H*Flow : Part 2 -The conditions of living better.

In our previous installment of the H*Flow series, we listed the expected services which a state offers its citizens at minima.

-Protection from exterior aggression or Army;
-Protection from internal aggression or Police;
-Fair and equal treatment for each or Justice.
-Education
-Healthcare
and possibly some sort of  long term revenue insurance as in Social Security or Welfare.

These can be considered as state-wide requirements but how about the corresponding basic local infrastructures?

Let’s start by stating the obvious. In a city environment in a modern country, one expects water, electricity and transportation. We could summarize thus the minimum offerings that constitute modernity.
Of course, their mechanical representation can be listed too : lighting, heating, refrigerators, radio/TV/internet. In many places in the Industrial world, these are tenets of daily needs. As we get away from the city, some are not always fully implemented and one can still buy a piece of land or house that is not connected to a paved road for instance. But on average …

There are however many more tenuous expressions of modernity that play a role in urbanization and most are not physical. Some people left their countryside in the twentieth century to go become movie stars or directors. In those cases, the attraction was not cities but one or two particular cities of interest where movies are being produced and jobs in the field to be found. Those personal and particular needs are not the main source of the rural exodus.

The main part was actually the concentration of resources and means in the urban areas : jobs for instance.
A corollary was the shortening of our daily time schedule brought on by that accretion of people and means.
In other words, we switched from living to the rhythm of seasons to living to the rhythm of instantaneity !!!

What happened was that those who first left did so to get access to things that did not exist in their neck of the woods. The Aussies used to say Sidney or the bush! meaning that if you did not live in the big cities of Australia, you lived in the wilderness. Of course, people first left the countryside to gain access to marvels that were absent in the rural areas but that is just not true anymore. Whether in Australia, Germany or the USA if you have a link to the big infrastructure, you can phone, surf the net or watch TV. The other stuff that kept the rural exodus going was less tangible and is often summarized as modernity. Sometimes it made sense. The new movie 30 years ago came out in big cities first then in smaller ones and so on. Nowadays, modern means of distribution make the countrywide opening night easy. But is that a need? Many of the things in question are desires, mere desires but not needs. Of course when kids are thought that such as a 5 quintillion G phone is a necessity, they complain about not having one but it still is not a need. No surprise many modern teens have no link to history for instance, how could they when for all practical purposes, they just cannot picture how humanity ever managed without IPhones, flat screen TVs or GPS. ( We used to write letters, spend evenings singing, dancing and telling stories and acquire a sense of orientation is the short answer. )

I am very sorry to say this out loud but, having a choice of hairdressers within a five kilometer radius or catching the latest museum exhibition or expecting the authorities to clear the streets of a five feet snowfall in time for you to leave for work on dry pavement are some of the conditions of living better. They are not necessities.

*

Let’s suppose from the point of view of the rural individual then. We will postulate, set as conditions, that we are in a country that has not yet emptied its rural areas. The setting is almost barren of equipment, virgin. A spot in Central Africa maybe? People live there. With literally no comfort! What do they need so that our requirements are met? Electricity first because in a harsh environment it also is the source for the pump in the well that gets the water. And it also can provide light and communications. And  power a refrigerator. In an African example, heating may be seen as secondary. 😉

Those are also just about the basics of the Back to Earth or Back to simpler life movements in the Modern countries.

In 1950 or even 1975, you automatically thought power grid and waterworks to accomplish that but not anymore! One or two solar panels and a small windturbine can now generate what is needed.
And the question becomes why not?

We will answer that in our next H*Flow installment, the Hero and the regulations.

Good day all, Tay.