Idk, I always thought of it as a modern take on Walden . A cautionary tale for those folks who get really hyped up about a life in the bush who forget the crucial fact that Thoreau was on a friend’s property and got more meaningful support from people than the book really lets on.
One of those “Yes, lots of people feel like you do, AP English guy, but don’t think you’ll make it on vibes alone and not die like a dumbass” kind of things. Appreciated it differently at 16 and 20.
I was kinda like this, adoring fetishizing a life free from material constraints, wearing busted old shoes, etc. Then I worked at a homeless church and that’s when I realized two things: first, I was basically cosplaying as poor; second, every homeless person I talked to basically thought it was stupid to not have things when you otherwise could have them.
The clearest was this one time I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat at one of the breakfast tables with guys. They looked at me like “you’re not eating?” And I said that I wasn’t hungry and that I didn’t want to take a plate away from someone who might’ve needed it. They chastised me heavily. “You could have got your plate and then shared it with all of us, then!” I realized that I had the luxury to turn down food. They saw my torn up shoes as a kind of affectation (which they were, but I couldn’t admit it at the time).
It’s turned me off of a fair bit of folk music, tbh. This whole “get rid of your stuff and be free” sentiment. Yes, reject capitalistic materialism. But the discipline is in having enough. The person with nothing can be just as obsessed with wealth as the person who hoards it.
I felt like that, too. I guess people glorifying him are missing the point entirely, and it is close to the ‘we finally announce our very own torment nexus implementation’ level of missing a point, imo
The movie glorified him and his death. It isn’t portrayed as needless or reckless. His death in the movie is framed as being a spiritual awakening, him finally leaving the material world behind and achieving enlightenment and that dying that way is something to aspire to. It was a dumb movie with hot people in places with exceptional natural beauty with a sloppy message which itself undercuts for mass appeal.
You read Walden once
And now you’re obsessed
With a life where you don’t have to try
To be liked, or to be loved
Man it’s aweso-dumb, yeah I know
And I really think you
Earned the right to go and leave
And never talk to human beings
Being that they’re all insane, and
Fucking up this world we’ve made
You should just get up and go
Just quit your job, leave your phone
Or jump into the great unknown
Or stay at home, it’s all in your head
It’s all in my head
Idk, I always thought of it as a modern take on Walden . A cautionary tale for those folks who get really hyped up about a life in the bush who forget the crucial fact that Thoreau was on a friend’s property and got more meaningful support from people than the book really lets on.
One of those “Yes, lots of people feel like you do, AP English guy, but don’t think you’ll make it on vibes alone and not die like a dumbass” kind of things. Appreciated it differently at 16 and 20.
I was kinda like this,
adoringfetishizing a life free from material constraints, wearing busted old shoes, etc. Then I worked at a homeless church and that’s when I realized two things: first, I was basically cosplaying as poor; second, every homeless person I talked to basically thought it was stupid to not have things when you otherwise could have them.The clearest was this one time I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat at one of the breakfast tables with guys. They looked at me like “you’re not eating?” And I said that I wasn’t hungry and that I didn’t want to take a plate away from someone who might’ve needed it. They chastised me heavily. “You could have got your plate and then shared it with all of us, then!” I realized that I had the luxury to turn down food. They saw my torn up shoes as a kind of affectation (which they were, but I couldn’t admit it at the time).
It’s turned me off of a fair bit of folk music, tbh. This whole “get rid of your stuff and be free” sentiment. Yes, reject capitalistic materialism. But the discipline is in having enough. The person with nothing can be just as obsessed with wealth as the person who hoards it.
“Imagine no possessions…” John Lennon was living in a mansion when he wrote that.
EXACTLY! They even show it in the music video!
I felt like that, too. I guess people glorifying him are missing the point entirely, and it is close to the ‘we finally announce our very own torment nexus implementation’ level of missing a point, imo
The movie glorified him and his death. It isn’t portrayed as needless or reckless. His death in the movie is framed as being a spiritual awakening, him finally leaving the material world behind and achieving enlightenment and that dying that way is something to aspire to. It was a dumb movie with hot people in places with exceptional natural beauty with a sloppy message which itself undercuts for mass appeal.
You read Walden once
And now you’re obsessed
With a life where you don’t have to try
To be liked, or to be loved
Man it’s
aweso-dumb, yeah I knowAnd I really think you
Earned the right to go and leave
And never talk to human beings
Being that they’re all insane, and
Fucking up this world we’ve made
You should just get up and go
Just quit your job, leave your phone
Or jump into the great unknown
Or stay at home, it’s all in your head
It’s all in my head
- Hobo Johnson