Part of preparation for the upcoming North American War Games is understanding how and why to abandon previous social conventions.
The "why" will be addressed in future editions.
Tonight's entry speaks solely to one of the "hows".
Think about a future of severely-constrained personal and/or tribal resources, against which are thrown almost limitless demands.
You didn't think surviving The Big Die-Off was going to be pretty or easy, did you?
No...
The Big Die-Off
ReplyDeleteMother Nature's Course Correction
Culling the Herd... (my personal favorite)
Those skills that make one a good Lawyer, Bureaucrat, Businessman, LEO, Car Wash Technician, Oil Changer at Jiffy, will not translate.
Those Social Skills known to most Americans will become useless.
Did you have an ill-tempered, opinionated, brawler of an Uncle or Grandfather who spoke his mind, didn't care what the heck you thought, and was willing to back up his mouth at the drop of a hat?
Yeah, that's the guy you'll want to focus upon for a while, and emulate...and make him proud.
Darwinism is about to play catch-up!
Sam
III
Kerodin.com
I'm not at all hopefull about my chances of surviving the Big Die Off, but I don't care much either. What matters is I got sons who are learning to be really good at surviving and moving on. And in the end, that's about all I could ask for. III. See you at the top.
ReplyDeleteSome of you old bastards act like you can't do anything anymore. I know, life just caught up with you or your old wounds did you in. But for most of you, PT is what you need to stay alive. Rolling over and dying just isn't in the equation. How many articles have already been posted here and other places about staying in shape? Maybe you need Richard Simmons to come over and slap you into shape.
ReplyDeleteNone of us truly know what's coming. It could be so far outside the box that none of us make it. But I believe most of us have the survival instinct so deeply ingrained that we just have to try.
I consider myself lucky just by virtue of where I live, NW Wyoming. I'm 56, former Recon Marine, log home construction and gunmaker by trade. I have to stay in shape, my work forces me to.
Last Friday I walked 6 miles hunting elk, above 10,000 ft on the Continental Divide on goat trails with a 20 lb. molle pack and a 10 lb. .375 H&H. Yesterday 3 miles of the same. I gave up my TV last year and spend more time reading and reloading. Hiking all summer. Had my fill of CNN and Faux News.
You have to get tough with yourself and get off the couch. Couches kill more people than anything else today. Start walking, ride a bike, small day hikes with pack. Years ago I was a realtor with a hot sports car and stuck in a work cycle that just bored me to death. You have to make that change in your life or it is too late. We can all do it, it just depends how bad you want to. Like Kerodin just said, get tough and learn some new skills. Most of us have many more miles left in us and waiting til TSHTF isn't a good survival plan.
SemperFi, 0321
This is somewhat difficult for me to write down here, But I just buried my Father he was sick with stomach and pancreatic cancer and he held on for a while longer than the doctors thought he would. But while I was there, back home in Louisiana I got to see my Children and Grand-children that I have not seen since my Daughter got married last year. I also got to see my Brother and Sisters, Nieces and Nephews and their Children also. So like Sean I am not to worried for myself(54yrs.old)about the Big Die-Off I do worry about some of them as I am sure that my family will suffer also. But looking to the future with hope that some of mine do survive and I´m sure a few of them will. And if my passing will be part of the price, for a Freer Future for them, then I am more that willing to do what I must in order to secure that better future with Liberty for them.
ReplyDeleteDennis
III
Texas
I agree with anon. I just ran into a former employee, 74 years old. He told me he just signed on to a new pipeline job from SW Wyoming to Oregon. He plans on spending the winter in a 20' camper out on the jobsites. He's always been tough as nails. This is a guy that you want to be like.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as one who lives in a major urban area:
ReplyDeleteOnce things head South, if you folks in the rural parts of the country start getting random messages from the city, just assume it's a coke bottle.
Anonymous in NW Wyoming is absolutely right. And I am older by a year or two. It does no good to talk or think about what you were and give up because you can't be the guy who was a recon marine, sf dude or whatever anymore. You can be a lot closer than you think by getting off the pity me chair and doing some kind of physical program. Just look at Sam Whittemore.
