#160_How We Are Losing Our Self Reliance and How We Can Get It Back

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast

Episode 160

How We Are Losing Self Reliance and How to Get It Back

With working farms in my family self-reliance was not something we talked about because it was just how we lived. Presently because the homestead is somewhat isolated, a certain degree of self reliance is mandatory simply because help is not instantly accessible. 

But in our modern culture the average person is no longer self reliant nor do they see the need to live that way. But I would contend that despite our modern culture there is even more insecurity than ever because our world changes so rapidly, almost week to week. Consequently,  self reliance is needed more than ever. 

But how did we get away from it? And if it is so necessary, how can we get it back? And that is the subject of this episode. How are we losing our self reliance and how can we get it back. 

Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is E160 which is called How We Are Losing Self Reliance and How to Get It Back.

Good News Story of the Week

But before we get started with this weeks episode, let’s first discuss the good news story of the week. 

Renewable energy is always on my mind. This is because our entire homestead is run off of solar. In fact, in a few weeks I am going to expand our solar array so we can run grow lights and heating pads in order to greatly extend our growing season into the winter. 

Despite significant advances in renewable technology I am still surprised that the fossil fuel industry continues their narrative of misinformation. I have covered in previous episodes how it is quite possible to run the entire world off of renewable energy even with the technology we have today.  

Portugal is now yet another great example of that principle. Although this does not happen 100% of the time, they are making progress. 

Portugal has a population of approximately 10.3 million people. The weather in Portugal is both sunny and windy which in many ways makes it uniquely suited for renewable energy. When the weather is over cast it is typically windy. When skies are clear, which is best for solar, there is not that much wind. 

In late October, for a total of 149 hours, the country was not only generating enough electricity to run the entire country, they were even exporting energy to Spain. The happened because during the 1990s when solar was still relatively expensive the government installed numerous wind turbines.  As the cost of solar came down, the government then installed solar arrays. Even though they do not always run the entire country on renewables, this is a perfect example of just how that is possible even with our technology today. 

So this weeks applause goes to Portugal for making one more step toward a sustainable future. 

Now let’s move on to this weeks episode which focuses on how we are losing our self reliance and how we can get it back. 

Almost every week I encounter someone that truly has no concept of self reliance. In fact, just the other day I was having a conversation with a client who was expressing concerns over the fact that more and more frequently when she went to the supermarket she found empty shelves. That lead to a conversation about simply keeping extra supplies at home and home canning. She of course had no concept of either nor had she been in the habit of doing these things. 

But you see these kinds of changes in our culture is not something that happened over night. It took decades. 

Most people, including my grandparents, who experienced the Great Depression, were quite adept at saving, storing, and re-using just about everything.  They never threw anything away. They made every effort to repair something instead of buying something new. And a great deal of time, what they did not have they simply made it at home. The average person almost never ate restaurant food. The had pressure cookers. They home canned. The average person was not only an amateur chicken farmer but likely raised other animals for food and had a larger garden. 

But after World War Two our world became a very different place. The Industrial Revolution helped turn around the depression economy, people had expendable income they were willing to spend, inexpensive products became more frequent. Many items previously made at home were now cheaply available on the store shelves including socks, soap, fruits, vegetable, and much more. Why make these things at home when they were instantly available for cheap. By the end of the 1950s there were microwaves ovens, frozen dinners, and a dishwasher in every home. Slowly over time the attitude of self reliance has given way to the culture of “now”. The instant gratification that started with the microwave and the first frozen dinner has now turned into the culture where you can purchase your groceries without ever leaving your home. 

Every household and personal item imaginable is now available in more than a dozen varieties. Practically anything you want is available 24 hours a day. If you can’t find it locally you can certainly find it online. If you are willing to pay the cost it can be on your doorstep the next day. The average supermarket has 40 to 50 thousand items on their shelves on a given day. When you can easily purchase something new instead of repairing what you have, there is little reason to learn the practical household skills that were second nature to the average person two generations ago. 

I will be the first to admit that the convenience we have is truly very nice. I often compare this to how things are when I have lived is a developing country. So many day-to-day things just don’t work the way you would expect. It takes three times as long to get anything accomplished. Certain things just are not available. Just recently I had conversations with two different clients that have lived abroad and they both said that at least things in this country, meaning the United States, actually work. That said, I would also contend that our convenience has also come at a price.  

As I stated above at the homestead a certain amount of self reliance is mandatory simply because help is never instantly available. Consequently, I have alternate plans in case something goes wrong. I have backups in the event that there are equipment failures. Sometimes I even has backups for my backups. 

