It’s amazing how nowadays nearly everything gets corrupted by
consumerism. Nothing is spared. Take the field of bushcraft, for
example. If anything relates to
self-sufficiency, independence, and on not relying on manufactured goods then
it ought to be bushcraft. Taken to its
primal level, bushcraft is at the very least Neolithic in practice. But looking at many of the “bushcraft” sites
on the Internet and it quickly becomes apparent that what most people today
call bushcraft is more a combination of “end of the world” survivalism and “flee
to the woods and live off the land” fantasy.
Mixed in with all of that is a nearly endless focus on consumerism. Bushcraft sites are an interminable array of
product reviews and “what I want to buy next” excess. Now if someone wants a boat, three cars, a
plane, a big house, fancy jewelry, expensive furniture and so on then that’s
their problem. And, in fact, that can
become a negative when people are no longer able to live their lives without
obsessing about how they are viewed by others or without placating the quick
psychological fixes offered by compulsive buying. I know a fellow, for example, who buys both impulsively
and compulsively. It’s a rush for
him. It makes him feel good. But the high lasts only momentarily so he’s
off again to repeat the cycle of accumulating “things” to lift him from the
doldrums he’s created for himself. Does
he see it? Does he understand it? No, not one bit. He is oblivious to his lifestyle of self-indulgence,
transient ecstasy and then intense let down.
Like so many he has never learned how to bring happiness into his own
life by learning to appreciate those things that arrive for free and by becoming
more self-sufficient.
Now enters the world of bushcraft. In its purest form, bushcraft is about living
modestly within a natural environment.
It is about understanding the relationship between the biotic and
abiotic world in such a way as to create a lifestyle that is neither
self-indulgent nor is it destructive. At
7.5 billion and growing the world’s population no longer allows for a rampant
and hedonistic obliteration of the planet.
But we’re doing it anyway. In
fact, an entire class of people has sprung up who insist that progressing to a
level where we no longer rape the land, where we live frugally, where we strive
to be less self-indulgent is a bad thing.
These people insist on same-old, same-old. They are not interested in acting responsibly
nor are they concerned with prudent behavior. But even those who might want to steer their
lives in another direction are met head on by the realities of living surrounded
by an autodiocentric (self-god-centered) society. It envelops us sometimes literally. Your nylon tents, titanium drinking cups,
state-of-the-art camping stoves, plastic water bottles,
unbelievably-incredible-stainless steel knives and the like are the products of
intense destruction, expensive transportation, and ultimately a drain on both
resources and the environment. No great
favor is accomplished if instead of cutting a small branch to use as a walking
stick you drive to a store, buy a collapsible aluminum cane and then proudly
claim you are safeguarding nature in the process. A branch taken from a proximate setting is
nearly infinitely more conservative as it relates to saving the land than an aluminum
walking stick that resulted after mining, manufacturing, transportation and much
pollution. The knife you made from a
used mill file or old leaf spring or discarded machete is a recycled item built
onsite to be used in the immediate area.
Compare that to the knife you buy at any store. The selfbow and arrows made by collecting a
branch (that is the product of careful coppicing) is nature-conservation at a
profoundly deep level especially when compared to the compound or fiberglass
bow or the graphite arrows or aluminum framed crossbow. The same applies to any fiberglass stocked,
steel alloy etc. firearm.
Of course, we’re all guilty of this excess. But at least we can begin to strive to be
less destructive. Even a moderate
approach towards self-sufficiency is a step in the right direction. The lady who grows her own garden; the man
who knits his own sweaters (we’re not going to be sexist here, folks); the
persons who make their own knives; the people who hunt with selfbows and arrows
they made themselves; the family that raises their own chickens; the list is
extensive and can effectively cover just about everything.
But it’s not easy. You
have to drive to work. I have to drive
into town to get supplies—that just so happen to have come from far away. We have to use electricity to cook meals and
maybe heat the house. We no longer have
the time to make our own clothing so we have to buy it instead. Yes, the entire system is predicated on intense
consumption that comes at the expense of our lands and water. But maybe we can all take a few steps to
curve this predicament we’ve created for ourselves. I heard about a young fellow and his wife who
both insist on buying only used clothing.
They have the income to do otherwise but they have made a conscious
choice in their lifestyles. I think the
first thing was getting past the frivolity of feeling the need to impress
others. Maybe our attitudes about how we
view the important things in life need to change. What was considered “cool” might now be
considered “lame.” What was thought of as a
picture of “achievement” might now be looked at as a representation of “insecurity.” But you know what folks: If we don’t start
changing our attitudes then things are going to force us to change. In the end a hyper-consumptive, hedonistic
society implodes. We poison everything
around us. We annihilate the land. We encourage criminality. We blindside ourselves to our own
self-destructive actions. I saw where
this preacher, for example, lives in a gated community in a mansion and drives
a limousine. This guy is pompous and
incredibly vain it seems. And then once
or twice a week he stands on a pulpit dressed in thousand dollar suits and
wearing two-hundred dollar shoes and waxes eloquently about a fellow who was
essentially homeless, who wore sandals, who dressed modestly, who lived an austere
lifestyle, who said things like “blessed are the poor” and “it is easier for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to...etc.” You know, in a sense this contemplative fellow
was a sort of bushcrafter in his own right.
Hmmm, makes me think.
