Living in Eco-villages: IDEALISATIONS VS. REALITY

All of This Is Possible !!!          ... but !!

The way that Anastasia lives is the ideal.  However, the  'truth' of the matter for us (currently) is that we don't have a band of squirrels working for us to provide us with food, a bear, a Malamute or Siberian husky who is willing to bear our heavy loads. And if we do want these types of load-bearing animals, we need to buy them ~ yes, with money...  coz they're considered a 'commodity' : (  And then we need to house the animals, to love them, feed them, protect and provide for them. Anastasia has the advantage that she can bring wild animals into her service who are self-sufficient.  So for us, it's a case of buying  the animals who will help us out, such as draft horses or donkeys  : )   In the absence of these 'partners' on the land, it is we ourselves who will till and turn and cultivate the soil with our barrows and spades and the sweat off our backs, just so we can produce the food we need to sustain our lives, just like the 'good old days'. 

For anyone who has the 'idealised image' of life in the country, spending all day in a hammock, basking in the shade between two peach trees, the reality of this way of life may be too much.  Please check out how you 'sit' in relation to all of this, before you put your hand up for 'the Anastasia way of life'  ... which like I say, would be lovely if we all had a band of squirrels to run around after us and no need for warmth, shelter or clothing.  Most of us probably haven't evolved to quite that stage of Being just yet  : )  

My feeling is that it might be much more difficult to find the hundred families, groups, couples, individuals who want to live this way together on 2.5 acres each.  This allows 50 acres to be set aside for common use ~ renewable forest, grain crops, communal leisure and entertainment spaces, and so on.  Once people have dropped the "idealisations" of this way of living and realise that not one member of this village would be afforded the luxury of sitting around all day smoking pot !!!  do you think people would still go for it ??  Really ??  It's a hard physical way of life...  It's a lot less like living in the city being brain-washed and a lot more like 'farming': where farmers start their mornings at day-break and finish after sun set...  that's from 5am to 9:30pm in a lot of parts of this country during the summer months.  Do you think the soft people trapped in the technocratic way of living would really go for it ??  *shrugs*  I don't know...  Do you think people will still love this dream, now that i've just torn their rosy-glowing shades off their eyes ??  :-/   Let's see eh?  :D

So...  who wants to 'sign up' for this now ???  Hmmm...  perhaps we all want to stay in bed a little longer and flick on a switch to keep us warm, instead of head to the woodshed to do a little early morning chopping to get the wetback fireplace going for warmth and hot water ??  Hmmm...  who's still signing on?   By the way...  I sure Am !!!  :D   ...off the grid  ... out of the technocracy!!!  Some people may call this 'peasant subsistence living' and they'd be right.  I call it "Freedom"  :D   If I could see in my lifetime that I don't have to pay another electricity bill in return for learning how to make candles from bees wax or chop up a bit of wood, I say "bring it on"  :D