A Beer and Wine TalkTopic

From The Tempest to Robinson Crusoe to Lost Horizon to  Atlas Shrugged and others, works of fiction have given us numerous examples of people living by choice or necessity in isolated and hidden places  apart from the world at large and its events. It makes an interesting topic for conversation among friends to ask the question:  if you could go away with selected family and friends to a self-sufficient hideaway and live there among congenial company in comfort, safety, and all around well-being but also in isolation, would you want to? For most of my adult life, my answer would have been a definite no. The world was too rich, too deeply interesting and exciting, too full or promise and opportunity, and too open to improvement to consider abandoning.  Now though, I am not so sure. The idea of leaving the present political, social, cultural, and intellectual mess for a Shangri-La or Galt’s Gulch of some sort has more appeal than at any time I can remember. I really don’t know what I would say to the question. I have a guess many others would feel the same way and more than a guess that such feelings are not a good  thing.