Essay by Eric Worrall
h/t ethical voter, David Pentland; “… What if we imagined “wealth” consisting not of the money we stuff into banks or the fossil fuel-derived goods we pile up, but of joy, beauty, friendship, community, closeness … “
Opinion What if climate change meant not doom — but abundance?
By Rebecca Solnit
March 15, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDTRebecca Solnit, a writer and historian, is the author of more than 20 books and co-editor of the anthology “Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story From Despair to Possibility,” publishing in April.
A monastic once told me renunciation can be great if it means giving up things that make you miserable.
This vision, I think, is what has been missing when we talk about the climate crisis — and how we should respond to it.
Much of the reluctance to do what climate change requires comes from the assumption that it means trading abundance for austerity, and trading all our stuff and conveniences for less stuff, less convenience. But what if it meant giving up things we’re well rid of, from deadly emissions to nagging feelings of doom and complicity in destruction? What if the austerity is how we live now — and the abundance could be what is to come?
…
What if we imagined “wealth” consisting not of the money we stuff into banks or the fossil fuel-derived goods we pile up, but of joy, beauty, friendship, community, closeness to flourishing nature, to good food produced without abuse of labor? What if we were to think of wealth as security in our environments and societies, and as confidence in a viable future?
…
For so many of us, being busy with work has leached away our capacity to pursue true riches. What if we were to prioritize reclaiming our time— to fret less about getting and spending — and instead “spend” this precious resource on creative pursuits, on adventure and learning, on building stronger societies and being better citizens, on caring for the people (and other species and places) we love, on taking care of ourselves?
…
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/15/rebecca-solnit-climate-change-wealth-abundance/
Anyone who bothers to open a history book already knows what time wealth without money wealth looks like.
There is nothing romantic about trying to grow your own food with hand tools, without the assistance of modern fossil fuel powered technology, sprays and fertilisers.
The horror of 9/11 shocked the entire world. It also has a very personal impact on me, my business went into deep freeze for an entire year.
In 2002 I planted a large vegetable garden, to try to stretch my savings.
I had lots of “time wealth”, but very little money wealth.
My efforts with the vegetable garden made a difference. Those veggies I grew in 2002 saved my family from financial ruin, they helped us stretch our savings just enough, to bridge the year long post 9/11 gap in our income.
But after the economy started thawing, I was very glad to get back to making money, instead of enjoying that endless “time wealth” of growing vegetables by hand.
I’m not dissing people who enjoy growing their own food. I enjoy growing food, every year I make bottles of delicious lime cordial from my own garden. But if my fruit trees fail to produce, as they do some years, money wealth means I can buy limes and mandarins and whatever else I need from the supermarket. Money wealth is food security and peace of mind.
So my answer to anyone who tries to romanticise being close to nature is try it out – not for a day or two, or a weekend camping trip with nylon tents and airbeds and tinned food and bug spray and propane cookers and heaters. Try living that way for a year.
Anyone who makes the attempt to live the lifestyle green romantics like Rebecca Solnit advocate, will learn very quickly that nature is a harsh place full of biting, stinging insects, and snails and slugs and caterpillars and grubs which try to eat all your crops. They will also come to appreciate why thousands of generations of our ancestors devoted their lives to leaving future generations a better world than the primitive subsistence world they inherited.
Let them eat bugs.
For the most part, those who support socialism have been unsuccessful in life. It’s hardly surprising that they now want to change the definition of success in order to hide this fact from themselves.
Men who espouse Socialism are almost always low-testosterone beta males. It assuages their feelings of inadequacy.
Subsistence living…hmmm. Not as romantic as it sounds. Nature is a cruel mistress.
But you will be happier.
And if you aren’t happier, then you will have a talk with your assigned political officer.
Actually, suppressing normal energy supplies does not reduce one to subsistence, but to non-subsistence … ie starving in the dark. The people who are most hurt by expensive. limited supply energy are the poorest among us who cannot afford to put a roof over their head, food on the table, educate their children.
