in the know” BUT the lie is deep and the entire monetary system is just an agreement. It is NOTHING or EVERYTHING by agreement.
That is why you don’t have a chance ……. you can save and end up with nothing, you can spend and end up with nothing, and you can go deeply in debt and end up with nothing. Pretty much it’s NOTHING!
You see we have been trained to believe that having something is important and we have been trained that what we have is the definition of who we are. And yes we have fallen for it.
We NEED the new iPhone, car, house, mate, child, clothes, shoes, hair style to define OUR POSITION in the lie in which we live survive. And the first sign that you have been suckered into this labyrinth is when you agree to wake up at six AM take your car and sit in a long, slow-crawling line of cars inching along to cubical land where you sit on a computer all day doing meaningless tasks until the magic AGREED upon number of 5PM.
The magic AGREED upon number of 5 opens the door that allows you to go out and get in you car and sit in a long, slow-crawling line of cars inching along back to your bed.
Oh sure, there are variants to this scenario but the results are the same …….. you live in slavery to your THINGS!
Because you think your THINGS define your POSITION and your WORTH in the society in which you live survive.
And here is where the depth of OUR conditioning shows through the cracks. Tubularsock has been observing a group of “homeless” people who “work” a particular corner in the city in order to make their income. It is THEIR corner and they “work” it in shifts from 6AM to about 7:30PM every week day and 9AM to 4PM Saturday and Sundays.
Each one of them have an iPhone and they seldom sit during their shift but rather are active walking the line of cars that are waiting at the stoplight. They are friendly and polite and on task. And from Tubularsock’s vantage point VERY successful.
But the point is THEY ARE AT WORK! A job that is not any freer than a cubical except for the tan. They are following a tried and true business model and are successful and they have the “stuff” in clothing and iPhones to prove it.
And in truth, may not even be homeless but rather “self-employed”.
Now some people enjoy their work and some people don’t. But the bottom line is the less you define yourself as what you do and what you have and what you are programed to believe you need the greater real freedom you feel and THAT is the way out of slavery …………
Tubularsock 
Freedom is taken and not granted. I see the Economy as a giant Monopoly game that always ends with one player owning everything. The only way to prolong the game is to invite more players to the table; mass migration! I’m in the fortunate position of having everything stolen from me, and not cluttering up my life by replacing all those things I lost. Minimalism works for me, greetings.
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Smart move onnovock! So many people that have their belongings lost most often tend to rush to recollect their stuff. Missing the real opportunity to why it may have happened in the first place. That is what Tubularsock always liked about some North American Indigenous Peoples’ practice of Potlatch. It is a process of collecting wealth and then giving it away as in sharing it with the rest of the tribe. Potlatches went through a history of rigorous ban by both the Canadian and United States federal governments but it just went underground and today it has been de-criminalized. Thanks for your comment.
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Well since I am about to embark on a new adventure; giving up ALL things of so-called ‘civilization’ which in my opinion, is anything but and will be living as though I am on a deserted island; no phone, no lights, no internet and not a goddamn house in sight and am I concerned with whether or not this will make me happy? Hell no! I am doing it because I am so tired of doing what I am ‘supposed’ to do and have been ‘programmed’ to do.
Giving up the ‘daily grind’ and just living for the sake of living and not for the sake of buying, buying and buying is truly something that I’ve long since wanted to attempt. And just as soon as I finish tying up some loose ends here in the states, that is exactly what I am going to do.
It is practically impossible to do this in the states because people are fined and jailed for ‘living off the grid’ or otherwise for attempting to release themselves from the grip of ‘Capitalism’. Those who want this endless cycle of work to pay off debt that never gets paid off don’t want folks to wake up and smell this shit, don’t like it and quit. And that is why it is made extremely difficult for people to even attempt to walk away from this ‘programmed’ survival mode. What we are doing is not living. You certainly called that right. We are just trying to ‘survive’ and get through one day and then another until they plant our ass and on THEIR terms. To hell with that! And even after they plant our ass, we are still in debt. Our ‘estate’ must pay this and must pay that! Seriously? To hell with that shit!
Thank you for a great and interesting and thought provoking post Tubularsock!
