Daily Archives: May 24, 2010

Self reliance means skills, not just tools

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Melanie Williams at Where Simplicity Leads has some excellent thoughts on the difference between tools and skills in self reliance:

When I was just getting serious about simple living a few years ago I read an article about self-reliance which really stuck with me. The author said that the biggest mistake people make when starting out is thinking that in order to become self-reliant they have to go out and buy a bunch of stuff. I remember thinking that was kind of funny–what kind of self-reliance is that? Self-reliance is really more about skill-building than it is about tool-getting, but in the early stages it’s easy to believe all you need are the right tools (or at least to believe that the right tools will get you a very long way).

Tools of course are important, and when we’re first adopting a simpler and more resilient lifestyle it might become very obvious, very quickly that all the tools and gadgets and gizmos we’ve acquired over the years are precisely all the wrong tools and gadgets and gizmos needed for self-reliance. Riding lawn mowers, microwave ovens, GPS navigation, bread machines, rototillers, dishwashers…not so important. Root cellars, chicken coops, grain mills, spades, shovels, buckets, jars…very important tools.

Read the whole thing. And not just because she uses the same blog template I used to! 😉

 

How does one "sell" self reliance?

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That’s the question taken up at the California Preppers Network:

And we’re all clearly fighting an up-hill battle against government’s well-funded campaign to remove all risk and consequence from our lives.  We’re encouraged to live as milk-calves to government’s bottomless teat.

Responsibility and self-reliance require effort on the part of the individual.  Why put forth effort when you don’t have to?

I think Greece is providing a great example to us all on why we don’t want to become too dependent on the government. Too few politicians are businessmen, so they don’t pay attention to such minor details as solvency. When the state goes down a lot of people will suddenly be helpless and looking for someone to teach them what to do–that is, after they give up looking for someone to bail them out.