Homestead mailing list

[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

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