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Shelby. Tubularsock does admit that you are an extremist and Tubularsock does appreciates this about you. But “no phone, no lights, no internet”? Wouldn’t it be easier to just turn them off? And the “rat race” can be avoided by not participating but Tubularsock does see the challenge of seeing if he could do it and to see what would happen. On the other hand, the import costs of Wild Turkey could be a major drawback now that Tubularsock comes to think about it. Anyway, more power to you ……. Tubularsock may have to send you a couple of carrier pigeons just in case. Thanks for your comment, Shelby.
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“Shelby. Tubularsock does admit that you are an extremist”
Shhhhhh…..Don’t tell anyone, but I am reclaiming my lost childhood and have therefore, accepted an offer for my hand in marriage to a native of *%*$*%%&*%*(%$*. Sorry for the encryption, but with the NSA all on our ass, can’t be too careful.
I am sure you can appreciate the fact that it is not just about turning those things off, it is about walking away from them and getting the hell out of the states before the gestapo motherfuckers find some reason to lock up my Black ass. The shits here ain’t on you like they is on me and everyone else that’s sporting a permanent tan of some sorts. I should have been outta here before now but this shit is the ‘Hotel California’. ‘You can check out, but you can never leave’! I am still fighting a legal battle that should have been over over a year ago. That is the ‘loose ends’ that I have to tie up and then after that, ‘no phone, no lights, no internet’. I’ll join my soon to be ‘husband’ in my new lean-to on the island of *%*%*%*$(#(! Can’t fucking wait!
Wedding bells are in my future, I think! LMAO!!!
But I may be able to send up a smoke signal or two, once a year(when the chicken truck comes around with supplies. I hear tell it is equipped with a satellite)! LOL!
Thanks Tube! You be DA man!
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*%*$*%%&*%*(%$* !!! Really? *%*$*%%&*%*(%$* is an amazing place …. what luck for you Shelby. Your “soon to be husband”????
What timing. Thank you for contacting Tubularsock’s Marriage and Family Counseling, Consulting, and “Couple-Arrangements” LTD.
As we say, “From Threshold to Bedroom, We’ve got you covered!”
Helping couples is our main business but we also are ready for those relationships who realize after a bit that “THIS ISLAND ISN’T BIG ENOUGH FOR THE BOTH OF US”
Please feel free to contact TMFCCC-A anytime for timely advice. Sure fees are expensive but money can buy you love. OR NOT. Either way we win…. coming or going.
Yep! TMFCCC-A is positive!
Smoke signal reading is our specialty …… where there is smoke, there is fire!
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Excellent post, once again! I could not agree more.
I was lucky enough to have fate thrust this truth on me. I won’t go into details, but just suffice it to say that my American nightmare, the one you have described above, ended before I was ready for it. And the road less traveled, over the last two decades, has made all the difference in my life (not existence).
There are days when I wish I had a few extra bucks for certain needs. But what I have found out is that my real needs are few, and that I can make do with what I have at the moment; or as the old band leaders use to say, when a side man was late getting back for the next set, “We’ll go with what we got!”
Life is much more than work, money and possessions. And one way to get to know one’s self better, is to learn to live so as not to be a cog in this perverse machinery, which has enslaved billions and billions of people throughout the ages.
Thanks, Tube! I hope people listen and then act, since the best way to bring down this corrupt system is to withdraw and not take part any more than we have to. In other words, starve the beast, and sooner or later, the beast will die!
Will be reblogging tomorrow!
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sojourner, few people, Tubularsock thinks, will venture the road less traveled unless it is somehow forced on them. All the stuff always looks so good and when you start to get some of it the system always makes what you have look small so you have to go out and buy BIGGER. Then you have to add or rent more space so you can fit that 12′ HDTV and then you are lost because the people that show up on that screen are BIGGER than you are!
Knowing that you don’t need this shit is “life’s opening” and when you follow that …… all is possible!
It is much like what Buddha found sitting under the Bodhi Tree ….. the middle path.
Thanks for your comment, sojourner. and for the reblog!
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Tube and friends…one of the most meaningful periods of my life was a 13 day hike I took decades ago on the John Muir Trail in the California Sierras. I lived on only what I was carrying; had absolutely no use for money; and went only be the rhythm of the sun moon, and stars. It may be too long for anyone to want to read, but here is an excerpt from my journal.
