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Small scale subsistence farming is still widespread around the globe in poorer countries. If they can, farmers try to send their children to schools so that the

by est31 6y ago

Small scale subsistence farming is still widespread around the globe in poorer countries. If they can, farmers try to send their children to schools so that they can have a better life. And many do! The reason why China can offer such cheap labour is because of this effect. Your laptop/smartphone etc was likely assembled by someone who's parent was a farmer. To say that subsistence farming is the only good lifestyle is western decadence tbh.

danans 6y ago
6 or so generations back nearly all of our ancestors we're engaged in some sort of agrarian existence. There's plenty to be said for re-establishing the common knowledge people had back then with regards to growing their food - via things like allotment gardens, reintroducing the basics of farming in the educational system, etc - but the frequent fantasizing you see about returning industrial society broadly to an agrarian condition is often dishonest in its stated intent. Very few want to return to agrarian society, but some want to use a reversion as a pretext for controlling industrial society toward illiberal ends.
- 6nf 6y ago
  6 generations ago the earth had 1 billion people, we're closer to 8 billion now. What happened? Haber Bosch. We can't go back without a massive reduction in population.
  - danans 6y ago
    That's the thing, I don't think that advocates for "going back" actually want to go back. It's a convenient ruse for seizing power, one that's easy to sell because it appeals to people's idealized views of the past.
    - TeMPOraL 6y ago
      Or they do want to go back. I know some people like that personally; they just don't comprehend what it would take to go back. And it would take a huge population reduction (either up front, of through starvation after the shift to agrarian lifestyle). It would quite likely take rolling back the industrial revolution altogether - because it would be next to impossible for a reduced population of farmers to sustain current level of technology; all tools and things supported by it, including industrial chemistry and material science, would just degrade over coming decades and it couldn't be recreated. All of that is hard to imagine for someone with shallow understanding of how the world and technology behind it works.
    - fogihujy 6y ago
      I do. I have no illusion about it ever happening though.
- est31 6y ago
  Yeah absolutely, study past ways of living just how you'd study classical latin authors or other historical things. And if you like it, do subsistence farming yourself. But people have reasons why they drop it in masses. Don't think you are smarter than them just because you live in the west, or because you are particularly convinced of your ideology.
User23 6y ago
Small scale semi-subsistence farming is still widespread in the rural United States. It doesn't take much land to grow enough vegetables to feed a family for a year and chickens aren't too much of a hassle either. Even cows aren't too bad if you can get a timeslot with a butcher, but these days you can't.

by est31 6y ago

danans 6y ago

6 or so generations back nearly all of our ancestors we're engaged in some sort of agrarian existence. There's plenty to be said for re-establishing the common knowledge people had back then with regards to growing their food - via things like allotment gardens, reintroducing the basics of farming in the educational system, etc - but the frequent fantasizing you see about returning industrial society broadly to an agrarian condition is often dishonest in its stated intent. Very few want to return to agrarian society, but some want to use a reversion as a pretext for controlling industrial society toward illiberal ends.

6nf 6y ago
6 generations ago the earth had 1 billion people, we're closer to 8 billion now. What happened? Haber Bosch. We can't go back without a massive reduction in population.
- danans 6y ago
  That's the thing, I don't think that advocates for "going back" actually want to go back. It's a convenient ruse for seizing power, one that's easy to sell because it appeals to people's idealized views of the past.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    Or they do want to go back. I know some people like that personally; they just don't comprehend what it would take to go back. And it would take a huge population reduction (either up front, of through starvation after the shift to agrarian lifestyle). It would quite likely take rolling back the industrial revolution altogether - because it would be next to impossible for a reduced population of farmers to sustain current level of technology; all tools and things supported by it, including industrial chemistry and material science, would just degrade over coming decades and it couldn't be recreated. All of that is hard to imagine for someone with shallow understanding of how the world and technology behind it works.
  - fogihujy 6y ago
    I do. I have no illusion about it ever happening though.
est31 6y ago
Yeah absolutely, study past ways of living just how you'd study classical latin authors or other historical things. And if you like it, do subsistence farming yourself. But people have reasons why they drop it in masses. Don't think you are smarter than them just because you live in the west, or because you are particularly convinced of your ideology.

User23 6y ago

Small scale semi-subsistence farming is still widespread in the rural United States. It doesn't take much land to grow enough vegetables to feed a family for a year and chickens aren't too much of a hassle either. Even cows aren't too bad if you can get a timeslot with a butcher, but these days you can't.