Knowing why self reliance is important to you can help you stay focused on what is important to you and your family in your efforts.  In todays world, self reliance is an unfamiliar concept at best, and an irrational behavior at worst.  There are reasons for this.  To help you understand what is working against our efforts toward self reliance I’ve defined a few of them here.

We keep large numbers happy, well fed, and pampered.  We do it with our gardens, our livestock, and . . .ourselves.  The conveniences and safety that come with human domestication can’t be beat.  We don’t need to swat mosquitoes, feel the cold, or even worry about wolves as competition for the deer.  Look, our numbers are up, we’re living longer, and we can circle the world in the blink of eye without ever having to get up.  And therein lies the problem.

We are trending, in our evolutionary processes, toward less vigor, nutrient poor food availability, limited ground water acquisition, and large systemic economic failures.

We are caught in an addiction cycle with regard to a diet rich in sugars and simple carbs. We experience a calorie rich, nutrient poor diet that produces some of the most obese malnutritioned people on the planet.  The top diseases are all linked to chronic malnutrition.  We experience a calorie rich, nutrient poor diet that produces some of the most obese malnutrition people on the planet.  It’s so extreme that we have to have our wisdom teeth removed because our jaws no longer grow fully enough in the uterus to accommodate them. have to consume more for less vitamins, minerals, and healthy precursors that help us to digest, process, and utilize the few valuable nutrients remaining in what we eat.  As a result our health and vigor has plummeted within two to three generations.

That’s not the real tragedy.  Those are just symptoms, just like desertification.  The real tragedy is what domestication does to the human mind.  We over develop the auditory and visual processing centers and marginalize the rest, even drug it in to submission, for thirteen years.  More if we are to be stakeholders in the process. As a kid we have a passionate curiosity to explore the world and adults are inspired by our presence.  As adults our passion is constantly challenged, but instead of  working our own edges toward growth, our edge is ground toward apathy, adversarial relationships, and commitments to paying the taxes and bills.

Domestication is the process of managing large and small numbers for control, efficiency, and productivity.   It is done through satiating the needs of the herd or crop to manage their health and behaviors, and to provide a series of controls to ensure a known product.  In mammals, these controls are boundaries and compartments, fear, pain, and, in some cases, euthanization. With humans, marginalization and incarceration replace the latter.

Our educational model is built on these controls.  Nature has similar systems in place, but they involve all of your senses, to include your emotions, and feedback comes from the land and your direct experiences with it.  It is not a reaction to conceptual stimuli generated by other people.  It is a proactive exchange between a person and their physical surroundings. . .all the time.

I’m not angry about the tragedy of Human Domestication.  I was, for a long time.  Learning and sharing primitive skills has shown me how to plug in to productive solutions in a healthy manner.  It’s tough, but so was Marine Corps Boot camp.  Both demand a high level of investment, and both bring an amazing sense of accomplishment.  With Primitive Skills I can see multi-generational benefits radiating out to the community that PRACTICES them.

That’s the key.  You have to use the tools.  They can be in your head, and you may even be able to recite your notes, but until you use them, the tools are just words.

We have lots of words and ideas, but they all fall flat in the real world.  People are prisoners in their own skulls.  Virtual reality has become reality for them.  They know it all and they’ll tell you.  People who work the skills can’t assume to fully know something.  That type of thinking gets folks in trouble.  It gets in the way of being fully present.

So the solution to the problem is easy, but choosing to put it in to action can be hard.  It means accepting that everything is perfect in that one breath.  If it isn’t, than how can you accept the world, yourself, or this life?  What is there to grow in to?  Put the stories that hold you back away.

You may have to let all those stories in your head go.  It might not happen all at once.  Also, you will have days where you fall short.  Bottom line, stop coming from a place of fear and victimization.  Change your story.  Stop complaining and DO SOMETHING that is the opposite of the problem.  Feel too rushed?  Slow down!  Don’t have the skills or resources you need?  Set a clear intention and then make it happen.   In the end, you will reclaim your own sovereignty, work toward growth in personal wellness and physical health, and be a part of the solution rather than an inhibited and inherent player in the tragedy itself.

You can recover from a life of coerced domestication.  You can reclaim your sovereignty.  Just be prepared for all that comes with it.  Remember: The Problem is the Solution.  After that, exponential growth will become your baseline.