I agree, it's good to have as a backup. But I think I need to meditate on it longer - I feel like it's a piece of a larger picture. We hold on to so many outdated models because they're the "devil we know". Paper money (not backed by anything tangible), traditional schooling to pass tests, large commercial farming...I feel like these "traditional" things, or the ways things were done for 1000's of years have been corrupted over the last 100 years. We've taken something good and, by trying to improve it, lost sight of the valuable in them?
Recovering from war and a recession, we broke the ties between the dollar and gold. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but now we find ourselves in a situation where a dollar is only as valuable as a person THINKS it is. Trying to ensure every kid and school get ahead, we're teaching our kids memorization and repetition, taking the soul and curiosity out of learning. By "modernizing" our food industry and making food cheap and accessible to everyone, we've bastardized our soil and put human nutritional interests into the hands of stakeholders interested in nothing by profit.
But those are merely the ramblings of a sleep-deprived mama of a teething baby :) I'm sure there's a bigger picture, or a better answer out there.
there is truth in everything you said.