>>94176>half the point of hiking/camping was to enjoy life without ... rampant consumerismIt can be. But that still leaves at least half a point. Echoing
>>94198's sentiment. It is what you make of it.
This is a board for all things outdoor related. Gear is one of those outdoor-related things. Whether you make your own gear and take stuff you already own, buy everything from your local army surplus store, or buy the most expensive, trendy gear they put out there, there are very few people who both hang out on the internet and who can walk naked into the woods and live indefinitely. You need at list a bit of gear, and there are as many styles and preferences for what works best as there are people going out innawoods. (And there are even *more* varieties of gear, because you're right, the outdoor industry is an industry--a huge industry--just like everything else.)
As for me, I'm aspiring toward minimalism, both in my outdoor kit and in my personal, daily life, but a part of that minimalism involves finding a near-perfect array of things that meet my actual needs.
On top of that, I have a bit of a familial hoarding streak, and I'm working to overcome the better part of 26 years of deeply ingrained cultural consumerism. That process doesn't end with merely identifying it and rejecting it off hand. Our brains have been hacked since childhood, and there will always be a part of us driven by the consumerist capitalist mindset, though we can resist this and actively strive to move away from it. In short, though, this also makes it fun to be a bit of a gear nerd.
I lived a half year in the woods last year, and one of the greatest subtle benefits of that experience was our freedom from nearly all advertising copy (aside from a few magazines and the logos on our gear). But even in that environment, we talked about gear via word-of-mouth, observation, trial, and imagining the perfect items for us as we refined our unique styles of wilderness life and travel.
