Your life depends on millions of people.
You and I need millions of people.
We can’t know them all. We will never meet them all. But, self-sufficiency is an illusion, often an expensive and thinly drawn one at that. The more high tech and comfortable your life is? The more true this is.
I do not care if you have a cabin in the woods. I do not care if you “reject modern medicine” —
This is one of those things I find “obvious” but I can imagine it starting a big argument for some.
https://sauropods.win/@futurebird/113605995700326556
@futurebird
As John Donne and many philosophers before him across all cultures observed:
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@futurebird
This is exactly what, frankly, pisses me off about anyone cheering the collapse of our systems at the hands of looting/pillaging dunderheads like Trump and Musk.
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@futurebird Somebody explained this to me once by analogy. Think of the household of Louis XIV, when thousands labored to keep a few dozen happy and well fed. Now, we can also go and feast […]
@futurebird Self sufficiency is dumb but there are huge efficiencies in closing loops - making, using, recycling as close to source as possible. If I have a worm farm, feed household scraps to […]
@futurebird I know it’s not your point, but an interesting question is: What is the smallest human population that could sustain a modern lifestyle?
@futurebird Deb Chachra's _How Infrastructure Works_ is so very much about this, though at greater length than your toot.
@futurebird Self-sufficiency depends on how much of your life you want to spend on working to be self-sufficient, how much leisure time you want, how much you want to be connected to different […]
@futurebird Yeah, humans are a bit like ants but less resilient and charming. As far as I know, humans are the only species where individuals become assholes to impress other assholes with […]
@futurebird Yeah, humans are a bit like ants but less resilient and charming.
@futurebird Yeah. People have never been fully self sufficient. Having a cabin and maybe a couple survival skills doesn’t count.
Our distant ancestors *collaborated* to create the first […]
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