The Election Results – Time to Work Together

I retweeted @audsquad’s tweet today because I couldn’t find a better statement which reflected on how I felt. I was amazed that everyone I was supporting won. What was also worth noting was that I heard very strongly within President Obama’s Victory Speech, his desire to work with the Republicans and bring the country together. The word self-reliance came to mind. I happened to be googling around the internet the words self-reliance and I saw an article written yesterday by Bill O’Reilly talking about self-reliance in regards to Hurricane Sandy. He said, “That in order to ride out any storm effectively, you should be self-reliant and resilient. That means you have to anticipate problems and have some solutions at the ready.”

This got me thinking about the words, self-reliance and the words that are used by greenies like me such as sustainability.  We both mean basically the same thing in a very significant way. When I say sustainability, it comes from inside out. You create sustainability by being self-reliant and finding innovative ways to take care of yourself that support yourself and the world around you because you are a part of the world around you. The survivalists are more concerned with their own survival but once they feel secure, they do help others. Survivalists and greenies want the same thing, to survive and thrive.

In greenies’ terms, when you are irresponsible and put a burden on the world around you, either through your own known or unknown actions and you deplete your ability to provide for yourself ultimately. Sure, greenies are concerned with impacts, climate change, big ideas on how we can help the planet, but ultimately we know that it is our own choices that will create our future outcomes, personally.

This is similar to the idea behind self-reliance that is talked about in the circles of the right. Their focus is often providing for themselves in order to survive a cataclysmic event, and they do have some good ideas as far as housing, water-recycling, food storage, etc. Whenever I talk with people who are into in survivalist ideals, I am usually impressed with their innovation.

What is amazing is that for some reason, I think that it is perception, the right thinks the left wants to take stuff from them as Mitt Romney said in one of his campaign speeches and the left thinks the right wants to take stuff from them, as in money that that they have to pay big corporations for their “survival”.

So what I am proposing is that people put this negativity on hold. What if we could have self-reliance and sustainability by working together to build housing that would provide the basic needs for everyone? This would not be some big hand-out project, but one where people can buy homes with their water, energy, food and fuel included for an affordable price.

People are often quick to say that others have a sense of entitlement “for stuff”, but what if everyone earned their right to have their baseline needs met through the work they do and then others who choose to can support the less privileged who are unable to achieve the dream on their own. Everyone should have a right to self-reliance and personal sustainability. This would also lessen the societal burden on others that is often talked about in regards to the poor.

The one illusion that many people have is that there are people out there that want to be a burden on others and that there are lots of lazy people in this world, namely the poor. Most people if offered the opportunity to be self-reliant would choose it because there is a tremendous amount of pride that just about everyone takes in their own personal idea of success. Success may be something different to everyone; to many poor people it is the thought that one day they no longer have to worry about not being able to make their bills this month. If there was a path out of this worry, people would take it and work day by day to make this happen.

The question we have to ask is, “Is there such a path currently?” For some there is a path, not completely self-reliant, but there is a path of ongoing dependence and for many, there is no clear path. So what’s in it for the survivalist and almost self-reliant person? Their number one goal, freedom and independence.

Both ends of the spectrum would achieve their goal with Water Energy Independent Homes. We are going to concurrently fund the Water Energy Independent Home as the Sustainability Initiative and the Self-Reliance Initiative and see where the two meet. We look forward to your participation and will be launching crowd funding soon!