The Social NetWorker

Civilization and Self-Reliance

(This is a guest post by Megan Elizabeth Morris.)

Oh, self-reliance. (See? I told you.)

I would never suggest that all reliance on others is a bad thing. Sometimes we need to lean on each other, and sometimes we need to be taken care of. Even more, it's glorious to give that kind of succor to another human being. It feels good to help someone who needs help. In a culture of self-reliance, we would all be stronger -- sturdier folks on which to lean.

It seems that the more civilized we are, the more we depend on our environment and infrastructure to help us survive. We depend on the government to give us a system that provides for us (at least to some extent). We depend on it to keep our cities functioning, to keep us safe, to give us things we consider basic necessities (like toilets and plumbing) and even more important things like clean water. We depend on supermarkets to have easily accessible food. We depend on a reliable paycheck from a job to buy that food, and to pay all our other bills. We even depend on social systems to help us stay a-float if we lose that job, just until we can find another one.

I'm not saying these things are bad. But I am saying that we tend to largely take them for granted. That's the part I don't like.

When do we depend on ourselves?

Megan Elizabeth Morris (email)
Ms. Morris writes at Personal Revelations of the Magnificent Megan M. Megan Elizabeth Morris, or The Magnificent Megan M., [proper noun]: Superhuman font of knowledge, skill, determination & resourcefulness. Exudes enzymes that cause others to surpass their potential. Master thinker; writes, designs, manages, ideastorms, markets, inspires, connects, grows, teaches, makes things happen, changes the world, and throws a mean right hook. (Okay. Not the last one. Well! Not literally.)