Has anybody else noticed the irreverant fatalism which so many practitioners of bushcraft on here prescribe to this 'discipline.'
By this i mean, the underlying assumption that while bushcraft is fun, most of it is impossible now (e.g. living off the land). I say most, as surely most bushcraft is comprised of indigenous knowledge?
It seems more and more that bushcraft is being defined in the tradition of Victorian Camping. Everybody is after canvas and leather bags, cast iron implements, rifles...taking the grand tour into the other of the wilderness, before returning to civility.
Bushcraft is relegated from a way of living to a vacation past-time; and though i recognise for many this is what it is, due to jobs, families, commitments etc. etc. - it is not totally. But defining it so helps diminish the idea of Bushcraft, which i always thought of as creative and problem solving, replacing it with this negative fatalism
"oh you can't do that anymore"
"good luck trying to do that"
"lets be realistic..."
Where realistic means pessimistic, and positivity means romanticism.
If you honestly believe that most of bushcraft is impossible in this day and age, then go lament its loss and attempt to rekindle it, or else, leave those who are trying to do so in the warm embrace of optimism which is at the core of bushcraft.
Maybe if we stopped being so negative we'd find life yet in this vacationary ideal.
I shall await to be rebuked for my nonsense
By this i mean, the underlying assumption that while bushcraft is fun, most of it is impossible now (e.g. living off the land). I say most, as surely most bushcraft is comprised of indigenous knowledge?
It seems more and more that bushcraft is being defined in the tradition of Victorian Camping. Everybody is after canvas and leather bags, cast iron implements, rifles...taking the grand tour into the other of the wilderness, before returning to civility.
Bushcraft is relegated from a way of living to a vacation past-time; and though i recognise for many this is what it is, due to jobs, families, commitments etc. etc. - it is not totally. But defining it so helps diminish the idea of Bushcraft, which i always thought of as creative and problem solving, replacing it with this negative fatalism
"oh you can't do that anymore"
"good luck trying to do that"
"lets be realistic..."
Where realistic means pessimistic, and positivity means romanticism.
If you honestly believe that most of bushcraft is impossible in this day and age, then go lament its loss and attempt to rekindle it, or else, leave those who are trying to do so in the warm embrace of optimism which is at the core of bushcraft.
Maybe if we stopped being so negative we'd find life yet in this vacationary ideal.
I shall await to be rebuked for my nonsense