I get what you’re saying, but I think REI and similar do too good of a job channeling those feelings for them to ever explode in a negative way via that market segment.

Copy that. I’m not saying they are some dangerous Cthuhloid menace, I just think it gets goofy when a friend of mine who would rather upgrade his mountain bike, then pay his kid’s health insurance. Can tend to be a selfish enterprise. I rarely blame the machine, just more concerned with the operator.

This I believe is vjust one of several wide-open doors in the primitivist philosophy which somebody with enough charisma and energy could severely exploit to negative ends…

You can more than count on it. REI and other “outdoor adventure” capitalists have created a totally self regenerating and highly profitable paradigm out of this. I don’t think it would be a stretch (and we all have one or two relatives deeply involved in this) to call it a religious movement. Definite consumer cult. They call it a “lifestyle”. What’s the dif- ? Could easily grow into something more.

the majority of people feel “wild and free” by buying an SUV and living in a 3,000+ SF mcmansion.

Excellent point. What Ran is talking about is not an issue for most people. They already feel free. What Ran is talking about is what will eventually become a new marketing segmentation, just as the hippy generation created new marketing segments by companies in response to cater to those needs and keep them in the consumerist system: New Age, anybody?

Watch this video for more:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12669.htm

This great republic is a mockery of freedom as long as you are doomed to dig and sweat to earn a miserable living while the masters enjoy the fruit of your toil.

brion gysin was free. “i am here to go.” that is an admirable way in which to express freedom. not hoarding, not sitting back passively on a mental and spiritual level and believing that freedom is occuring when it never has for the person. encouraging this infantile generation to express their “freedom” when they have never understood the actual definition of the word is dangerous.

But what solution have you?

I have no solution, and not having a solution is not a preliminary requirement for talking about the problems. If we don’t talk about the problems, we’re not going to just magically wish up a solution.

I’m willing to accept that this whole solar system is one big spiritual prison, with no other solution than leaving it and returning to the Pleroma.

I’ve toyed with that idea a lot, but I’m just not willing to accept it at this point.

I’m willing to accept that this whole solar system is one big spiritual prison, with no other solution than leaving it and returning to the Pleroma. But then there’s not much left to do but attend to my own personal spiritual liberation, which seems a little narcissistic. So that leaves me with some incentive to try to work out a solution with other like minded people.

in which we can live out this dream (which we are also afraid of, which is what makes it so exciting), but only in terms which make us FEEL wild and free, without allowing us to actually be that…

Makes me think of video games. Kind of a long-shot, I know, but think about it…