Self Sufficient is Unsustainable
It takes a community to give us freedom
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We’ve all seen those Youtube Shorts, TikToks, and other clip videos that depict a happy couple living off the land and growing their own… everything. What they are really showing is that it is possible to do it. That’s all well and good, but being self sufficient is unsustainable.
Submitted for your consideration (sorry, been re-enjoying The Twilight Zone), a couple of people who have all the food they need growing on their land. They barely need to go to the store. They spend their time cultivating and harvesting their crops.
After the harvest, they spend more time storing and organizing it using ancient and effective methods. There is nothing wrong with any of this. However, there is an old Earth saying that comes to mind; “They bought the farm”.
Loosely translated, this means, someone’s life is over. They are now prisoners of the land they work. The freedom they once enjoyed is not as easy to partake as it used to be.
No one person can do it all
I tried being a person who could do it all. At one point I nearly had chickens. Combine a large house, my own business, several vehicles, and a continuous list of works to be done for my home and customers, I was figuratively a farmer.
Then to think I was moving toward having chickens… Life/Game Over… You Lose…
I was about to sacrifice more of my time and energy to save a few dollars a week on eggs.
Trying to be completely self sufficient is an enormous undertaking and the gains are temporary. All the work can be taken out by an intruder, a fire, a small flood, wildlife, etc..
It takes a community
A lot of people for a long time have postulated that “it” will happen one day — and on that day, those with the gardens and guns will win. I have been pondering this concept for quite awhile.
My main focus of study was with the idea that how much collapse would it take to get us to the “it” event? When would we devolve into the cast of The Walking Dead (or Mad Max)?
