art
Junior Member
Posts: 77 
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Post by art on May 4, 2015 9:17:25 GMT -5
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Post by KT on May 5, 2015 22:34:29 GMT -5
I appreciate this and your point, but I feel like this is something that you're still wrestling with that is far more caricature than reality. Not that there probably aren't AP diehards posturing in realms I don't dabble in, but do they really represent AP? Doubtful. I can definitely see where there's bleed over in the lingo the Rewild Inc types and CrossFitters use, but if you're getting an image of machismo, I'm personally just not seeing it.
Now the problem may come down to perception of these ideas and limited resources. Obviously that's something I seek to correct. But the implication here:
echoes the notion that living wild, rewilding, foraging, or even something like minimalism require money. That's a very strange view to me. Granted when you're in the city, the idea of "going outdoors" is almost patently sold by companies like REI or worse, but they're capitalist outfitters, it's their job to sell you expensive bullshit that you don't need.
A lot of my interactions with others who seek any level of subsistence from the wild have absolutely no to very little money. In fact, immersion requires no money. Expensive hiking boots ensure that your interactions with wilderness be tourism. If you can walk across creeks, rivers and streams without feeling the rocks and bashing a few toes, then you have no reason to open your awareness. If you use walking sticks, you're a douche bag, but you'll never think about your footing. If you're taking a huge backpack on an hour long hike, then you might as well be wearing a life vest in a stream.
The gadgetry of Recreation is a distraction. A sales pitch. It is not rewilding.
Survivalism is the flipside of that. If you think you're long term existence is going to be touched by a $200 Survival Pack, then you're just as lost as you were without it.
Neither of these things is what rewilding is about, despite what the Rewild Inc folks and their snake oil.
Likewise, I think seeing "building community" as an easy answer is really a shortfall. These are things that are going to take generations to accomplish at best. It's not a light switch, it's part of a process and one that being grounded in won't guarantee anything, but it's really hard to see where it hurts anything.
Considering the state of the world and the path we're headed in, we need to try many things, and quickly.
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Post by codalunga on May 7, 2015 3:57:58 GMT -5
I think Perlman mentioned the community of Cynics in a brief passage of AHAL!, picturing them as the perfect example of those who tried to escape the Greek civilization. I find it hard though to link the concepts of machismo and heroism with that of AP. I always saw heroes as leaders who wanted to display their power and use it in order to protect the masses against a communal enemy, or to help to reach a defined goal shared by the entire community. You're right when you say that machismo can be easily applied to nationalisms and fascisms, because of their obsessive fixation with leaders and commanders. Yet I can't think of an heroism which arises for its own sake, and I tend to seen Cynics as a community who really just want to show a more simple way of living to the Greeks, without hinting to heroes or leaders - in a sort of way, just like what AP is doing. I agree with you about the difficulties one might encounter in its path to freedom outside civilization, but overcoming them doesn't automatically involve an act of heroism in my opinion.
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