So, think of it this way. As a veterinarian, I perform literally hundreds of routine surgical procedures every month. Truly these are not difficult surgeries and quite often someone will say to me “Well I could do that!” And while that may be true, I always ask “But what are you going to do is somethings goes wrong?” 

I think the same way when it comes to scuba diving. The techniques of strapping on a tank of air, wearing a mask and breathing through a regulator so you can go under water are truly very simple. But what are you going to do if something goes wrong? 

The same is true with our modern culture. All of the convenience we have is truly very nice. We have incredible choices, instant service, and if we are not satisfied with one thing we can move onto the next. Anything we want is available any time we want. If one place of business does not have want we want or need, there is another one just down the street that likely does. All of this ease and convenience is certainly nice. However, it tends to produce a certain sense of entitlement. We get angry if we can’t get what we want. But it also produces a false sense of security. But what we never stop to think about is the fact that it’s all fun and games until something goes wrong. What are you going to do then? 

What I want to emphasize is that all of this convenience is truly nice. But it has come at a cost. Consider the following: 

-20% of millennials don’t know the difference between a flathead and a Phillips screwdriver 

-Only 56% of us can actually iron a shirt

-Only 45% of us can sew on a button

-Only 30% of us can perform any sort of home repairs

-We now spend far more money on restaurant food than we spend on cooking at home. 

-60% of us thinks that our meat comes from the supermarket

-98% of our population now depends on food that comes from a place they have never seen

-50% of children do no know that pickles come from cucumbers

-40% of children do not know that hamburgers come from cows. 

Considering all of this, is it any surprise that people do not know what to do when something goes wrong. In fact  people often give me odd looks when I discuss my lifestyle. They simply cannot understand why I do some of the things I do.  People sometimes think I am preparing for the end of the world when the reality is that what I do now is just an extension of what I was taught as a kid. 

But that is not the whole story. I have also been self employed for 23 years. If I were to have an accident and be unable to work for months on end no one is going to support me except for me. That is why I keep an emergency fund set aside to pay my bills for 6 months to a year. That is another reason I keep extra supplies at home. If I were unable to work then at least I would be well fed for months. 

But what I commonly see is people that are completely unprepared for even the smallest of emergencies. Let’s say for example a big snowstorm moves in and all roads are closed for two days. With such a forecast everyone rushes to the supermarket and it is not long before shelves are empty. 

When I still had a house in South Carolina, a big ice storm moved in, all roads were closed for 7 days and no one could go anywhere. Furthermore, we did not even have electricity for 7 days. Everyone around us had no heat and temperatures were in the high 20s. On the other hand, we had plenty of firewood and extra supplies at home and had no concerns whatsoever. I truly believe that our general lack of self reliance produces needless stress and suffering when something goes wrong. 

I also think that our grandparents were great examples of home-spun self sufficiency and they also provided a great model for emergency preparedness in our modern times. For example, I remember my grandparents had a very large walk in closet that was completely lined with shelves full of home canned goods. In fact, gardening and canning provided a major source of food for many Americans throughout the middle of the 20th century. In the early 1940’s there were approximately 20 million gardens in American and literally billions of jars of home canned goods. 

Just try to imagine the peaceful state of mind you would have during tough times if you had a large garden, an entire wall of canned goods, a large coup full of chickens, a smoke house, a home run entirely off of renewable energy, a freezer full of meat and a small stock pile of basic dried goods.  Furthermore, imagine the personal security you would experience if you were simply armed with the knowledge to be able to take care of yourself and your family no matter what the circumstances. 

It is rather remarkable to note that during the Great Depression the average person showed great resilience and optimism. At the time nearly half of Americans believed that things were looking up and that they had a good chance at getting ahead in life. This overwhelmingly positive attitude all stemmed from the fact that people were generally self reliant and not only knew how to take care of themselves but were also willing to do whatever it took to make it in life.  

There is no doubt that science and technology has liberated humanity from so many things and certainly has greatly improved social productivity. But unfortunately in our haste to improve ourselves we have only focused on what it is that we need and what regardless of the carrying capacity of the environment. Additionally what few people stop to consider is that our advances in science and technology have simultaneously liberated and enslaved us. The average person is now a slave to the convenience of the modern lifestyle that we have worked so hard to create. And this is now so engrained in most people that during the pandemic people became enormously angry simply because they could not have what they wanted when they wanted. 