It’s the feudal model. Starving serfs feeding the nobility while living short, nasty lives.
“and instead “spend” this precious resource on creative pursuits, on adventure and learning,”
I think this naive woke servant is on the threshold of a much greater awakening in a year or two’s time! Ordinary folk in UK, Germany and France are getting the drift of what has been planned for them. The likes of this Wapo reporter will be the last to get it.
“What if climate change meant not doom — but abundance?’’
It probably does!!!
probably???
A warmer world is a greener world. On the other hand, “climate change” can mean anything and always means something bad.
And is always the fault of humans.
The way they mean it, “climate change” has many meanings, most of them in direct contradiction of others, and all of which in their fever dreams are “bad” and caused by the secular “sins” of using fossil fuels, the “apple that tempted Eve” in their “religion.”
More atmospheric CO2 and a further slight rise in global temperatures..
YES ! the world will become more abundant !
(so long as leftist anti-CO2 policies don’t destroy it first)
“veggies I grew in 2002 saved my family from financial ruin, they helped us stretch our savings just enough, to bridge the year long post 9/11 gap in our income.”
Quoted excerpt is an example of how one special person’s situation might allow events that don’t apply to other people. I would need a backhoe to clear blacktop for a veggie garden.
Expected response: You could if… [lah] … like I did.
Prebaked counter response: That’s my whole point.
When I grow veggies I do it to have good veggies.
I know it costs more in time & money to grow my own than it does to buy at the store.
That wasn’t my experience. Packets of seeds, a few pieces of bamboo, a roll of cotton string, some cheap chemical fertiliser pellets and a couple of bottles of bug spray are cheaper than spending £30 / week on vegetables. I was unemployed so I had plenty of time.
I raised a large family on a 45 acre mixed farm- sizeable market garden, dairy cow (and calves), sheep, few pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, to feed them and supplement other earnings.
“supplement other earnings”
I think these are the operable words in your post.
Definitely more time, generally not more money, especially if you grow from seed.
You CAN spend a lot but it’s not necessary if you have ground you can plant in. If you don’t then it gets difficult.
Appreciating and finding joy in the beauty of nature is only possible when your stomach is full and your home is warm and comfortable. In other words, when you have enough wealth, the kind comes from a fossil fueled economy. And you can bet that Rebecca Solnit herself won’t be a part of the “poor but happy” throng, the elite always excuse themselves from the utopia they plan for the common folk.
Good for you and your vegetable garden, Eric. When we moved to Oregon, my twin brother and I as 6 year olds, our father started a large vegetable garden, as a hedge against a bad economy. Each of us 3 kids were assigned a sector of the garden and given help to choose some seeds and plant them. The real bonus of this was twofold: the lesson about being prepared has stuck with me to this day, and the deer that tried to eat the vegetables provided great venison.
Were the vegetables click bait?
I bet she has no solar panels on her roof, the usual hypocrite climate alarmist.
I bet she still has a connection to grid power, central heating, and an automobile. Solar panels or no, still the usual hypocrite climate alarmist.
Chinese proverb (modified): No food on table… ONE big problem.
Plenty food on table… many little problems.
“Anyone who makes the attempt to live the lifestyle green romantics like Rebecca Solnit advocate, will learn very quickly that nature is a harsh place full of biting, stinging insects, and snails and slugs and caterpillars and grubs which try to eat all your crops.”
Don’t forget the hail storms that take out *everything*. Don’t forget the rainstorms that wash out half of what you have planted. Don’t forget the month of no rain before harvest leaving nothing to harvest. Don’t forget the raccoons and deer that come in and break over each and every corn stalk just to eat a couple of bites out of each ear the week before you were going to pick the corn! Don’t forget the irrigation costs, especially if so many start doing this that the government will restrict your usage and you have to haul purchased water in a large tank (do you have a pickup or wagon to carry a 300 gal water tank?)
