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Forbes Says Self-Reliant Homesteaders Are “Delusional” and “Mooching” Off “Civil Society”
Organic Prepper, the ^ | 31 July 2017

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: adamozimek; forbes; homesteaders; homesteading; offgrid; ozimek; prepper; prepping; selfreliance
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1 posted on 08/03/2017 10:21:02 PM PDT by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

Ozimek seems to think self reliance means the same thing as homelessness.

And he thinks homesteading people don’t have families, churches, investments or savings to rely on, not to mention he forgets they pay taxes too...

Maybe he’s just jealous because he has no idea what he’d do if the power went out for three weeks.


2 posted on 08/03/2017 10:38:44 PM PDT by piasa
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To: Lorianne

Well in all fairness, they are creating a lot of CO2.


3 posted on 08/03/2017 10:52:56 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: Lorianne

I like this guy.


4 posted on 08/03/2017 10:54:27 PM PDT by arthurus
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To: Lorianne

The author, Adam Ozimek, did some in-depth research on the sybject:

Sitting in front of a TV watching staged “reality” shows.


5 posted on 08/03/2017 10:58:36 PM PDT by Vlad The Inhaler (We were Trumpin' before Trumpin' was cool.....)
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To: Lorianne

“You didn’t build that” ALERT!

Prez for Prison BUMP!


6 posted on 08/03/2017 10:58:49 PM PDT by PGalt
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To: arthurus

He is part of the societal net. He is at the bottom of the food chain when his urban dream collapses and his getto neighbors get hungry. As he is well practiced at wagging his finger with a mouth full of sharp opinions I am sure he will be able to defend his boyfriend.


7 posted on 08/03/2017 10:59:34 PM PDT by American in Israel (A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)
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To: Lorianne
but instead are mooching off of the civil society, government, and safety net the rest of us contribute to…

They contribute to it as well you nitwit.

8 posted on 08/03/2017 11:02:49 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Not a Romantic, not a hero worshiper and stop trying to tug my heartstrings. It tickles! (pink bow))
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To: piasa
I think that the idea that someone can be completely independent is truly delusional.

There was this guy who was going to prove that he could live completely independently. One day he walked into a swamp completely naked. No clothes, knives, guns, cooking apparatuses, etc. Nothing.

He survived, and quite well indeed. He made his own clothes and shelter. Was able to fashion tools with which to fish and hunt. The whole survivalist nine yards.

The rub of this story, however, is that before he walked into the swamp naked he spent years reading up on how to survive in swamps, and took numerous trips to the swamp to hone his skills. Also, the swamp he walked into was not teeming with drug dealers, paramilitaries, etc.

So yes he was able to live off the land, but only because hundreds (or more likely millions) of people before him had developed the skills necessary to live off the land, and dozens had written books about it. Also, hundreds (or more like thousands) of people were responsible for this swamp being relatively free of dangerous humans. All he had to worry about were the critters.

So yes he is more independent than most and should get lots of kudos for surviving the swamp, and he most likely has a lower welfare-footprint than most ... as most survivalists do.

But neither he, nor anyone else, can claim to be truly and fully independent.

And who would want to be anyway?

9 posted on 08/03/2017 11:05:48 PM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear
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To: Tilted Irish Kilt

Prepper Ping?!


10 posted on 08/03/2017 11:09:11 PM PDT by Freedom56v2 (Inside Every Liberal is a Totalitarian Screaming to Get Out - D. Horowitz)
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To: piasa
Ozimek touts society/government as being there when things go bad.

Those who are "self" reliant doesn't mean that they do things ALONE.

The Amish are a great example. Someone's house or barn burns down, the Amish community gathers together to build another.

Self reliant people look to other self reliant people to learn from and to get AND GIVE a helping hand.

It's people like Ozimek who have absolutely nothing to offer anybody else.

When a neighbor has a problem, it's the self reliant person, with a shed or garage full of tools, that comes over to help.

