Musings...again. It's Kobucks fault

 

    I'm glad that Kobuck is writing prolifically again, because it pushes me to muse. Sometimes I muse on here more than I think I should instead of just sticking to primary sources and putting the information in front of people and letting them decide what to do with it. 

    Why does it matter so much to get this stuff "right". Especially when for a lot of this we aren't even necessarily doing it in front of the public. Private events, backyard camps and hunting trips. Who cares if you're wearing the right clothes. It's the spirit of it, right? 

    I think sometimes because of the modern world we live in, it causes us to want to experience another time. And we then go about romantically concocting notions of rugged individuals living off the land in some kind of bushcrafter survival paradise. "Out here they're beholden to none, not living by another's leave". Cool story bro, but that's just our James Fenimore Cooper, Davy Crockett King of the Wild Frontier cultural mythos at play and it's VERY HARD to escape from it. 

    I think sometimes the fight is no longer, hey guys lets do this better, its become more so lets call a spade a spade and quit pretending like this bushcraft weekend in historically inspired outfits has anything to do with what guys in the 1760s backcountry were doing. Let's admit that there's two hobbies going on within this larger hobby and stop conflating them. Maybe your group shouldn't go on YouTube and claim to be portraying long hunters of the 1760s. Maybe just say "We are historically inspired bush crafters using some of the skills of the past to have some fun and get away from the modern hustle and bustle for a weekend." Who knows, maybe we all need to admit that's what we're doing wether our clothes can be documented down to the stitch or not. 

    I don't know what the answer is. We all do this hobby for different reasons, I just really have a hard time with disinformation. So put a disclaimer up or something. Or not. Probably doesn't matter. Shoot flintlocks, build fires, make a shelter and have fun. Oh and read some primary sources and try to do that too.    

    In other news, I think we're gonna do some Tshirts again, and I've got new Shirttail Mess "Liberty or Death" stickers. Stay tuned for that. Go read Kobuck's new
blog post about aping the savage. It'll make you rethink some things.