offensive imperative

OFFENSIVE IMPERATIVE


A combination of 80% laziness, 5% vacation and 15% intermittent rain postponed my trench digging for three weeks. If you’ll reach back into the dusty unused cavern of your memory you will remember that I got my truck bogged down because the ground thawed out the week between trips into town. The truck looked secure resting on a false layer of topsoil over quicksand, but as soon as forward motion was attempted all was lost in a spasm of remorse and fear. But even as I kept putting off digging “just one more day” I knew that April Fools Day was absolutely the last possible day I could start digging if I wanted to get done before summer started. Well, this fool got digging and I finally made the breakthrough of digging my starting hole down to four feet over the weekend. Now, instead of having to laboriously dig straight down ( the top foot is easy, the second foot difficult but not impossible, the third foot is harder than concrete and the forth almost sandy and loose ) I can go from above and dig into the side, undercutting that third foot. This is much easier. And even though I know in my heart I am a overoptimistic fool, I’m going to try to achieve three feet a day. We’ll see- expect far too many updates and overly long and winded complaints to follow.

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A minion graciously wrote some time back ( I started digging on Halloween, went about a month, then pretty much stopped until now- so it was sometime in the last five months ) and described his attempts at earth tubes. He made a huge circle of his pipe, in effect taking cold indoor air and sending it down about three hundred feet of tubes back indoors. Why take butt ass cold air from the outdoors and try to heat it when you can take already heated air from inside, right? Well, you do need a fan to circulate the air. And you must capture the condensation ( which is actually a benefit ). So, while superior in results, might expose you to mechanical failure down the road. A lot of parts, pumps, electrical generation and batteries. Once the batteries die, you can’t pump the air come night or clouds. And, most importantly, it would require a HECK of a lot more hand digging on my part. I’m opting for the butt simple option. If I notice a marked difference in temperature I’ll expand the length and double the pipe. In his book, “The Earth Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book” Mike Oehler mentions a greenhouse at 8,000 feet that had a base temperature of 52 degrees from a twelve inch pipe buried eight foot deep running for two hundred feet. Obviously my four foot deep four inch pipe running one hundred feet is both much cheaper and surely won’t deliver as good of performance. But if I do two pipes and double the length it might come close ( especially factoring in the less severe winters ). All from a straight pipe with no fans ( I might have to switch to summer cooling by extending the intake above the indoor outflow level, I’ll need to research that ).

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I’m sure I’ve talked about this before but odds are it was a long time ago and nobody paid any attention. The imperative to be offensive after the collapse. The large failure in genteel gardening lifestyles, your basic “grow your own food and all will be well” so reminiscent of articles from Greer, Backwoods Home Magazine and even the newest and much admired book “Surviving Off Off Grid” is that it all starts and ends with food production. But all these publications are guilty of ignoring survivalism in their quest for agrarian bliss. Their food production operates in a vacuum, ignoring human nature, government, warfare and desperation. In their attainment of food security they ignore basic security. Nobody will simply leave you alone to grow your crops in peace. Even your own governments troops might steal your food to protect you. And, I hate to break this to you, my apologies in advance for taking a big squishy stinky on your militia masturbation fantasies, having a semi-automatic plastic carbine will also not magically save you from attackers.

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Semi-automatics aside, I do have to give credit where due, and commend Rawles on this basic realization ( despite our differences in tactics, or even recognition that females will make adequate warriors to defend the homestead-their historical effectiveness is closely tied to modern arms in limited circumstances ). I don’t think modern military tactics translate over to the survivalist, not even the survivalist military, but at least the basic realization exists that military force must be projected to defend the farm.

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The difference being, a heavy religious organization that allows scripture to interfere with strategy is going to set itself up for failure. Just the charitable giving clause itself is sheer madness from a military perspective. If the apostles Grand Army Of The Lord realize soon enough that charity is tied into subjugation then they are going to be okay. But if they go by the hungry needing rather than the security need of the core group they fail without a shot being fired. My rather cynical thoughts are that the church fathers, be they in Utah with affiliations with the LDS or in Idaho with some more craphouse rat crazy sect, will quickly receive divine guidance that only the just are actually needy, and are given sufficient leeway to determine themselves who the just are. My guess would be that most of those fed are also quick converters and skilled at a needed profession. Anyway, I bring up the limitations of divine strategy to illustrate not that I think most Holy Roller Survivalists are weird but to point out that going offensive isn’t as easy as taking the fight to the enemy. Rather, you must be determined to do some pretty nasty things to achieve your defense. If you can’t make up your mind to act in an unpleasant manner, just go Amish and forsake violence, ready to become a serf.

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This is why I preach the importance of tribes. You must grasp the fact that your tribe is the only worthy organization, and all others are sub-human. This is the only way you are going to survive in the brave new world. It doesn’t matter if the enemy tribe has old people, children or women. They are still the enemy. I’m not getting into the whole level/escalation of force or the conduct of war. Obviously, the worse you act the worse you will be treated if captured ( then we get into the whole non- proportional response to unacceptable conduct in war ). I’m saying that a time wasting discussion about the humane treatment of non-combatants, or the failure of individuals to adhere to a no-mercy attack, or whatever weakens your military ability ( usually by some damn religious nut ) cannot be tolerated. If your objective can only be achieved by brutal slaughter of innocents, you must do what is necessary. Actually, I might be too hard on the church run State. Rather than merciful and confused by scripture, they might indeed be ruthless to the unbelievers.

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It just boils down to the fact that to survive, you must go offensive. And on the offensive you might have to be utterly ruthless. There are many grey areas in that black and white statement. War widows might actually find it merciful to be forcibly married to an enemy attacker. It is that or die of starvation after the village is burned down. War orphans assimilated into the attacking tribe will at least be spared the same fate ( and sometimes all that isn’t even about resources as about keeping the genetic lines fresh ). No one is going to sit around talking about humane or just or right or merciful. The talk will center on how to keep the tribe alive. By whatever means. Not that acting unfeeling or harsh will be easy ( at least the first time around ), but if you can steel yourself ahead of time for its necessity at least it ( or the lack of it ) won’t kill you.

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You read stories of soldiers impaling babies, turn slightly pale and thank Baby Jesus that you live in a safe and sane world made possible by the never ending magically replenishing petroleum supply. But remember, this most likely wasn’t demons riding from Hell that did that. Rather, fathers themselves that would rather harden their hearts and do what was needed to feed their own. You have a lot of unlearning of propaganda to do in order to survive the end of this blessed age.

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