The baseline for this series of self reliance essentials must really begin with community, for without community there can be no real self reliance and no independence from a greedy enslaving and wasteful Capitalism. The self reliance I am referring to in these posts differs considerably from the culture that sprang from John Seymour’s useful books, this is about communities becoming self sufficient in the places where they live using the resources they have and are able to generate as opposed to individuals or families buying a smallholding and becoming self sufficient.
Running away is not the answer
Simply running off to the Countryside with a pile of money to buy an overpriced smallholding is both out of the reach of most people, and impractical in terms of the connections and interaction needed to develop community resources. That old saying ‘Many hands make light work’ is central to the idea of self sufficient communities, and the learning process and up-skilling involved in this evolution is likely to build profound and lasting bonds between those sharing knowledge and skills. For me something that is central to community self reliance is the level of support and encouragement that we are able to offer each other as we embark on this journey, if people feel that they learning and their contribution is valued there is a greater chance that stronger links and connections will be made.
Finding a common unity 
If you already have a group of people or are part of a community that is about to embark on the journey towards community self reliance then you will already have establish links and connections that enabled you to form your group in the first instance.If you are not part of a community but would like to form one, or join one, then the best thing to do is to appeal to others within the context of what you actually share already in terms of what you would like to achieve. Growing food is a great way of bringing people together, we all need and enjoy food, so this is something that we all have in common, and can all relate to. Using food as something that generates a common unity and interest within people is a powerful thing, there are community food growing groups springing up all over the world.
Steve