UKC

I would like to ask an open ended question that will help with some research I am collecting for my degree. I hope that it sparks some interesting answers, whether they are positive or negative, opinion is what I am looking for:

Firstly I want to gather opinions on simplistic living, getting back to basics and the idea of living in a self sufficient way. This could mean to a small extent such as keeping a greenhouse, or going the whole hog and having as little outgoings as possible.

Is this way of life practiced by anyone and why? Is this an idea any of you have that is possibly romanticised? Is this an idea any of you have ever had and for what reasons?

Who likes cabins? Or rustic buildings that can be found in sparsely populated areas (national parks, wilderness) to either live in, or to use as a recreational getaway. Does anyone like the idea of going back to basics to stay in a cabin for a limited amount of time for a lifestyle change or for a of change perspective on life? Does anyone enjoy being in the outdoors (you all should I expect if you're on this forum!), and the idea of staying in a cosy cabin with a logfire (romanticising) and living in a rustic way? Who has ever stayed in a cabin/owns a cabin?!

There is a small trend at the moment for the idea of getting away and into the outdoors, cooking being with friends staying cabins and living in a traditional way. This is by way of publication such as Kinfolk, Gather journal, Cereal, and websites such as Cabin Porn, and the Adventure Journal has a page dedicated to 'Weekend Getaway' with just loads of cabins displayed.

Ta! Aplologies for the length of the post...

In reply to emmathefish:

Guy who was house sitting for the extension I'm doing was obsessed with us all becoming self sufficient .

Interestingly ,from my point of view ,he showed me a slide show of an English Round house he and his team of volunteers had built in Bristol.

Simple ,but with a touch of the modern kicked in.

In reply to emmathefish:

Since you're going to write some crap in your dissertation anyway:

I think that many people (whether they articulate it or not) like the simplicity of camping. Even more so when it becomes trekking - the idea that today's task is no more, and no less, than putting one foot in front of the other and observing the world, is a hugely satisfying thing. "My whole world on my back" leaves a lack of complexity that allows other feelings to be to the fore. It's escapism. Like leading a hard (whatever hard is to you) route - the world compresses and the stressors fall away so that you are left with a pure feeling of the moment and the place.

That's why your dreams are full of those things.

In reply to emmathefish:
I like the idea, I would not like the reality. No internet, working really hard to grow sufficient food to live. Being worried about having enough to survive the winter. No time left for recreational pursuits.

Anyone has ever wondered why, by and large, our ancestors did not climb? Simply because they were far too busy surviving, methinks.

Can we lead a semi-rustic life? In small numbers and only for a select few. The rest of society would need to carry on as normal to sustain your semi-rustic lifestyle.

I might come across as bitter. I am not. Just quickly writing my musing between normal 21th C tasks.

In reply to emmathefish: I am away to a cabin in the woods tomorrow but it's not exactly simplistic.
Central heating, double jacuzzi and a big hot tub on the decking.
Other than the luxury the main reason we are going is because there is no mobile signal or Internet.

In reply to French Erick:

Good eating in seabird eggs. There's a lot of interesting modern climbing gear that you could make with quite old school manufacturing techniques (so long as you were happy to climb on static lines!) that would be quite handy for practical as well as leisure purposes.


Never liked the term 'simple life'. There's a whole raft of new technical skills required to be self sufficient, and you have to work bloody hard at them... you can't relax into being a hunter-gatherer or subsistence farmer. And as you pointed out, its quite a middle class privilege these days costhere's not enough space for everyone in the UK to indulge themselves this way!

That said, given sufficient technological advances, it may become practical for many, though not most. Would it still count as the simple life when you can get your chemical synthesiser to rustle you up some antibiotics and your 3d printer to make you a new trowel?

In reply to emmathefish: The Unabomber wrote some stuff on this subject you might find interesting. You should be able to dig up his essay with google.

