Autarky, the ability to be totally autonomous and self-sufficient is an old dream of mankind. An entity living in autarky has no exchange with others. She lives only on her own resources and does not need any outside help. Many people dream of such a life, because as the saying goes: “Hell is other people!” “. But is such a life possible in our globalized world? Can we really live in autarky?
One can mainly distinguish two forms of autarky: on the personal scale, or on the community scale.
Living in autarky supposes the absence of exchange with others. It is therefore obvious that such a lifestyle is impossible in cities, because these environments are built on the interdependence of individuals, families and communities. Each individual has a very advanced specialization and constitutes a link in a more or less intertwined chain.
Autarky is only possible in a pristine and fully functional ecosystem. This way of life is possible in a forest where game and other natural resources abound. A person living in such an environment has a certain chance of survival if he devotes himself to agriculture, hunting, gathering or fishing. A thorough knowledge of these activities is a must. Construction skills are also a must. Knowing how to swim and climb would be appreciable.
In community or family, it is even easier. You can live there without money for a relatively long period of time. It is however necessary to have some rudiments in medicine and in particular in herbal medicine. This aspect is very important, because a disease will occur one day or another and it will have to be dealt with.
The globalized world in which we live is far from being the paradise that everyone dreams of. Society is an infernal machine over which no one has control. It is a giant anthill where each individual is reduced to a function, even a number. No one can decide his future alone, because it is intimately linked to that of the other members. No one is master of his destiny.
Money has become its soul and life boils down to chasing after a supposed success. By living in autarky, we have the possibility of freely choosing what we want to become, without fearing that someone will impose their point of view on us. We are no longer reduced to working all day long like a bee and we can make better use of our time.
By letting go of our autarkic past, we have become considerably richer. We have seen incredible technological advancement and huge improvements in the human condition. The concentration of production made it more efficient. Specialized skills allowed us to move faster. Interdependence has enabled us to better utilize knowledge and resources.
The global economy has grown tremendously over the past century, doubling approximately every fifteen years during this period. It doubled about every thousand years before the industrial revolution, and every two hundred thousand years before the agricultural revolution. Given this historical growth rate, it makes sense to imagine that the global economy could grow even faster in the foreseeable future.
One of the most common characteristics of societies that have chosen to live in autarky is the technological backwardness. The case of the pygmies living in Central Africa and that of the Jarawas living in the Andaman Islands is very telling. These peoples cut off from the rest of the world have retained the techniques and way of life of Paleolithic men, while those who have opened up to the world have evolved. If men decide to return to autarky, then the human race will cease to be what it is. The Germans who fled East Germany did so because of the autarky in which the country was immersed. Man is not naturally designed to live in autarky.
Autarky is as old as the world. The first men lived in self-sufficient communities, but the human race only began to differentiate itself from the others when the communities renounced this world of life. Life in society, although restrictive, has many advantages. Living in autarky in this century is more utopia than reality. A nation, a community or a family can live in autarky for a certain period, but it cannot stay there indefinitely.
For an isolated individual the equation is even more complex, even impossible to solve. Living in autarky is only possible in a totally preserved ecosystem. This way of life requires that whoever engages in it have an impressive number of personal skills. It can quickly turn tragic when illness or natural disaster strikes.