Self sufficiency

I am often asked by those who do not know me well why it is that I do not have a Facebook page given my positions as Global Strategy Advisor to Facebook and Personal Guru-in-Chief to the Zuckerbergs. I could point out that there is a basic logical fallacy underlying the question, as there is no reason whatsoever for assuming that an individual should necessarily consume a product simply because they have played a pivotal role in its invention. You might as well ask why I do not take oestrogen given that I developed the photo-kinetic molecular distillation technique that underlies its production.

However, with the aim of writing an absorbing and educational blog I will ignore the logical deficiencies of the question, and tell my dear readers that the reason why I do not have a Facebook page is that my enlightened foster parents inculcated such a strong and abiding ethos of self-sufficiency in the boy Essay den Sushing which has survived undiminished into my old age. To give just one example, during those portions of my childhood in which we followed the ancient transhumance rituals of the Tibetans- moving to the higher Himalayan pastures with the arrival of Spring- my parents would construct a sleeping yurt large enough to accommodate themselves alone, leaving me and my adopted sister with the options of constructing our own yurts or facing the brutal thermal consequences and sleeping outside for the night.

Such fundamental lessons have stayed with me ever since, and explain why it is that I habitually provide for myself. You will never, for example, see me taking an easy ride on public transport- instead I will be driven in my own limousine, helicopter, jet or yacht. Nor will you find me taking the soft option of staying in hotels- instead I have taken the trouble of acquiring a globally diverse portfolio of residences so that I can support myself when travelling. No Googling either- I have developed my own search engine, cleverly designed to advertise only those products I have already decided I might buy. And as for Facebook- well, you might readily imagine that I, virtually the father of the concept, have my own self-developed social networking site, reserved exclusively for my personal use.