I like the idea of being sustainable, growing your own food, and living naturally. I used to dream about starting a commune or homestead, but now I’m starting to think the idealization of it is petty bourgeois and part of the settler mindset. Starting some farm in the wilderness is very reminiscent of the western frontier, and the homestead act which I am myself a beneficiary of. We don’t need more socialists leaving society, we need more urban farming and an end to monoculture.
What do y’all think about it?
hot take: “building character” is a somewhat outdated concept that assumes that people can actually adapt to be happy while doing massive amounts of labor, as opposed to just learning to suffer in silence.
I don’t say this to suggest that the average United States citizen wouldn’t benefit from more physically focused labor, but just as a pedantic point based on my own (tbf entirely baseless oh god I just did a liberalism) views on human psychology
Oh yes, I was using the term facetiously. I do it a lot in-person, did not consider how it looks in text. A more accurate way to express it would be “getting perspective.”
I mean, it is a staple of reactionary and patriarchal “values.”