Bushcraft - transferable skill, alternative ethos or just simply a craft?

[HFC]

Greetings,

I've been puzzling over this for a week or so now.
I'm going to avoid the "problem subjects [...] such as politics, survivalism [...] and legal systems" but others may stray that way.

Draw up a log, throw another on the fire and harken.

My early introduction was a childhood living in a remote Suffolk farm, no electric or drainage, and as a youngster discovered S. H. Walker's "The Way to Camp", which I'd say is the most influential book I've ever read. (I have both versions now). Also around were the Air Ministry Survival Guides for Desert, Sea, Arctic and Jungle. Later (70s) came Seymour's Self Sufficiency. Lots of others, but these would be the key ones. And I practised, and made things and broke things and mended them (or took them apart for "bits") and developed a natural "Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do, or Do Without" way of being. And "Bushcraft" seemed to be interwoven with that. Knowledge and understanding of the environment, society and the objects therein. Working with the materials directly.

I frequently browse the fora here for specific information, or follow particular posters whose experience seems relevant and informed - but hadn't noticed that a discontinuity between Bushcraft and day-to-day life was developing. Obviously, if you're stuck in an urban environment then superficially there's not going to be an immediate match (more of a Clipper lighter (/pun) ) - but actually one has to contend with exactly the same requirements: Food and drink, shelter, warmth and the rest of the Maslow base layers too. (perhaps I should market fleeces under the Maslow brand as a "base layer?) It's just the tools and materials that change.

The discontinuity I notice is the complicit acceptance of the often explicit End User License Agreement. (I used to work in IT so these were my day-to-day terms of engagement. ) And it seems that EULA, in society as in software is non-negotiable.

I posted recently asking for suggestions for a functionally oriented vehicle, and in passing gave the reason why I was looking to change; a failure of a sensor is taken to mean the failure of the sensed item - without any further discussion. It really was an example of a "because I say so" - the I being "the regulations". And the feedback I received, both by PM and on the thread suggested that others actually found that acceptable and a reasonable trade-off.

Bushcraft, I thought, was about understanding and using the materials and our tools, hands and brains. We're about to stop the sale of knives on-line, and I saw a pack of six spoons in Asda that could not be sold to under eighteen year olds. SPOONS????

And we've become complicit in the acceptance of the "expert" - the person who sees the world through their laptop screen and regulates our lives.

I was taken to task (off-thread) for paraphrasing Martin Niemoller with

First they came for my ABS light and I did not speak out because I believed that others knew best,​

I've thought more about this, and came to the conclusion that I was right - we must surely, by our actions, speak out against the unreal veneer and touch the natural world, with our dangerous carving knives and nights away from the civilised dormitory. Isn't this what Bushcraft teaches us and enables? Or is it just a hobby to be ridiculed in TV adverts for a broadband provider. The irony that it was for a purveyor of experience through a screen is delicious - but perhaps quite perceptive from their side too.

/me stops wittering and listens ...

 

[Macaroon]

Good post; plenty of food for thought there, so I'm going to ponder and digest it on this afternoon's wet walk.

 

[Toddy]

I wouldn't know.
I'm just a little middle aged housewife with some interesting friends

I like being capable. I like making, believe that the intuition and necessity to do so is hardwired into our genes.
I believe that humanity sees potential, makes connections, changes the world to suit them best. I find it rather scary though that we're losing that hands on, eyes on, creative thinking, to the electronic world.

I would make it clear that I think the internet is a wonderful thing; all that information right at hand, the biggest library there has ever been, but it comes at a price, and the cost isn't that we have to search out 'good' information, but that we could drown in total rubbish, and spend our lives doing so virtually hardwired to electronic gadgetry, and yet do and make and create nothing ourselves.

Bushcraft enriches my life; it keeps things real, and I delight in seeing other folks make stuff.

As for the restrictions, the big brother kind of thing; that's society, and ours is both affluent and wasteful, of both time and resources, and rather overpopulated and urbanised.

