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Oftentimes when I suggest Americans need more self-sufficiency in their lives I get shot down by people and labeled as a "spam bunker loon" even though I don't believe in isolating myself from the world, hording and waiting in my carefully prepared underground bunker for the apocalypse.
Since when was it bad to "do it yourself"? I know hardly anybody who changes their own oil, much less anybody who is capable of doing the things that others now regularly do for us like car maintenance/repairs, making clothing, home construction and repairs, basic food preparation like butchering meat or growing vegetables, making furniture and tools, ect.
A hundred years ago, things like this were part of the standard skill-set of nearly every American! Now those skills are gone; the average man can't hit a nail with hammer, much less fix a roof leak or replace a water heater.
And don't give me the excuse that "this technological world is too technological and complicated to expect anybody to be able to do it" crap. Human minds designed, built and installed every system we live with today.
Are you an inferior mind? An unskilled neophyte? An incapable worker? Those traits used to be the marks of a worthless bum... now you are "weird" and "looney" if you aren't like that.
What happened to America?! Since when was dependence a good thing?
When we were a rural agri based country self reliance worked. It does not work in a modern urban society. Take the case of changing your own oil. If I live in the country I can change my own oil. I can then take the old oil and dump it in a hole on my farm or in the woods or just leave it in a rusty container in my barn. Me and the other 20 neighbors that are spread out over 10 miles are not going to do much damage to each other doing that. But if I have 20 neighbors on my block or even in my building and we all decide to dump used oil in the backyard or down the drain, it will cause problems. Bad problems. That is true of many things. You want people in New York City running around with rifles looking for game to kill for supper or raising chickens in the courtyard for eggs?
When we were a rural agri based country self reliance worked. It does not work in a modern urban society. Take the case of changing your own oil. If I live in the country I can change my own oil. I can then take the old oil and dump it in a hole on my farm or in the woods or just leave it in a rusty container in my barn. Me and the other 20 neighbors that are spread out over 10 miles are not going to do much damage to each other doing that. But if I have 20 neighbors on my block or even in my building and we all decide to dump used oil in the backyard or down the drain, it will cause problems. Bad problems. That is true of many things. You want people in New York City running around with rifles looking for game to kill for supper or raising chickens in the courtyard for eggs?
Fill a big bucket full of sand. Pour your used motor oil in that bucket. Use that sand/oil mixture to clean your tools with. Works especially well on garden tools..cleans them and oils them preventing rust.
When we were a rural agri based country self reliance worked. It does not work in a modern urban society. Take the case of changing your own oil. If I live in the country I can change my own oil. I can then take the old oil and dump it in a hole on my farm or in the woods or just leave it in a rusty container in my barn. Me and the other 20 neighbors that are spread out over 10 miles are not going to do much damage to each other doing that. But if I have 20 neighbors on my block or even in my building and we all decide to dump used oil in the backyard or down the drain, it will cause problems. Bad problems. That is true of many things. You want people in New York City running around with rifles looking for game to kill for supper or raising chickens in the courtyard for eggs?
Most people don't live in a highrise downtown, but some degree of self-sufficiency isn't impossible even there.
I live in suburbia, about 10 miles from a major city... not the boonies, BTW.
Just about every auto parts store takes oil free for recycling; you don't have to "dump it in the woods". You can raise chickens on a postage stamp sized piece of land if you want to; the chicken you bought at the store spent it's entire life in a cage too small for it to even turn around in.
You can also buy live chickens and other domestic animals and butcher them yourself for far less $$ than those shrink-wrapped cuts of meat from Venezuela or Argentina, but while the vast majority of people don't think twice about eating meat they are horrified of the thought of killing and preparing their meat themselves.
So essentially we have a generation of people who are so dependent they would starve to death because they don't know how to get meat or grow vegetables unless they can buy them a supermarket.
If they were dumped on piece of land in the Spring with all the tools and raw materials necessary to build a house they would freeze to death before Winter.
If you locked them naked in a room, gave them a roll of cloth, scissors, thread and a needle they would still be naked at the end of the day (the "smart" ones might have made up some kid of toga by then )
Can't anyone see... somebody WANTS us to be this dumb and dependent. They WANT us to absolutely NEED them for survival. Is this really a good way to be?
Why would I waste time learning skills that I don't need and don't interest me? I'm not going to do it because someone can imagine a scenario where people are dumped on an island with limited resources or some bizarre mad max scenario.
This thread sounds like nothing more than chest thumping over someone's ability to grow onions or change oil. Woohoo nice work you can change oil.
Can't anyone see... somebody WANTS us to be this dumb and dependent. They WANT us to absolutely NEED them for survival. Is this really a good way to be?
There are people that see this. But they are not in the majority.
Rural folks tend to trade and barter among themselves and directly sell the extras.
Monsanto doesn't get involved with small time people. Neither does the government.
And the people don't need Monsanto and the government to conduct trade.
No one needs to inspect my eggs for disease and famine because I take care of my chickens and eat the very same eggs I sell. If one person got sick from my eggs, just one person, I'd never be able to sell anymore because it's all local and word of mouth does more than any government rubber stamp.
The only area I stay away from is raw milk. I would only drink from my own cow and then I think I'd pasteurize it to be safe. Or goat's milk and that's even more safer for consumption. That's next on my list.
It takes more work though and today's society is all about doing less work, not more.
But there's something gratifying when you can sit down and eat stuff you grew yourself that tastes so much better than the bland, imported supermarket variety.
Because the left truly believes that anyone that is not white is a helpless victim and that it is incumbent upon the government, i.e. taxes and social welfare programs to right those wrongs.
Oftentimes when I suggest Americans need more self-sufficiency in their lives I get shot down by people and labeled as a "spam bunker loon" even though I don't believe in isolating myself from the world, hording and waiting in my carefully prepared underground bunker for the apocalypse.
I guess it depends on how you bring up this topic. My husband and I have an emergency preparedness kit as well as we can grow vegetables and know how to butcher chickens and gut/clean fish. We also know some basic first aid and natural medicine. However, we are not of the mindset that one president being in power or one particular segment group of the world's population is sending the world to Hell in a handbasket. We actually joke we are preparing for the zombie outbreak. I don't think it hurts to know a few "survivalist" type things, I'm worried about a major earthquake or good old Mt. Ranier blowing more than I am about Polotix or Gawdless People Bringing Down Society. I guess I would be curious how you're beginning a conversation about this and if you are coming off as lecturing as opposed to just sharing some information.
And as far as things like changing oil, I learned how to change oil on an older model van long ago, but in modern cars it's more difficult to change it and is not worth the time in my life that it takes, so I pay someone to do it. Additionally, modern cars are not like cars of even 30 years ago, they require specialized tools to repair. I don't think car maintenance is a good example of being self sufficient.
I think it's the "Unibomber" stereotype: Some guy who lives in a bunker somewhere waiting for the black helicopters to come and try to take him and his gun away.
That being said, I respect people who are able to be self-sufficient. While I can change my oil if needed, I can't do much else. I need to learn more useful skills.
Because the left truly believes that anyone that is not white is a helpless victim and that it is incumbent upon the government, i.e. taxes and social welfare programs to right those wrongs.
What does being black or white have to do with the thread topic?
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