bunnies and jacks

BUNNIES OR JACKS

Yesterday afternoon, a regular guest article posted as well as the next Nova fiction.  Another Nova piece posted this morning.  A shout out to Texas Loyal Minion ( is that you, Vlad? )-thanks for the donation of generous size.  And, a thanks to
http://www.bigeasycoffee.net/
for slinging some gormet coffee my way.  I have absolutely no taste so this might be wasted on me, but the effort is appreciated.  On to our regular dog and pony show.
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A nice minion some time back commented that while she thought it was pretty nifty that us gross ol boys wanted to go running through the insect infested wilds hunting jack rabbits, she was quite content to grab a few extra leaves from her garden and feed her bunny rabbits as that was a lot less fuss. This was in response to yet another attempt from yours truly to suggest to you that not everyone needs to own a twenty acre homestead, that a lot of areas are far more suitable for nomadic herding than they are for farming. Her point was of course well taken. If you are already farming, it is an almost zero effort to raise livestock so you can have your meat. But my point needs to be reiterated to the point of nausea. Farming leaves you as a stationary target, and the future will not include you being left alone as a quaint yeoman farmer. Stability always returns after a collapse, but most of the time the folks at the bottom of the food chain don’t like their price for that peace. They are usually yoked to land that isn’t theirs. Their labor is used to grow crops for others, their labor is used for public works projects ( if you stick around the Mississippi river area, thinking it is nice and fertile, you’ll be hand shoveling the levee system-assuming the New Madrid quake didn’t destroy them all- those times you ain’t howing cotton or tobacco as a serf ), but what their labor won’t be used for is growing their own prosperous farm. Let me ask you this. Besides having an AR-15 and two thousand rounds of ammo, what is your plan to defend yourself and all your neighbors against the coming waves of bandits that are bent on becoming your baron and you their slaves? Do you have one?

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Not only does the defense of land become exponentially harder the farther out you reach-more defenders means more guns but also more farms to feed those mouths- but it is usually by definition at a disadvantage. It is far easier to attack than to defend, if for no other reason than mobility is sacrificed by the defender but used as a primary tactic by the attacker. Mobility, and the non direct strategy, usually win the battle, all things being equal. And you can forget any notions of fortifications. The age of gunpowder wasn’t delayed because of the powder, but because of the lack of suitable metalworking abilities ( the limitations of fuel rather than ore and the smelting ignorance ). Even if we had to revert to blackpowder quicker than we’d like, there is enough scrap metal littering the countryside that until it rusts away it will be used to make far better weapons than what was available six hundred years ago ( perhaps not the hand held arms but certainly the mortars and other siege guns ).

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I’m certainly not saying the transition to herding will be any easier than the one from fat and lazy office worker to field hand, just that afterwards you will be freer and won’t have to work as hard ( all our preps make no guarantees, they merely increase our odds ). While raising meat on a farm is nearly calorie free in your labor ( not that the cow does much more than chew ), the problem is that a heck of a lot of labor will be needed to feed the troops that protect you and the defense woks you will be building. That is the cost and one you can’t escape. In herding, you pretty much just walk around, or ride around, shoot predators, and go on the occasional raid to stay in practice ( low intensity perpetual warfare ). Mobility, and protecting junk territory, free you from all that is involved in defense. In many ways it is just as hard of a life, but it is probably freer in far more.

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Does farming bring far more calories to the table than herding? Of course. But the farmer won’t see them. He’ll see the minimum amount of food to keep him working, and it won’t be yummy bunny rabbit meat but just a bowl of grain gruel. To think otherwise is ignoring all of history outside the American continent westward expansion. Farming is vastly overrated. Not for the warrior kings that protect the farms, but for the farmers. If you want to make farming work for you, you must take the offensive immediately and never let up. Of course, the strategic needs of that are you need to fight and train pretty much full time. Oh, guess what? You’ve just become the fighting elite that live off the backs of those left on the land. History is full of ALL the ways of living, eating and surviving. History tells you that you ain’t as smart as you think you are, that every way possible has already been tried and that if you ignore the lessons you are dead. And the overwhelming lesson is that farming sucks. Do you have an enlightened lord, one who barely taxes you and actually defends you rather than forces you to flee out of harms way ( just as with today’s police, they don’t protect you directly but through the threat of force )? Congratulations. But, odds are his successor will be a real prick and work you into an early grave.

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You ( meaning, your town or territory ) can pay mercenaries to fight your wars. Of course, once you have the means to pay them, you become a target. A salt mine, auto parts junk yard ( for the metal ), a trading town, all will be occupied by another bandit. You’ll pay tribute. It won’t be as hard as farming, but will still suck. Look, I’m not saying evil prevails. Most of the time, the governed gave their consent to be ruled. Because the alternative was anarchy and total destruction from raiders. But the price you pay for defense is only marginally better. Few of us can afford an isolated farm surrounded by hunting territory. We are living in the areas that will become future estates in a feudal society. Stay put and tend your asparagus, you will become a serf. Hell, I’d rather life a hard life hiding out in the woods being a petty thief and highwayman. At least you have some freedom. Until you are captured and tortured of course.

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Don’t ignore the infrastructure costs of your way of feeding yourself.

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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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