tomdub made me think about this, so I decided to repost while I’m visiting family. — Tommy
I haven’t watched a movie in ages, but saw one of the crappiest in a long time, 2012. I was pleased, however, to finally watch a doomsday movie that wipes out Los Angeles instead of NYC. It does get tiring to watch every cinematic nasty, scary scenario take place in my neighborhood.
I’ve been a closet doomer for several years now, and my attitude toward the rising survivalist movement is mixed. I have read a lot of dumb ass literature on survival, the most recent is Ragnar Benson’s book on urban survival. It is hilariously stupid, and it is apparent that most of the “experts” have never actually spent much time in a real city, and most of the advice can be categorized into: 1. How to Leave, 2. How to Hide Guns, 3. How to Catch and Eat Rats. This is nonsense, and gives the false impression that it’s futile to prepare in any meaningful manner for the millions of people that are the most vulnerable. It’s this lack of preparation or ethic that makes urban centers needlessly more dangerous and more fragile.
I don’t generally like to advertise my “pessimistic” view of the world because most people tend not to understand. I’m actually quite optimistic about the future in that we will have an opportunity to live a much more enlightened existence and finally get rid of all the excess that cannot be sustained, thankfully. I believe the Earth will get a much needed rest, and a new species of human will eventually take form. I am excited to be living at or near that turning point. As our friend, Chris Martenson, points out: the next 20 years will be very different than the last 20. This is inevitable.
The best disaster managers prepare for worst case scenarios because it covers every other lesser scenario. There are plenty of benefits of preparing for the end of the world, so here’s ten to consider:
1. If you are prepared for Armageddon, you’re prepared to lose your job. Let’s face it — sometimes, being stalked by cannibals is much more desirable than going to your lame job for even one more minute. If you are well-prepared for most adversities, you can absorb less significant problems with ease.
2. You become more motivated. Suddenly, life seems a lot shorter. You can feel a ticking clock, and live with the knowledge that you are running out of time and act accordingly. This can be an exciting and life-enhancing experience.
3. You may become the topic of conversation. Depending on who you hang out with, if someone catches wind of your preparations (a big no-no), you will instantly be a bit strange. In today’s world, this is a really great thing.
4. You will become healthier. If you really need to jam, it’s not a good idea to be the guy that gets winded by climbing a flight of stairs. No amount of bullets and beans is going to save your pathetic ass, so now is a great time to get in the best shape of your life.
5. You will save money. When you become a Prepper, you have to get creative with your money and your time. You start buying things in bulk or creating interesting storage arrangements that have direct positive impact on any lifestyle. The effect of being prepared for crisis does not have to include debilitating paranoia (I’ve definitely been there), but can open up new opportunities that you can take advantage of.
6. You will feel more powerful. There are many days I sat idle because I felt absolutely powerless against all the bullshit swirling about. I sleep better knowing that I’ve got enough food to feed my family for months. Even if nothing horrible ever happens, how can this be a bad thing?
7. You get to have a secret that doesn’t hurt anybody. When you start to notice strange facets of societal behavior that are completely irrational, you feel as though you’re holding onto a secret that few people can actually see. This makes you an instant freedom fighter once you start living counter to the bullshit.
8. You can connect with a community. Just like freedomguerrilla.com! There are a lot of people nowadays that are feeling disenfranchised, alone, or depressed as a result of an overwhelming feeling of powerlessness. Check out Kathy’s excellent site, peakoilblues.com if you are one of those people.
9. You can develop a cool skill. I recently had a great conversation with the editor of the Journal of Accountancy. He told me that he wished he had developed less cerebral skills and more basic skill. He admitted that this was the future, and that younger generations of Americans should begin to re-think those high-paying corporate jobs. Great advice.
10. It’s fun. When you prepare for horrible scenarios, it doesn’t have to suck. There is TOO MUCH FEAR floating around our universe that is completely irrational, and I refuse to be yet another source of fear and worry. It’s not good news coming, sure, and I admit that it can be enormously challenging and stressful. However, I think the best way to deal with bad news is to act on your belief. Fear is derived from the unknown and feelings of powerlessness, so stop. If you are afraid of your neighbors, then get to know them. I’ve seen many more amazing things come out of crisis than just human ugliness.
