You lucky bastards. I’ll post an article Saturday. Don’t say I never did anything for you.
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First off, all kidding aside and at least for a few seconds sarcasm mode turned to off, I don’t dislike most other survivalist writers. Even the meek and mild self reliant types such as Backwoods Home
caters to. I admire Claire Wolfe
and Jim Rawles
for their success. Claire might be slightly blinded by libertarianism, ascribing far too much importance to government before the collapse and not enough afterwards, and Rawles is just a modern version of a Yuppie Survivalist Preacher. But those are minor quibbles. They are good at what they do. I’m more in disagreement with their philosophy than with the authors themselves. Okay, it pissed me off when Wolfe moves to the desert for the cheap landscape rather than for a love of the environment. That is just me being difficult. She has done a lot of good teaching her art. And while I scream every time the words semi-automatic or bug out vehicle or electrical generator are mentioned, I don’t hate Rawles for what he preaches. He is actually telling you what you need to do to attain the highest probability of surviving. I just don’t think any of us have the time or money or, soon, jobs, to attain most of it. I really admire the intelligence of John Michael Greer
( the Arch Druid Dude
). His writing will challenge you, his scope of history is admirable and I am forever in his debt for turning me on to the most important doomer book ever, the bible, “Overshoot
” by Catton. But as I’ve said, it amazes me that we drew such different conclusions from the bible. And, by the way, the doomer bible used to be “The Great Reckoning
” by Davidson and Rees-Mogg. That was when I used to place too much importance on economics and not enough on energy, but it is still, almost twenty years later, the go-to book for the collapse of the welfare state. If today’s Social Security recipients had read and heeded that book back then, they wouldn’t be dependant on today’s doomed federal pension fund.*
Anyone in the militia porn camp such as Boston T. Party
has their place, but in a limited role. Boston’s Y2K 
guide was very good and somewhat helpful but it was firmly in the Yuppie Survival field. Yes, we do value our lives enough to buy the best. No, it isn’t realistic and we don’t have the time left to follow your advice. Boston is a bit elite when it comes to the guns. The Russian, Dmitry Orlov
, is too far out of the US culture to be of much help. The Russian collapse might share similar economics, but just the fact that America is an armed camp skews the whole comparison of collapse. Plus, the peasant culture of centuries in Russia has no equivalent in the US. Perhaps in the black community, but I don’t know enough about that culture. I just know they like the song about killing whitey, which is all I need to know. And I’m not trying to dis on our African-American brethren, so relax, Francis
. I’m speaking of an ingrained culture of oppression in both cases. Let’s see…who else can I point a quivering finger towards as I yell “Full Of Crap!”? No one comes to mind although I’m sure I’ve pointed them out numerous times over the years.*
Look, it can’t really be much simpler. A one time food source swells the population, the food goes away, a lot of people die. It pretty much boils down to that. The system cannot save itself. The system is 99% dependant on energy growth. Individuals can easily save themselves. But that in no way translates to society as a whole. A person here and there can farm sustainable. The other 99% of us only survive off of industrial agriculture ( obviously I’m speaking of the industrial nations, but even Third World nations are largely dependent on mechanized farming and global transportation since they only grow cash crops for export ). Gardening now is good practice, but odds are in a collapse you will need to hide out, live off of stored food, and then practice farming afterwards elsewhere. But let’s not get sidetracked there. My point is that self reliance and natural disaster preparedness are not what you need in the years ahead. You need to prepare for a full scale social collapse. Only petroleum allows 7 billion people to eat on this ball of mud. Petroleum is a non-renewable resource. As many authors smarter and more educated than myself have pointed out, we are running out of petroleum. We are thus running out of food for a lot of people.
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The US has already seen its share of petroleum
shrink. The dollar is on life support and everyone thinks a walker, an intravenous tube and an oxygen tank will keep it alive forever. Dollar hegemony
death spells the end of imported petroleum. Which is the bulk of our supply. Obammy opens up a potential ( is it even proven? ) area to drill off the Atlantic coast and suddenly everything will be okay? That’s like giving a 98 year old terminal cancer patient a pain pill, then he thinks he won’t die since he doesn’t hurt anymore. We are already on the road to ruin and everyone thinks a few solar panels and a garden in the White House will cure everything. If the whole system of control we now have could be dismantled ( it won’t be until all resources are gone ) we might have the means of turning sustainable while living off a surplus of oil we have left. But it won’t be allowed to happen. What will happen is economic crash and famine and epidemics and then the survivors will be sustainable and local. If they stay out of the way of the dying that will crush anything and anyone in desperation. *
I understand I won’t change anyone’s mind unless they have not yet converted to the church of optimism. But I worship at the temple of doom. We are all headed towards the stew pot. A few lucky ones will survive if they are paranoid enough. When someone has hair this good looking, how can they be wrong?
