Be Prepared
If you’ve been reading my crud for any length of time you know that I think this planet is going to , that there is a massive crunch coming in the not so very distant future, that a very large percentage (i.e. most)of humans are not going to survive that crunch and that there is a better than even chance most mammalian and probably reptilian as well won’t survive either.
The ones who will stand the best chance of surviving will be those who take the old Boy Scout motto, “”, to heart and wean themselves from a reliance for survival on technology now and learn to survive on their own. Third world residents will actually be better prepared than Europeans and North Americans, as long as their environment allows them to survive. As a general society, we in the west have become weak. We have sacrificed self-reliance for . How many of you know how to make a fire without a match or any source of flame? How many of you know how to track game, kill it, dress it and preserve it, then make use of the skins and sinews? How many know how to plow a field using a horse and plow, and come to that how many of you know how to set up a blacksmith’s shop, or find iron ore, smelt it make the charcoal etc to create steel with and then work the steel? Kno9w how to make and set snares or a trap line? Know how to make a spear and work flint to make points? How about make a bow and arrow from scratch or create simple but effective shelters in the woods. Now how many of you know how to do all of those things and more.
The point here is that when the happens, and it will, is not going to save us, it has gone far too far for that to happen now. When it collapses it will collapse all the way because the underlaying structure is too weak. As a society we (that we being the overwhelming majority) no longer know how to fend for ourselves, create our shelter, grow or capture or raise our food, make the tools we need etc. Even those who provide those services for us rely, for the most part, on advanced technology to do much of the work (farmers say, with large tractors, combines etc), machinists that relay on computer controlled lathes to mill their metal etc. etc, etc.
So if you feel you should get ahead start in preparing for a very ugly future here’s a good web site to get started with (and no the irony of that is not lost on me)
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Comments
Comment from doug sherriff
Time: 11/11/2007, 7:24 pm
Yes…
Some of us have known all this for going on 45 years. It’s been an interesting journey and we are getting older now. It has been a long wait.
And Yes, it is all going to go down just as you say.
And Yes, the short sighted, terminaly fat, antisocial or diabetic just won’t cut the mustard for long. In the long run this is good.
The best odds are on those who have a community. The more intentional and sustainable it is the better the odds.
Nothing new here. There are some questions though.
Assuming our species persists, an unwarranted assumption probably, is there anything we have achieved that really should be preserved? I have a short list whats yours?
If there is then how best to do that?
I think I will leave this now and check back later and see if anything transpires. i have a lot of thoughts on these subjects but don’t need to be talking to myself any more than I already am.
Love life, the alternative is…?
Well, lifeless anyway.
cheers Doug
Comment from The Dynamic Driveler
Time: 11/11/2007, 9:25 pm
DS: If as a society we can not, even in the worst of times, make every effort to save those who can not save themselves, we do not deserve to continue as a species. You can bet that I will do everything in my power to save Diane who commented earlier, first because she’s my wife and the absolute love of my life, but also because if we sacrifice those who had no say in what they are then we have proven ourselves to be not worthy of continuing.
Life must be worth living, in can not just be about survival. So what should we keep from our current society?
- music (especially classical)
- literature
- sculpture
- painting
- our sense of adventure
There’s a lot more but I’m sure you see where I’m going
Comment from doug sherriff
Time: 11/12/2007, 2:55 am
Very sorry if I offended by seeming to trivialize the tragedies implicit in our agreed upon premonition of a real societal collapse. I was taking these inevitable ill’s as givens and looking more at the meta-situation.
I have a bum ticker myself, and those blue pills do work. In any case I’m not in the least concerned about the relatively short time I have left, I am more concerned about the species.
About the young breeding population, and with whether anything of lasting value has arisen in our much vaunted “civilizations”
John Muir I think it was pointed out that the social forces that tend towards destroying the natural world (I assert this as the only ‘real’ world) are a constant pressure, whereas the opposing pressures to conserve and even integrate back into this world are largely dictated by economics, or even more so by stark survival requirements.
My fear then is that, in the event of this collapse, the neccessity to survive will select out this rather modern impulse and there will be a long long dark time ending with humans if they are lucky right back at square one again.
We have been a very dangerous experiment I think. It seems to me that in some ways we are on the edge of understanding how to manage to be what we are without being like the Beaver and eating ourselves out of house and home. Or fouling all our water or … It would be a shame to be a failed experiment wouldn’t it
Our art forms are built into us as organisms, some more than others, and that’s not likely to change in a millenium or two. I think it’s the impulse to make symphonies and the appreciation of them thats important. Not the symphonies themselves. Or the good books etc.
So I do have to get to bed but will be back.
It’s funny, I am a scientist to the core but I am thinking that a metaphysic that doesn’t put us or some manlike god at the core of cosmos could be humanities gift to cosmos.
Briefly: we are the only biological manifestation of the neg-entropic category of matter, namely life, that has generated the capacity (soon anyway)to leave this planet. Also the first ones (we know of) that can see this as an eventual neccessity.
We could be spreaders of life through cosmos. Or not.
Sleep well
doug
Comment from usexpatriate
Time: 11/14/2007, 5:40 am
I just want to bring up that the people who are older or are not in such good health should not count themselves down and out if this should all happen. Just because you may not be able to physically do things does not mean that you will not be able to survive. Knowledge is power and will be even more so in those times. People with this knowledge will be sought out and taken care of by those who do not have it. So don’t despair. Learn all you can. Even textbook knowledge of these subjects will be better then than nothing at all.
I agree with Doug, too that this is more about the survival of our species than our personal selves.
The younger generations need to be told these things and the reality of the coming situation. You are doing them no favors by hiding the truth from them but in fact sealing their fate without them having a choice in the matter.In past civilizations and cultures this was a time honored practice of handing down this knowledge from generation to generation. This tradition has been lost in our modern society and must be started anew beginning now. By doing so there is no greater gift we can give them.
Comment from Diane oser
Time: 11/1/2007, 10:30 pm
HMmmm. I’ve taken the old Boy Scout (Girl Guide) motto to heart all my life. I believe I could exist, albeit a bit grumply, with my small knowledge of ‘roughing it’. I lived in a forest for two years with two kids, four dogs and four cats, and we made it.
However, what really scares me is that I am dependant on the manufactured insulin that I need four times daily, in order to stay alive. I’ll die, not because I’m incapable of providing myself with the basics, but because in order to live, I depend on technology. Where do we go from here?