Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] The Myth of Self Reliance

livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Pego Rice <firekeeper38@yahoo.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] The Myth of Self Reliance
  • Date: Thu, 4 Feb 2010 23:54:01 -0800 (PST)

I am always a bit croggled when I look at those "Bug Out" websites and listen to people who, with absolute sincerity, talk about living a life where they depend upon themselves to think of and to do absolutely *Everything*.    I always imagine some scrabbling desperate, and short, existence.  It's like we Americans have so totally bought into the lone horseman image that we've forgotten that human beings are *Not* built for isolation. We are also not always at the top of our game, not always correctly informed about every thing we really need to know, not always strong enough to do everything we need to do to live a life. (Didn't that horseman stay at hotels? Have someone cook and clean for him? Get carted to the Doc by grateful townspeople?)
 
As you can well see, so many things jumble in.  I am so glad to see a far clearer essay into it. Very few people are suited to being hermits... All the rest of us go lemming mad without enough human contact.

Studies of disaster areas find this to be pretty true of neighborhoods. Those with an active community life, mature, with well-associated families tend to recover well and be able to manage around the limitations that physically impinge their community. Neighborhoods that are more transient, like the highly stratified HOAs, starter homes here, professional people there. These neighborhood simply do not have the ability to coordinate their strengths to recover as quickly.

Sadly, our FEMA and other programs have no history of working with these communities and often handle them with forced evictions, even when they are already beginning to bounce back.

Yours, Pego





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page