Some years ago anthropologist Marshall Sahlins published a little booklet called The Original Affluent Society. In this piece, he suggests that the elephant that big fat white dudes like Rush Limbaugh seem to really love- anglo civilization- is actually more trouble than it’s worth…
Sahlins pulls together data from myriad anthropological studies to demonstrate that, contrary to popular belief, nomadic hunter-gatherers actually spend less time working for their subsistence than we do in postmodern America. The caloric intake of small scale hunter-gatherer groups is high enough to provide a healthy life, a respectable life expectancy, and, most importantly, a balance between work and life.
Cyber Foragers Today
Flip to the present…As we have spent time with independent, nomadic entrepreneurs in the inspiring world of coworking over the past several months, we see many things that remind us of Sahlins’ originally affluent society. From what we can tell, very few of the independent entrepreneurs that we’ve met aspire to Bill Gates-scale wealth. They are working to live the lives they want to live. That’s it. They have enough and, as one of our inspirations did earlier in the year, even manage to go skiing at Banff every now and again….Snowboarding in the Candadian Rockies is affluence!
This speaks to nomads’ lack of greed, selfishness, and lust for materialism. Nomads are ever-dependent on each other for their well-being. Coworking is premised on this simple principle.
Nomads work to have enough, and then they move on to the next moment. Be here now…And tomorrow.
Till then.
The Butcher
