Hey there Scout,
I am just wondering that, while you are honing your skills to be able to create new out of the aftermath of civilization while nature is still intact, what are your thoughts about what to gather from this world (i.e ropes, tarps, rations, guns) to facilitate survival during whatever happens whenever it happens. haha the future is so wonderfully vague but extremely heavy if you have the proper amount of imagination and paranoia! also do you have a place to escape to, do you think this is necessary? a plan on how to get there undetected, other people to join? i am working on all of these problems right now but my energy and focus rise and fall like the sun and that quickly and if its a nice day outside you can guarantee i am not focusing on the warm weather clothing and wool blankets i will need stowed, mostly working working on my tan(vitamin d), muscles and ability to become nature as to remain undetectable. but i know there are things that are extremely important that will insure that the people with the right intentions for nature and the universe can prevail and that we should have these at the ready just in case anything happens. its funny because i have gone to some “survival” website with lists about what have, they will list “at least a half gallon of water per day per individual, which does not provide water for hygiene, so be sure to take breath mints and STRONG DEODORANT” seriously these people are worried about “hygiene” and its the Apocalypse?!?!? i guess if they weren’t intending to survive on MRES, which are sure to putrefy their systems, they wouldn’t smell so foul but come on, if you even wear deodorant right now i am pretty sure you have a special comet with your name on it hurling towards the earth this second..
I don’t know how well to say thanks but keep exploring and sharing,
Jessica
Continue reading ‘Ask Urban Scout: The Preparedness Question’
Dear Scout,
I can’t help but get the feeling that you are advocating for all 6 billion people to go back to living as hunter-gatherers. Wouldn’t that quickly deplete all of the wild food out there? Wouldn’t all 6 billion of us quickly eat up the wild? How many salmon are left? If all of us started eating salmon exclusively, they would go extinct that much faster. What do you think about this?
I get this question quite often and my answer is yes, I think that all 6 billion of us should immediately stop farming and start hunting/gathering/gardening for our food. Hunter-gatherers didn’t just kill things and eat them without any foresight the way modern “sport” hunters do. They had complex systems of land management that built soil and created mosaics of habitat, maximizing biodiversity for small areas. This is why I say over and over again that you can’t just throw on some buckskin clothes, grab a bow and arrow and think you’re a hunter-gatherer. The tools are meaningless without the system that created them. Civilized people wore buckskin and hunted with bows and arrows for thousands of years. The management system of hunting and gathering is the real technology. Not the hand-made artifacts they leave behind, but the ecological artifacts like salmon runs so thick you couldn’t walk through the river.
Civilized people do not understand that hunting and gathering means giving back more than you take. If everyone were to start giving back more than they take, we’d actually begin to build biodiversity and wild food sources back up. Sure, the dams have killed the salmon, and if all of us became hunter-gatherers that means we would become stewards of the salmon which means we would dismantle the dams and build spawning habitats along the river banks.
- Scout
If you have a burning question for Urban Scout, send him an e-mail at urbanscout [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject, “ask urban scout.”
Rewilding…sounds great, but I don’t know where, when, or how to start. I created my life goals and direction before I realized where civilization is going and fully developed my hate of it. I’m a college sophomore on track for grad school and then working in early intervention… But now I question this path and envy, more than ever, those born before the spread of western civilization. I would know what to do with my life if I wanted to stick to a civilization-appropriate path… Get married, work in a school district as either a speech pathologist or as a pre-school teacher in early intervention (depending on where my interests in college lead me), have children, and raise them as United States (or possibly Canadian) citizens who go to college and get a job… Now that I’ve changed my views, this isn’t the path I want. I want to break free from civilization. I lived in a rural area until I was 8, but I’m mostly a Salemite who knows next to nothing about surviving in the wild. I want to be serious about doing something different and meaningful with my life. At this point, I don’t know enough to be able to do that. It seems like people are more likely to think “this suck but I don’t know what to do so I’ll just go back to my domesticated little life,” than they are to see the problem and take action. Right now I feel like that first group, but don’t want to be a part of it; I want to take action. Do you have any advice for me?
