I wrote this about a year ago, but it's one of those questions that I think never really has a solid answer. The answer(s) shift as life shifts, and is something to be periodically revisited by those attempting to live a sustainable life.
As I was standing in the shower, feeling slightly guilty about using extra electricity to pump the well water into the propane water heater in order to let it pound my sore muscles, I was thinking about how to make a stable sustainable society. Okay, I was actually thinking about who makes soap.
Anyone can make soap, but no one can do *all* the things that anyone can do! There just isn't enough time in the day. (Carla Emery in her giant tome "The Encyclopedia of Country Living" warns that no one can do everything in her book, that to try would take a 200 hour day!) Yesterday I was doing some deconstruction and harvesting building materials. Today I was helping a neighbor with butchering. So there I was, indulging my sore muscles in an unusually long hot shower, and I noticed my soap bar is getting thin. I no longer have contact with the gal I used to get my soap from. Does this mean I'm going to have to start making my own soap? That thought led to all the other things that individuals really only need a few of - wooden spoons, cast iron cookware, the aforementioned soap, butchering of meat, weaving of fabric, on and on.
My conclusion was that in order to have a truly sustainable society, everyone needs to be food sufficient, largely by raising their own food either directly in their own plots or indirectly in coops (shared labor providing more flexibility), PLUS have extra skills that benefit the community. Dependence on external markets for your survival (which for me keeps coming back to food, but also shelter) keeps a person enslaved, but non-survival items have more flexibility.
The food-sufficient soapmaker isn't dependent on soap purchasers for the soapmaker to eat. And if the soapmaker gets tired of making soap, no problem. Perhaps they'd rather build houses or weave baskets instead. They have that freedom, IF they aren't dependent on others for their very survival. I'm still wondering about the idea that the only thing then a person can't quit, is raising their food. Somehow we still end up being slaves to our stomachs!
How much freedom do you have to say "Take this job and shove it!"? How free are you? And is this whole soap question about freedom or sustainability? Then again, is life without freedom sustainable?
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