i grew up like that, and i know how to blacksmith, and build things, and grow food, and pretty much be self-sufficient, and while it cool to be able to do all that stuff, it takes some of the romance out of it when you have to do it.
choosing between going outside to the outhouse at 3:00 a.m. when it's 20 below, and pooping in a bucket isn't so fun.

To me, there is very little differnce between a guy who builds everything himself with his hands and is self sufficient or a guy who builds a nice comfortable position for himself in the city. They're both using resources they have to the best of their ability to survive and be comfortable. The ideal would be to have the ability to do both.

I would rather have a nice stock pile of guns and restart hunting humans...this time on my terms. The world is a disturbing place and turning your back on it and heading for the hills in no answer. I tire of political processes staunching the flow of positive develop for the larger populations; the "select few" have it WAY too good here and elsewhere. Time to equalize.
Read into this if you want...and you'll make the list.

Are your parents hippies living in a commune?

Agreed... where do I enlist for your Militia?

yeah, they were.

I've often dreamed of somthing similar but have boiled it down to getting out of the city every so often to get perspective = travel.

However, at heart I'm a minimalist. Over Christmas break I visited a couple who were friends of my girlfriend and I was awed because I stood in this apartment which was my dream apartment - Eames chairs, Herman Miller furniture, all this designer stuff (which I'm building up towards). But afterwards I reminded myself of my habits - I like travelling light. Keeping the necessities and ditching the rest.

A year or two ago I wanted to get rid of all my CD's and rip them to mp3. Ditch desktop computers and only have a nice laptop to hook up to a flatscreen. Purify and minimalize everything I have so that I had just what I needed.

I'm still working towards that. It's not that easy.

Uhh no, the kid who died in Alaska was Chris McCandless. His story was written by Jon Krakauer, in the book Into the Wild.
Its a good book along the lines of your romantism fantasies.

I'm ready when you are.

Let's go.

That's not minimalizing. That's condensing what you have into the latest, compact, gadgets. If you really wanted to minimalize, then get rid of everything.

abacus

It may not be minimalizing in the purest sense, but getting rid of cds, destop computer, and putting it all onto the laptop is minimizing the things which are removed- the cds,desktop computer,etc.

Eames stuff is so nice but so ridiculously overpriced. Part of the beauty of those designs are their ability to potentially be implemented at relatively low-cost. I say learn to do molded plywood and subsequently design and build all your own furniture!

"I love living in the city."
- Fear

g-damn hippies.

It's true. Likewise, for all their environmental posturing, the average left-coaster uses about 2x as much energy on a daily basis as the typical east-coaster. However, the entire comparison is predicated on a typical urban/suburban lifestyle: wired into the electrical and phone grid, indoor plumbing, sewage connection, automobile commuting, etc. I don't know of any comparison between a completely off-the-grid non-motorized lifestyle and a high-density urban dweller's impact. It doesn't mean they haven't been done, but they're not the usually touted comparison.

However, if such a comparison did exist, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it favored the high-density urbanite. Economies of scale and whatnot. Burning peat and crapping into the nearest stream are pretty dirty activities.

Where do those go? A lot of landfills won't take computers anymore. Will someone buy those CDs? How many miles will you have to ride on your bike generator (think Brazil) to listen to your MP3's? It may be less stuff, but it's still in the same philosophy. And laptop vs desktop is only scale. A scale that requires more manufacturing to produce.

WTF do I know? I'm drunk, and surfing the net through a laptop that will die the instant I close the monitor and put it in my bag. Luckily I have more attachments, and run the display through my 19" CRT Monitor, and type on a USB wireless keyboard....

I'd rather be riding on the roads of Vermont than the city.

I've never thought about anything like that I guess I'm just not that kind of a guy. But I have thought about moving to a smallish town in Italy, France, Spain, or Portugal. I would have a small house or apartment, a modest job and not a care in the world (and a nice bike of course). I'm not much of a minimalist, I'm quite the contrary I'm a pack rat and I kind of enjoy a little bit of clutter in some older spaces. My place in Boston was a 19th century victorian home.