Living off the grid seems quite appealing now.

submitted by PencilPusher55 from self.whatever

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[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

how do you have the tech necessary for security if you don't keep cities? we already fled to the suburbs, I'm not sure this is the right strategy to address what's happening.

[–]Aureus 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I'm not sure exactly what tech you mean. And I'm totally open for debate... I understand there's a lot of drawbacks.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I mean the tech to defend a country from foreign invasion by powerful and technically advanced outsiders. I don't think living like the Saami is enough to survive and hold the land, it's happened over and over. Ainu. That indigenous minority on Taiwan I think. Hadza. Tibet. The technologically inferior group slowly (or quickly) gets marginalized. Though I guess some have survived against a technologically superior enemy via guerrilla methods and intelligence.

If you can do the tech necessary through teleworking then that's fine... but what about stuff that's not just idea work? What about biotech? What about physics experiments? What about supercomputers? Can you do all that without cities?

What what happens to the cities if we abandon them? Who holds them? What will they do with that power? Although I guess that won't be such a big deal if they do all become like Detroit, but where does that leave us needing to do high tech development to survive if all cities become like that?

I certainly think it's fine if many pursue a more rural life, but it seems to me like we need cities too.

I'm not like a master strategist or whatever. Goodness knows I'd love to live the rural "pagan" dream forever just growing plants and happy people. So just take this as some person's thoughts about it, I'm not an expert or authority or whatever. I have seen some discussion on this topic elsewhere too though.

[–]Aureus 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

You raise some good points. I'm mostly thinking from a cultural standpoint and telling people to move out of cities is a generalization that there are many exceptions to. I miscalculated as well, because there are still some good cities left. I would urge everyone to move out of cities like Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, St Louis, New York, and similar however.

It's important that people think deeply about where they live, because the environment will affect their children and their taxes will go to support the state. I can't imagine how any culturally aware person can choose to live in California, knowing that their taxes will support widespread corruption, unless they are making bank at a job they couldn't do anywhere else.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I guess I'm thinking at some point we need to reverse this trend. Actively work towards retaking territory somehow, rather than always retreating. And figuring out how to hold territory too. Although I suppose every move is both ceding old territory and taking new territory. We're going to run out of places to run to eventually, and it's nice to be able to actually build something intergenerationally without having to move all the time. I'm sad about all the beautiful cities that have been lost... I want to find a way to stop that stuff from happening.

[–]Aureus 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Actively work towards retaking territory somehow, rather than always retreating. And figuring out how to hold territory too.

Oh, I absolutely agree. People moving into self-imposed isolation doesn't help. People need to be congregating together and peacefully organizing. Even in blue areas, it would help if people would connect with their conservative neighbors rather than stay cooped-up at home.

This is by far the biggest impediment: conservatives simply do not know how to organize, and are discouraged to even speak their minds to people who might be sympathetic. I imagine there's a lot of conservative-majority neighborhoods that can't collectively recognize this, because every resident is too afraid to reach out to their neighbors. That's really sad.

Ideally, I envision neighborhoods working almost like political activist groups. They would get together regularly to discuss goings-on in their community, and work together to lobby local politicians into meeting their needs.