The Illusion of Peace.

Yesterday I took a break from working on my RV and rode my bike down to the Columbia River. I sat by the river and thought how peaceful. But then my mind began to wander to the state of the world around us. I looked back at the river and saw the violence hiding behind it's peaceful flow. There are 14 hydroelectric dams along it, that is causing the extinction of the Salmon population. Factories, lumber mills etc. along it are polluting it's waters, First Nation people are getting sick and dying from the diseases and poisons in it. But these visible signs of violence is not what I speak of. I speak of the violence produced by the illusion of ownership of it by those in power.

I have for the last few years been trying to live off the grid in a Rewilder way amidst the very civilization I like to see torn down. Many of my fellow Rewilders write great blogs etc... But they are still very domesticated and controlled by their own free will. They pay rent. That's all I got to say.

I been living in a RV working towards eventually, hopefully to possess that piece of paper that will give me the illusion of owning a piece of land. And really that is what it is, an illusion.

Let's take this river for example. I would love to fish from it and further remove myself from dependence upon the city behind me. But I need a license in order to fish. What that means is if I fish without one, someone with a gun will show up and make me stop and give me a ticket. This man is paid to enforce the illusion that the government owns and controls the river. No one can live without enforce violence or the threat of it in the world today.

The land gives to us freely so we may nourish, cloth and shelter ourselves. But some have decided they want to claim more than they can use and make you pay for what the land gives freely. World hunger is an illusion. There is plenty of food. But the system is set up for the powerful to use violence to claim it all and make you pay for it. Capitalism is actually extortion.

Here is the definition of "extortion".

"Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person obtains either money, property or services from a person(s), entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime groups. The actual obtainment of money or property is not required to commit the offense. Making a threat of violence which refers to a requirement of a payment of money or property to halt future violence is sufficient to commit the offense. Exaction refers not only to extortion or the demanding and obtaining of something through force, but additionally, in its formal definition, means the infliction of something such as pain and suffering or making somebody endure something unpleasant."

Hmmm. So you are paying for a license to get free fish from a free river, so a man doesn't show up with a gun on his side writing you a ticket which if you don't pay the ticket's extortion price are threaten with the violence of incarceration. All this because some government body has convince society that they own and control a river that was there long before man ever climbed down from the trees and walked upright. A river that had fed for free, First Nation people for 1,000s of years without ever demanding a price from them.

Look throughout civilization and you will see this same violence and threat of violence. Violence is a part of life. You can't escape it. But violence to enforce a illusion of ownership of the bounties of our Great Mother is wrong. Extorting people for the right to exist is wrong.

So the only freedom you have is what they in power will allow you. And even that freedom will be an illusion and will cost you to enjoy.