Random questions about a little bit of everything SS

[Joel_BC]

It is sad that people don't think and plan for the future, but I also don't think that "obsession" is the right word?

Life in centuries past DID totally revolve around the seasons and seasonal work, but I don't think people actually had much time to think about things to the point of what we might think of as "obsession".

The ancient Greeks must have had enough time to contemplate planning/striving versus not - or else we wouldn't have that fable of Aesop's about the ants (workers, planners, strivers) and the grasshoppers (immediate-gratification party animals).

this is the part that really hurts me to realize, the producers simply aren't making any profit anymore, it's all been squeezed out and most farmers just don't earn a living. The system will HAVE TO change at some point, because we're simply going to run out of farmers who are willing to live in poverty.

Yeah, I agree with that. I've known enough lifelong farmers and enough people who've had a go at farming, making the choice to get into it as adults, to have seen a lot of frustration and disappointment. Farming is a noble profession. The current market system has resulted in fairly cheap food, especially if you're willing to settle for the inferior stuff that is mass marketed. A conscientious farmer can't very easily fit into that system.

 

[Beekissed]

I can agree with the obsession part....been watching it on here and other places for some time now and I'm just as mystified. When we are given links to sites that promote sneaking supplies into your house under cover of darkness so the neighbors can't see what you have, etc., it gets to feeling a little obsessive.

Back in the day, being prepared was just life and no one had to form a plan of stocking up, prepping, etc. and have discussions about zombies(pathetic), SHTF(WITW?), or any other such nonsense. It has become a new fad and even the subject of tv shows, books, forums, etc.

Out here in our neck of the woods, getting prepared for actual living means growing and storing foods, having supplies on hand at all times for power outages and systems in place that make living easy when the power is out for any length of time. Here it is just wise to do this and nothing of which we discuss at length...it's rather taken for granted that smart folks lay in food, firewood, fuels and such for winter and for the year ahead. No feces hitting the fans should need to be in the offing to practice common sense living.

People got away from that and now think it's a new and shiny thing to jump on the wagon of prepping for this or that emergency....the very same emergencies that have been here with us throughout the history of the Earth.

Why don't folks just call it what it is....it's normal, practical, logical life practices that keep a person prepared for emergencies as a matter of course. It's not for any scenario other than the human condition on a planet that has natural weather changes that cause us problems at times. Nothing new, nothing to write volumes over...it's just life on this planet. Get over it already.

 

[moolie]

It is sad that people don't think and plan for the future, but I also don't think that "obsession" is the right word?

Life in centuries past DID totally revolve around the seasons and seasonal work, but I don't think people actually had much time to think about things to the point of what we might think of as "obsession".

The ancient Greeks must have had enough time to contemplate planning/striving versus not - or else we wouldn't have that fable of Aesop's about the ants (workers, planners, strivers) and the grasshoppers (immediate-gratification party animals).

Well, if you want to get into what philosophers get up to... for sure there always have been/will be the people who put more thought into it I just meant that the average person has always known/been taught/learned quickly what is required to make it through till the next growing season and acted accordingly or suffered.

this is the part that really hurts me to realize, the producers simply aren't making any profit anymore, it's all been squeezed out and most farmers just don't earn a living. The system will HAVE TO change at some point, because we're simply going to run out of farmers who are willing to live in poverty.

Yeah, I agree with that. I've known enough lifelong farmers and enough people who've had a go at farming, making the choice to get into it as adults, to have seen a lot of frustration and disappointment. Farming is a noble profession. The current market system has resulted in fairly cheap food, especially if you're willing to settle for the inferior stuff that is mass marketed. A conscientious farmer can't very easily fit into that system.

Yup, a buddy of ours who has a farm nw of the city had to go to GMO wheat a few years ago because all his neighbors had jumped on the bandwagon and he couldn't risk the Monsanto cops showing up and finding plants on his land as a result from any blowing seed. Really really sad. He had a lot to say about it as well--there is no improved yield, weeds still come up in the fields (I've seen it with my own eyes), and it's scary to look at a lovely ripening field of grain and know that even though it looks perfectly normal that it can have poison poured all over it and keep growing--and that you can't tell it from anything else just by looking at it. And he's making even less money that ever in the past