“ reclaiming our time— to fret less about getting and spending”
Most of these greenies have *no* idea of what they are talking about. Getting your food will eat up *ALL* your time. You’ll have no time for … “ joy, beauty, friendship, community, closeness to flourishing nature, to good food produced without abuse of labor?”
My forefathers here on the Great Plains didn’t worry about “spending” or “wealth”. They worried about food for January and they lived short lives.
Seems like their ought to be a commune in Venezuela she can join..
Don’t forget the hail storms that take out *everything*. Don’t forget the rainstorms that wash out half of what you have planted.
That describes 2019 and 2020 for me. Hail in June 2019 killed over 80% of what I had planted, and 2020 I lost about as much to flooding.
So says the oligarch-owned media trumpeter.
I renounce wokism and climate alarmunism.
By Gum! It does make me feel better!
A monastic once told me renunciation can be great if it means giving up things that make you miserable.
I renounce freezing spring weather & embrace the idea of a potential for more warm mornings & tan feet.
(I don’t feel any better, because I’m pretty sure the only way I can be sure of climate change for the better (warmer) is to move south.)
That i pissing in teh chalice of green Good on Ya
This is a fine idea if done on a personal basis. The problems start when “others” start to tell you how and what you must do to achieve this nirvana. My comfort items may be abhorant to others. Stalemate.
What if the extra CO2 our emissions are producing was the greatest symbiotic gift humans ever gave nature? The greening of the planet attributed to those emissions are strong evidence in support of this idea.
Fossil fuels and innovation have produced more abundance of everything. This is not mutually exclusive to the values of “joy, beauty, friendship, community, closeness to flourishing nature, good food”
““joy, beauty, friendship, community, closeness to flourishing nature, good food””
All the things the far-left strives to destroy !
And where is the mention of “freedom” ?
The left hates freedom because they would have to think for themselves. Something they appear to be incapable of doing.
Yeah, just imagine life under Communism. Money is for the bourgeoisie.
What if we imagined “wealth” consisting not of the money we stuff into banks or the fossil fuel-derived goods we pile up, but of joy, beauty, friendship, community, closeness to flourishing nature, to good food produced without abuse of labor? What if we were to think of wealth as security in our environments and societies, and as confidence in a viable future?
What if ‘we’ decide, each for ourselves, what this ‘wealth’ stuff is, and how satisfied ‘we’ are with our achievements and possessions, our goals and strivings, our circles of friends and acquaintances, our local and distant governments, and all the self-appointed knowitalls who propose to usurp those definitions with glittering phrases of THEIR devising from their spectator seats?
“closeness to flourishing nature”?
Aren’t these the same people who want to cram everyone into mega cities?
…leaving the weeds to grow, sorry, nature to flourish, while humans retract into a Hive. Goodness knows who, what and how external resources will be gathered in the libtard dream.
Have you considered the probable theology of a hive?
Theology of a hive? Watch the movies Priest or Judge Dredd sometime. The religion is “The Law of the Jungle”. The strong survive, the rest get eaten.
Well, talking out of both sides of their mouths isn’t exactly a new thing.
Maybe that “closeness to nature” means what you can see from your high rise tenement window with binoculars./sarc
“But what if it meant giving up things we’re well rid of, from deadly emissions to nagging feelings of doom and complicity in destruction?”
What if someone tries to send me on a guilt trip? I don’t have to get on the bus. Keep those nagging feelings of doom to yourself, and LEAVE ME ALONE!
Relax Rebecca!
There ARE no “deadly emissions”; the CO2 from which you cower is a boom to the nature you treasure.
Thus “feelings of doom and complicity in destruction” are foolish fantasies!
First thought that popped into my mind when I read that twaddle.
Maybe she and everyone who thinks like her should shut up and stop breathing, since 20,000ppm of “deadly emissions” are spewing for from their respiratory systems with each word and breath.
‘What if we imagined “wealth” consisting not of the money we stuff into banks…’
Becky may be on verge of getting her wish granted because ‘modern’ fractional reserve banking is inherently unstable in a rising rate environment due to the duration mismatch between bank liabilities (very low duration deposits) and bank assets (much higher duration loans and government bonds). Governments and their central banks may be able to (literally) print their way out of the current crisis, but ultimately, a major collapse is inevitable.
