Colin T @templec4: what are your thoughts on hunting…and in general being self sufficient w/ regards to your food?
Answer:
I had coffee this morning. Probably some migrant labor in South America picked the coffee beans I used and laborers lifted boxesof coffee and put them onships and sent them over here. I’m using a computer that was probably made in Foxconn, the factory company in China none for suicides of it’s workers. Yesterday afternoon I ate a steak, which was presumably killed by either a hunter or a slaughterhouse. I’m sure I’ve got some leather on the sneakers I’m wearing. Which I guess (I don’t even know) somehow comes from skinning a cow.
You get the idea.
There’s two things:
1) Ultimately it’s a waste of my resources for me to be self-sufficient and gather all of these things for myself. I’m not going to go pick and grow my coffee beans. I’m not going to make my computer. And I’m not going to slaughter cows. But I depend on thousands of people every day to do these things and more for me.
2) Perhaps I can grow a few vegetables and be self-sufficient as regards those vegetables. But I’m only fooling myself if I think that handles more than 1%of the things that I would truly need to do in order to become self-sufficient. In a modern world where trade is not only global but permeates almost every aspect of how we live (where does the oil in my car come from? Where do the ingredients of my kid’s medicines come from. Or the pages in a book?) there is zero chance of being self-sufficient.
The best way I can redefine self-sufficient is to reduce your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs as much as possible. Become happy with who you are. Be more appreciative of what you have now in the present. Be thankful we live in a world that largely provides enormous wealth regardless of where we are in the income strata. Be present as much as possible instead of worrying about the entire world. The world will get better and healthier if we as individuals get better and healthier.
The “bad” people are the ones who desire too much or fear too much. So you should desire less and fear less and you can hopefully become a mirror to those who take advantage of the riches the world has to offer.