My tuppence ha'penny worth

M

 

[slowworm]

One question I have for the OP, what would be your reaction if a loved one was stabbed to death by someone underage who'd bought the knife online? Or if a loved one was killed by a car with faulty brakes and they would have survived if the brakes were working properly?

 

[HFC]

One question I have for the OP,

Actually that's two.
I'll answer in a PM, because your question deserves an answer, but it's not really relevant to what I'm asking: is Bushcraft more than just idly whittling spoons, how is it relevant to today's society, how might that relevance have changed in the last 50 or so years, is uninformed regulation/legislation appropriate, does Bushcraft give people a clue, and so on.

 

[Toddy]

…..is Bushcraft more than just idly whittling spoons, how is it relevant to today's society, how might that relevance have changed in the last 50 or so years, is uninformed regulation/legislation appropriate, does Bushcraft give people a clue, and so on.

Yes, it's very much more.
It's relevance is multi-stranded. It's everything from being capable at using tools and raw materials, to being aware of the potential within the natural world; it's seasonality, it's weather issues, restrictions and timeliness.
It's only change in the last 50 years is that it now seems to need to be named. It was just normal life skills when I was growing up. That said, even then the urbanisation of the UK (and mind we are the first Industrialised Nation, we were the first where the Urban population over took the Rural, and the divide is greater here than elsewhere) had a definite division between city dwellers and those who lived with access to the natural world on their doorsteps, as part of daily life. It doesn't need to be utterly rural for that, just close to hand enough that it's accessible….I'm Scottish though, I know that the English have huge issues there that we just don't.

Uninformed regulation is not the issue. The issue is that the majority see the things we consider to be tools, to be weapons.
The majority rules….literally.

Does Bushcraft give folks a clue ? beyond the jokes ? the ones we poke at ourselves (uniforms, bramah bunnets, shemaghs, woodlores and laplander saws) or the ones that others tell; RM wannabe's, roadkill eaters, stealth camping, and tacticool gadgets.
I think it is relevant, because it gives folks a starting point. It gives anyone who goes looking for information a source beyond the 'survivalist', beyond the armageddon isolationists and beyond the belief that one needs to be armed to be capable or effective.
If it gives a starting point that gets folks off their backsides and out the door, leads them into a growing awareness of the real world around them, enriches their lives, opens their minds, gains them skills and an appreciation of the inherant potential of human abilities and our place within the natural world, then it can only be a good thing, it can only be relevant.

M

 

[Klenchblaize]

How about "The popularity of Bushcraft can
be viewed as the clearest indication there are many people, predominately Male, who crave something more life-affirming and/or spiritually fulfilling than the restraints and demands that 21st century living readily permit"?

I could link the above with a suggestion the desire to embrace nature and engage with the great outdoors, at a certain base level, is proof-positive of continued emascilation but I won't for fear of being made to walk to the Bushmoot with a holly log strapped to my ammo pouches!

 

[Nomad64]

HFC,

As I said in my response to your PM, invoking Martin Niemoller's words (which for the benefit of those not familiar with them, relate to how the silent majority of the German population turned a blind eye to the persecution of the Jews, communists etc. by the Nazis), even in jest, is perhaps in bad taste over something as trivial as a failed MOT.

Until your car failed its MOT, your posts on this forum had averaged less than one a year so it seems that you had little or nothing much to say about bushcraft in its many forms. However, in the last week you have been using this forum as a vehicle (can you see what I did there!), to vent your spleen (both on the public forum and via PMs) about what you regard as unnecessary vehicle regulations and because your posts and PMs failed to whip up a mob of bushcrafters ready to erect barricades (or have a spoon carving themed sit-in at their local MOT testing station ) in support of your cause, you seem to be inferring that members of this forum who you have had little or no interaction with in the last decade are "sheeple" who timidly accept what the government tells them to do. I'm sorry, just because you are in a grump because your car failed its MOT does not IMHO turn you into Rosa Luxemburg or even Rosa Parks.