The simple truth is, a stable monetary system can only exist where ‘claim’ and ‘credit’ transactions are separated: A bank engaged in claim transactions solely takes and safeguards deposits for a fee and issues claim certificates (e.g., banknotes) that can also be used as money by the depositor. Alternatively, a bank engaged in credit transactions solely arranges for fixed-term loans between savers and borrowers.
Unlike under the current system, deposit bankers who lose deposits by lending them out for interest can be prosecuted for fraud, while losses on bad loans are strictly incurred by, and limited to, the lenders themselves. As a result, the security and stability of both types of banking activity will be self-regulating via the careful attention of the depositors and lenders themselves.
On the ‘downside’, depositors may no longer receive free toasters for deposits, and borrowers will have to pay sufficient interest and/or offer sufficient collateral to attract lenders. However, on the ‘upside’, we can probably do away with a huge portion of the regulatory state, and can also finally begin to ignore idiots like Liz Warren. And therein lies the problem; the current system exists mainly to finance the expansion of government power.
the current system exists mainly to expand the power of finance in government.
There, fixed it for ya!
Fractional reserve banking and the State have a symbiotic relationship:
The banks are granted a monopoly on the creation of money, which they lend out at a profit (when they’re not blowing up). In turn, the State benefits from having a ready purchaser of its debt, which allows the State to expand beyond the limits of what it could achieve under either direct taxation or borrowing from non-bank entities.
Both are parasitic upon the real economy, which is why the system has to be maintained by force, e.g., legal tender laws, regulation, etc., to prevent it from collapsing, which will eventually happen when the currency is completely debased.
SVB’s major problem was investing in government bonds, especially long term ones. The government controls the value of those bonds and government doesn’t really care what the value of those bonds become. When big spenders like the Democrats cause major inflation, which in turn causes a rise in interest rates, the government bonds the bonds lose value big time. If those are assets banks use as “cash” they are in big trouble. That’s where we are today. We haven’t seen the end of this. It could take two years or more to work through this inflation, high interest rates, and low-value government bonds. Who knows how many banks are going to have problems during that period.
I suspect all of them.
We haven’t seen the end of the bailouts.
All true. Ironically, compared to the faux tipping points of the CAGW narrative, there actually are real ‘positive’ feedbacks in fractional reserve banking, e.g., big government, more spending, more regulation, more debt, more inflation, etc.
Once again the socialists have to change the meaning of words in order to hide the fact that they are making everyone poorer.
Beyond that, how does making everyone freeze in the dark, supposed to make them happy?
You will own nothing……… even the straw hat and the stalk of grain you place between your teeth will be shared. Paradise.
Rebecca is full of $hit.
Rebecca doesn’t live in the real world.
Imagine the power of “what if..”
An eighth grader could suggest any conclusion they desired if they postulate their favorite “what if..” as their premise.
But to feature such nonsense in a supposed “reputable” newspaper?!?
Hasn’t “reputable newspaper” pretty much become an oxymoron at this point?
It never ceases to amaze me how many different non scientific tangents the alarmists can come up with to ‘prove’ AGW is the devil reincarnate.
Hmm, I wonder what Bill Gates would say.
“Much of the reluctance to do what climate change requires comes from the assumption that it means trading abundance for austerity”
“Climate Change” does not (cannot) require anything. All reactions to it are optional. Some are prudent. The policies that try to fix it are based on error and are wasteful, harmful, and useless to accomplish their goal. If this author would recognize this fact, she would realize the best path to pursuit of her higher goals would be to ignore “Climate Change”.
You go first Rebecca and let us all know how your fantasy turned out.
You cannot make this up. One of her 20 books is “A field guide to getting lost”. She obviously used her field guide for this article. Definitely got lost.
I’d like her and everyone else preaching the “climate crisis” bullshit to “get lost.”
