Self-Reliance is Independence is Sustainability

Only once we have emancipated and extracted ourselves from the corporate interests and elitist agendas governing society, can sustainability truly begin...

Aug 14, 2024

I must have a stubborn streak a mile wide. To some degree, self-reliance was imposed upon me throughout my younger years. You learn not to depend on family when home is not a safe place.

But then, society’s double standards have always rubbed me the wrong way—I just couldn’t swallow the fact that women are held to different expectations from men. The view that the rich are somehow more entitled than the poor. Or the concept that humanity has the “divine right” to dominate all other life on this planet.

With every fiber of my body, I reject those ideals. To me, self-reliance is independence and independence is sustainability.

Welcome to the latest from the Runamuk-blog! If you’re new here, I invite you to check out my About page to learn what this is, who I am and why I am doing this. Or just dive right in! At “Runamuk Acres” you’ll find the recantings of one lady-farmer and tree-hugging activist from the western mountains of Maine. #foodieswanted

As a young adult, I struggled with the corporate mentality and the pervasive use and abuse of the employee. The companies I worked for did not seem to value my sacrificed time and energy for their cause. And when you have dreams and ambitions such as mine, that kind of disregard is a slap in the face.

self-reliance is independence is sustainability — With just BraeTek and I in the house, we typically go through 1 loaf per week. Baking in batches, freezing the extra loaves, I’ll bake every 3 weeks providing bread for our household made with whole ingredients and zero preservatives.

The History of American Education

Once I had kids, my life’s journey took me in a different direction entirely, effectively separating me from mainstream society and putting me on the path to self-reliance, independence and sustainability. Down the rabbit hole into I went, into homesteading, homeschooling, beekeeping and farming.

As I delved into homeschooling, I studied the history of American education. A compulsive researcher, even obsessive at times, I found John Gatto’s books: “Dumbing Us Down” and “The Underground History of American Education”. It was fascinating—and validating—to learn that our entire society has been cultivated by a few elitists with the intent to subjugate the masses for their own benefit. Instinctively, I’d felt the injustice of it all along, but this discovery validated my suspicions and confirmed questions I didn’t know I’d been asking.

Basically, our modern school system was bourne out of Prussia during the time period of ideas of superior races and experimentation in controlling the masses. It’s been structured so as to train the people into subservience, making us indifferent, lacking curiosity and uninspired. They sought to make us emotionally and intellectually dependent upon the approval of experts and authority figures, and so we have become.

But, in the words of Levar Burton (from Reading Rainbow): you don’t have to take my word for it. Feel free to do the research yourself, read Gatto’s books, or watch this comprehensive 5-hour video complete with resources for further inquiry, all provided by What You’ve Been Missing.

Click the image to read Gatto’s book online for free!

The Food System

Whether you put much stock in Gatto’s research or not, for me this was a pivotal moment. It opened my eyes to the true nature of schools and society. From then on I didn’t feel one bit guilty in rejecting society’s mainstream ideals, and I refused to be held back any longer.

Further along the line in my farm-journey, I was studying the food system. Through books by Michael Pollan and Joel Salatin, I learned about America’s industrialized diet and the inventions, discoveries and circumstances that brought us to our current dependency upon the system.

It’s all part of the same scheme: to first dumb down the population, removing inspiration and motivation, making the masses increasingly reliant upon “the experts”. Then, corporate interests jockey for position as that self-proclaimed expert with the intention of parting you from your money.

That elitist and corporate mentality has infilitrated every industry: from education and food, to health care.

The Cost of Modern Industry

Since the start of the industrial revolution, each subsequent generation of humanity has become progressively less and less capable. Less intelligent. Less able to formulate an arguement even for the sake of self-defense. Thereby becoming increasingly easy to manage as a whole.

And if the advent of the screen—the television, computer, internet and phone—wasn’t part of some master plan to numb and control the population, those scheming cronies sure got lucky! All you have to do is look at our kids walking around like zombies with their phone in their faces to see the cost of modern industry.

Well, I for one refuse to play that game. I don’t appreciate being manipulated, controlled or used. Thanks to my life’s journey, that kind of abuse has been enough of a recurring theme in my life that I now recognize it for what it is and I say (emphatically): “No, thank you, sir!”

Self-Reliance is Independence is Sustainability

For a long time I’ve struggled with the direction I wanted to take with the Runamuk-blog. Sure, I can write about gardening and farming, but there are plenty of other bloggers doing that already and better than I, as most of them have stable partners to share the workload, accomplishing more than I am capable of on my own. Even still, I have a wealth of experience and I’d like to offer more than just weekly updates from this farm.

It finally came to me as I worked on a forthcoming post about how I make my own homemade dog food: I want to help people break free of the industrialized system by teaching them to be more self-reliant.

I want to encourage others to trust in themselves, to realize how capable we all are, and hopefully start them on their own journey of independence.

For only once we have emancipated and extracted ourselves from the corporate interests and elitist agendas governing society, can sustainability truly begin. Self-reliance is independence, and independence leads to sustainability. Whether that sustainability is farming, or just better managing your own household and taking responsibility for your own existence, there’s something each of us can do to live more sustainably upon the planet.

What do YOU think?

Stay tuned for more on self-reliance and sustainability coming soon! Want to see a particular topic or issue covered? Leave me a comment to let me know!

Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm

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