Although ABS (or warning lights relating to them), seems to be the safety factor that grinds your gears (again, can you see what I did there!), if I have understood the philosophical point that you are making, why stop at rejecting ABS? It was after all "experts" who suggested that not mixing radials and cross plies on the same axle, not driving after six pints of Old Wifebeater, having seat belts, safety glass in windscreens and collapsable steering columns (and all the other stuff that Ralph Nader identified in "Unsafe at Any Speed") etc. would improve road safety. I also suspect that those "experts" who have the unenviable task of sifting through the human and mechanical debris after serious RTAs and make recommendations about how to improve safety would take issue with being derided for seeing the world through their laptop screens.

Lots of people grumbled when the advice of "experts" resulted in the MOT being introduced in the 1960s but I don't think that anyone would seriously argue that the cull of rust ridden deathtraps that ensued was a bad thing.

No one is forcing you to have a car but if you want one, it will be built to the regulations in force at the time and tested accordingly. Those regulations are not generally retrospective (with the increasing exception of older diesels falling foul of some city's low emission zones), so it should be fairly easy to identify the date on which ABS (or any other "unnecessary" safety feature (or the warning light relating to it), you feel strongly that is an infringement of your rights), became mandatory and narrow your search for a replacement to a car that predates that requirement. You may find that a car forum is be a better source of help.

Alternatively there are plenty of Utube vids of "Sovereign Citizens" testing the patience of law enforcement officers (usually in the US but some now in the UK), with half baked arguments as to why road traffic laws do not apply to them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_citizen_movement

I have watched a few of them and although I do not share the current POTUS's enthusiasm for police violence, it is quite satisfying when the babble of nonsense is brought to a conclusion with the crackle of a taser being deployed.

Bushcraft is a very broad church (other buildings for the worship of imaginery deities are available), but the common theme seems to be that a night or two in the woods (either alone or in the company of like-minded souls) is a great way of de-stressing and putting everyday irritations (such as, dare I say it, an MOT failure), into perspective and much more easily dealt with when back in the "real world". I'm not familiar with SH Walker's The Way to Camp (I will try to track down a copy) but I'll hazard a guess that he would agree with me. Perhaps try it this weekend and if on Monday you still think that being required to get a new hub and sensor for your car is remotely comparable to being sent to a concentration camp I'm sure that you will let us know!

Although self-sufficiency is not strictly bushcraft, its in the ballpark and like you I'm a big fan of John Seymour and am keen to adopt the lifestyle he advocates and if you want to post stuff about that I would be very interested. FWIW, I currently live in a remote, rural location, only loosely connected to the grid (and in the past have lived so far off the grid and away from elf and safety rules that, neither could have been seen without a very strong telescope!), and aim to be as self-reliant as possible. I don't see a conflict with that and accepting that the vast majority of the regulations aimed at keeping us safe and healthy are a good thing - although I do need to sweep my chimneys this week and its a PITA that you have to use a brush these days when using a small child would be so much easier!

There are quite a few things happening in the world that concern me greatly and I am from time too time moved to do something about it but, I'm sorry, some random bloke of the interweb's MOT failure is not one of them.

 

[snappingturtle]

I'm not sure I knew it as a craft, more just a way of being, due to the people about me and the situation we found are self's in, its good to know there is another way to live, it gave me a power to live in a very simple and free but tough way if I wish, but I do enjoyed the comforts that come with civility also, the toys are fun, cars bikes, TV, xbox etc, but we know they come with a cost and its not just a matter of money, but I know of another way so I don't feel oppressed the way others may because I can step out if I wish, civility has become to much rule by fear, maybe it was always that? I guess these skill have made me connect with something truly beautiful and grim as nature can also be, it gives the self meaning and power and it is very hard to take from a man or make him fear if all he needs is himself.

 

[Toddy]

Nomad64 ……
Well said. Much more clearly than my scrawl

M

 

[KenThis]

Nomad64 FTW.

 

[Corso]

Thanks for the book suggestions but beyond that there was nothing in the first post for me...