I think it was a minion that mentioned the book “Crude World” by Peter Maass ( Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil (Vintage)
). Being a fellow that is predisposed towards book suggestions of a apocalyptic, catastrophic or cataclysmic bent, I looked it up on Amazon. It didn’t sound very thrilling so it did not get added to my wish list. A list that is constantly being added to despite my best efforts to subtract through ordering. Anyway, before I get off on a tangent about my wish list, perhaps boasting of its incredible length ( that’s not what she said ), or how despite my verbal abuse or snide comments I love all my minions all to pieces because even though I’m the sorry bastard doing all the work without their support I couldn’t order as many books as I do, or perhaps even nagging you all to never stop adding your suggestions so I never miss a great book and its in your best interests since I’ll buy the damn thing and perhaps save you money on a complete and utter hunk of decaying donkey offal such as “One” ( One
)( for the love of all that’s holy and just, get to the damn point and stop sniveling like a little bitch, this is a zombie book, blood and destruction and violent mayhem, not a crying jag about lost family- fem writers cover the angst and drama, the emotions. I expect male authors to kill things, hate people and lust after boobs ), let me just come to the point. Although I wouldn’t spend a dime on the book, I wasn’t adverse to checking it out at the library when I accidentally stumbled onto it. My advice? Don’t even bother reading it for free. To sum up- Mr. New York Liberal Writer Puke goes around the world and breathlessly reports on all the terrible conditions oil creates. Vicious dictators, massive pollution, greedy executives. Oh, my, God! Look, Nancy, American soldiers are guarding the Ministry Of Oil as the antiquity museum down the street is looted! How Shocking! Alert my butt humping “life partner” how sensitive I am over this matter. I’m not sure why a book publisher paid for this research, and gave this guy a paycheck. Newsflash, no one gives a crap as long as they can drive their tree hugging, Birkenstock wearing, tie-dye shirt covering saggy boobs and armpit hair ass in a Saab to the Save The Earth rally. Al “I invented the Internet” Gore isn’t the only hypocrite around, he is surrounded by over 300 million of them.*
Before we get into today’s subject, let me make one thing very clear. Crystal clear. Clear as the fact that Obammy is as bad as Baby Bush ( Poop on Bush! anti-bush baby Toddler T-Shirt
) but with a better tan. I hate my ex-wife. I don’t just dislike her. I want bad things to happen to her. Not right away ( until the kids move out ), and I certainly won’t waste my time or my anal virginity ( as in, going to jail over her ) on it. But I am really rooting for karma to kick her considerable ass. Regardless of what happened or who was at fault, the fact remains that her response was disproportional. She is still trying to make me suffer, and that just ain’t right. Revenge and justice should be proportional. It is highly unlikely she ever was as serious in the relationship, so it shouldn’t mandate an eighteen year long jihad ( The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America
). I want that understood as I make this statement. Thank you very much, evil spawn of Satan, for forcing me to be were I am today. And I’m not being sarcastic. Without her forcing me into abrupt financial straits I wouldn’t be as secure and prepared as I am right now. It was a long road, it took a lot of sacrifice that I myself made. But she gave me the push I needed. For that I thank her. She is still an evil swine, but her actions actually helped me in the end.*
I was well versed in the art of basic frugal living ( Frugal Living for Dummies
). My mom went from middle class housewife to quasi-hippy and by the mid seventies we had all the suburban homestead paraphernalia. Large garden, solar dried fruit and clothes, wood heat. I turned the Corona to make a weeks worth of whole wheat bread. We ate absolutely no junk food or soda. Even the pasta was home-made. I lived Mother Earth News. And when I first started buying books when I got in the service, not only did I buy survival and militia ones, I read all about living unconventionally ( such as with “Living Without A Salary” [ How to Survive Without a Salary: Learning How to Live the Conserver Lifestyle
] ). But, perhaps in rebellion to living hippie, I wanted nothing more than a middle class life. The wife, the one point five kids, the white picket fence. Oh, I still had my idiosyncrasies, such as my extreme dislike for automobiles ( at the time, the hate was the cost, not the soon to disappear fuel ), but I was overall normal. Armed, with food stores, but not too different than the Yuppie Scum I hate and pick on now. I hated the affluent Yuppie back then, brilliantly portrayed in National Lampoons Christmas, but I was a Yuppie Junior at least. I was just like you- thinking a few months of food and an auto pistol was all that was needed to survive. *
