None of us can change the whole world, but we can each change our o...

The following is a conversation that recently happened... You know can tell it's me because it goes from a sentence or two back & forth, to a short novel :-P

The OP: What would your response be to “ Why don’t just start your own farm commune if you hate capitalism so much?

Person C: Because it doesn't actually stop capitalism.

Me: Stop consenting & supporting the system. None of us can change the whole world, but we can each change our own world, and that's how the whole world changes.

Person C: Sure, I’ll just starve on the street then.*

Me: EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWS! (because I can rant with the best of them.)

Umm, what? Very few countries where that is the case, and since you're on Reddit... I'm guessing you come from one where things like dumpster-diving, Food Not Bombs/FreeFood4FreePeople/someothermutualaid, church soup kitchens, gleaners, and many other ways to get food for free are around. I know, because I live this way, while traveling the world.

I changed my world 7 years ago (really I've been changing it my whole, as we all are. Most of the time, most of us were just changing it to match what others told us it should be)

I changed my diet (non-gmo, pesticide free, local as possible, seasonal as possible, whole food plant based - not supporting corporations whenever possible [any time I'm not in a food desert], dumpstering as much as possible)
I changed (ever changing) my experience of reality.
- Diving into, processing, releasing, and healing my own traumas, so that I don't react, and don't recreate them for others.
- I realized the limited subjective experience of humans (due to sensory equipment, brain functions, etc.), and began living by the scientific method in all facets of life (experiment for myself, verify everything, be open to anything that I haven't already done the research on myself), stopped believing anything that is just "common knowledge," "experts agree," or any other form of dogma, and educated myself on history, philosophy, economics, and I variety of other important things that government indoctrination left out or mis-taught.
I stopped supporting ANYTHING that I don't actually support. I had already never paid taxes, but I went to no banks, no credit cards, sold my car, quit my job, no Amazon, got a new job for a small organic, employee owned company.
I started really supporting the things I did
- I split my income 25 / 25/ 50 - House/Food/Activism
- Pumped thousands of dollars (not to mention time & energy) into local homeless outreach, wolf & salmon protection, and the local Million Mask March.
- All my grocery shopping at the local organic vegetarian co-op
- You get the idea

Then, 5 years ago, I REALLY changed my world. I quit my job. Sold my super dope bike. Gave up my rental.

I gave away most everything I owned - except what fit in my backpack, and a couple small boxes of books, notebooks, and documents, which I left with family.

After buying some pretty decent survival/camping gear, I had $200 in my pocket when I left for that year's Rainbow Gathering (the largest, longest-running, most FREE [in every way - I've got a zine & video about it as the beta test for anarchist society if anyone's interested] event on the planet)

Most of that $200 was spent by the time I got there, splitting the cost of gas with my friend who I road-tripped with, and buying some more fresh local produce to donate once we got nearby (in addition to the ~600 pounds of food I was bringing that I had been stockpiling while I still had the employee discount)

I spent about 3 weeks at that Rainbow Gathering, left with no money, used less that $400 over the next 6 months, a small bit more over the next 6 (spending a few months in Mexico & Guatemala), and on my way out of Rainbow the next year, I was informed by a friend that a recent interview we had done earned $90 on a new blockchain platform and he wanted to figure out a way to give it to me.

Since then, I (someone with no social media prior, no writings outside of school, and no videos outside 2 school projects) have put out over 600 blog posts, created a giant Community Abundance Generator that basically works as a decentralized publishing company, and makes sure over 200 content creators putting content aligned with our "pillars" (my version of anarchy basically) get paid for their work. Without any advertisements, paywalls, government reporting, or big corporations.

I've continued living my light, wildly eco-centric, low footprint, CHEAP lifestyle, while never forgoing a focus on my own health & well-being, feeding as little into the things I don't want to exist (state, corporations, -isms, authority) as I possibly can.

I've cooked free food for over 100,000 people in that time, much of it in the forest over an open flame :-)

I've given speeches to hundreds, written posts & made videos seen by tens of thousands, and met pretty much every musician, author, speaker, organizer, that I've wanted to (and the rest are just a matter of time), as well as meeting SO many of the most inspiring and world-changing humans that nobody hears about (builders, farmers, healers, teachers, coders creating the new, anarchist world.)

I've seen hundreds of things that my old, dogmatically atheist and religiously scientist-worshipping self would argue couldn't possibly be real, while never having done or read the actual science.

Most importantly: I've taken responsibility for my own life experience, actions, words, and impact. I've minimized the harm I've inflicted/allowed as much as humanly possible (without going full hermit anprim), while maximizing my positive effect on the health, wellbeing, joy, and empowerment of as many people as possible.

Be the kind of person that lives in the world you want to see. Create that world around you, be an example of it, shine your light.

This video isn't really related to the conversation, but it sure is :-P The line that I think of so much is:

"Don't try to change the world, find something that you love
And do it every day
Do that for the rest of your life
And eventually, the world will change"