Preferably on the north side of the border between the two Koreas.
Money in the banks and goods in the closet do not in any way exclude joy, beauty, friendship, community, nature, and good food produced without abuse of labor because we have big diesel powered combines.
Not only that it is much more likely that wealth, as it is conventionally understood is more conducive to joy etc. than is the lack of wealth.
I wonder if Bezos who owns the newspaper that has printed this drivel is aware that she is arguing for the destruction of the source of his fortune which is a business that sells to horrible goods to people.
Rebecca is just one of those who never have seen hardship let alone experienced it.
And Rebecca purports to be a writer or is a monk called something else in Green Land?
Monastic: She knows this dude that sits alone in his momma’s basement, naked and high on soap, dedicated to avoiding selling his soul for money like a common wage slave, reciting snippets of Hillary Clinton’s biography, interspersed with devotional mumblerap rhymes in honour of saint Gretha.
He’s not a monk, he just strives to live like one, hence, monastic?
Or maybe, just possibly, on the outside bet, she was hired for her rainbow credentials, instead of boring old ability?
From what I’ve seen, such people have very little contact with soap…
Perhaps Cilo meant bath salts?
What if she were to get help?
if i ever get rich enuf i promise to give it all up to live simply in a small house by the ocean . i’m thinking martha’s vineyard would be nice . and i’ll only get around on my solar powered e- bike and grow my own ( legal) weed ) . with only an occasional trip to costa rica or africa to be surrounded by primal nature . i don’t need to own things .
“What if we imagined “wealth” consisting not of the money we stuff into banks or the fossil fuel-derived goods we pile up, but of joy, beauty, friendship, community, closeness to flourishing nature, to good food produced without abuse of labor? What if we were to think of wealth as security in our environments and societies, and as confidence in a viable future?”
No money? Then just who rations out what you need to live?
Those who’s job is so important that need a larger ration than you?
Abuse of labour? It is sinful to employ someone? Or is farming now reserved for international corporations that can afford robots to do all the work?
Or are we to let nature “flourish” where we once grew food?
Either way, there is not much place for humans in this libtarded girl’s world.
She probably thinks she’ll be one of the deserving survivors, poor little deluded darling…
I planted oats in a part of my garden Natural fertiliser, zero pesticides. The oats grew up nicely, but the bindweed fireweed dandelion and rats tails grew just as well. Net yield one plate of porridge.
Anyone who spouts the minimalist crap of Ms Solnit should try it. Mind you we do fairly well with Potatoes and runner beans and loads of tomatoes and cucumbers in the green house but its a middle class hobby and not a survival strategy. Our artichokes and wild garlic do just great too
Left to the resources of our quarter acre we would starve
OK crass consumerism is a bit of a folly that my parents would certainly have disapproved of.
There are higher values and we can all choose our path to happiness. But I am buggared if I will let crass green sneering hypocritical elites and aristocracies and high archbishops of the Church of Green dictate how I will achieve my Nirvana.
Anyway for all that monastical smugness the very survival of the monkish ascetes depended on some other bugger to fight off the Vikings who would otherwise pillage and rape the ascetic cloisters of holiness.
Ha, just beautiful, so very very beautiful.
Why: I don’t really need to say, just point out the obvious
It’s one of those things that is sooooo huge no-one can see it – yet its written all through the comments (30 so far) and so nicely demonstrated by the little black and white photo in the article itself.
Why its sooo big is that what we’re discussing is the story by Ms Solnit and what she’s proposing is very lovely and is a system that served us well for a very long time.
What’s she’s effectively saying is to ‘dis-invent money’
Fine. All work on a barter system and in some places that works to this day.
Where Ms Solnit doesn’t see is that she has entirely obviated the need for her profession and also for Government.
Is that OK hun, is that what you’re planning.
Fine by me and most fos round here, Government has now gotten Far Too Big.
Anyhow, A barter system requires that everyone produces something tangible, useful/valuable on a real day-to-day existence and, considering the perishable nature of food, over short distances.
