Here in Appalachia, there are areas of reservation land where Indigenous people live off the land in the old, traditional way. Basically, a hunter-gatherer way of living that involves hunting and fishing, providing the needs of the individual, family, and tribal community. Outside of reservation land, there are people in Appalachia called "mountain people" who essentially live the same way but with a bit more complexity. Small houses in the middle of the woods, people who survive without using money for long periods of time.

This got me thinking, surely there is a world of possibility between primitive hunter-gatherer society and advanced modern living. As a human being, there must be a way to both enjoy the fruits of modernity while also enjoying the independence of deriving your own living from nature. That would be the best of both worlds. A life that is balanced with nature, but not lacking the severe advantages of modern life. A more advanced, independent hunter-gatherer-like society, in the 21st century, with electricity and internet access. Not some naive "utopic" vision, but a means of surviving societal collapse or even advancing beyond modern society. An improvement, at the least.

A common theme I've noticed in the Western zeitgeist is demoralized doubt over the dependability of a decaying society. I believe this is a reaction to the market crash, lockdowns, travel restrictions, food shortages, and general social decay coupled with authoritarian overreach. People make jokes about "**** hitting the fan" or "the dark timeline" or "prepping" as if some nightmarish fate looms over us all, waiting for the straw to break the camel's back.



The entire "social collapse" thought experiment revolves around a simple, anxious question:

If modern society collapsed, could you survive? Even thrive?

If the response to total social collapse is to survive the collapse and create a new society:

Then it is best to start creating that new society right now, a crisis-proof society which goes the opposite direction of contemporary industrial human civilization.

That way, as things get worse for those who follow the old system towards its natural doom, things improve for those bold enough to break free and establish themselves ahead of time.

Thankfully, we don't need to form an ideological "movement" or even use words like "autarky" as the concepts are proven and functional, regardless of what you choose to call it.

Only the most fundamental concepts need to be understood for this sort of society to function, regardless of fleeting ideological labels.



Water:

What sort of "system" is ideal for this? There is not a "perfect system" to theorize. There are only our most primitive needs, which must first be met before anything else:

1. Water
2. Food
3. Shelter

By focusing on our most primal needs, we can create organic, economically self-sustaining primitive autarkies.

We can create primitive infrastructure for small-scale societies rather inexpensively, and use this as a foundation for more infrastructure and complexity.

Seeing as clean air is a given, for now, let's start with the most fundamental resource of human life and civilization:

Water.

To create a primitive autarky, that is, a completely independent economy and the society it supports, we must source our own water.

You have multiple options, which can be combined for redundancy, in case one system fails:

1. Drilling a modern well with pump
2. Digging a primitive well with pail
3. Rainwater and surface water collection

Water can be purified by charcoal filtration, which can be sourced naturally from a campfire or outdoor charcoal oven. It can be further purified by boiling and distillation, which can also be accomplished with fire and simple tools. Your autarky is better off than some rural African villages if you can source clean water locally without having to physically retrieve giant, heavy vessels of surface water. The entire society revolves around this most fundamental resource. It's used for survival, hygeine, cooking, raising animals, primitive crafts, and much more. If you have secured clean, abundant fresh water, you have established a means to support human life on the most basic level. This is the pattern we will apply to everything else, severing our dependence on money, neglected infrastructure, and an unstable society.



Food:

With clean water taken care of, we move down our list of priorities to the next fundamental human need:

Food.

Hunter-gatherer societies revolve around meat sharing. In other words, fish and wild game is shared between all members of society, and there is an abundance of meat to provide for everyone. Agricultural civilization, as we know it, seemingly requires a strict division of labor. However, in a hunter-gatherer society, the hunters provide enough meat for the entire, small society, while also providing protection from outside threats. In Appalachia, there is plenty of wild game to hunt and fish to catch, you don't have to go hungry if you have survival skills. However, we extend these survival skills into a long-term means of supporting multiple people.

In a primitive autarky, gardening and gathering can exist alongside hunting and fishing through entirely natural motivations. Instead of being driven by some ideological vision or concept, we are compelled by nature to secure our most basic needs or simply die, and this extends to the entire autarky. In order to provide a healthy, tasty, balanced diet for yourself, you must also do the same for the entire tribe or autarky.

Hunters and fishers secure natural protein and lipids, the bulk of the diet. Gardeners and gatherers secure carbs, sugars, vitamins, minerals, and natural medicines. Historically, these roles come naturally to men and women, respectively, but there is flexibility. Men being the hunters, explorers, fighters, and women being the cultivators, crafters, and mothers. This means that everyone gets a natural, organic role, yet women can still hunt and men can still garden if they choose. The point is that everyone works together in an organic struggle for survival.

History has proven that this does not require 6x 8-hour days like in industrial society, tribal societies have a lot of free time to do other things.

Which brings us to our third primitive prioity, to complete the autarky.



Shelter:

Permanent and temporary shelters can be built without money by using local materials.

Wigwams, hogans, tipis, Germanic thatch houses, long houses, caves, tunnels, dugout shelters, log cabins, adobe, cob, Earth lodges, and so on.

While it is technically possible to share shelters, the natural inclination is to build a shelter for each individual or family unit. Following tradition, new homes can be built as a ceremonial community gift to newly wedded couples starting their own families. Additionally, a large central meeting structure for community events and governance, as well as a house of worship like a church for religion, which is a binding force that has historically guaranteed the long-term survival of autarkic societies, such as Benedictine monasteries. Weddings, funerals, and a rock solid moral code for rule of law.

Instead of reconstructing a feudal settlement with a brutal subjugation under a nobility, or a Bronze Age city-state with a supreme divine ruler, you can simply have an elected chief and a council of lawspeakers, or elders that advise and preserve tradition. This is enough to govern a small autarky, as it does not require a massive system of subjugation to produce a surplus for an idle ruling class. It is not anarchy, there is a system of governance, based on proven systems from tribal human history.

Architecture has function, the type of buildings you construct will determine the type of society you build.

Once the most basic requirements are met by independent effort as an autarky, you have a blank slate to build the sort of autarky you envision.

Obviously, not all natural environments have the same hydrology or abundance, and each autarky will take on the form of its surrounding environment and peoples.

Additionally, as these societies are intentionally created, they do not need to derive from an organic ethnic collective identity, as we can form primitive autarkies or tribes of many colors.

Not reading this entire post but there are lots of people that live off grid. Small farm style lifestyles.


The problem is most people don't want to live that way.

Fractal mud huts with solar panels.