There is much good to be said about self-sufficiency and a simple lifestyle.

However, I don’t think that we can take a snapshot of a particular point on the timeline of technological development and say that this is the ideal state for all mankind to live in. Man’s only “natural state” is to be constantly thinking of ways to build on what others have done before him.

This is not to say that everyone should live shoulder to shoulder in the hustle and bustle of city life either. Just remember that those PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER. are the ones that make your own luxurious lifestyle possible. They are the ones that make the antique washing machine you use, never mind the PV panels, batteries and inverter that power your off-grid home.

Without ideas like division of labor, mass production and modern agriculture, a lot more people would be cold and hungry. Or more likely, they just wouldn’t be alive at all.

Please don’t take this post as criticism, I’m just trying to put things in perspective. In fact, the way you live sounds very attractive to me! In many ways, it is more luxurious than the most decadent of the Hollywood celebrities.