See why money is needed: It ‘travels well’
That would work if there was plenty stuff to be had and as a lot of comments allude and the photo shows,:
That plenty stuff is: Food
I’ll let you fill in the gaps but in a nutshell:
Money HAD to be invented as it is a way of ‘escaping’ Soil Erosion
(soil erosion being effectively = a dearth of sufficient food both in quality as well as quantity)
So many comments about food (so far) = you all ‘know’ Soil Erosion but you don’t know it.
or do you and are denying it?
Soil Erosion is the monster coming over the hill and its cold breath is already being felt in 2 especial ways
So, Ms Solnit’s plan could work and in small little islands of population it still does work but for the whole planet, you have to stop then fix/repair soil erosion.
iow: You have to work out what’s causing things like this and this and then how to stop them happening
And stopping emitting carbon dioxide is actually a very significant start but:
Not From chimneys, flues and exhausts.
Those places are not where most of the CO2 came from and reducing (conventional) emissions is completely the wrong thing to do.
So Ms Solnit and before you go, pass the message along:
Stop. Burning. Soil.
See, it’s not about emissions or the climate, is it? Give up your worldly goods. Surrender to the visions of your rightful rulers.
Rebecca,
“For so many of us, being busy with work has leached away our capacity to pursue true riches. What if we were to prioritize reclaiming our time— to fret less about getting and spending — and instead “spend” this precious resource on creative pursuits, on adventure and learning, on building stronger societies and being better citizens, on caring for the people (and other species and places) we love, on taking care of ourselves?”
Imagine John Lennon’s ghost slapping you on the side of your head and telling you to stop with the ‘imagine’ rip-off’.
Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can;
No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man.
Imagine all the people sharing all the world.
I notice that of all the things Rebecca imagines herself doing, none of them involve actually producing anything. In her world, do people just give her things because she is such a wonderful person?
WHAT IF people like Rebecca Solnit could just live as they advocate and leave the rest of us alone? If it’s truly wonderful, they won’t have to coerce anybody.
I have to wonder if she burns her paycheck every week?
“Don’t worry. Be Happy!”
The problem is that in order to live in this wonderful world she imagines, she needs out of sight serfs to provide he with the things she needs to live, while perfecting herself.
Progressives will never ‘leave us alone’ since the productive would quickly flee from jurisdictions where the worst of their policies were implemented, while at the same time those same policies would attract the most unproductive elements from elsewhere. Hence, to avoid the immediate collapse of their regimes, full-blown progressivism, i.e., socialism, requires ‘all-in’ participation. Besides, based on recent history, they’re absolutely certain that they are winning.
What if climate was still a relative term that implicitly referred to differences experienced between adjacent arbitrary regions, instead of redistribution of wealth through authoritarian rule at the expense of the environment and genocide of the extreme poor?
“Impoverished communities, unaware of the errant, harmful ways in which they use natural resources, such as forest wood and soil, are continuing the destructive cycle that spirals the environment further downward.“.
From How Poverty Impacts the Environment
Basically she advocates the whole world to mimic the great environmental success of Haiti.
It’s really ironic that socialism is held out as some kind of savior for “the environment.” It always makes me recall the story i heard from a broker in my industry about being somewhere in Eastern Europe after the “Iron Curtain” came down, where the river going through the city had a head of foam on it a foot thick and the locals told him there hadn’t been fish in the river in 40 years.
That epitomizes the “environmental” record of socialist nations. They destroy wealth, in the absence of which nobody has the resources (pardon the pun) to give a shit about “the environment.”
In terms of useless luxuries, we would be far better served by getting rid of the Washington Post. It serves no useful purpose except as the mouthpiece of multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos.
Wealth means being isolated from the consequences of your decisions.
relative to Bill Gates wife … Bill apparently was not wealthy.
