Posted on 08/03/2017 10:21:02 PM PDT by Lorianne
It’s always interesting reading when someone smug and sanctimonious writes a clueless diatribe about another group of people being smug and sanctimonious. So when I saw that an economist for Moody’s and Forbes had written an op-ed calling self-reliant homesteaders “delusional,” I knew I’d be in for some misinformed hilarity.
The article, entitled, “Dear Homesteaders, Self-Reliance Is a Delusion” was published a couple of days ago on the Forbes website. You’ll be forewarned that the article won’t be deep in the first paragraph, when the author presents his claim to knowledge about self-reliant living comes from the fact that he is “a big fan of shows about doomsday preppers, homesteaders, survivalists, generally people who live off the grid.”
And the well-informed opinion of this arbiter of self-reliance?
…there’s a central delusion in these shows that is never far from my mind when I’m watching these shows: off the grid people are not self-reliant, but instead are mooching off of the civil society, government, and safety net the rest of us contribute to…The people in these shows often describe a very romantic vision of the lives they have chosen the ethos underlying it. They describe themselves as fully self-reliant, and criticize the rest of society as being dependent and lacking in this self-reliance. It is morally superior, the story goes, to provide for yourself, take care of your own needs, and often, be prepared to survive if society collapses.
(Excerpt) Read more at theorganicprepper.ca ...
Forbes writers don’t like self reliant “homesteaders” because they create guilt, anxiety and feelings of inadequacy throughout the “more evolved” 21st century metrosexual community.
It’s similar to the very same people that attack true evangelical Christians for their strict adherence to Bible principles.
I participated in many a “hog killin” as a boy. We usually would butcher a four or five hundred pounder and it would take the whole family all day to finish up with the one and we did not make chitlins. I have helped stuff sausage into the small intestines after cleaning them though.
Thank you, I was beginning to worry that my childhood heroes, David Crockett and Daniel Boone might not really have been self-reliant. I knew if I kept reading though that someone would point out the fallacy, thanks again.
Survival... up until the inevitable mistake is made. In the wilds, one rarely gets a second chance.
Prehistoric life was indeed “tribal” - a community with a “government” - witness the elephant herd.
The fact that all producers are consumers but not all consumers are producers seems lost on some. I got into it some time back with a Freeper who posted some nonsense about how it was the consumer who drives the economy, he could not seem to grasp how absurd the idea is.
Just another dependent yuppie, who would starve if he had to get his own food, showing his ignorance.
“it was the consumer who drives the economy”
Back in Business School, a professor once said to us that “the consumer is always right”. I raised my hand and said “unless the consumer is wrong”. The professor thought for a moment and agreed.
I have seen many a consumer who were totally wrong and many an entreprenuer who bent over backwards to try and please when they should have said to the disgruntled consumer “take your business elsewhere.”
A saw what you did there...
Never own more than you can carry in both hands at a dead run.
-R.A. Heinlein
Well, technically, he didn’the drop from his mother’s womb and survive in the swamp with no intervention, so he is truly not independent...
This same idiot would describe illegal aliens on the government tit as the most noble people on the planet.
Just wait.. I think we get better. I am going for Medishare this year, instead of the bailed out insurance compnies. I can’t wait for Jan 1, when I am free from that burden.
Self reliant mooches.. I don’t think he is comprehending his own title. Those two ideas are mutually exclusive.
If he’s mad because they don’t pay taxes, then, there are much bigger swaths who pay nothing, and get a tax credit.
Back in the early 70's when all we had were the 3 alphabet nets and PBS there was a PBS hour video on a guy who went to the Alaska wilderness to build his own homestead, cabin, etc. The kicker was that he was partially sighted and his residual vision was deteriorating.
Does anyone remember or know who the guy was?
The thought is that the truly self reliant are the urban dwellers, and all homesteaders are welfare hoarders.
Simply put, they hate that people can do things for themselves. I have seen this in many places and times. They hate that when I was a kid a lot of our food was self raised and grown. They hate that even now I have my own garden (some sort of privilege I was told), and that I blow my own snow and such.
Socialists do not like people who do things for themselves.
Your comment reinforces my belief that most people miss the point of homesteading and modern self sufficiency. It's not about being totally independent of modern society. It's about being able to handle any problem that arises in your life with the tools and skills you have at hand. The difference between modern homesteaders and the population at large is that homesteaders have a bigger tool (skills, experience and stuff) box to go to on a daily basis. What does boggle my mind is why people that aren't homesteaders react so vehemently (the Forbes author, not you) against the lifestyle.
If someone could invent small thorium rectors to power homes I would be completely off the grid. I use propane but could switch to fire wood, i have acres of it I have my own well and septic. I have dogs and guns and do not need the police. We home schooled our children.
When is the bonfire for this author’s straw man. Gonna be a dilly.
That's the thing isn't it? that illegal alien cleans the Forbes writer's toilets for him/her then drives in his/her uninsured beater drunk to the welfare office.
I like the corollary of that one:
“If you can’t pick it up and run with it you don’t really own it.”
R. Heinlein
L
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