this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023
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I get what you're saying, but it's a bit romanticized. By the time cultures get to the size of the Aztec, they're farming. The Aztec had huge floating farms that fed the people, and many other forms of trade and industry similar to ours. I'm pretty sure that Aztecs believed in land ownership. They certainly believed in owning people.
By "unique to their situation", I didn't mean unique only to native Americans, I meant unique to cultures before the 1800's that remained relatively small, and lived in resource abundant areas. There's were many cultures like that across the world, but they all had commonalities of having abundant resources and small enough populations to not require more robust solutions like agriculture and farming. And while native Americans didn't follow a system of land ownership, they did believe in personal space and property. You couldn't just go set up your dwelling right next to someone else's unless that person liked you and agreed to it. But there was room to spare, so the solution was easy.
The lifestyle we're talking about doesn't really support laying around and enjoying hobbies like you said. Yes, it was probably a great deal less stressful than modern life, as long as nothing went wrong. But it definitely required work. Have you ever gone backpacking? There's always that needs to be done. You're not really rushing to do things, and it's pretty satisfying and enjoyable, but there's a lot to be done. You have to walk down to the stream and collect water several times per day. You need to filter water. Food needs preparation, things need to be cleaned. The fire needs to be maintained. But it is all fairly gratifying. For primitive cultures they would have even more things that required their attention, like tool maintenance and crafting, weapon crafting, practicing skills, teaching young ones, hunting, skinning, making clothes, etc. Even still, I think those were probably edifying activities.
Anyways, I'm not really disagreeing with you other than the few clarifications I made. I'm just saying that I don't see how such a life is compatible with modern society. It can work in small communities in places like Wyoming, or Nebraska, or even parts of California, Washington, and Nebraska, but what about NYC, London, and Paris? Those people are never going to abandon their lifestyle. They're not going to leave their cities and start wandering the forest throwing seeds on the ground. There aren't enough wild animals left on the planet to support 8 billion people's needs for food and clothing. You don't get cotton clothing without cotton plantations. You don't get polyester without oil. You don't get oil without massive industries and farms to support them. So I think we need to focus on figuring out a way to make our current systems work sustainably, not try to return to primative methods.