incremental idiocy

INCREMENTAL IDIOCY


Honest injuns, I guess it really is a good thing that people simply refuse to spend a lot of time worrying about the shape of things to come. Otherwise, I might not be able to write hundreds of articles about the same Gott Damn Thing. And we all know you love that. Yes, yes, I know at times I am like a broken record. Sky is falling, stewpot awaits, the end is nigh ( The End is Nigh: A History of Natural Disasters ). Blah, blah, yada, yada. But what the hell are we here for? Aren’t we survivalists ( Prophet (Survivalist No 7) )? As in, stockpile for the collapse of western civilization? So why is it such a hard thing to grasp that bad things will indeed happen? We are all in agreement in that, but on the other hand everyone seems to think they have all the time in the world to get ready. The end is nigh, but only after I’m ready. I’m sure that the sun is going to wait on your slow canned food accumulation and 1% of net prep budget before it shoots a flare out of its ass big enough to fry every electrical device on that side of the globe. Okay, so cars aren’t effected by an EMP ( Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat of the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack - 2008 ) in a recent test ( I didn’t have time to look into the link on www.survivalblog.com on the test. If it was a computer simulation I’ll just assume it is flawed. But even if not, a solar flare is much likely worse than a man made version ), BFD. What about the pumps for the gasoline? Are we just a circle jerk, everyone sitting together with sloppy grins on their face? Oh, we are soiling ourselves with happiness. All manner of bad things will happen, but it won’t be THAT bad and it won’t happen that soon. Friggin idiots.

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And a terrorist wouldn’t dream of setting off a dirty bomb ( King of Bombs: A Novel About Nuclear Terrorism ) upwind of you until after you can afford enough freeze dried Slop On A Shingle. Don’t worry about drought or grasshoppers or flooding, none of that will happen until after you can afford metal can wheat. God forbid you might settle for feed store wheat in possibly mildly toxic plastic buckets. After all, we have always been able to import from one region when another region has a disaster. Why worry about a low Canadian wheat harvest ( Homegrown Whole Grains: Grow, Harvest, and Cook Wheat, Barley, Oats, Rice, Corn and More ) and a Thailand drought happening at the same time? Even if the derivatives bomb could detonate at any time ( hitting us by surprise kind of like, oh, I don’t know, the summer of 2007 ) and halt shipping and commerce. Just because Happy Things happened yesterday doesn’t mean they will happen tomorrow. In fact, more than likely that means you’ve used up your allotted luck. What got me so riled, among other things, was the latest advice on coupon clipping. Which was fine advice as far as it went. But then she had to discount rice and beans in favor of canned foods. People, canned goods are a luxury, not a food storage system.

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Preppers look at me and are appalled. Oooooh, I could never live on wheat in a trailer on junk land. Boom. End of decision. Move on to Yuppie Survivalism. But as I’ve said before, as some of my readers have said before, even as Ross Perot might have said before, trailer trash survivalism is the first step, not the final answer. You start with the super cheap system. If something bad happens tomorrow you have a stockpile of Better Than Nothing. Because you can’t discount the possibility of the unknown happening on its own schedule rather than your own timetable which is tied to your budget. Then, and only then, do you move on to an incremental system of acquiring better crap. There is nothing wrong with buying yuppie. The problem is when a disaster happens and you STARTED yuppie and hence have nothing of one thing or not enough of another, or even worse just a stack of money awaiting a purchase. A PLAN to buy a semi auto ( Disassembly/Reassembly of the AK-47 Type Semi-Auto Rifles ) battle rifle is far worse than a junker Russian bolt gun IN HAND.

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You buy your grain and surplus bolt gun. Then you buy your water filter ( Aquamira Frontier Emergency Water Filter System ) ( you can improvise water purification but you can’t pull calories out of thin air or the means to defend them ). Then you go for your beans. Then more ammo. Semi’s, canned or freeze dried ( Mountain House Freeze-Dried Rice and Chicken ) food, silver, junk land, all that must wait until later. You start with the absolute cheapest that will work, in SUFFICIENT quantity, then you can move on to better quality. You don’t buy one month of rice and beans and then start saving for an AK-47. Keep buying rice and beans ( they are the same price so as long as you have the equivalent of one pound a day between the two [ one pound a day is starvation level but it will keep you alive ] it doesn’t matter the ratio to a huge degree at this point- calories first than preferable nourishment. I would not want to live on just white rice, but I also wouldn’t want to starve after just one month ) until you have six to twelve months worth and then buy an SKS( AK/SKS Stripper Clips/20 Pack ). It is half the price. You can trade or sell it later if you wish, but in the meantime you have something to arm yourself and the ammo is the same. I buy my beans incrementally, but I can also live of whole grains for years if need be if the end is tomorrow. This isn’t rocket science. You ask, what if the ass falls out of society tomorrow? Then, you take quick steps to protect yourself. Then, you work on better protecting yourself and eventually seeing to luxuries. People want to start at the luxuries, like a generator.

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People have been conditioned to expect instant gratification. Seven years of indentured servitude, but by gum they can drive a pretty car today. Why live in a tent or trailer and build your own cabin ( Build Your Own Cabin: A Practical Guide for Turning Your Cabin Dreams Into Reality ) when you can owe the bank for thirty years? After all, then you can have a pretty house right away. And why even think about living on whole wheat and bean dip when you can buy freeze dried meals at $20 a can? It will only cost you $3,000 a year to feed yourself a pretty meal. You want freeze dried? Fine. Put aside three hundred pounds of wheat and a hundred of beans. $150, plus containers and grain grinder. Then, you can have a years supply of food before you start accumulating treats or luxuries. I would love to have a cup of strawberries after dinner for a few weeks. A nice, luxurious desert. But it would sure suck if that was my only food. Chores first, then video games. Grains first, then desert. Wheat sprouts first, then canned veggies. A single shot shotgun now, an assault carbine later. A year of grain now, a few weeks of freeze dried meat later.

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A good analogy would be the bunny food diet pushed by the government. Eat mostly whole grain bread and a lot of veggies and fruit. Only lean meats and almost no fat. Then, because you are poor, you can’t buy enough of the preferred foods so you get too few calories and weaken and get a stray TB bug and die. But, hey, you died on a perfect diet.
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