For better or for worse the world has changed. But in my opinion our social order is now further complicated because 80% of us now live in urban area and are completely disconnected from the natural world. The only way that our social structure will truly be resilient is if we admit that we will never be able to live independently from the elements of nature, the plants, the animals, the fresh water, the oceans, and even the microorganism. 

What we should do is learn from this and reconnect with a lot of the old ways from the past. I often say that our homestead is a nice marriage between old country skills and modern technology. Such a marriage brings simple utilitarian living that is a step above what long-ago generations never had. All of us should be mindful of that and take advantage of what we have. 

With the resources available to us there is no reason anyone should suffer during an emergency. We have incredible resources available to us. Top-of-the-line outdoor gear, water purifiers, survival gear, freeze dried foods for long-term storage, first aid classes, alternative means of emergency communication. These are things that previous generations never even dreamed would be possible. Despite this, every time without fail, when there is an emergency of some sort, such as a hurricane or loss of power due to a winter storm or even a heat wave, the news media talks endlessly about the human suffering. And this type of scenario is completely avoidable. 

I have long said that self sufficiency is your best security blanket. I am not saying that everyone should live the way I do. I know for a fact that living off the grid is just not for everyone. But, there are numerous skills each of us can learn to improve our personal resilience and give us some peace of mind even in the absence of any sort of emergency situation. 

If you truly want to be nearly 100% self reliant there are literally hundreds of skills to learn. But if you think of it in those terms you will suffer from information overload and likely never take the first step. So start with something simple. Learn to bake bread. Look for recipes on the internet and make meals on a regular basis with basic ingredients. Learn how to sew and make small repairs on your clothing. Plant a garden. If you cannot do that because of space restrictions, have a container garden. Buy a food dehydrator and make you own snacks. Learn to make homemade granola which costs a fraction of what you would pay in the supermarket. Take a CPR and basic first aid class. Learn to use a compass. Keep a small backpack of survival gear in your vehicle. Take a class and start learning to do basic home repairs. Learn the basic of renewable energy and set up a small solar array that will run certain portions of your home if the grid goes down. And the list goes on and on and on. 

One thing is for certain. Because of the internet we are blessed to have instant access to hundreds of years of information. You can now get on the internet and learn how to do almost anything you put your mind to. Take advantage of that and use that massive resource to make yourself self reliant. Use it to make yourself independent from the modern structure of our society that actually makes us a slave to convenience. 

When the big ice storm moved into my little corner of South Carolina it was 7 days before electricity was restored and the roads were cleared of down trees sufficient enough for vehicle travel. During that time, we had stayed warm thanks to our fireplace. During that time we never did without anything because we always kept extra food at home. While the entire subdivision looked as if a hurricane had hit, for us this emergency situation was only a minor inconvenience. 

Once the roads were cleared people started cleaning up there yards from all the downed trees. They were   hauling massive piles of wood out to the curb for the city to pick up. I took advantage of this. Armed with a chainsaw and a pickup, I collected four cords of oak for firewood. While doing this there was at least a dozen people who came out to ask what I was doing. When I explained that I was collecting firewood for the next time this happened, they seemed dumb founded. I suspect this is because in our culture most people have the expectation that things are always going to function. People cannot imagine the possibility of NOT having instant access to all that they need. And in my opinion that is a mistake. 

Don’t be the person that is caught unprepared. Don’t be the person that is left suffering during an emergency because you expected that someone else was going to take care of your needs. As I have so often said as long as someone else is in control of your resources they are in fact in control of your life. So take the control back into your own hands by learning to be self reliant. Self reliance is by far the best security blanket. 

While my lifestyle may not be for everyone I do have the personal security of knowing if the worse case scenario were to actually happen we would actually be okay. We would have the ability to live at the cabin for several years without having to leave. While this may seem extreme, everyone of us has the ability to produce a great deal of personal security by learning some basic skills of self reliance. The only way you are going to have that kind of personal security is to start learning. As with most things, start with one small thing at a time. Five years from now you will be amazed at the level of confidence and security you have achieved. The average person these days have completely lost the basic skills of self reliance. But, it is so easy to get that back. You just have to make the commitment to do it and stop expecting someone else to take care of your needs.  

I want to close this episode by asking one simply question. No matter what happens do you have a knowledge and ability to take care of yourself. If the answer is no then you need to get busy. The best part of all is that self reliance and sustainability go hand in hand. To learn one is to embrace the other. 

Well folks I hope you have enjoyed this episode and will join me again next week when I am going to discuss some very practical tips on self reliance.  Until then, this is your host Patrick signing off. Always remember to live sustainably because this is how we build a better future.