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  • From: EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Those who move to the land
  • Date: Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:40:22 -0500



Gene GeRue wrote:

Boomer burnouts/urban refugees

They’re talking health, longevity, ecology, sustainability. They’re
reconsidering family, community, safety, security, the purpose of life. This group’s collective profile is: married, above-average
education, affluent, zero-to-two children, homeowner, long-distance
commuter, 60- hour workweeks, fantasizer of better quality life with
more time to spend with family. Those couples who have ever thought,
“We just had sex, so it must be Saturday,” may fit into this group.

That was me...definitely a boomer burnout refugee.




Environmentalists

Conservationists, ecologists, environmentalists, Greens—however we label ourselves—constitute the surging swell of citizens who understand that Spaceship Earth is suffering from bad management. We
are informed people who believe in taking greater responsibility for
our conduct, who understand that we are in fact “all in this
together.” Environmentalists cite cities as inefficient and wasteful
of energy resources, generators of greenhouse gasses, acid rain,
toxic waste and enormous accumulations of garbage. Some stay in the
city to effect change from within. Many move to the country to lead
simpler lives in tune with natural laws.


I'm there, too.




Survivalists

So-called survivalists (aren’t we all?) deserve better press. While a
few seem to suffer from a Rambo complex, most are level-headed citizens, many are sincere passivists. What all share is a fear that
senseless crime, riots, bombings and the fragility of urban food and
utility systems are precursors to chaos—and that when city systems
collapse there will be a mob exodus to the countryside. Alvin
Toffler wrote in Future Shock that “Great cities are paralyzed by
strikes, power failures, riots.” The New York garbage collectors’
strike, the 1965 Watts riots, the 1992 L.A. riots, the 1994 L.A.
earthquake, and the Blizzard of ’96 were examples of near paralysis
that illustrated the dependence and vulnerability of city dwellers
when systems break down. It is at such times that the social
condition of a place is magnified and clarified. In the first 30
minutes of the 1977 New York power blackout, looters had stolen $150
million in goods. A dramatic example of a national paralysis began
November 24, 1995, in France with a strike by civil servants.
Railroad workers, mass-transit workers, mail sorters and utilities
workers nearly shut down the country for a week. Cities were choked
with traffic jams and millions of people were forced to walk, bicycle
or hitchhike to work. The economic cost was hundreds of millions of
dollars per day (Time, 12-11-95). Survivalists buy land far from
highways, strive for self-sufficiency, often homeschool. The more
militant arm themselves heavily, but they usually make peaceful
neighbors. Their complaints typically focus on federal and state
government, not on locally-elected officials.


Wow Gene...the attitude towards survivalists you show in your books is
different than the one you show on the list. Why so?

Anyway, I think you have missed part of the boat here. I know plenty of
survivalists who simply want to test their metal, so to speak, to learn
primitive living skills to see if they could survive the way their
ancestors did. That's not exactly homesteading, but more interest than
some re-enactment weekend festivals would offer. I for one, fell into
that category...I wanted to learn to tan hides, make fire, to butcher
game, to hunt and fish and make shelters, and none of it had anything to
do with the city and fears of crime, riots, etc. If you don't know who
Christopher Nyurges is, look him up. He is as close to a modern day
Daniel Boone as anyone you will find. He is one very cool dude, and his
survivalism is not about fear, but about skills and testing yourself.
I think you have missed this aspect of it.



--
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will
not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius
will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the
world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone
are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve
the problems of the human race"

~ Calvin Coolidge




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