I've always been drawn to the homesteading way of life, or at least a modernly feasible form of it. I like making my own, whether this be my own beer or my own house. I'm not sure where this yearning comes from, but here's a thought.
To go into the wild and live is to re-found society and make it our own. We play by our own rules and laws and form a way of life that usurps our current modern way. Out of the struggle of the rat race, at last we win!
So, is the desire to go into the wild (to be self-reliant, to be undisturbed by the vicissitudes of modernity and neighbors, to be on our own) a result of a lackluster experience with modern society?
What is wrong with the society and civilization I want to exit? An examination of the aspects of homesteading I value most might reveal what is wrong with society. A great thing about homesteading is the ability of a homesteader to be unaffected by the outside - to be able to not read the news, not obey laws we think distasteful, and to not care about greener grass. Strife - in whatever form - is stressful even to be seen. Hearing of the new horrible laws and new "acts of God" and the affect they have on people's happiness is stressful. Is the stress of solitariness greater than viewing these?
All work and striving begins with envy. Whether we want the food, property, or anything else that belongs to someone else, the reason we work is so that we can have what they do. A homesteader doesn't have to look at others every day, and doesn't envy their property. The homesteader is less motivated to work, and though he may spend more hours than average toiling, demands less return from his labor.
Is not playing the only way to win the rat race?
It is said that "You can't win, you can't break even, and you can't get out of the game". If this is true of the rat race, it is hopeless to exit via self-reliance or homesteading.
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occasional ramblings destined for obscurity
1 comment:
It's funny that you mention the desire to make things with your own to hands. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and it makes me wonder if this is something instilled into us by dad and all the woodworking and construction we did with him, or is it merely a part of human nature? Do all men take such joy in making things for themselves as we do? Or if they don't yet, would they if only they tried? So many people I observe live just to get by, or to buy the next best thing that comes along. I wonder if they are incapable of feeling the joy that I feel in using something my own hands have made. Or is theirs the greater joy, the obtaining of a prize through seemingly endless toil, A prize not of their own making, but precious nonetheless? Maybe these two different types of men are meant to live very different types of lives. Throughout history there have been the townsfolk who chose to relinquish autonomy in favor of security. It brings to mind the quote "he who would sacrifice essential liberty for a little temporary security deserves neither liberty nor security" (paraphrasing of course) Is the liberty granted a Homesteader by his lifestyle "essential"? or is it a liberty that can be cast off in favor of a better way. Obviously huge groups of humanity are of vastly differing opinions on what "essential liberty" is. Its funny how something simple like wanting to make things with your own two hands can be so interrelated with political and ideological differences that have sundered men into so many factions. :) to boil all that down' maybe men like us are not meant to live as others do in society. Perhaps we should accept our differences and take whatever the consequences may be. We could live by joy, and not by convention. (but of course that can lead into a whole other argument that I really don't want to go into)
By the way you sound really Amish...
As for the rat race, I have a thought. I just finished reading Ender's game, and in the book he is basically set into a series of three increasingly difficult games, the rules of which begin as set and become increasingly twisted against him. In all three games the way he finally wins is by doing exactly what the enemy does. He ignores the rules, and the conventional way of doing things, he cheats, because that is what the enemy is doing. You cant beat a stacked deck straight up, if you want to win you have to bring your own cards to the table. The "rat race" is nothing less than a stacked deck, the world doesn't really play by the rules and to the victor goes the spoils.
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