Yes, but as saas_sam says, no-one actually believes they are truly completely self reliant in that cartoonish way. When people speak of being self-reliant, the

Yes, but as saas_sam says, no-one actually believes they are truly completely self reliant in that cartoonish way. When people speak of being self-reliant, they obviously don't literally mean that they were spawned from some sort of spontaneous reaction, that they farm their own cotton, sew their own shirts, invent their own scientific disciplines and produce semiconductors in their garage in the clean room they built from scratch. They're referring more to building their own path in life and going out and getting what they want rather than waiting for it to be handed to them. It's similar to how you or I might say we "need" something, when really it's qualified, because almost all use of language is.