Interesting. Agree with some of his points, disagree with others. I'm definitely a combo of the two.
During Y2K, I really expected a few days to a few weeks of infrastructure disruptions, like rolling blackouts, transportation and service delivery delays, and telecommunications foul ups that would interrupt stuff like credit card transactions. So above and beyond what I usually keep on hand for disaster preparedness, I bought extra food, water and drinks; prepped for temporary loss of electricity; filled up the vehicle gas tanks; and had extra cash on hand to pay for stuff with cash if credit cards weren't working. Puts me squarely in the "Prepper" camp.
On the other hand, I do believe in being able to get by without relying on government and commercial infrastructure, but not to the extent of the podcast author. I think being able to do things like grow your own sustainable food is great (given of course you have the land and climate to do it). I've also always been a big fan of alternative energy for home use to supplement or even sell back grid energy.
He loses me a bit though on his overall philosophy on this. To me, the self-sufficiency is kind of a last resort strategy. Do I think it's a good idea to have the choice and ability of not needing infrastructure? Absolutely. Do I want to completely live this way? Only if I have to. I LIKE stuff like being able to fly around for vacations, having the Internet, having the Interstate system, all the air conditioning I want in the Summer, the frozen food section of my grocers, etc. Full self-sufficiency means being happy living in some combination of 19th and 20th Century tech. I could do it, but again, if I don't have to, I like being able to order a pizza on my computer at 11PM if I want to, as long as "indulgence" services like that are available.
He certainly makes it clear that self-sufficiency to him is having the choice to use or not use infrastructure, but he loses me in some areas. As an example, Doctors and medicine. He seems pretty big on "homegrown" medicine and medical knowledge, and using that for other than specialized and out of the ordinary procedures. But there's a lot of good to be said of modern preventative medicine. Given that my dad had prostate cancer, I really like being able to get a PSA test and prostate exam (well, not so much that part) to catch any sign of potential cancer early. Kinda hard to do preventative stuff like blood labs at home. When he mentions people got by without that technology for thousands of years and have still lived into their seventies, he neglects to mention all the people who died early or in infancy, or even just needlessly suffered pains that a shot in the arm cures now, all due to lack of modern medicine.
So I guess I lean a bit more towards being a "Prepper" than self-sufficiency. I'm quite well prepared for short term emergencies, and also somewhat self-sufficient and could easily and comfortably be more so, but only if I need to.
