Opted Out, Still Watching

[UltraBudgie]

"Who am I, what am I, and what is this cage of suffering? Wherever I am I am always present"

“Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains.”

[Nerb]

I'll be out there too. On the sidelines, observing.  But probably digging in the garden and watching nature do her thing.

Planting more trees, since they are such a great, renewable resource.
We should be paying farmers to grow them!

People just get too worked up.  They need to relax.

I'm with you.

Those of us who enjoy nature look around and see what others keep going through from bad choices or just plain being swept along in the heat of the moment.

My garden is my paradise and it gives so many rewards.

Keep breathing.

[putnam6]

I think you know he means a more psychological opting out. Focussing on the Important Things while letting the mundane things flow as they can.
Organising and working without energetic attachment. 
Love of the game.
Love! :)

Yes of course but not everybody is wired that way, I can go through a lot of life on autopilot, I do better when I emphasize myself my family and my career. 

Everybody has different methods as well as circumstances, my point is for most of my adult life I didn't "opt" in either I was too busy with family and work, and that was my complete focus psychologically. Ergo it's not like I was invested in politics or society's BS  beforehand. LSS What changed that focus was COVID it removed my focus on my business life because the daily routine was gone.

[putnam6]

The most alluring American Dream has become the path of renunciation.

कोऽहं किमात्मकश्चैव किमिदं दुःखपञ्जरम् ।
यत्राहमसमाश्वस्तस्संस्थितस्सर्वदैव हि ॥

It's like Eddie Murphy making fun of the slogan "A mind is a terrible thing to waste" by saying just "a mind is a terrible thing"

For lots of people, it is a terrible thing that inner peace and strength can be so elusive, for others they can have it and lose it because of circumstances.

Now the pace of our business is so slow, that it can be done almost from muscle memory, Im mostly bored...

[sahgwa]

Yes of course but not everybody is wired that way, I can go through a lot of life on autopilot, I do better when I emphasize myself my family and my career. 

Everybody has different methods as well as circumstances, my point is for most of my adult life I didn't "opt" in either I was too busy with family and work, and that was my complete focus psychologically. Ergo it's not like I was invested in politics or society's BS  beforehand. LSS What changed that focus was COVID it removed my focus on my business life because the daily routine was gone.

I think we are all wired the same. We all have the same hardware.  The difference is cutting through the individual crud that is encrusted in the particular personality and ego and finding the common clear truth that lies at the heart of every human experience. 
I think COVID was good for cutting away societal foundation and forcing people to adapt, but of course it led to a lot of problems and exacerbated old ones .  What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, I still think.

[putnam6]

I think we are all wired the same. We all have the same hardware.  The difference is cutting through the individual crud that is encrusted in the particular personality and ego and finding the common clear truth that lies at the heart of every human experience. 
I think COVID was good for cutting away societal foundation and forcing people to adapt, but of course it led to a lot of problems and exacerbated old ones .  What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, I still think.

Maybe in a simple esoteric way. but some of the wiring and hardware are faulty or work differently, not gonna mention the obvious differences in the brain hemispheres and how some people have one personality type while others have another. 

Some people are creatures of habit some are not... seeing an example right here we are obviously completely different pages or wavelengths.

but in an effort to wrap my pea brain around your theory 

What would a world of totally "opted out" persons look like? 

[sahgwa]

Maybe in a simple esoteric way. but some of the wiring and hardware are faulty or work differently, not gonna mention the obvious differences in the brain hemispheres and how some people have one personality type while others have another. 
What would a world of totally "opted out" persons look like? 

Faulty or work differently, sure. My stupid simple statement was trying to opine that I think that we all can strive to look more inwards and be less attached to result, and do more with a joy of doing and yknow the old also simple adage of being in the moment. I know it all sounds stupid and simplistic and maybe even naive, but in my short 42 years I have gotten a lot of mileage out of trying to practise this one mindedness.  

I love your question.  
A world of opted out people would probably not be opted out in the way you seem to be (Giving off the vibe that you are) thinking.
It wouldnt be a physical refusal or non participation, necessarily. 
That is my personal attempt, as someone who likes to live on the fringes as much as possible socially.
If that is not possible, then I think , judging by my attempted behaviour, a world of opted out people would all be aware of the fleetingness of life. They would have meta/physical experience of states of non physicality, and non-mind.
So they would be in the world, and acting in it, but in the most pure state.  Without a clinging to result, pride and ego, and more for the joy of the action and the attempting to make things truly healthy and harmonious first for themselves, and then for others. 
Kind of like animals, but with more judgement on how their actions would effect the whole.