In reply to JJL: thanks for replying. It's not for my dissertation however, it's for a publication.

In reply to emmathefish: Hi, I'm currently working on a 19th century house restoration project. I'm going to try and turn it into a power station but instead of selling the power to the grid I'm going to pump it into a hydroponic growing facility and try to grow bespoke plants and herbs. Email me if you want more info.

In reply to Dax H: Hi thanks for replying, I think thats interesting, you want home comforts in the wilderness, but enjoy being cut off.

In reply to Shearwater: Hi thanks for replying, you have an interesting opinion, do you think that living in a self sufficient way could still be classed as a 'simple life'? Simple as in not using contemporary means of getting food such as driving to a supermarket. It's definitely psychically harder to be self sufficient, however, do you think it could have positive psychological effects?

In reply to emmathefish: *physically!

In reply to emmathefish:

I'd worry about winter - particularly eating, would be a bit grim with lots of root vegetables getting increasingly manky as the long months drag by, a bit of flesh if you have livestock or access to fishing/hunting.

In reply to wurzelinzummerset: Hey, do you know a lot about the Unabomber/have opinions on him personally? Do you think he is anti-progression or even postmodern? Crazy dude

In reply to emmathefish:

Lots of folk probably like the idea of being a bit more self sufficient and its hard to knock that.

What does it actually mean to be self sufficient? Its certainly impossible to produce everything you need.

As an aside I spoke to a forester from the Windsor estate who told me they've had to ban foraging as thousands of people were coming from London and pretty much stripping it like locusts. So even the simple life has impacts.

In reply to DaveHK:

Self sufficiency to work effectively would probably have to be a community thing.

Rural French communities always struck me as areas where it works.

Jean Claude's farm grows the potatoes

Pierre's farm ; tomatoes and vine fruit

Michel's family have the old mill ,where all the local wheat etc goes.

Etc,etc,etc.

Probably best described as a co -operative.

In reply to andymac:

Hmmm.
Gonzales who trained the apprentice who went on to build the ship that brought the potato to Europe.
Howard Hughes who refined the drill bit to be able to extract the oil to make the diesel which Jean Claude puts in his tractor made by an international conglomerate to plough the field.
Marcel Dassault who founded an industrial empire selling weapons systems amongst other things which pays the tax to train doctors so that Michel´s wife survived to produce a family to run a mill.
Etc, etc.

Probably best described as society.

In reply to emmathefish: A simple life just is not sustainable. If everyone decided to live off the land in a simple manner, there simply wouldn't be enough land to go around.

It is a nice pipe dream, usually achieved by the wealthy or the lucky (who inherit land) but for the rest of us, the daily grind is the best we can achieve.

As someone who held a 300sqm allotment for a number of years, I can tell you there simply isn't enough time in the day to do a full time job and grow sufficient food to live on.

In reply to emmathefish:
Walden by Henry David Thoreau,
Payne Hollow, Life on the Fringe of Society by Harlan Hubbard,
and ofcourse the infamous Unabomber Manifesto might be interesting reading material.
As far as I have seen from people who have really dropped out of society and are leading 'the simple life'; it comes with a lot of (unforseen) trouble and responsibility.

In reply to emmathefish:

I agree with the person that said people like the dream, or a couple of weeks of simplicity, but not always the reality. However, I don't think life has to be all or nothing. It's quite pleasant to simplify day to day living. For example, although we have a car, we share one car between us and cycle to work on a daily basis. We do have a telly, but only one. I tend to buy clothes or other things when I need them, rather than for the sake of it, and I am a bit like that with all shopping. We enjoy activities like just going for a walk from our home, singing, creating, rather than more complicated leisure pursuits. We grow some food, but not all of it. I tend not to spend all of my salary.

However, I also do enjoy things like climbing abroad, having central heating and hot water, having internet access, having a pension, having access to medicines and education etc which do require money and more complexity and I am not keen on giving these up.