Will you choose the ‘trad’ lifestyle at the “end of the world?”
Why many aspire to a lifestyle of raw milk and homesteading at the brink of climate collapse.
Reject modernity, embrace tradition! ‘Trad” influencers create content emulating the lifestyles from decades past and have amassed millions of followers on social media by looking to the past to live better, more holistic lives. Why are so many people inspired by this lifestyle?
The time periods that these influencers take inspiration from can vary. Hannah Neeleman of Ballerina Farm, known for cooking wholesome meals for her husband and eight children, and drinking raw milk seems to look to a pre-Louis Pasteur era, with the farmhouse and ranch giving her posts a manifest-destiny-conquering-the-wild-west ring to them. Nara Smith’s posts are reminiscent of the ideal nuclear family dynamic of the 1950’s. In either case, the nuclear family is a centerpiece in their posts, many of which emphasize natural and organic living.
The ‘trad’ lifestyle seems to distrust the mainstream, industrial mode of food production, and place great emphasis on health and using all-natural, organic products. Pre-packaged and processed foods are almost never seen on their pages, and they go to great lengths to feed their families with whole, organic ingredients. Neeleman takes a drastic departure from mainstream food systems by drinking and promoting unpasteurized milk, which is something that carries serious health risks. Their skepticism of and separation from the mainstream food system evokes the Farm-to-Table movement of the 1970s, which is also the period when environmentalism gained social and political momentum. Strongly associated with the “hippies”, the Farm-to-Table social movement was the result of a similar distrust of processed foods and emphasized the importance of locally sourced diets.
Liberating or misguided?
Living through climate collapse, the desire to retreat and create a safe life for one’s family is not difficult to understand. We are inundated with news about microplastics and forever chemicals in our food and water. The power grids are old and over-burdened, freshwater sources are dwindling, and governments are clearly not taking the necessary actions to mitigate intensifying natural disasters. Protecting oneself from these threats seems to be a natural impulse. Avoiding toxins by consuming natural or homegrown foods, and in the case of homesteaders like Smith and Neeleman, ensuring a level of self-sustenance that doesn’t rely on corporations is also attractive.
American media theorist Douglass Rushkoff’s article, “Survival of the Richest,” sheds light on how this impulse manifests in the ultra-rich. He attended an event where a group of five ultra-wealthy prodded him for answers on which regions would be the safest, and how to manage a bunker (which one individual had already built!) during the climate collapse. Rushkoff notes that despite their immense wealth and power, they see total climate collapse as inevitable, that they are powerless to stop it, and that they are willing to leave everyone else behind to save themselves. Although the ‘trad’ lifestyle typically does not involve building bunkers, they seem to be attempting a more accessible version of this by creating a life somewhat separate from the rest of society.
Like the millionaires that Rushkoff speaks of, ‘trad’ influencers and their aspirers must believe that they are powerless to affect change. Moreover, they must lack faith in the power of community and collective organizing to protect them. Instead of working with their communities to improve collective resilience in the face of climate change, they are choosing to abandon them to pursue their individual security. Their massive social media following suggests that others also endorse this misguided, socially atomizing lifestyle in response to the climate crisis.
This idea that we do not owe each other anything, that we are not each responsible for the well-being of one another in society, is the breakdown of the social contract. We saw this at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, where many people refused to wear masks in public spaces. Although the pandemic very clearly demonstrates how individuals are responsible for the health of others, the adoption of a “not my problem” attitude leads to an excess of infections and deaths. At a time when climate change is exacerbating existing inequalities, the fact that millions of people are drawn to individualist, social contract-breaking fantasies exemplified in the ‘trad’ lifestyle is very concerning. How can we protect each other when we feel no responsibility for each other?
The homesteading and self-reliance that is often emphasized by ‘trad’ influencers is simply the logical continuation of an individualist society. ‘America’ and ‘Canada’ are individualist fantasies that were sold to the original European settlers, promising them the opportunity to purchase (stolen) land to improve their class position and to live a self-reliant life. This founding idea shines through when looking at the content of these predominantly American ‘trad wives’, often homesteading influencers. Like how many of the original European settlers were disillusioned with their class positions in their home countries, perhaps many people today look to the ‘trad’ lifestyle as a response to their own disillusionment and deprivation of the means of production.
There is power in numbers
The widespread loss of faith in the power of the collective coordination of communities to become more resilient is not only concerning for the climate, but equally detrimental to our social nature as humans. One glance at history teaches us that community resilience comes from collective organization. For example, the Black Panther Party’s collective organization and outreach, such as through their Free Breakfast Program was able to support communities while bolstering their movement. Unity, and the ability to rely on one another is essential, especially as climate change continues to threaten communities.
People survive by working together, and the idea that one can guarantee one’s survival by leaving everyone else behind is not only a fantasy, but also a deeply dangerous mentality that prevents us from building a better world. It is without a doubt that the cascading effects of climate change will affect all of us, and while there is no way to guarantee our survival, the best that we can do is not to turn our backs on one another, and to fight back.