(wealth means freedom … freedom means nuthin left to lose … having stuff allows wealth)
So, Solnits headline was just click bait. Her idea of wealth is shallow as could be. I have had the benefit of creating wealth from scratch and have given much thought to the subject. My notion of wealth is this. part money, part health, part freedom, part knowledge and all choice. The aforementioned parts facilitate choice. The most choice = the most wealth. The most important part, in my view, is knowledge because this can be grown through education and is the main driver of the other parts. Also knowledge is a bottomless well.
In Rebecca’s case, knowledge appears to be a very shallow pool, perhaps even a puddle.
You will own nothing and be happy, or else. Eat bugs, peasants.
For some reason there seems to be a fascination with primitive lifestyles, and this has been going on for some time. And not just a fascination, but the erroneous notion that said lifestyle is somehow noble and far better than the modern technological lifestyle. Primitive peoples living off the land = good. Industrialized peoples = bad. This false dichotomy can be seen in the first Avatar movie, and in other media.
But it is nothing more than romanticism, as the trials and tribulation of pre-industrial peoples are ignored or glossed over. People think the Native Americans lived in paradise until the evil Europeans came along. While it is true that the colonists (and their descendants) did some awful things to the Native Americans, their lives were far from perfect. Like all non-industrialized peoples, they suffered from and died of diseases that are easily cured or at least can be managed today. They waged wars upon other tribes, and no doubt went hungry or even starved in hard times.
IMO people like this WaPoo writer have seen too many movies and have no knowledge of history! Or reality….
You don’t have to look at pre-industrialized peoples. Just look at those on the frontier of the West in the 1800’s. Look at the people living during the Dust Bowl.
Those people scrabbled for a living, died young, and lost children and adults to disease. It’s one of the reason why they had big families – so *some* would survive (along with having enough labor to work the homesteads).
“IMO people like this WaPoo writer have seen too many movies and have no knowledge of history! Or reality….”
My guess is that none of them has ever had blistered hands from hoeing a corn field. Or churning butter. Or cleaning out a stall in a barn. Or collecting acorns and making flour. Or just about anything.
Well Ms Solnit, don’t just tell us about this lifestyle, please show us. My ancestors
were early day pioneer homesteaders in the west and midwest.
. Both of my parents were raised on farms and’ I have an appreciation of what it took to survive the great depression I took a history class where I learned to do research
at a historical society. I read hours of old newspaper micro film. It was amazing how
many men were killed while using horses for work and transportation. I live in an area
of early day mining and there are a lot of cabin remains where these men lived
and worked. A good number froze to death in the winter. Ponys were used to
pull the ore carts. Once a pony went into a mine it never came out alive, it was
worked till it died then was dragged out by it’s replacement..The good ol days? Ha..
I’ve done my share of hand to mouth living, gardening raising locker meat and
disagree with Ms Solnit’s view based on experience.
“Once a pony went into a mine it never came out alive, it was
worked till it died then was dragged out by it’s replacement.”
And was probably thenused to feed the miners!
They didn’t waste anything in those times.
. The Calvary fed the troops horse meat,
they didn’t have any beef only horse meat.
The book Morrisons Feed and Feeding is based on the data from that
era. You have to find an early edition to find the issue with the horse
data,. Pre 1929 ish.
The remount program was a very big deal in its time. 20K
head per month came out of Montana between 1900-1930
and went to Kansas or Nebraska mostly.
I hereby declare that anyone who has too much monetary wealth and wants to become happier without it can simply give it to me. I will bear the burden of such an unhappy existence for you.
I grew up off grid, that was a lifestyle I have no wish to return to. But we did have bottle gas and Piped spring water so not medieval.
Due to climate we grew a lot of vegetables, but not a great variety. A Mediterranean diet was out of the question. Root vegetables and some years blackcurrants. Perhaps that’s why I rarely eat potatoes and carrots these days, As they appeared in meals a lot but I still eat a lot of onions.
The Post writer is revealing her economic ignorance.
Money is not wealth. Money is not consumed, it is a means of transcending the limitations of direct barter. It is a floating system of accounting and enables the negotiation of prices for what we consume.
