five years

FIVE YEARS


For about six years now I’ve had an account with Net Zero, one of the few companies to make it through the Dot Com bust. They offer you free Internet access, up to ten hours, and after that it is $10 a month for unlimited use. Back then, you could get broadband, but it certainly wasn’t as easy or cheap as it is now. I was okay with a dial-up service since I mostly just read online. I usually don’t futz around with video’s and what not. And, for the last three years, I’ve been paying these guys their money just to keep my e-mail address. They don’t have coverage here, the local phone company being an independent. And the whole time, I’ve used the same debit card to auto pay the loan. But suddenly, they can’t process the payment. My bank says it ain’t their fault, who knows. If this leads to a suspension of service, there goes my e-mail address. So, even though I still have the same e-mail, I’ve also gotten a Yahoo account as a back-up. It is still the same jimd303 but @yahoo.com instead of netzero.com. Feel free to use both, since if I don’t use the Yahoo account it might be canceled.

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As I’ve said before, even if we are all still around in twenty years, I won’t apologize for going all Chicken Little on you and panicking about the collapse occurring immediately. If you put off being worried, and the worse happens, you are screwed. If you panic now, and then nothing happens, all you’ve accomplished is to buy prep items cheaper, get out of debt, have your own paid for land generating your own electricity, or what have you. In short, there a million reasons why panic is good. Sitting on your ass, on the other hand, could get you killed. So, that said, I won’t ever think you shouldn’t have your basics squared away yesterday, but we can at least discuss what might happen if the collapse takes its own sweet time getting here. What if you had, say, five more years? You already have your year of wheat per person, a rifle, a thousand rounds, a water filter. What should you do now? First, what not to do. You don’t do frivolous first. You always work from the premise that it all ends tomorrow. This is elementary survivalist crap, people. But, go over to any Yuppie orientated site and it is all spent debating the purchase of which doo-dad. Those don’t keep you alive. They are trying to prepare for luxury first, rather than last. If you think the world is going to end tomorrow, you don’t fiddle hump around buying a third assault rifle, a forth pistol, red dot sites or what have you. You make what you get count the most. Buying a $800 custom made mountain bike strapped on the back of a dune buggy which is pulled by a four wheel drive motor home which has a 500 gallon tank of propane on its roof…come on!! None of it is money well spent. It is all toys. Toys are for the survivalist that has everything, not the prepper that needs everything still.

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As is said in this twisted human endeavor, your mileage may vary. All our circumstances are different. Some of us live in a vast urban wasteland. Some of us are in the hole for five years wages. Others have nothing better to do then look forward to my bucket of drivel every day. But I think we can all look at this pretty much the same way. Coming soon, the grid goes down, the economy disappears and we are on our own to first survive and then rebuild. Peak Oil and/or economic collapse is nothing more than just Y2K, insofar as we must quickly prepare to replace all critical functions, and no help will be forthcoming. I know I turn a lot of you off with Peak Oil. There is a unique excuse for every one of you why it won’t happen. Abiotic oil, bio-diesel, North Dakota holding a gabizillion barrels of oil shale. Whatever. I call these foolish wish fulfillment, but that doesn’t change your mind, does it? But whatever you believe for energy use, can you deny the economic decline? And the decline in imported oil? If nothing else, we must prepare for very expensive energy and food, and a rising unemployment rate. Those aren’t wild panicky guesses on my part, they are multi-year proven trends that are already here. So, setting aside all the end-of-the-world toys you would like to have, and assuming you already have a bare bones stockpile, the next project is a cushion against all the proven trends.

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This is where you embrace all that tree hugging, sustainability, Arch Druid crap. The energy conservation, gardening, bicycling, anti-consumerism, etc. Survivalism alone, the buying of supplies, is needed if only because you need to assume the worst. But then you must evolve beyond that. To start on that post-apocalypse eco-village. The problem with the hippie approach is it ignores the violence of your fellow man ( I’m a predictor of brutal violence, not necessarily a cheerleader of it ). The problem of survivalism is it ignores the time the groceries run out. We might give lip service to “what do I do when the supplies run out” but then we go out and buy another survival toy to stockpile. You need to overcome the weakness of both schools of thought. This is nothing new, and not my idea. But since you are here, and already familiar with my minimalist stockpile approach ( if only because of finances in most cases ), you can see what I’m reminding you of. Stock on cheap supplies, and then use all or any of time remaining to become much more sustainable. Be a gentle tree hugging farmer, ready to whip out a machine gun and smite the zombie biker attackers.

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The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/

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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 ( please, label as “guest article” so I can find it easily later ). Payment will be your removal from my enemies list.
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By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there.
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