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Tribes ?
Anonymous
Disclaimer : This is just fantasy/speculation,so don't get offended ! The S ain't HTF yet,so it doesn't really matter. I'm just trying to find solutions and offer some thoughts to this tribe business. I really want some feedback from you,please leave some comments.
The OFFENSIVE FARMERS post and the comments on Wednesday , June 10 , 2009 really got me thinking about tribes..The solution that James proposed will let us keep our independence and everybody will have the same rights. Everybody produces their own food and we will fight together for Bisonia. Offense is the best defense. Cooperation will ensure our survival,we'll help each other out, when someone is in need we will take care of them. We will have to respect one another,I'm not sure if we are capable of that,not yet anyways.Maybe we will get a big attitude adjustment after the collapse. Maybe we will just die-off.
A tribe has absolutely nothing to do with the society we have today. If a tribe is going to work,we will have to become a family and that means trusting one another. We will have to work together because we actually like one another and because we care about our tribe. Me,Me,Me won't work. There has got to be some love involved. How else will a tribe be able to function? Will terror work? Will the "John Smith Diet" go over well with free men? I don't think so. I would have to kill John and take his food,I decide when I eat. I will not be a slave,that's not living. If you want respect you'll have to respect others. If you want freedom you're going to have to give others their freedom. It's all give and take, the way I see it.
Why would we have to be worried about getting screwed by our neighbors? If our neighbors need us to survive,just as we need them,why would they screw us over? We would never trust them again or help them out,they would lower their chances for survival. We are going to have to trust our neighbors and they are going to have trust us. No man is an island. We're going to have to start being honorable human beings again.
Why do we need to bring in hired gunmen? How will that work? Will they sit around all day and watch us work? Why can't the hired gunmen help out with the chores? How long will it be before they view us as inferiors? Everybody should be self sufficient. Each man arms and feeds himself..Hired gunmen and farmers don't mix,you now have two very different classes in your tribe.Why would the neighbors in the next town be a threat? Are we Oceania? Do we really need an Eurasia?
Do we need law enforcement? Can't we enforce the law ourselves? What laws do we need to enforce? Who will make the laws? Why do we feel the need to control members of our tribe? Three strikes and your out? Do we need a chief ? A Decider? A Lord Protecter of Bisonia? How can we make a tribe work?
I hope this made some sense. Maybe I'm full of crap. Speaking of crap, you know what to do.
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4 comments:
You are right about hired guns and farmers not mixing. This is where big families might come in handy. Some love and trust should already exist as well as some sort of hierarchy. The closer the family members the better. If the family unit is very small then maybe some very close family friends will be included. A retreat could serve a large family well during good times and would help keep the individual's cost down.
The warp and woof of our lives are the ten commandments and the Bill of Rights. If I hit the lotto I'd buy a couple of sections on the Red or the Canadian: then invite a few old hardcases, friends for thirty years or so, to bring their
families and join me and mine there. One for all. All for one. We would live the honour system. Murder, rape, theft or otherwise betray the clan and you get a bullet in the head.
If times get lean ladies and kids
eat first.
I would like an earthsheltered house, garage, machine shop, storage, and barn all under one roof.
It'd be nice to have a 1000 yard range.We shoot from a bench at the windows in my shop.
Good post.
As I am actively searching for my tribe, these are all issues I have been struggling with.
Jack of all trades types would be much more valuable to a community than people stuck in the roles of 'farmer' or 'soldier'.
What about the roles of baker? mechanic? child care? animal husbandry? electrician? plumber? carpenter? shoemaker? tanner?
weaver?
There is too much to do in a self reliant community to have soldiers sitting around, though if things are rally bad it couldn't hurt to have a few lookouts.
Hopefully everyone would have an attitude adjustment, and realize the survival of the community = personal survival.
I have visited a few intentional communities and was concerned by people who seemed to think they could rest on their laurels while everyone else did the work.
That is where my slacker comment came from.
If however, a community is very discriminating about who they accept in the first place, many problems could be avoided.
Anyhoo, tomorrow I am leaving to visit 2 communities, and broach many of these same issues with them. I'll let you know what I find out.
This is a topic I am most interested in. Would like to write more, but I've gotta pack the camping gear.
Lets keep the discussion going!
See ya in 10 days.
Thank you for providing an alternative reality to the bleak world of military domination that James paints so vividly.
Many of my responses tend to reflect his cynical, misogynistic attitudes.
Eventually, people will have to trust and respect one another because they simply won't survive if they don't.
The biggest thing I learned from visiting communities is the importance of an attitude shift from "ME" to "US". A lot of individual compromises are required to successfully live in community.
The ultimate goal of a community needs to be the survival of THE COMMUNITY, not of the individual.
How you treat your neighbors, and how they treat you probably depends a lot on the availability of resources. In a resource rich area, my community INCLUDES my neighbors as trading partners, extra labor for large projects, and sources of fresh genetics.
In a resource poor area (like Nevada) neighbors probably will be warlike and kill each other over limited supplies of food and water.
I don't agree that the best defense is a good offense. I think being invisible and inaccessible is the best defense. Offense burns up a lot of resources and energy.
Cooperation among neighbors will help to ensure our survival.
So James can have his reality of a violent future. It is a product of his past experience, his resource poor area, and a clinging macho belief that domination is the name of the game.
I'll take my reality of hippie utopia, where people love and respect the earth and each other, and cooperate to help make everyone more secure and comfortable. It is a product of my past experience, in a beautiful green valley, with friendly neighbors that grow their own food.
How can we make a tribe work?
It won't be easy. Nothing worth a crap ever is. I'm still working on figuring that part out.
But at least I'll be blissfully happy eating great fresh food and banging hippies in the tall grass by the river...at least until the golden horde somehow travels a few hundred miles sans petrol randomly into the wilderness and happens to find us somehow.
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