On the 5th day of my 13 day trek on the John Muir Trail I found myself in the Rae Lakes area at the end of the day’s journey. Rae Lakes is a beautiful area, relatively flat, composed of many lakes, granite rocks, small grassy areas, and a series of fir trees and shrubbery. I had hiked into the late afternoon, so darkness had fallen by the time I had had my evening meal and cleaned up the dishware, hung my food sack by rope over the limb of a tall tree to protect against nocturnal thievery by bears, and laid out my sleeping bag and pad. As was my daily habit, I was filling out a journal I was keeping of the trip. I sat against a tree, with my only illumination a campfire.
Suddenly..with the sixth sense we all seem to possess, I felt a set of eyes on me. For a moment I dreaded looking up from my journal to see who or what was staring at me. But then, in some inexplicable transmission in the atoms of space between myself and this newcomer, I felt a sense of benevolence and kindness. I knew somehow that whoever was looking at me meant me no harm.
And then I looked up..and not more than 15-20 feet away was a deer. But it wasn’t just a deer, it was a stag, and he was the largest deer I had ever seen. From the ground to his shoulder he must have been nearly as tall as a man. And atop his head was the largest and most magnificent set of antlers I had ever seen. If he had decided to charge he could have made a pin cushion out of me and left me to die bleeding in the wilderness. For countless moments our eyes remained locked. And in his I could see the kindness and benevolence I had sensed before I saw him. I broke off eye contact first, resuming a few lines in my journal, and then looked up… and he was still staring at me. This routine went on a few more times, and then, apparently having gained enough trust in me, he commenced what he had come to my camp site for in the first place, he began going from shrub to shrub having his evening meal.
I finished my journal entry for the night but he had not yet finished his meal. Moving slowly, so as not to startle him, I removed my outer clothing and slid into my sleeping bag. He had glanced at me occasionally while I was doing this, but the trust prevailed between us because at times he was now only eight or ten feet away, and this proximity was somehow comfortable for both of us. I went to sleep with two sounds in the background, the gently rushing stream near by, and his soft footsteps as he finished his succulent evening meal. When I awoke in the morning he was gone. I looked out across the basin to other lakes in the distance to see if he was breakfasting at one of those, but there was no sight of him.
In a trip that had many memorable moments over 13 days and 160 miles, this was one that I have never forgotten. For a brief period of time two creatures of nature had co-existed in peace. He was a denizen of the wilderness and I was a product of civilization, but we had shared some precious moments in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. For the camp site that I mistakenly thought was mine, with our Western Civilization values of proprietary rights, was actually his, and he had shared it with me. He was, in a sense, my host for the evening. And never have I been more hospitably treated.
Such encounters can make John Muir’s message all the more intelligible. Because, of course, he had many of them, and wrote eloquently about them. And part of Muir’s message comes to mind..His eloquent statement of ecology: “Whenever we try to pick something out in the universe we find it is hitched to everything else..” In that glorious (one of Muir’s favorite words to describe nature) night in the Sierras a deer and I were hitched together in God’s universe…
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A beautiful anecdote – thanks for taking the trouble to recount it, Michael.
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I had a similar experience once, although I was not camping at the time.
For a year, I lived with an old friend and family in Southeastern Ohio. My friend lived on a 14 acre plot of land in what is called The Hocking Hills.
On his land is a large orchard, which sat at the base of one of the large wooded hills. I use to go to this place to get some peace, some time to myself. And one day, as I was sitting in the orchard, I looked up one of the long trails leading into the hills, and there stood the largest white tail buck I had ever seen up close. His “rack” of antlers must have had twelve or more points. And my guess is, at the shoulders, he stood five or six feet tall.
At first, I was a little unnerved, because I was not very agile, and this was during mating season, when bucks become very territorial and aggressive. So I just sat quietly and watched. And he had spotted me as well. So for a few minutes, I just sat there and watched this amazing, beautiful animal.
Finally, he turned and trotted off into the woods. I never saw him again, although I would look for him every time I returned to the orchard.
I have always viewed this experience as a gift, a blessing, if you will. I was born, bred and have lived as a city slicker for most of my life, so this was an incredible experience for me. It is one that I have never forgotten, nor do I believe I ever will!
Thanks for reminding me!
