Lately I have been thinking about what I have to do in order to live and that is to EARN a living to purCHASE things for my survival. When it comes down to it, in todays modern life, I can just pay someone else to do everything for me. I don’t NEED to know how to do anything thanks to this thing call specialization. Everybody has a job that specializes in a certain task making it easy to trust that they can do the job effectively. Long ago human beings didn’t have the luxuries that we do now, they had to know how to survive without the aid of modern production. They had to know how to build a fire, how to hunt, and how to find shelter etc.
When our ancestors were hunter-gatherers they had the skills to survive on the basics; food, water, clothing, shelter. They were self sufficient but if other problems arose then they would solve whatever the issue was through trading with neighboring tribes. Once the establishment of organized society became the new way of life, the standards of living changed. People became farmers and the need to hunt and gather was no longer there. I'm holding this dollar thinking that I put value into this piece of paper through my hard work for the purpose of making a living. Today many of us have to work to make money in order to make sure we can sustain a living of a ‘normal’ life. The majority of people BUY food, BUY water, BUY gas, BUY a place to live and I just think its so crazy that it’s come to living off of what you can BUY with your money.
We as a society in modern day only know the way the world works by the system of using a currency to place value on the things we need. We are so ingrained in this way of life that if our system were to be shut down lets say by an apocalyptic scenario, all hell will break loose. Movies about apocalyptic and post apocalyptic realities do a good job of showing a glimpse of what society would possibly look like in the event of a world wide disaster. These movies don't prepare us in case anything of that nature were to take place. A huge disaster is sure to test everybody's overall capacity for survival, just look at natural disasters in recent years, many people died of direct impact, others died of starvation. Ultimately the only ones to survive will be the savvy ones and there is no way that currency can replace survival skills. Not knowing how to make a fire to keep warm just puts you that far behind from staying alive.
I don't consider myself a minimalist but I think we as a people have grown to own more than we need to survive and are becoming so accustomed to that lifestyle. If doomsday were right around the corner we would have no way of preparing for it, It would be the end of mankind as we know it. Everything is GIVEN to us through supply and demand and we wouldn't know how to supply ourselves with basic needs. That shit is scary to me. So what do I do about this? I try to make sure I don't get too attached to my electronics, and try to make sure that my knowledge is put to practice. I encourage you to do the same not for doomsday purposes but just in general, Hareena makes a great point about why its important to unplug from technology because no one is sure what may happen tomorrow.
Learn any and as many things about survival and basic things like sewing, building stuff and growing food that will nurture and fuel your body. I would love to know what others think, maybe I missed something. What are somethings that you think are important to know if the system as we know it were to fail?
-Godspeed
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