That depends. In some cases “I love to dive around in it like a porpoise, and burrow through it like a gopher, and toss it up and let it hit me on the head!”
Poverty always looks romantic to those who don’t have to experience it.
I live in a suburban area where most people live in hones on fairly large areas of land, ranging from l/4 of an acre to sometimes more than 5 acres. When I go for my daily walks, along the interconnecting paths and forest trails, I see lots of fenced and hedged gardens with barking dogs, but rarely do I see any vegetable patches and fruit trees.
Most of these home-owners seem to spend a lot of time and effort meticulously cutting and shaping their hedges, mowing the lawn, maintaining flower gardens and decorative trees, a swimming pool and sometimes even a tennis court which is hardly ever used.
What a waste of time!
Never heard of this woman. After doing a quick search, it sounds like she lives a miserable existence. Not married, no children, age 62. The small amount of her writings that I read make her sound extremely bitter, especially toward her parents. Here’s a quote:
“When my friends began to have babies and I came to comprehend the heroic labor it takes to keep one alive, the constant exhausting tending of a being who can do nothing and demands everything, I realized that my mother had done all of these things for me before I remembered. I was fed; I was washed; I was clothed; I was taught to speak and given a thousand other things, over and over again, hourly, daily, for years. She gave me everything before she gave me nothing.”
― Rebecca Solnit, The Faraway Nearby
I’ve always thought that the best way to cure a leftist would be to let them create their own utopia and then make them live in it as an average citizen.
If Rebecca Solnit had to live the life she advocates for everyone else, it would not go as pleasantly as she imagines in her fantasy. The things she mentions as a replacement for wealth, from joy, beauty, friendship, community, nature, to good food, are all easier to obtain with wealth. Try obtaining a beautiful piece of art or a beautiful woman with little money. You will likely be outbid.
The story of William Lane’s “New Australia” settlement founded in the late 19th century in
Paraguay may be of interest.
So how many meaningful smiles for a plate of pasta?
Never mind a year roughing it, challenge these back-to-nature moonies with just giving up their cell phone for a month.
I lived in former Soviet Union…there is NOTHING romantic about going hungry.
People who love socialism have never truly been hungry or are too stupid to realize why they went hungry because they swallowed up the propaganda of the Regime at the time.
Living close to nature is amazing. When you do NOT have to rely on nature to reliably provide what you need. When nature is a supplemental to your life, even an important and huge part of it.
But there is nothing great in living from nature only and worrying about not going hungry all the time.
I hate, hate , HATE these people with my whole heart.
Amazing what crap people can write and get paid for.
Rather difficult to pay your bills with joy, beauty, friendship, community, closeness, etc, much less run a business and pay employees and vendors. Maybe I’ll try paying my heating oil dealer with a hug.
“… What if we imagined “wealth” consisting not of the money we stuff into banks or the fossil fuel-derived goods we pile up, but of joy, beauty, friendship, community, closeness … “
… the government would tax it. They have been talking about a “wealth tax” for a few years now.
I guess a good start would be for the wealthiest to relinquish their cash and see where it leads.
Deal! Send me Bezo’s wealth, and he can Choose the sustainable replacement for wealth that he deems best. Oh, he doesn’t get tons of it, he’ll have to re-earn it.
“This vision, I think, is what has been missing when we talk about the climate crisis”
This, in a nutshell, is the entire problem. She assumes there is a climate crisis, because she’s been told there is. But she can’t provide any evidence. But she bleats on as if it’s true.
What a crock of excrement.
So basically, once they make us all poor and miserable in their pursuit of non-solutions to imaginary “crises,” we can console ourselves about the “comraderie” we will experience in our sharing of misery and suffering?
No thanks. If she wants to go back to the times of witch trials, let her invent time travel and do it without the rest of us.
Rebecca, and like minded individuals deserve all of the “joy, beauty, friendship, community, closeness” they can muster without any of the energy, fertilizer, agricultural production, electricity, consumer goods, tools, technology and protection from the elements they can muster without the assistance of fossil fuels.