Can We Call This Progress?

[coberst]

Originally Posted by Griff

That is a nice smart essay, but to me the rugged individualist is nothing if not a problem solver. I'm going to hazard a guess that you're talking about global warming and population bombs. It occurs to me that heavy fossil fuel usage is more a result of mass society and collective decision making than individual choice. If you travel rural America you would note that people are beginning to choose wind power and would do so more readily if the collective stopped subsidizing fossil fuels. If population is your bugaboo just consider that without immigration US Americans would have little population growth. As individuals we've decided to have fewer children.

“In Mexico, farmers who noticed velvetbean growing wild in their fields used it to increase soil fertility and improve maize yields. In Northern Ethiopia, farmers reclaimed farmland from a river by constructing walls in the river bed and diverting the water flow. In India, an innovative farmer designed a tree plantation that successfully survived a severe three-year drought. Farmers' innovations have stood the test of time and hold the potential to meet the challenges of increasing production and managing the natural resource base.

During the last 40 or 50 years, however, many farmers have relied less on their own experimentation and innovation, and become more dependent on outside information provided through extension systems. This has had the effect of disempowering many farmers, as they became passive recipients of knowledge and technology.”
http://www.farmradio.org/english/pub...s/v2003sep.asp

The US began as a nation of individuals constantly moving west, moving from civilized areas to a new frontier. Such individuals who were capable of hooking up a wagon to a team of oxen and joining a wagon train going west through a wilderness filled with danger represents not only the myth but the reality of America. And Americans like to think of them self in this way although it is no longer true.

The rugged individual had no grocery store or hardware store close by when the need arose. S/he had to make do with what ever they were able to create to solve he immediate problem.