Go to a church with self reliant people and it's these same people who help others in their church, putting a new roof on, or a door in, or wiring a faucet, or plumbing an outlet.

The last few years, I've gone out to Iowa with my buddy. We go in together with his cousin and the three of us buy three pigs (not little). Then we spend the day butchering them together. It's hard work, but satisfying. We enjoy each others company. And save A LOT over what pork would cost at a store.

11 posted on 08/03/2017 11:09:59 PM PDT by mountn man (The Pleasure You Get From Life, Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It)
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To: Lorianne

12 posted on 08/03/2017 11:13:44 PM PDT by Daffynition (The New PTSD: PRESIDENT-Trump Stress Disorder” - The LSN didn’t make Trump, so they can’t break h)
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To: Lorianne

Meh

A Canadian woman who tried farming in no Cal....a so called prepper....

She ought to try growing food in some place without good soil


13 posted on 08/03/2017 11:17:52 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Daffynition

Is that the guy that lived alone in Alaska?


14 posted on 08/03/2017 11:22:50 PM PDT by JohnnyP (Thinking is hard work (I stole that from Rush).)
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To: JohnnyP

Trailer of Dick Proenneke in Alaska:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJKd0rkKss


15 posted on 08/03/2017 11:26:59 PM PDT by JohnnyP (Thinking is hard work (I stole that from Rush).)
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To: Daffynition; JohnnyP
Dick Proenecke

The guy was amazing. I bought his video one year and gave 3 for Christmas gifts.

Even as "self" reliant as he was, he still needed his friend with the bush plane.

No man is an island.

16 posted on 08/03/2017 11:29:49 PM PDT by mountn man (The Pleasure You Get From Life, Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It)
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To: arthurus

For no particular reason?


17 posted on 08/03/2017 11:32:33 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: who_would_fardels_bear
I think that the idea that someone can be completely independent is truly delusional.

If a guy can walk naked into a swamp and survive without any assistance or needing any other human contact, whatsoever, then he is completely independent, and all of your "what-if" scenarios don't mean a thing.

One of the worst of your arguments against that is where you say that he's not independent because a theoretical band of drug dealers could come in and kill him. That has nothing to with whether he is independent now. He might not survive successfully as an independent when these fictional bands of drug dealers come, but up until the moment they attack or kill him, he is still living completely independently. It is possible he might even prevail in such a circumstance, given that he knows how to survive in a swamp with nothing and they probably don't.

An even worse argument than that is that this fellow isn't living independently because he read books on survival written by other people. I don't even understand this type of thinking. In the old days, survival skills would have been passed on from generation to generation. The indians did that for thousands of years, but since our generations have been living with modern conveniences for a while, we have lost most of those skills. This guy just corrected that deficiency. Saying that he isn't independent right now because he wasn't born fully independent with the all knowledge in his head upon popping out of his mother's womb is ridiculous. Once he acquired the knowledge, he became independent-capable, even if he wasn't independent before. Then when he went into the swamp without anyone's help, he became fully independent.

Your thinking is bothersome because, though I know you didn't intend it that way, it smacks of the Obama philosophy, where nobody can feel they ever accomplished anything because someone else did stuff, somewhere, so why bother. If this guy you're talking about suddenly were whisked away to an alternate earth where no humans existed, he could survive. That is the very definition of independence.
18 posted on 08/03/2017 11:35:04 PM PDT by fr_freak
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To: Lorianne

Self reliant people don’t end up in a pig sty if someone doesn’t pick up their garbage for a month. Reliant homesteaders can exist without cities. Cities cannot exist without the produce, “stuff”, and financial subsidies - taxes - paid by these homesteaders.


19 posted on 08/03/2017 11:48:49 PM PDT by Dapper 26
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To: Lorianne

Self-reliance isn’t an all-or-nothing gamble in anticipation of a Mad Max scenario. Many aspects of being self reliant are simple risk management - why have some important part of your life affected by labor strikes in Bangladesh?


20 posted on 08/03/2017 11:50:37 PM PDT by thoughtomator
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