hi friends,
this is a bit of a reflective post, seeking some insight and advice regarding my "life path"
I am a white settler (30m) currently living in a city where I've been for the past 6 years. I was not born here but I have developed many meaningful relationships here with people, projects, and the land. I spent my first 4 years here involved in activism and advocacy, particularly regarding housing justice, until I 'burned out' and my energy output became unsustainable. Since that time two years ago, I've been struggling to reorient my life path towards meaningful, longterm projects. The reality of rent, food prices, traffic congestion, etc. is, of course, fairly suffocating. I have found my own ways to manage but systemically I don't have faith in things getting better.
Presently, I have some good friends and beloved partner living in a rural area 2 hours from the city, who would gladly welcome me into their community. Most amenities are 15-45 minutes away but there is plentiful access to land, and good soil for farming/gardening, though winter lasts about 5-6 months here. I have access to an offgrid land project with dear friends where we could live ruggedly and supporting one another. It is small, only 3 people at the moment, and most people in the area are down to help here & there but are mostly doing their own thing. There are many enticing things about this rural life: the directness of growing my own food, fetching my own water, firewood, building structures from scraps, doing all of this with friends, building a life with my partner. But I have some hangups. Namely, I fear that the high workload of rural chores where most people are living in individualized housing would mean dedicating a higher proportion time & energy to off-grid chores, driving, etc. than to more collective projects. Of course there would be the possibility of developing more relationships with locals and creating mutual aid projects. And even though it is a very white region, there are historic Black and Indigenous communities ~30-40 minutes away that I could develop more of a relationship with. Ultimately, I'm struggling to shake the idea that "the city" is where I should be because of it's density of "important frontlines of social struggle," and I also really enjoy its internationalist nature, density of young people, sometimes night-life, spontaneity of connection, people actively engaged in critical analysis...
Perhaps my internal conflict of "anarchism in the city vs. the country" is unnecessarily dualistic, yet it feels true that they are very different lifestyles. With the reduced stress of living rurally (rent-free baby!) I would enjoy dedicating more time to gardening, carpentry projects, writing, researching, and possibly even publishing anarchist histories. But I fear that my life would feel "smaller" than what I feel I desire.
Any resources, insights, reflections, or experiences you feel compelled to share would be greatly beneficial to me. I appreciate you taking time to read this and am hopeful that any engagement with my queries won't be too scathing... In solidarity !
Comments
You could have written twice…
anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/17/2025 - 09:43
You could have written twice as much, I still don’t think people would know what to say, even though in my experience this is kind of a big thing and a lot of anarchists rotate through different types of environments…
I would simply so go where you feel like you can live your life”best life,” as corny as that sounds these days. Somewhere that’s it’s enjoyable and sustainable for you to live. Sounds great to be with friends and a partner living a simple life. It is a lot of work and I wouldn’t expect too much in terms of making it a grand political project or a self-sustaining farm. First you gotta just LIVE and get along with each other. Then things will fall into place and people will come to visit.
I don’t consider myself an egoist or anything like it by any means, but I also don’t see the point in being an anarchist if you can just “do your thing”/make positive life choices without feeling the weight of “political implications” and what you “should” be doing, because that shit will just make you crazy… like for instance who cares that youre white? A “white settler”? Are you a former Maoist or are you expecting people here to tell you to compost yourself or something? Does moving to the country make you feel guilty because youre white or something? Sorry, I don’t understand..
*can’t just do your thing…
anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/17/2025 - 18:09
In reply to You could have written twice… by anonymous (not verified)
*can’t just do your thing
Sorry, autocorrect messed up a few things I didn’t catch, that was the worst one
I really appreciate your…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 06/22/2025 - 18:05
In reply to *can’t just do your thing… by anonymous (not verified)
I really appreciate your response, it is helpful to me. I referenced that I am white because I am living in a colonized part of North America where I don't have any ancestral connection to this land through my blood lineage. So I suppose I am sorting out how to reconcile how my intergenerational wealth privileges me to land access moreso than many Indigenous folks in this reason.
Ah yes, Blut und Boden, the…
anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/23/2025 - 19:08
In reply to I really appreciate your… by anonymous (not verified)
Ah yes, Blut und Boden, the founding principle of anarchy
Indigenicity isn't about…
Gisselle (not verified) Mon, 06/23/2025 - 19:55
In reply to I really appreciate your… by anonymous (not verified)
Indigenicity isn't about ancestral dna backed occupation of a region, it is a philosophical understanding of land as a connected part of being and living within its organic halo.