Continue reading ‘Ask Urban Scout #9′
For everyone who’s actually read DQ’s books or have been exposed to such concepts or views on modern society … how many of them are actually living it out? And to the extent that you do? … pretty fucking cool, I must say - how you live your life. But I have to ask you - can we really bring such radical change? (in terms of an alternative way of living from our current agricultural “taker” lifestyles)?? or is it just the way things are meant to be and eventually future generations will just be fucked and that’s just the way it goes?
Thanks,
www.speakzine.com
Continue reading ‘Ask Urban Scout #8′
Urban Scout -Why do you hate so much? What makes it worthwhile? What would you say to someone who says it is a waste of time, energy, and headspace to hate? Do you see hate as a passionate appraisal, a negating force, or what exactly? Could you take a bit of time to flesh out the healthy aspects of hating and the unhealthy aspects of hating - as you see them? Do you see hate as white and black, hate completely or not at all? I ask not only because I am ever so curious but also in case some easily influenced kid makes an enemy out of someone because the other supports something you hate and unnecessary damage ensues.
- Sincerely Seeking a Straight Debate to Illuminate Hate which might Sate the Irate who Relate
Continue reading ‘Ask Urban Scout #7: Hate for Hating Haters’
Dear Mr. Scout,How far do you intend to take your journey? Do you see yourself living full time in the wilderness or perhaps roaming the ‘wilderness’ of the burned out remains of industrial world?
How many humans do you think the ecosystem can support? I think Jared Diamond reckons it’s around 10 million. That’s a huge die-off. Is it possible or desirable to compromise between completely wild living and maintaining a low impact village?
I grew up and live in the Sierra Nevada near Yosemite and know little about wild living but strive to learn more. I was pleased to run across your blog. It was inspiring to see a young person with courage and ingenuity.
Stay Wild
Darrin
Continue reading ‘Ask Urban Scout #6′
Dear Scout,I’ve kept track of you for quite a while now, following along until tonight when I read that article about you and thought I was going to be sick. I would have been furious if someone wrote that shit about me, but instead you seem to be enamored with the size of her readership. “If you all just donate one dollar, just think of how many Rewild Camps I could do!” Do you really want to convert everyone to your ideology? Do you really want to change people, to IMPROVE them into someone more like yourself?
Have you truly become so enamored with your own self-image after a wee bit of publicity that you’ve lost all perspective? Where is the little boy you used to be? Where is Peter? Where is your humility, your privacy, your heart and your passion underneath this ridiculous persona that you’ve created?
Maybe we’re not as similar as I used to think. I don’t want to change people. Rewilding isn’t a fucking program and forcing it into one will fail. I don’t want to be anyone’s poster child — I’d rather be a real kid than a plastered public image. I don’t want to be Urban Scout, Guru or Urban Scout, Anarchist Pop Star. I don’t want to be Urban Scout. He’s not my hero anymore.
A-hole*
Continue reading ‘Ask Urban Scout #5: Assume Nothing A-hole!’
Dear Urban Scout,I regularly think about every aspect of what my life will be like after the collapse of our civilization, and this is one of the questions that I have the most trouble with; when I’m done taking a big shit in the woods outside of Eugene, what do you suggest I wipe my ass with?
Continue reading ‘Ask Urban Scout #4: Apocalyptic Toilet Humor?’
Dear Scout, what is your native american animal totem?
Continue reading ‘Ask Urban Scout #3′
I often receive e-mails and myspace messages from other aspiring hunter-gatherers with questions about what I do, and what I think about things and what people can do encourage rewilding their lives. I have devoted a section of this site to answering those questions publicly so others can give there own feedback as well. I dug this one up from the old myspace archives.
Continue reading ‘Ask Urban Scout #2: Apocalyptic Safe Sex!?!’
Today the rain just keeps on pouring down from the sky. The air feels warm and I can taste the smell of the wet trees and rooftops. I often receive e-mails and myspace messages with questions about what I do, and what I think about things and what people can do encourage rewilding their lives. I’ve waited for a rainy day to respond to two of them and now the day has come.
Continue reading ‘Ask Urban Scout #1′
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