Reality Simulacra

Here’s a message for all the far-right bootstrappers and self-made men out there. Here’s a list of all the things you didn’t do on your own when doing something as simple as making toast:

If you bought the bread at the store, you didn’t make it yourself. You didn’t pave the road yourself which you drove on to get to the store, or collect and process the petroleum that fuels your vehicle, or any of the materials that were used in the construction of your vehicle. You didn’t invent the automobile or any of the basic concepts that make it work.

If you made the bread yourself, you didn’t invent the bread maker you used to make it. You didn’t design or build the toaster. You didn’t invent the electrical components that make it work. You didn’t collect and smelt the minerals used in its construction. You didn’t invent the toaster in the first place.

You probably didn’t build the house you’re standing in. If you did, you probably didn’t collect and machine all the materials involved in making it. You didn’t smelt the metals for the wiring or discover electricity or invent how it could be harnessed to run machines. If you did, you didn’t learn how to do all those things on your own.

If you cooked the bread in the oven, you didn’t invent the oven or gather the gas/electricity used to run the oven. Same goes for if you’re toasting the bread over the stovetop instead of using a toaster. You didn’t create the mechanisms or infrastructure that makes all those things possible.

If you cooked the bread in an earthen oven you built yourself, you didn’t invent the concept of an earthen oven or develop the recipe for your bread completely on your own. You didn’t invent the hand-made tools that you used to construct and operate the earthen oven.

If you’re toasting the bread over an open fire, you didn’t invent the wire frame toaster you’re likely using to do so. You didn’t learn how to make a fire on your own.

Literally everything you do is the result of benefiting from the work of the countless generations that came before you. That’s what society is and how progress works. If you want to be truly self-reliant you would have to become a hermit and live completely separate from civilization in all its forms. And even then, the knowledge you have of how to survive on your own was taught to you by somebody either through direct experience or reading a book.