Yes, city vs. country is too
CalvinSmith (not verified) Tue, 06/17/2025 - 13:47
Dualistic: however, staying out of cities is definetly helpful for avoiding cop harrassment. If i could live even deeper in the woods, i'd do it, but i don't think it's really possible to abandon cities, at least if you are socialized enough to visit this site.
I highly recommend bird and plant identification as hobbies: they're non-destructive ways to engage with the wilderness. You will be surprised to know what you can eat if you stick with it.
Thank you kindly for the…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 06/22/2025 - 18:06
In reply to Yes, city vs. country is too by CalvinSmith (not verified)
Thank you kindly for the suggestion. Admittedly I have felt the most grounded in myself the more I get to know what specific wildlife is living around me.
PLEASE STAY IN THE CITY. we…
anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/17/2025 - 14:01
PLEASE STAY IN THE CITY. we don't need yer white guilt activism out here.
Hahaha, that too, but after using
CalvinSmith (not verified) Tue, 06/17/2025 - 14:35
In reply to PLEASE STAY IN THE CITY. we… by anonymous (not verified)
This site for so long i have gotten so jaded to white, its one of the primary themes of this site unfortunately...
I feel a bit misread by your…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 06/22/2025 - 18:07
In reply to PLEASE STAY IN THE CITY. we… by anonymous (not verified)
I feel a bit misread by your comment but rather than explaining myself I will wish you well!
I thought this site had…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 06/22/2025 - 21:43
In reply to I feel a bit misread by your… by anonymous (not verified)
I thought this site had super-effective measures against bots posting... Someone tells me it might just be effective for other uses, maybe.
"white guilt"
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 06/22/2025 - 21:40
In reply to PLEASE STAY IN THE CITY. we… by anonymous (not verified)
Stfu racist moron. No one here's keeping you away from revving your F-150 like a manchild.
Re: Ford F-150s
CalvinSmith (not verified) Tue, 06/24/2025 - 07:53
In reply to "white guilt" by anonymous (not verified)
Sure, that's a true "redneck" trope, the ford trucks. I don't know who you are talking to, as the person who made the comment about white guilt might not own one, and I personally don't own one even though i am a redneck.
I think the hostility is mostly coming from the fact that "white people" also get tired of racism, telling anyone to stfu generally only makes talking more pleasurable. Once again: fuck hypocritical anti-consumerism. You can question what you buy and do, or you can simply buy and do...and a whole other set of possibilities.
*revs Ford F-150 in your imagination space*
What has happened to my…
Gisselle (not verified) Sun, 06/22/2025 - 20:23
What has happened to my beloved Anews? Where have gone the lazy crazy individualist misfits of yore? To the 'burbs, or to sheepish clubs of mediocrity?
Where the poetic eccentric addicts of empathy who gave you their last cigarette and their loins? All enslaved by their own morality, no? Gasp, to the wilderness I shall return, at least there are no rules,,,*sigh*
Deep chaos whispers,…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 06/22/2025 - 22:18
In reply to What has happened to my… by Gisselle (not verified)
Deep chaos whispers,
Wilderness, no laws confine,
Freedom's fierce embrace.
"Poet" can also be, as the…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 06/22/2025 - 22:33
In reply to What has happened to my… by Gisselle (not verified)
"Poet" can also be, as the immortal bard said "God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams,"
And is not a bad dream an authoritarian disposition, no?
Nope.
PoetryBrainFog (not verified) Mon, 06/23/2025 - 07:54
In reply to "Poet" can also be, as the… by anonymous (not verified)
Nope.
"Nope," I dare to scream,…
anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/23/2025 - 18:05
In reply to Nope. by PoetryBrainFog (not verified)
"Nope," I dare to scream,
Authority looms, a dream
Gone sour in the night.
y'all wilderness spuds and…
anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/24/2025 - 20:28
y'all wilderness spuds and backwoods spooters, is anyone actually squatting and subsisting 24/7/52 and meeting all needs without commerce, but also still having electric and phone to check anews?
does anyone know ANYONE who's doing that, (and not using a motor vehicle)? asking in all seriousness bc i'm autistic. from what i can tell, the only way to successfully squat long term in the backwoods is on foot or bike.