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4 comments:
James,
Paronoia, fear, and bias will keep you alive. It is a survival mechanizism.
On a seperate note, any recommendations ( books ) for alternates medications? I have a thyroid problem and am know looking for the alt to the meds I now take. Thanks
peace
I expect more than a few members of extended family at my door righteously indignant that I have not already delivered truckloads of food to their doors since I have so much and they struggle to make the monthly notes on house, TV,
car, truck, skidoo etc.
Bison,
You've become cerebral, morose and pragmatic of late. Maybe for a change of pace you could analyze the demise of a marriage or two. I already see the glass half empty (if even that). I'm looking for entertainment.
HELLO ALL- I am new to this BLOG and am Happy to have found it. I do belong to AMERICAN PREPPERS. I am going to tell them about this BLOG. I want to share this Posting from that BLOG.
Why prepare at all?- You may be on your own.
I know that the Computers did not crash and destroy Civilization on January 1, 2000 due to the GREAT Y2K as predicted by many so-called experts. I do remember though, that at the time, I did have a decent stock pile of extra food, blankets etc. My fear was not of crashing computers. I was afraid that if one or 2 crashed-people would panic and cause an Emergency. I could see that late December everybody either thought it was a complete Joke or were in full panic mode. My answer then was the same as now, except my reasons are a little different- BE PREPARED!!!! The saying that it is better to have and not need, than to NEED AND NOT HAVE, has not changed.
Y2K- I had a few people call me on New Year's Eve and ask me if I would help them if there was a National Emergency. One person was a fellow Veteran and Best Friend. He did stock up what he could. He and his Wife were at my house that Night. The others were people who made fun of me and called me a NUTBAG SURVIVALIST. Really?? I was a nutbag and they were going to rely on me to help. I do not want to use the language here that I used on the phone, just read between the lines. F&^% You, over and over and over. I did not expect then, nor do I expect now for everyone to agree with my Philosophies on Life, Liberty, The Pursuit of Freedom, The Survival of MY FAMILY, My own Political Beliefs, How I prepare and what I think is important. I do not agree with everyone elses either. In fact, some of you may think I am a too prepared or not nearly prepared. Our common ground is that all of us WILL SURVIVE because we CHOOSE TOO.
I have read about people that had a small stockpile of food and water during Katrina were happy that they had saved up a little extra supplies. One Woman stated in a Blog somewhere what she had an extra couple Months of food. She was not directly affected with flooding-she was cut off from the stores. Indirectly- she was affected. She did not ask for or need help with Flooding, she just could not go shopping to buy food as the stores were closed and the routes to them either Flooded or Blocked. She stated that she almost ran out of supplies and is now stashing 6-9 Months worth of food. Is she a nutbag survivalist? Is she over-zealous, is she not prepared enough, or is she Normal??
That brings me to a final thought for this Rant- What is the difference between a PREPPER and a SURVIVALIST? Preparing is getting ready to Survive and Surviving is beating the odds through preparation. Survivalist are prepared to beat the odds and Survive. Preppers are prepared to beat the odds and Survive- NO DIFFERENCE. The reason I approach this subject of the "word game" is that I had this discussion at great lenght with a Friend the other Night. He asked me what the difference was. The answer is simple- The Media has given so much Negative press to anyone who is called a Survivalist that many formerly, open-minded people cringe at the word "SURVIVALIST",especially because Y2K was not a disaster. Maybe the media would call them HERO's if CIVILIZATION was destroyed. (I will get on that topic one of these days in the future. "Hero's" is overused and a slap in the face to people who truly are.) As far as SURVIVALIST and PREPPERS- There is no difference. I do not care if you call yourself a PREPPER or SURVIVALIST. Since you are reading this, you probably call yourself a PREPPER. Either way, I am willing to share my ideas on PREPARATION AND SURVIVAL. Again- my 2 cents.
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