After a nasty divorce, I immediately went from middle class to slum dwelling trailer trash. ( Trailer Trash: The World of Trailers & Mobile Homes in the Southwest
) I was poor as working poor can be. And even though I had the childhood background, and the book knowledge, I didn’t have the proper attitude for it. My mind was still in middle class mode even as I was poor. So it took awhile and it was a hard journey to finally throw off my normal American middle class aspirations and embrace frugal living. It is an easy thing to do, but only after you stop thinking around money. After you stop equating money with security and think of the reduced need for money as security. After you stop thinking that comfortable and money are intertwined. You must look at a slight bit more labor and a slight bit less comfort/luxury in order to start to live on less money. You can read all the books you want, but until you embrace a reduced standard of living as desirable, you can’t live the frugal life. I might, or I might not, have voluntarily made the switch without the Handmaiden Of Lucifer. I like to think I would have done it on my own, but who knows. I certainly would not have been prepared enough in time if I’d waiting too much later. By the time I “discovered” Peak Oil ( Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage (New Edition)
), I was already well on the way to frugal living, so cutting the grid umbilical cord was easy. I wanted to be independent of the landlord, so living in tin box poverty was agreeable. She thinks she got one over on me, taking half my income all these years. But she pissed it all away ( and never on the kids- more like on a Mustang or eating everyday at Subway ) and I made myself a lot more independent. Who will have the last laugh?Brought to you by another loyal minion suggesstion.
END
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My e-mail is jimd303@netzero.com
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Anyone can submit a guest article. No minimum word length, no writing skill necessary ( just get the idea across ). You retain copyright ( this must be your original writing ) and I’ll just use the once. I’ve yet to turn down an article, just don’t use the N Bomb or libel another that can sue me. Send by e-mail. Payment will be your removal from my enemies list.
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8 comments:
Anonymous hieronymous higgopoggamus here ...
EXCELLENT article. First some complaining about your evolving into the Lester Bangs of the Apocalypse, lol. A modest proposal: If someone really wants to read a book review by you, they get on Amazon and order it for you, as a gift. Used copies are generally dirt-cheap. New ones aren't bad. Most (thought not all) of your readers are probably well-heeled enough to do that.
Makes me wonder if I should do a blog that's nothing but book reviews. I know some WEIRD COOL books.
OK so on to two observations of mine about the Internet, mainly because no one else is talking about this on the Net at least, we'll see why.
(1) On the Internet, you take a 30-point IQ penalty. This means the poor average slob has about a 70 IQ on here and it shows. Smart types get all the way up to dull normal, 90 or so. It takes a 130 type, say a doctor or engineer, to sound normal, and in my case if the tests are to be believed, I come off smart, in the 120-130 range. Keep the 30-point penalty in mind and the horrible spelling, crazy grammar, and general word-salad is a bit easier to take.
(2) The Internet is closing down. Now this is going to piss a lot of people off, because it flies in the face of the Cult Of Progress. But the Net's shutting down, it's just shutting down slowly. It's harder to post, harder to comment, more ad-dominated, etc. Internet users are becoming very well trained; just don't even try to comment on most sites, even about things you feel strongly about. Just keep your damn mouth shut. Access is getting slower all the time, too. The Internet will die through a process of less and less usefulness for most of the things we use the Net for. Thankfully, I think the plain-text stuff like public-domain books and manuals etc will go last.
Excellent post today.
I don't wish to be cruel, but hasn't it been beneficial that Luficer's Handmaiden screwed over? Why else would we have had the opportunity to look into your mind with such amusement and joy. Where else would we have found such a, dare I say it, clear and preceptive mind. In a just world I would be working for you as would most of the yuppie scum you so dereil. Your writings are the most complex, deep and alagorical readings I have enjoyed in some time. Keep up the great work. (No, I did not say good, I said great.)