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Michael, Tubularsock thanks you for this great tale of life’s adventure. What a great opportunity to be “in” that space. Animals always bring about remarkable openings in consciousness if we allow ourselves to observe. And you even sleep on the ground! Is there a Hilton somewhere near so Tubularsock could view this “nature” that you wander in from the Cocktail Lounge?
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It seems it was a huge mistake to privatise the supply the money i.e. granting private banks the capacity to issue virtually unlimited supplies of money in the form of debt. Money, as a means of exchange, is a public good, and should be under the control of the people as a whole i.e. Nationalised. The same is so for mass transport, energy and food. Private corporations can exist, but they must compete against Nationalised enterprises, in my opinion. Left to themselves in a so-called Neoliberalist system, then we simply end up with rigged markets, slush funds, and tax evasion on a vast scale.
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Tubularsock agrees, Hariod. The issue has always been that once things are Nationalized corruption of the political class still continues and is the downfall of the system. Just as corruption of the political class corrupts the not-so-free “free enterprise” system.
The CHANGE that has to be developed is one of consciousness. There is no scarcity, there has always been plenty. But the concept of scarcity is the fear factor that runs the economic systems of the world. With scarcity in place real change can not happen.
Thank you for your comment.
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Reblogged this on An Outsider's Sojourn II.
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Thanks once again, sojourner. You are very kind to move Tubularsock’s thoughts along.
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Everyone seems to agree with you, Tubularsock, the system needs a whole new reboot. We are living on their terms and they just don’t care about the nightmare they have created.
Leslie
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So true Leslie! And THEY will continue unless WE THE PEOPLE stop them. The problem is not with the THEM, the problem is with the US!
So many are fooled so often! And so easily ……. makes one kind-of wonder.
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You are right again, it is us and until we take a stand this intolerable situation will continue. Change isn’t going to happen over night but we can chip away at the establishment.
Leslie
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Working sucks. Period.
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“Working sucks. Period.”
Now, now, Dr. Bramhall, you know by saying that, you have committed a sacrilege.
*Shelby is waving her finger back and forth at Dr. Bramhall*
Why, someone is going to come in here any minute now and call you, Lazy!” They are also going to call you, “a lay-about who is shiftless and is somewhere expecting a GASP, handout!” Quick! Dr. Bramhall, take that back! LMAO!
You are SO right, ‘working sucks, Period’ and THAT is why I am joining the lay-abouts! LMLAO!!
You go with yo BAD self, Dr. Bramhall! Ever the clever one, you are! You figured it ALL out! We fucking need to stop working ’cause what are we working ‘towards’? I would love for someone to answer that.
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Well Tubularsock will admit that it sure sucks if you are doing something you don’t love to do. In Tubularsock’s case every job that Tubularsock has worked was fun …… and Tubularsock has had a range of jobs from the bottom to the top of the totem-pole.
They really are all the same if you like doing whatever you are doing. Oh sure, Tubularsock has a short attention span.
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“Tubularsock’s case every job that Tubularsock has worked was fun”
Just rub it in, why doncha? Not everyone can enjoy working the Wild Turkey still! Nor can we all make sake for our night job. It’s great when you can be a ‘sample vaporizer’ for all the marijuana in Colorado. The rest of us ain’t been so lucky.
My last job was cleaning the shit out of horse stalls at Pimlico racetrack in Baltimore, MD. My job before that was shit scooper for the rodeo! I been mired in shit for two damn many years and I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with shit! LMAO!!!
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Well shhhhhit, you say. Poor Shelby. While you were “horsing” around in the stables Tubularsock was making organic horse shit into burgers for MacDonald’s. Toss up some coke and you’ve got a high for a week. WT still is still work you know. Taste testing isn’t all fun you have a possibility of being sucked with sake to the point of working all night.
And a rocky mountain high hangs you in the stratosphere! Coming down is an all day activity. Sometimes two days.
So even when work is fun it is still work. And sometimes smoken’ some shit brings you back to being stable. Without a horse.
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LMAO! You are one funny Tubularsock!!! I LOOOOOOOV your sense of humor! I can never get enough!! Thanks for making me laugh uproariously! That comment was just too goddamn funny!!! ROTFLMAO!!!!
I love this man!!!
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