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
“If you are afraid of your neighbors, then get to know them.”
*Especially* the ones you’re afraid of. Out here in the bush there’s one wise old seventies cottage-industry guy who’s managed to hang in. He doesn’t worry about the marauding hordes that people always mention if you talk collapse. He thinks it’ll be the usual suspects, the guys who walk out of the general store in new boots, leaving their holey sneakers in the box. So, it’s great that I had a pretty threatening run-in with one of ours. The local ex-cop brought him to me to apologize and now I exchange friendly greetings with him if I see him. I think he could turn out to be a real ally.
Lynn
http://www.10in10diet.com/
Diet for a small footprint and a small grocery bill.
To combine Lynn’s comment with Tommy’s preps:
Nobody is secure if their neighbor is hungry. Once you confront that fact, you begin to see the importance of society, rules, government, individual skills and needs vs. wants.
The city provides opportunities for creating new society. The country provides opportunities for creating food and jobs to make food.
Everything that creates unnecessary contention between people is wrong. The first, most primitive survival skill is the ability to smile at other people.
“Everything that creates unnecessary contention between people is wrong. ”
Amen.
“The first, most primitive survival skill is the ability to smile at other people.”
Amen+
Survival is a team sport.
“Survival is a team sport.”–Bumper sticker of the year (to come).
That is one realization that many do not “get”.
Even in my small family unit, we divvy up life based on who does what best, as a team, because even if we are jacks of all trades, there still is a master of one who does it better than the others. So I am relegated to trading my time for a piece of paper that signifies a successful hunt, interspersed with gardening, training, and outdoors activities. My wife, she tends to the nurturing of the kids, home and garden…she has the harder job, we just rationally decide who is better at what, and go from there.
In a SHTF situation, we will need many more talents to replace that which is taken for granted…I don’t know everything (though my wife would say I think I do…
, neither does she, nor our neighbor, or “you”…community is the most practical and necessary survival habit, a small conclusion I have come to in thinking about this for a decade.
Thanks Tommy for bringing this back up to the forefront, good time to re-focus.
Death stalks those who are most afraid of it. I’ve found that by admitting I’m mortal and not being afraid to die (although I have to say I sometimes could worry about HOW I’ll die), I’ve made peace with worrying about my future. The worst thing is, I’ll die, and so be it. It kind of takes the edge off everything, gives me a new frame of mind. My main focus becomes making things easier for those left after I’m gone.
In true materialistic fashion it has become common to think that leaving our loved ones a monetary inheritance is the best we can do for them after we are gone. But I think that passing on the life skills we learned from earlier generations and letting them know we love them is a far better legacy than mere money.
As you mentioned in an earlier post, people now have an attitude of dependency. Older people have a lot to teach the younger about self sufficiency. I was raised by my grandparents, who started their family in 1929. They lived their depression era frugality and self sufficiency and community all their lives. The daily-life skills I learned from them, the unshakeable certainty that they loved me, and $300 was what they left me. It has been very precious to me.
The role of older people right now is enormous, but culturally they tend to be marginalized. Time to dust off some old stuff , do a few knee bends, and get after it. Money is not irrelevant — it just has no utility without knowing anything about reality.
Thanks, K.
Great post, K. My parents left me with a small amount of cash and not much else, except my mom taught me to have compassion, especially for those less fortunate and for the natural world, and my dad taught me that I could do about anything I put my mind to (including getting around his strict curfew in high school and old-fashioned ideas about women). They both led by example and left me with huge respect for people who have had to get by with very little except their ingenuity. That’s why the posters here are part of my tribe, they don’t see denial as a good thing. Your grandparents did an exemplary job of raising you, they knew what mattered.
Sounds like my grandparents…the things they taught me I am grateful for, and they haunt me (in a good way) to this day, but what I miss the most is the “unshakeable certainty that they loved me” . No amount of things can ever replace or fill that time in my life.
Much to think about and get to work on.
