Working autonomously to build self-reliant technologies - the best investment there is!

This time next month I'll be en route to Portugal with the intention of buying 3 to 5 acres of virgin land, with the further intention of living on it, Permaculture stylee.

This is just a quick summary and affirmation of why I think land is a good investment.

I've just been down the pub and I drafted this over a few beers - somehow I stumbled on the title above, I'm quite pleased with it - it pretty much sums up my arguments!

Self reliance

I think it was reading Thoreau (Henry-David, not that Louis isn't also awesome) who first put me onto the concept of self-reliance, and this is the primary reason I want enough land to meet at least some of my water, food, and energy needs. Everything else stems from this.

I have had an allotment in the past, and successfully used it to be self-sufficient in soft fruit (strawberries, raspberries and blueberries) for summer, and salad greens for most of the year, so it's just a matter of scaling this up.

This, I think, is the primary principle of social life - to be as self reliant in your own basic needs as possible.

It's really just about taking responsibility.

Everything else below stems from this first principle...

Autonomy

I want to be as free as possible from the capitalist system, the chain that brings most of us our food and energy. No more paying under the odds for low quality food or over the odds for 'real food' - I'd rather produce the later myself, and just expunge the former from my life altogether!

For many, many (16) years I taught for a living, subject to crazy, unnecessary, systemic logics, and I rented a house, then I owned a flat, with a mortgage and a service charge - so many people 'getting a piece of me'. I worked for a wage, I paid a good 30% of that to people to just be able to carry on working, ENOUGH!

I want a lifestyle that involves people not being able to get a piece of me. Self-reliance brings that on!

In fairness, I have moved a long way away from people getting a piece of my now compared to pre-2018 when I was working full time, now it's time to level up through more self-reliance.

Resilience

Easy to explain - Capitalism is crisis and it's only a matter of time until that rebounds back to the cost of basic needs materials increasing - it's already happened in some less developed and 'shocked' countries, but I'm sure it's coming to the West soon enough.

I want to be in a situation where I'm 'growing' a good proportion of my own food and energy needs myself, or better, within a local network, rather than relying on global markets with their (upwardly trending) fluctuating prices.

Building a new system

This is important if one isn't to stagnate. By working autonomously to manifest self reliant technologies one is building a new system - hopefully something 'better' - I don't want to make too much of this ATM, but whatever you do does have a systemic consequence - and so I guess self-reliance could be praxis?

Sustainability

This is usually the first 'Permaculture Principle' - however, for me it's the last, it just sort of stems from everything else....how can you not build a sustainable system if your first principle is self-reliance and so on?!?!

Final thoughts....

This isn't what I intended to write this evening, it's a result of a couple of beers, the first in three weeks, but it feels right, and I'm quite pleased with this as an analytical framework for thinking about my future!

And in the process I think I've just discovered a new band name: Permaculture Stylee.

Almost certainly featuring Didgeridoos.

Posted Using LeoFinance