american redoubt concept

AMERICAN REDOUBT CONCEPT


The Rawles led “American Redoubt” concept is certain to be popular. First, The All American Survivalist Guru, Mr. Rawles, has given his stamp of approval ( and, no, I’m not jealous. The average survivalist is a yuppie survivalist-I wish them well but can’t see eye to eye with them. Others are welcome to preach to that group. I’ll keep my 3% of gadfly’s, ne’er-do-wells, malcontents and pagans of the survivalist community ). Secondly, The Faithful can form a flock of like minded bible thumpers, so it’s like old home week at Salem. Third, most rational folks would want to move to the conservative mountain areas anyway. There is nothing wrong with this concept, except it might be a bit problematic. Foremost among the issues is geographic area. Just as in an Oil Age it makes sense to think you could smelt down a million nickels for the copper, so to is distance no obstacle. Come Oil Down, political units shrink. When transportation is no longer cheap or affordable, both in terms of energy and military control, trade stops. Countries shrink. Without trade, everything contracts. Because the population now is so great, especially in areas that can only support a very small population, the pressure on farmland will be immense. Short term, I see no way that any area can support both people and horses ( long term health wise, horses need quality feed, not weeds and scrub ). And certainly not ethanol. Trade will disappear until the population comes into equilibrium with natural farming practices.

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As trade disappears and political units shrink, no large area is going to stay cohesive. Any and all reasons will be used to distance one area from another. When it takes more energy to keep a large area than is returned by that practice, control shrinks. The Romans held a large area militarily and in terms of infrastructure because that large area returned more energy than was consumed. The American Rockies is a wonderful area to defend, and a relatively poor area to feed people from. I don’t believe that you will have enough of a surplus of food to feed the large army that will be needed for the size army you need to defend it. Now, going back to the example of Switzerland, you might presume that the mountains alone will provide the primary defense. All that would be needed would be citizen-militia. In the case of Switzerland, this is true. In the case of the American Redoubt, there are too many areas on the margins that are easily invaded. Just the eastern Oregon area itself might need to be folded into the Bisonia Great Basin Empire. But seriously, when you draw the lines on a map using mostly the old political lines, you miss geographical defensible points. Southeastern Oregon isn’t as much part of the Rockies as it is part of the Great Basin. South Idaho the same. East of Salt Lake City is part of the Rockies. The eastern part of Wyoming and Montana are plains more than mountains. I don’t doubt the areas chosen are a good idea, but I think you have to realistically shave off part of some states, eliminate others, and add slivers of some. Political lines and geographic are not the same.

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I think that including the entire state when only half is defensible is pretty much just politics. You expand the eligible area to get more settlers. But guess what? When the American Redoubt shrinks, as it must, to defend itself, those settlers are left to fend for themselves. Or they present a immigrant issue. And that just assumes the area doesn’t fragment and fight amongst itself, especially along water control lines as the global weathers gets screwier and snow packs shrink. And I would bet a good part of a paycheck that all those good ol Christian folk will start feuding like they were Papists and Protestants. The real issue will be food and water, but religion will be the excuse. So, after the collapse, your Galt’s Gulch will shrink, fragment and fight. Pre-collapse, I can’t see political unity. The Federal control, until actual civil war and financial collapse, will tighten. Yes, being in a nice political unit that is more prone to recognize individual rights, will be nice come independence. Before that, however, it makes you more of a target. The feds will be the hammer pounding on those nails that stick up. And did I mention that all your buddies will congregate in isolated areas with present employment. Again, long term, great. But that in itself works against the whole multi-state unity. Politics will stay local now, even before trade vanishes.

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I’m not arguing against this concept. It actually sounds far more feasible than the fools in Wyoming thinking their state will fight for its independence ( spokesman Boston T Party ). Pure militia porn ignoring geopolitics and Resource Decline. What I am saying is that to even consider being viable, the area needs to shrink. Lose Oregon, perhaps Washington, southern Idaho, etc. Even then, as we crash hard after oil, the area might fragment. But with its current size it certainly will. Redraw the lines purely geologically and ignore current state political boundaries. Under the current structure, states only have so much say under their Federal masters. As we crash, lines will be redrawn along resources, and defensive lines. If you are thinking of moving there, beware being on the wrong side of those lines. You will get left behind. A good starting concept. Can we redraw the maps a little better, though?

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On to other things, MZ Williamson stirred up a hornets nest by trash talking the Garand rifle.

http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/blog/item/the-garand--almost-as-good-as-a-real-rifle

Hey, I agree with him that the loading system is stupid. Yes, you can manage to load the thing without taking off a finger, with practice. But that never should have been part of the rifles design. Having said that, I’d wager my life with a Garand WAAAAAYYYY before I’d trust that hunk of vile Shiite the M-16. Great weight, great recoil, sucks huge donkey member on everything else, including a very important consideration like jamming. Okay, so I used the first generation of the carbine in the service. But, just as with Williamsons description of the Garand- you can tweek it and do work arounds, but the design is basically flawed. I think he has an unnatural attraction to his favorite plastic dildo. Apply the same logic to each rifle, and I’ll be happy. Happier than I was with his last book, which sucked. Almost a carbon copy of the one before that. He must have been spending too much time molesting his M-16. Hey, I loved his books. I would pay full price and buy each one ( the sci-fi’s anyway ) as they came out. Even in hardback, and as all you know I’m usually too frugal to do that with just anyone’s books. That is my highest compliment to an author. But his last book sucked. I’m sorry, I can’t sugar coat it. If you can do a Stephen Hunter turn around, I’ll forgive him. Otherwise…

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