lemme know in haiku or sarcastic form, or fuck you
i met some green anarchists…
anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/08/2025 - 16:45
In reply to y'all wilderness spuds and… by anonymous (not verified)
i met some green anarchists about 20 years ago who were doing their utmost, but still had to drive into town to dumpster dive, and im pretty sure they had bought the land they lived on
it's a classic anarchist pipe dream: often idealized, rarely attempted because basically impossible
Property prices in most of…
anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/08/2025 - 19:58
In reply to i met some green anarchists… by anonymous (not verified)
Property prices in most of the US and Canada makes it into some rather stupid utopia... but yes there's the aspects of geographic isolation (which means over-reliance on cars), as well as all the other resources and work needed to keep a fucking garden running.
"Living off the land" is a dumb memetic ideal. Very rare cases of people doing that for real. But even if so... at the costs of shitty boring productivist dynamics, i.e. the reproduction of labor. Let's keep in mind that's where slavery and civilization started, for the most part.
Maybe I'm a bit too negatively biased due to some experiences on an eco-gardening project that sucked in way too much energy, money and workforce, just for a bunch of quality veggies and herbs. The whole thing seems like yet another artifice of over-civilization.
Why not just fucking life off looting and recycling? Many people here are still delving within a industrial mass-consumer 'conomy. So let's just H/G off of it, damit.
Shipping warehouses abound, too.
Brah, the secret to "living…
anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/08/2025 - 22:46
In reply to Property prices in most of… by anonymous (not verified)
Brah, the secret to "living off grid with only 1% recuperation" is to scrounge welfare, steal, or sell your sexual skills (which is reciprocal desire quenched) and with the proceeds just by lentils, yes LENTILS! You will find dandelion weed growing everywhere, it is SUPERIOR to spinach and provides ALL of your vitamin requirements. There, nutrition done. Now, shelter, first, a plastic rubbish bag you can get in any park for free. Wait till the council guys empty the trash can and put a clean bag in, then later before it's used, remove it and tear some holesvfor head and arms, there, protected from the elements free of charge. Now, transport, free subway or hoboing (ask lumpy, former king of the hobos) They also make good places to live when they run 18 hrs per day, travel the city and see the sites, or curl up in the corner double seat and get some snoozes in. Voila, you are living off grid, yet within the grid with all its luxuries, a win/win for the true anarch. Take your girl along for the grand tour of your kingdom, totally stress free. Now fast food, brah, I don't have to explain this, there's more food left wasted at every fast food outlet dumpster than there is in the average hipster's refrigerator, gorge yourself for free after the dandelion auderves, cheers.
PS Also, drugs, you'll…
anonymous (not verified) Wed, 07/09/2025 - 00:27
In reply to Brah, the secret to "living… by anonymous (not verified)
PS Also, drugs, you'll always find roaches (marijuana butts) near cannabis outlets and for alcohol, just do the rounds of any bar with an outdoor drinking area. Patrons often leave half consumed drinks on tables, or if people are present, put on your best smile and pretend you are staff cleaning the tables. It's handy if you drape a hankerchief over your forearm and joke about a waitress taking sick leave and you're just the dishwasher management havehave filled their place with. If you've been casing the scene and there is a packed table you've observed a waiter serving, you can pretend that the waiter had asked you to pick up her tips for her to hold. If you succeed make a quick exit, don't look back and get the hell outta there before she rolls up.
Yes, there are a plethora of methods to succeed at living off grid, yet within its shell.
Aaaaaaaaaaah!
anonymous (not verified) Wed, 07/09/2025 - 10:24
In reply to Brah, the secret to "living… by anonymous (not verified)
https://uploads.dailydot.com/2023/12/the-more-you-know-meme.jpg?q=65&au…
Try it out!
dove (not verified) Fri, 07/25/2025 - 12:39
As an off grid anarchist living the rural grind, i say go for it. No other way to sate your curiosity and see if it's for you than hauling shit buckets and water jugs and mending fences and splitting wood and trying to also maintain and puzzle out how to engage in social struggle and resistance in meaningful ways. You are right that the daily grind of living off grid takes up a LOT of time, your life becomes focused on that domestic reproduction, but in that it also opens up really interesting ways to engage differently with the foundational aspects of life. Neighbor realtionships are critical, and there is a lot of necessity for building connections outside a radical social scene. I've been in the woods for 8 years and have no desire to go back to city life - its the wood chop life for me. Give it a try, see if it sticks, it takes all kinds.
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