ghost town usa

GHOST TOWN USA
My readership is around nine hundred people a day. Those are my loyal minions. No one else in their right mind listen to my fear mongering, paranoid delusions. But as they say, genius is rarely recognized in its own time. So when I get comments left that question a basic philosophy I have been repeating for some time, I just know it has to be a visitor. I can hope they tune back in and I can try to cram some learning into their void of a cranial cavity. For the rest of you, this is old hat. As mean spirited readers that don't send me money every payday or sign over their home deeds or join my still to grow army in Elko have already pointed out, I could post one article on frugal survival and cease to publish thereafter and no one would miss much ( after the basics of wheat, bolt guns, trailer, junk land are covered- yes, I agree with the charge- the only thing left is just details ). As an aside, in a supreme burst of Super Loyal Minion charity, a kind and now favorite of the day reader sent a case of canned bacon. Oh, glorious and happy day! I shall indulge in the best of all pork products as Chinese nuclear devices detonate in our harbors from cargo containers as the rest of you munch on rancid granola bars and swill it down with tepid water as you gaze in wonder at the settling fallout clouds. Envy me, mere mortals!
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I used to be a happy prepper. I had my years worth of wheat with Corona grinder, a half dozen gallons of bleach, a .45 pistol with a few boxes of ammunition. I wouldn't be the first to die, and if I survived the riots I could eat for awhile. Life was simple and I was happy. Then, like a supreme dumbass, I thought writing would be oh so friggin happy and joyous. I had always entertained that notion, and once I could afford a computer ( well, the payments on one anyway ) I had the proper tool I needed. I started a terribly written newsletter I hope no one has a copy of. From then on I was hooked. I had a few starts and stops, but I was on my way to shouting that the end was nigh from the largest soap box I could find. And as time went on and the more research I did, the more troubled I became. I was no longer content with the very basics because I kept perceiving more and more threats. The deeper I dug the worse it got. The more I knew, the more dangerous I became.
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So here we are at the point where, yes, I am bitter and cynical and paranoid and fearful. Is it bad enough that our economy is imploding? Or that the weather is changing at the same time our soil is degraded? Or that ( fill in the blanks- bird flu, terror attacks, American dictatorship, etc. ) poses a clear danger? On top of all that, we have Peak Oil. Energy is life. Period. It can be short term solar energy stored in wood or crops. Or carbon fuels ( even if the fantasy of abiotic oil is true, usage rates far exceed replenishment rates ) consisting of highly concentrated, aged solar energy. When the energy supply falls, collapse follows. We, as a nation ( globally too, but who cares about fuzzy foreigners ) are the same as a prosperous Western mining town that soon turns into a ghost town.
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The usual trend is that a smelly anti-social type is kicked out of town for molesting farm animals. He wanders away into a remote post, and one day while digging a cat hole, he discovers an ore containing a valuable metal. Word gets out when he comes back to town to buy a mail order goat bride with gold dust and before you know it everyone and is brother is stalking a claim. A town goes up, full of canvas sided buildings, unshaven six gun toting bachelors, prostitutes and merchants ( about the same thing ). Everyone hurries to make a fortune before the ore plays out. When that happens, a ghost town is all that remains. If the vein doesn't give out quickly, in time the permanent residents forget that they are living off of a non-renewable resource. After a few generations, the logic of depletion might be there but the emotional response is denial all the same. I have few illusions of mining here in Elko, but thousands of mortgage holders here are blind to it.
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Oil is being mined, and very quickly globally. Despite a history of boom and bust, no one is paying heed to the coming ghost town. Their fortunes are tied up in oil mining and they refuse to think about the mine drying up. When an area over depletes its energy, the population falls to a very small fraction of its glory years. It is merely a matter of when, not if, you will see Ghost Town USA. You can hope you die before it arrives, but more likely you will die during its arrival.
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