Another quick post proving my "theory" that the net is dying - I can't sell on Craig's List any more.
They're cracking down on prostitution on Craig's List, all well and fine you may say, but it means they're cracking down on EVERYTHING. I'd have to make an account on there, the 2-3 I already have on there don't work, and I can't set up a new one now, it's either having no phone or no credit card that gets me, I forget which.
Back to the street-corners for the prostitutes, back to swap meets for me.
Ah, a bit more of the background. Some good wordplay there.
If you went the Yuppie Scum way for a couple years, you could make a lot of money for preps, and probably be better stocked/set than 10 years at your current income... but she'd get her half.
That makes things clearer.
Suburban survivalist : I don't think you got it here.
It's really not about money. Experience is much more difficult to get, and is also cumulative. You have to accumulate a lot of experience, and failures too, before any of it can become useful.
Without experience, you lack one of the primary objectives of survivalism that is to "do without". For instance, doing without electric tool means spending hours where you used to spend minutes, and it requires far more skill and planning.
Money really isn't the core issue. Most survival assets can be had for little money, as we all know from the paleolithic.
It always strikes me how many people surviving in third world hellholes are not intelligent, capable, crafty young adult males with Stallone-shaped bodies, but old hags, superstitious morons, goat herders etc. Those with strong bodies usually get in that shape from dumb jobs like carrying bricks or chopping sugar cane all day long.
James is now at least ten years ahead of any Yuppie Survivalist, not only in terms of preps (how many years of food do you have ?) but because he learnt to "make without" for a long time. He also made a lot of mistakes, but it was in a time when he could afford to.
When Yuppie Survivalists will have to "do without" from scratch, not only will far fewer things be available, they will also not be able to afford mistakes.
Money is not the *core* issue. Money is still *an issue* before TSHTF. If you think time is short, but you're scraping by and can afford only a few preps, money matters.
I've been to a lot of third-world hell holes (Africa, SE Asia) and lived in one for over two years. More money to put into better/more equipment now can make a world of difference in quality of life when the infrastructure vanishes.
Buying a better property (10+ acres, the more the better), installing a well (w/good hand pump), etc. are not cheap. I'm speaking of land, not buildings, and land suitable for TEOTWAWKI existence (water, wood, small-scale farming, game), not a piece of lifeless desert that can't sustain anyone.
Money for preps mattes even more if you have a family to take care of. More people = more preps needed.
If you already live in a suitable retreat location with land/home paid for, that's great, you can prep well for cheap. But if you're not in that situation, like the vast majority of folks, I think you're fooling yourself if you really think you can make substantial preps on the cheap.
In my case, I’m lucky, I have a suitable place to go. I’m investing in it now. From growing up on a farm, and living in some rough locales, I don’t doubt my ability to survive.
A few bucks front loaded goes a long, long way. At least from what I've observed.
SS- for most, cheap is as good as it gets. Better to be in the desert and turn bandit than stay in the city for lack of money and go to the stewpot. Yes, expensive preps are far better. If you had the luxury of time. Which we don't. Remember, BTN ( better than nothing ).
Suburban Survivalist, obviously it's better to have more money than less.
But "better" does not mean "critical". Accumulated time and experience can compensate for the lack of money on many *critical* issues, such as food.
For instance, when James tested the white wheat diet and found out his body wasn't accustomed to it, he could make changes that were not so important in terms of cost but were very critical in terms of value/utility.
Of course, if you only have two weeks to prepare before SHTF and are a complete novice, the more money you have the better, but unless you have a real fortune, what you can buy overall doesn't cover everything, it's perhaps one-third of what is needed overall in terms of what you could have obtained with more time and/or experience.
What most people do in their first years of prepping is not as useful as they believe. A lot of money gets lost in vain, and from what I saw it is a general law. I'm also guilty of the same.
To sum it up differently, to win a battle obviously one needs artillery and logistics, but you can have as many as you want, if your general was an attorney two weeks before all his weapons will be far less useful than to the career general. And the career general may be able to kick ass even without a lot of weapons and manpower. (The big lesson of the second half of the 20th century, from Indochina to Afghanistan)
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