Re-Learning the Basics

We have been trained to be screen-dependant. How many of us have memorised our friends’-and-family’s phone numbers, now that we don’t need to because our phones remember them? How many of us remember how to use a street directory to work out a route to an unfamiliar address or town, now that we have GPS units doing our thinking for us? How many of us really remember how to do research from source documents (and how to access those documents) now that we have a search engine at our fingertips? And with that search engine, we seem to have lost the twin powers of discernment and discrimination, as utterly fallacious material is presented with the same authority as real information.

If the GPS satellites fell out of the sky, many of us would be lost, and no longer have the skills to become un-lost. If the internet failed or was hijacked, how many of us would know how to access real life-saving information, or organise into rescue parties if there were a natural disaster (or even know about that natural disaster if we weren’t in the same area)? Gradually, bit by bit, we are being trained to become helpless in the name of enhanced quality of life. I estimate we are about a third the way towards utter helplessness, and not only are we not fighting against it, we are eagerly rushing towards it with open arms! And who benefits from a helpless population? A corrupt government, who does not bear scrutiny and does not want to be overthrown.

Learn how to read maps - and collect a lot of them. Learn how to tell direction without a compass, and time of day without a phone or clock. Learn how to make fire from scratch, and to find potable water in your environment. Learn what native plants, imported plants and weeds in your area are edible and medicinal. One day you will need this knowledge, and as a screen-dependent person without a screen, how will you get it?

Your new skills are intrinsically valuable. But that doesn't mean the skills of the past have lost their value. If anything, in these days of programmed helplessness, they are more valuable than ever.