After reading this thread and finding myself in a somewhat similar plight to the OP, I'd like to share something that may sound a little silly.

I want to run away to the mountains and become a mountain man.

You heard me.

Not a hillbilly or a redneck. This may change, but right now, I would like to disappear into the deep Appalachian Mts. with a sack full of tools and another sack full of seeds, build myself a cabin and a vegetable plot, and become totally self-sufficient as far from other people as can be had in the 21st century.

I feel this way and fantasize about this a lot. Probably because I keep wondering why we no longer do things like they used to even though it used to work just fine.

Steam locomotive? Gone. Etiquette? Down the drain. Teenagers useless? Pretty much these days. I know that sounds really random and irrelevant. However, I think that if I were out of the reach of popular culture (which I find all too often insipid and destructive) and the messages I feel as if I'm bombarded with (and I know I don't like what they're saying), I could really change myself.

Also, surviving on my own would mean I'd accomplished something pretty serious. To discover that I'm capable of self-sustenance like that would be a major morale booster.

I dunno.