It’s one thing to survive, and quite another to thrive.

There’s a series on Netflix called Alone that shows various individuals skilled in the primitive arts who are dropped off in the middle of nowhere to fend for themselves. The participants can use a satellite phone to call in and “tap out” at any time, and whoever is the last person remaining in the wild is the winner. Since the contestants are mostly evenly-matched in terms of their ability to build a shelter, forage for wild foods, tend to their medical needs with herbs and medicinal plants, etc., the factor which tends to separate them is their ability to procure meat, especially meat rich in fat. For all the mice, and squirrels, and rabbits the contestants end up eating, only those who can procure fat-rich foods such as large game, or a plentiful supply of fish, have a shot at winning. For those who struggle in this area, either due to poor luck, poor execution of skills, or poor territory, the only winning strategy becomes to hunker down. Season after season tends to end the same way, with a few remaining contestants essentially starving, their bodies breaking down, and many being pulled from the competition for medical reasons. It’s both fascinating and brutal to watch. 

Granted, there are several things about the show that make the competition artificial. The contestants are dropped off at the end of the Fall season, so they haven’t had months and months to put up food and wood for the winter. They are also each completely alone, so they don’t have a partner, a family, a tribe, or a community to share the work with. Disregard these details though, and the show is a fascinating reminder that not too long ago, people lived or died based on their ability to hunt, and fish, and gather, and forage. The work of life for people used to be the same as it is for animals today: Put up food and other resources for the winter ahead, or perish. It was do or die. The currency was food, and the ability to build up a robust stash of it was as important as it is today to build up financial resources. The winter always comes, and when it does, the animals take to the hills and the fish move out to deeper water.

It’s interesting that nowadays when someone wants to test their mettle and take a measure of their resilience, they often turn to the primitive skills and living off the land. A more relevant and provocative question might be: “If playing by the rules of today’s world, could you survive completely alone?” If you were entirely dependent upon yourself, your own skills, and your own ingenuity, could you procure enough money, week after week, to cover all your needs? Without being an employee under the care and provision of an established company, could you provide for yourself? If you were dropped off in the middle of modern society, alone and fending for yourself, could you survive, or would you have to tap out? The ultimate experiment in survival might just be to strike out on your own as sole proprietor and entrepreneur. That may tell you more about yourself than living off the land.

Copyright 2023 Kesel Wilson (entirely, 100% human-created)

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