fight or flight

FIGHT OR FLIGHT

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Don’t you just love how things have turned out? We sit atop a razors edge and either way you lean, you get cut. The economy WILL implode, but the question everyone asks is, when and how bad? Well, you know the How Bad part eventually is The End because of the oil and population issue. We have already passed the peak of easy and cheap oil and all economic activity was based on that. It isn’t so much running out because our economy will be over and done while the deep sea oil, tar sands, frac oil and artic petroleum pools remain unmolested. And of course we can all agree that long ago we passed the point where we had too many people, even with cheap and easy oil feeding them. But the people already born are still breeding and there isn’t the means to feed them very well ( with the capacity diminishing yearly ). These things are pretty well a given. You can’t argue that the world can support seven billion people without a sea of gushing petroleum. And by looking at what we are burning besides oil is proof enough that the Oil Age is sputtering along on Limp Penis Mode. The economic implosion is so bad, far worse than it should be, because most of the globe outside a few soon-to-be-lucky bastards that are feeding their herd of yaks in alpine meadows or scratching out plots of jungle land for a corn crop were forcibly chained to the money economy long ago. We have no choice but to bend to its dictates. As ancient man was dependent on the local weather for his grain harvest, today we pray to the gods of finance to provide us with a paycheck so we can eat.

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The terrible thing is, the economy could end tomorrow, or ten years from now. We have no idea. It won’t be the collapse of society that will so bad, but the waiting for it. We are on permanent stress mode. Just like the anticipation of a doctors visit is far worse than the procedure turns out to be, waiting for the end of civilization is worse than what the alternative is going to turn out to be ( not including the messy reorganization, of course ). And being such a stressful time, our bodies of course produce an overpowering urge to Fight Or Flight. That chemical production was cool when we needed to flee a saber tooth tiger, but it really sucks the life out of us when it is prolonged in this kind of years long emergency. You simply can’t live on adrenalin for too long, so we’ve each made adjustments to cope. Most people don’t admit there is a problem. Those that see it usually choose to fight. In the case of survivalists, that is manifest in an arsenal of assault carbines and cases of ammunition, concealed weapons and fantasies of being the next Bruce Lee incarnate. Of course there is nothing wrong with this, we are all going to need to well armed to survive. I don’t even care overly much that you all rely so much on the semi-auto talisman. Mainly I disagree with it on logistical grounds, with the money issue not far behind. But put that aside. The question is, is “fight” good enough? I understand it reduces the chemical production, eases your mind, and allows you to sleep at night. But are you fooling yourself? Would it be better to put “flight” in the dominant position of needed actions?

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Please take just a moment to think this out rationally. I know it will hurt, but I promise it will be over soon. Are you irrationally suppressing the urge to flee? We have cluttered up all our ancestral survival mechanisms with assumptions and arguments once again totally dependent on oil surplus. We assume that the entire area will be put on hold, all members of society will bend to our needs. Come an emergency, paramedics will ride to our rescue, police officers will impose order on the unruley. Federal planes will air drop MRE’s. Unless. What if all that fuel needed to pull your fat ass out of the fire wasn’t available? Because all our social mechanisms are overcomplicated and under funded, it will only take a very small percentage of things NOT working to begin a cascading failure. And that is not the time to be surrounded by surplus population or to be acting as your own military as you are improvising transportation. Safe travel is always dependant on an orderly underlying infrastructure made possible by surplus wealth/energy. Bugging out is such a poor strategy because it is made with the standard assumptions about an intact infrastructure. We are so used to safe travel we take it for granted. No survivalists, even with their “worse case scenario” are going to come close to reality. Actually making it to your retreat will be the exception rather than the rule. If your attacking crowd is big enough, it just takes one flanking dude with a primitive weapon to take you down. And it doesn’t have to be a suicide attack. Bushwacking, snares and traps, ambush. Plenty of ways to kill your ass. You know how the military deals with an ambush? They sacrifice a portion of their troops, because you are almost always surprised by an ambush, and that allows the counterattackers to find their target. Great tactics for the military. Really bad for the retreater.

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Your primitive, reptilian brain is screaming at you right now. Warning! Warning, Will Robinson! Flee! Danger! You ignore it, buy another AR-15 mag, and continue to live in the big city. Mass firepower is useless once the crowds get large enough. Once the percentage of discontent gets high enough, governments fall. But you think you can do better against urban ghetto crowds armed, with no food. You think you can bellow at them with your “command voice” and disperse them? Today, an armed and confident projection might deter crime, in the future being armed in the city means you are walking stewpot meat with a needed defense tool. Target acquired.

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