We have more responsibility and power then you credit the masses for but it's only truly effective when united. In the days of both the world wars, America transformed itself from a rough coalition of people in various territories living largely independent of one another, into a united industrial giant able to crank out massive amounts of military equipment and ammunition, enough to bring down the world's only other Industrial giants, Germany and Japan. This happened because people say in the wars a common cause they could united against in spite of their difference. If we could learn how to be united again we could defeat the corporations and the governments because the bottomline is they can't exist the way they want to exist without us. Corporations thrive and die on the spending habits of the masses they influence. If people get upset and unite in a serious ban on products the corporation connected would be forced to change in response otherwise they'd go bankrupt or at least lose more money then they can bare. The same with politicians. Let's take the president as an example. He campaigned on change which in the publics mind he would run a more transparent and citizen friendly kind of government. A lot of people voted for him based on this one campaign promise alone. Many people today would say he failed to even come close to achieving that promise. So it would have been proper for a majority of voters to vote him out the next election. Instead the opposite happened and a majority voted him in for a second term. So truly as far as what our government is right now we the masses are responsible. Because trust me the government would seem very different if Romney was our president right now.
There are a lot of things you could of done differently if you thought thru things more. For example rather then giving your things away and beginning a quest to live off the land as quickly as you could you could have made a plan to prepare yourself to do it in the best way possible. Give yourself a few weeks, months or even a year to prepare. You probably would have seemed more driven then crazy to friends and family if you spent a year getting yourself in good shape to endure the rigors of your new lifestyle. Another thing you could have done is found a piece of unused land you were interested in and bought it perhaps even with a structure of some kind to live out of included in the deal. A lot of people own land with the notion of selling it eventually so it's just a matter of finding your price. Camping is all fine and dandy but it's only useful when you're forced to go where there is nothing else around for miles. It's best to own your land so you can do what you want, like build your own home or even better yet, if you can afford it by selling off your stuff rather then giving it away you could get some land and build one of those earthship homes that are designed for self sufficiency.
Let me say that again, build your own home, your experience would have been a lot better if you could have bought some land and lived off it yet stay close enough to society to take advantage of it when necessary. Like for socialization or buying the necessities of comfortable life that you can't gather, grow, or hunt for. Another nice thing about building a home or having one is this, say you get lonely and you go to town to hook up with a member of the opposite sex, for sex and you end up going back to your place. What's going to go over better with your un, "date" introducing her to your tent, or your fully furnished, hand built, genuine, log cabin? Personally I think the cabin would work better. Hell if it were me I'd even feel better about an old mobile home that came with the property.
Another thing I would say is try not to sweat the fine details too much. Okay, so you yourself want to stop using plastic, fine. But don't worry about the plastic used by the people you do business with. That's on them and is something they are going to do regardless of what lifestyle choices you make. I mean it's not like they are going to say, "Oh, Joe Schmoe swore off using any non organic products so lets buy one lifetime off plastic less to use packaging our products." That kind of change is one that would require a untied mass of people to make happen. So the rule of thumb I'd say is that before you deny yourself all comforts and pleasures make sure your sacrifice is going to make a difference any time in the near future? If the answer is no then just write it off as the responsibility of the manufacturer. You can still do your part no matter how small. Also consider this, you might not be able to make a noticeable change but you might inspire others with your example and eventually impact enough people where it does make a noticeable difference.
will come true
