Let’s say that I want to become a Rugged Individualist. What do I need to know how to do? What are those things that no self-respecting man would be unable to do? What should I read? In short, what is the Rugged Individualist eye for the Liberal guy?
Just follow me and do what I do.
You should be able to:
- Perform routine maintenance and basic repair on your vehicles
- Kill and field dress wild game
- Build a picnic table
- Split firewood
- Catch and clean fish
- Plant a successful vegetable garden
- Bake a cherry pie from scratch
- Homebrew beer and wine
- Fix a fence
- Drive a tractor
- Install a door and/or window
That’s all I can think of right now.
Well, let’s see,
-Chop wood (of course you have a wood heated home – no one pays for fuel when they can get it for free just by chopping it down right?)
-Hunt for, skin and dress your own meat (its okay if you take it someplace to be butchered, I guess). Also, fishing. Also, keep your own chickens and pigs. Be able to slaughter same.
-Fix your own cars, at least some of the time.
-Own your own generator and know how to run it.
-Know how to dose your livestock with pills, give them intramuscular shots, and humanely put them down with a gun (should no other option be available). Note: I’m not sure if you can be an RI with any profession other than Farmer or Rancher.
-Have a wife that knows how to garden and preserve produce via canning, drying, etc. (definitely part of rugged individualism, but not so manly). Also, sewing or at the very least repairing clothes.
hmm… That’s what springs to mind. RI is an awful lot of work.
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, con a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.” - Robert Heinlein
In short, a Rugged Individualist will do what needs to be done, period.
IMHO though, RI is gender-neutral. I know more than a few gals I would trust to do the above. Just don’t make 'em parallel park. 
I knew a very rugged ultra individualist once.
He had a gun rack on a mountain bike, and I am not kidding. That’s the kind of thing you really can’t make up.
He was in touch with some state park rangers in New York and they would contact him whenever a deer would get hit by a car in the park. He’d come and get it.
He also saved tobacco juice and used it as a stain.
At the very least, you should get in touch with your local park rangers and tell them to notify you whenever they get good road kill.
You’ll need a 72 Jeep Commando.
Did I mention I have a 72 Jeep Commando for sale?
I don’t have a gun rack on my mountain bike, but I have taken road killed deer from the Sheriff’s Dept. And I make my own woodstain from black walnut hulls instead of tobacco juice.
Do not get tricked into moving to Alaska. Alaskans like to strut around pretending to be rugged indvidualists. In fact, they end up with bigger chunks of government money than almost any other state. Wyoming* and Idaho are the state for rugged individualists. By reputation Montana is as well, though I 've never lived there.
- But not the Jackson Hole area.
You’re asking a bunch of people to tell you how to become a rugged individualist?? 
The first step is to clean other peoples houses for free. Then do their shopping. Drop me a line, I get you started.
Seriously, RI, to me, are people that just don’t constantly bitch all the time. You can have your complaints, but really, quitcherbitchen and do something about it.
(That’s not directed at you Binarydrone, or anyone else in this thread). :Looks around: There might be a few people in the pit that could use a lesson or two.
It’s not the fault of Alaskans that their Senator is the King of Pork, or that they have vast oil deposits coupled with a small population.
A rugged individualist doesn’t ask for government help, but they also don’t reject windfalls.