Did I answer your question at all? I think that's a fun and tough one.

[putnam6]

Faulty or work differently, sure. My stupid simple statement was trying to opine that I think that we all can strive to look more inwards and be less attached to result, and do more with a joy of doing and yknow the old also simple adage of being in the moment. I know it all sounds stupid and simplistic and maybe even naive, but in my short 42 years I have gotten a lot of mileage out of trying to practise this one mindedness.  

I love your question.  
A world of opted out people would probably not be opted out in the way you seem to be (Giving off the vibe that you are) thinking.
It wouldnt be a physical refusal or non participation, necessarily. 
That is my personal attempt, as someone who likes to live on the fringes as much as possible socially.
If that is not possible, then I think , judging by my attempted behaviour, a world of opted out people would all be aware of the fleetingness of life. They would have meta/physical experience of states of non physicality, and non-mind.
So they would be in the world, and acting in it, but in the most pure state.  Without a clinging to result, pride and ego, and more for the joy of the action and the attempting to make things truly healthy and harmonious first for themselves, and then for others. 
Kind of like animals, but with more judgement on how their actions would effect the whole.

Did I answer your question at all? I think that's a fun and tough one.

You did great and thanks for the clarification, I agree 100% with where you are taking this. Im pretty sure I had that once for a fleeting few years. 

It could be age differences and life experiences, cause around the age of 45 I got out of an LTR and the feeling and freedom that I had were amazing, it overshadowed the loss of a relationship and family. I'd suggest it's hard to have an opted-out life if your partner isn't of the same mindset.

 "opted-out" life is similar to it's not the destination it's the journey which has been my mantra when life throws you a curve ball. Be flexible, improvise, adapt, overcome. 

Something Ive done most of my life, when I was a kid 2 1/2 I was in a house fire, and my left foot and calf were the most scarred doctors thought I'd likely walk with a limp and had more surgery when I was 14. So I have to thank my parents because of thier diligence with therapy and positive attitude. My walking was perfectly fine played numerous sports and was active as and normal '70s kid would be, and only had a slight hitch when I sprinted. 

It hurts like hell now which the doctors were correct about.

[Redsun2025]

I’ve spent a lot of time outside the lines lately—off the grid, off the script, just… off. I stopped trying to "fit in" somewhere around the time the world started demanding more performance than participation.
We weren’t meant to live like this. Tied to screens. Addicted to algorithms. Medicated into submission. Watching politicians, corporations, and “influencers” fight over who gets to rent out our attention next.
I used to work, used to play the game. Wore the shirt. Clocked the hours. Smiled when I wanted to scream. Then something snapped—quietly. It wasn’t a big moment. No bolt of lightning. Just this slow, creeping realization:
This isn’t life. This is survival dressed up as civilization.
So I left. I didn’t rage. I didn’t protest. I just walked off the stage. Started hopping trains. Camping deep in national forests. Writing coordinates in a notebook where my phone might pick up a single bar of signal. Watching the stars and letting them remind me what it feels like to be small on purpose.
I saw something once in a forest in Pennsylvania—something I now know fits the old stories of the Wendigo. You can laugh if you want. I probably would have, once. But after seeing it? You don’t laugh. You remember. You carry it with you. Not everything fits inside science’s box. Some things belong to older truths.
People talk a lot about waking up lately. But waking up doesn’t always feel like freedom. Sometimes it feels like grief. You mourn what you thought the world was, then try to rebuild something real from the ashes.
And if that makes me crazy, a dropout, a weirdo? Good. Because I'd rather be a fool in the forest than a pawn in a dying empire.
Just thought I’d add my frequency to the static. Maybe someone else out there is tuned in.
—Redsun

[Karl12]

You ever notice how everything these days feels like a performance, but no one remembers the script? People yelling slogans they half-understand, waving flags for causes they couldn’t point to on a map. Meanwhile, the real problems—the ones with teeth—just keep chewing through what’s left of the soul of this place.
I didn’t opt out of society because I hate it. I opted out because it stopped making sense. You got folks fighting over symbols while the system quietly bills you for the air you breathe. Ain’t that something? You’re not allowed to just be anymore—you gotta pick a side, buy the merch, memorize the hashtags.
Me? I’ll be over here with the trees and the moonlight. Watching the whole circus spin itself into exhaustion.

Brilliantly put - am in complete agreement.

Almost seems like some sort of manufactured pseudo-environment where the only real thing is 'division'.

See you in the forest lol.