Now trending: survival

I used to buy bread. Now I bake it. I also used to buy ceramics. Now I make that too.

Although certain parts of society might still make fun of so-called ‘hipsters’ for their love of artisan everything, over the last decade the quiet tide of modern primitivism has risen again.

This time, the brogues are gone, the Crocs are on and the veggie patch is the new it-bag (how else are you going to save for a house in this economy?).

In 2021 nothing is hotter than expressing our disillusionment with the world and our place in it than through self-sufficiency. But it’s more than just bread, mugs and home-grown artichokes. It’s Wim Hof on goop. It’s buying a vintage book on plant medicine, or taking a Masterclass course on how to create a DIY permaculture garden.

At a time where our global energy, food, economic and social systems are collapsing from shoddy foundations, the work of generations before us in imagining alternatives is just as provocative today as it was then.

For those of you who are keen to go back to the future, the Whole Earth Catalogue is what you need to know about building community, shelter and better systems. Written in 1968 as the ultimate guide to rejecting society, it’s never been so relevant.