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From Warzone Distro
December 4, 2025

Introduction: Why I Love Hitchhiking

Nomadic people have historically posed the greatest threats to and have been the most maligned by State powers. Pirates, Barbarians, Romani, and Bedouins, amongst other transient groups, have historically been in conflict with civilizing forces and systems of power due to their illegibility and the extent to which these populations are difficult to control. Hitchhiking is not only fun, but is also a strategy for evading the confines of State power and the repression that is an intrinsic component of forced sedentization. When I learned about hitchhiking, a world of possibilities opened up to me. Learning about and embracing this modality helped me see that none of the paths set out for us that dictate how we are supposed to navigate the world are inevitabilities. I could turn life into a choose-your-own-adventure story or RPG instead of being deeply depressed due to being confined to the normative trajectories that were imposed on me. In the traveling world, if riding freight trains is a science then hitchhiking can be considered an art. Riding trains requires a lot of precision and careful calculations, while hitchhiking is deeply complex, interrelational, and unpredictable. There is also no objectively good or bad way of going about it. As is the case with art hitchhiking is largely about personal style and preference.

People typically seem to fear for my life when they see me out hitchhiking on the road because they feel that my morphology and appearance put me at great risk. I choose to hitchhike regardless out of a refusal to play the role of victim, a commitment to defending myself, and out of a sense of defiance against the idea that I should let fear dictate how I move in the world. As it turns out, the vast majority of people willing to take the risk of picking up a hitchhiker are amongst the kindest people I’ve ever met. They’re almost always people who are willing to take a personal risk for a stranger. They’re people I would otherwise never have interacted with, and I get to learn so much from the people who choose to give me rides. Traveling in this way has taught me so much more than any class ever could. Hitchhiking has also had some unexpected but profound positive effects in my life, such as quashing an intense and enduring desire to restrict food and lose weight.

The eating disorder recovery world often claims that these diagnoses are about control rather than about aesthetics. I long thought that something was off about this control narrative, and I had a big problem with the ways in which treatment seemed to focus on desensitizing people to the reality of not having any control over their own lives. Most of those programs seem to be about obedience to authority rather than cultivating body liberation or joy. It was not control that I craved, it was self-determination. No amount of body positivity, self-love, or therapy alleviated the obsessions that consumed me. Instead, the first time in my life that I did not feel a perpetual sense of stress and hypervigilance relating to my body was when I started hitchhiking. Living nomadically and in a way that radically deviates from prescribed social scripts allowed me to let go and feel truly free. Learning how to transcend societal rules and actively breaking the fourth wall of civilization helped me work the mental muscle that would allow me to break my own rules as well. Hitchhiking and living out of a backpack opened doors that led to completely transformative possibilities. Hitchhiking evokes a sense of rupture in relation to normative models of interpersonal dynamics. It allows for fleeting connections that often inspire a greater sense of authenticity and openness due to the perception that it will be a fleeting (but somehow inherently intimate) interaction. The following text is a brief guide to finding anarchic forms of freedom and connection through hitchhiking.

Download full zine: https://warzonedistro.noblogs.org/files/2025/12/Anarchy-the-Art-of-Hitc…

Comments

CalvinSmith Sat, 12/13/2025 - 11:23

The eating disorder recovery world often claims that these diagnoses are about control rather than about aesthetics. I long thought that something was off about this control narrative, and I had a big problem with the ways in which treatment seemed to focus on desensitizing people to the reality of not having any control over their own lives. Most of those programs seem to be about obedience to authority rather than cultivating body liberation or joy. It was not control that I craved, it was self-determination. No amount of body positivity, self-love, or therapy alleviated the obsessions that consumed me. Instead, the first time in my life that I did not feel a perpetual sense of stress and hypervigilance relating to my body was when I started hitchhiking. Living nomadically and in a way that radically deviates from prescribed social scripts allowed me to let go and feel truly free. Learning how to transcend societal rules and actively breaking the fourth wall of civilization helped me work the mental muscle that would allow me to break my own rules as well. Hitchhiking and living out of a backpack opened doors that led to completely transformative possibilities. Hitchhiking evokes a sense of rupture in relation to normative models of interpersonal dynamics. It allows for fleeting connections that often inspire a greater sense of authenticity and openness due to the perception that it will be a fleeting (but somehow inherently intimate) interaction. The following text is a brief guide to finding anarchic forms of freedom and connection through hitchhiking.

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