Further to “experts” — it’s mind-boggling the amount of sheer bullshit that gets committed to the printed page. In the technologies that I’m familiar with, I see no end of bogus ‘expertise’ conveyed in print that’s nothing more than recycled, unsubstantiated conventional ‘wisdom’ that’s not worth the powder to blow it to hell. I compare what I read to what I actually know of the subjects, and I can see that the authors have never gotten within a mile of what they’re writing about, yet they have the gall to present themselves as ‘voices of authority’. I suspect it may be no different in the many fields that I’m not familiar with. Reader beware.
As for “…a new species of human will eventually take form.”; sorry Tommy, I don’t buy that — it’s not going to happen. But it might be helpful if the current species of human were to come to grips with the amount of criminality and psychopathology that it harbours, and find a way to keep it out of the halls of governance. Good luck with that.
“it’s mind-boggling the amount of sheer bullshit that gets committed to the printed page.”
True. Unfortunately, the printed page tends to smell of authority even if it’s garbage.
My favorite Auntie is working on a reading list for me.
Yeah, that air of authority. That tends to set you up for being suckered right from the get-go.
The time I wasted in earlier years reading technical hogwash, coming away from it baffled and thinking, “I don’t get it. But it’s on the printed page; it must be for real if it got published. The problem must be with me.”
It took me quite a while to learn enough and hone my critical faculties to where I can spot nonsense pretty consistently and avoid getting sucked in by it. And in fields that I know little or nothing about, I’m still at the same disadvantage as when I was younger.
I look forward to the reading list.
A further thought — much worse than bafflement is to come away from reading hogwash thinking that you’ve learned something. Bafflement is relatively harmless. Nonsensical ‘knowledge’ can be downright dangerous, and cost you dearly in wasted time and resources.
Amen.
I believe it was Mark Twain that said, “It aint what you dont know that can hurt you, it is what you know that just aint so that can do the most damage”.
Once you come to terms with #1, every other item on the list is so much easier to deal with and the subsequent points tend to fall into place from the profound attitude adjustment that #1 provides.
Doom porn may be entertaining, but its a stupid plan of action. Like any other porn, it feels good but accomplishes nothing. Being stalked IRL by cannibals/MBZs would make anyone downright nostalgic for a cubicle and reality TV.
We have an elderly neighbor who grew up during the depression and is a wonderful source of information as well as a friend. Get to know some of your newer neighbors as well. In our area, we’ve had a real influx over time of people not just from Mexico, but Vietnam, Russia, and Yugoslavia (all ethnic groups). Many of these folks know how to survive hard times.
Survival is a team sport and winners know how to smile
No do forget the odds the world will end or ever get really worse today is remote. So while preparing for the future, do not forget to live in the present. Dont forget to to tell those you love every day, you love them. Dont forget to let your frineds know you appreciate them. Dont forget to support your community.
After all if TITHEOTWAWKI, these are the ones you will either survive or die with.
Take the time to learn basic auto mechanics, electrical, carpentry and welding.
Plant a garden. Even if it is only growing tomatoes in a 5 gallon bucket. Learn the skills to provide for yourself.
GET OUT OF DEBT
Even if you have to walk away from it and trash you credit rating, and have the collections bastards chase you for 4 years until the statute of limitations runs out, get away from it. A borrower is truly the SLAVE to the lender. And slaves have the right to excape from their master. Be willing to accept the consequences of your actions. But if you have skills, abilities and a littke money rat holed you will be OK.
But most are too scared to step out of what they know. Even the children of Isreal were willing to go back to slavery instead of what awaited them in the desert.
We fear the unknown.
Get over that crap. Embrace the unkown. Learn to depend on yourself and those of your circle of support. If you have a small circle of support, spend time to develop a larger circle.
But never foget to live TODAY and this moment. You are not guaranteed you will make it to the end of today.
Make a comitment today to have a Happy New Year this year. Regardless of what happens.
Thanks, Curtis. Good stuff.
If one focuses on the Here and Now, then there is a lot less of the Unknown to worry about. The future doesn’t exist and the past is gone. Somewhere along the continuum, we can be effective and useful without losing ourselves in an imaginary distant future. Marketers excel at pulling us out of the Here and Now (SINNER!!) by telling us to be dissatisfied with ourselves, but that we can be happy sometime later if we only do what They say, while ignoring the future costs that go with the future ‘solutions’ to problems we didn’t know we had.
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