ReplyDeleteDennis:
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry for your loss.
Doug
Newark, Ohio
Jimmy:
ReplyDeleteI am ashamed to admit that it took two hard thinks (over the space of an hour) to get your "coke bottle" reference.
Awesomely pithy.
And spot on...from another urbanite.
Dennis:
ReplyDeleteDeepest condolences.
Hang in there.
Dennis: I too am sorry for your loss, and wish I had better words. As I don't, these will have to do for now.
ReplyDeleteJimmy/CA - sorry, but I just don't get it -- unless you're thinking of a certain old Australian movie, I'm just clueless...
DD
I´m holding just fine Gentlemen,
ReplyDeleteDon´t worry ´bout me in the word of a great warrior.
¨That which does not kill us makes us stronger.¨
Not to sound like I´m trying to make jokes of my Fathers passing, I will miss him.
But while I was ¨home¨ and saw my people it gave me a sense of resolve and strength to face the coming shit storm. I hope to survive, but I will be on the front lines taking out as many of the Bastards as I can, and if you think you can keep up come right along.
It´s just that at this point what I do is not for myself because I have gotten to that point where I am the passing generation, but for my Family the young and yet to be born both here and back there in a place I used to live.
Dennis
III
Texas
Another city dweller here. I'm planning on getting out and heading to my hometown in the country as soon as it is obvious things are going south. My mother lives there as well as all of my closest friends. I wouldn't consider myself a refugee. I'd consider it returning to my childhood home.
ReplyDeleteOh, and please explain the coke bottle reference. Maybe I'm just dense?
Re coke bottle: In mid-20th century fiction, why did the USS Sawfish go to Seattle?
ReplyDeleteDD: Australia is correct.
and not to be too dense, but was there supposed to be a link to something about "understanding how ... to abandon previous social conventions."?
ReplyDeleteAt least I got the Sawfish reference on the second try. But I thought it was San Fran-sicko, not Seattle.
SiGB:
ReplyDeleteThe "how" is in the post's graphic. To the cacophony of cries for succor, whisper 'no'.
And yeah, it will suck beaucoup.
In the novel, it was Seattle. The movie was San Diego (at least per wiki).
SiGB:
ReplyDeleteHere's the full quote, from the character Rorschach in Watchmen:
The world will look up and shout 'save us' and I will look down and whisper 'no'.
Hard times take and make hard people.
Good luck to you and yours.
Wow. Was I ever off base - though in a cosmic sense, perhaps not nearly so far.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't even aware of the referenced work -- will have to try to find a copy, now...
Further, I recognized the character in the pic but was utterly lost as to the rest of the references...
As to the "coke bottle" and "Australian movie" - I was thinking of "The Gods Must Be Crazy" - which now that I think about it, IIRC, was actually from S. Africa -- but I digress...
If you haven't seen it, I can't recommend TGMBC strongly enough. Though VERY dated now, the first 5mins are perhaps the most profound statement in the history of film.
Gotta tell you, when you decide to go cryptic you sure do the job...
DD
The "coke bottle" Jimmy referenced is a plot device in On The Beach:
ReplyDeleteThe story is set in what was then the near future (1963, approximately a year following World War III). The conflict has devastated the northern hemisphere, polluting the atmosphere with nuclear fallout and killing all animal life. While the nuclear bombs were confined to the northern hemisphere, global air currents are slowly carrying the fallout to the southern hemisphere. The only part of the planet still habitable is the far south of the globe, specifically Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, and the southern parts of South America, although all of these areas are slowly succumbing to radiation poisoning as the fallout continues to circulate southwards.
From Australia, survivors detect a mysterious and incomprehensible Morse code radio signal originating from the United States. With hope that some life has remained in the contaminated regions, one of the last American nuclear submarines, USS Scorpion, placed by its captain under Australian naval command, is ordered to sail north from its port of refuge in Melbourne (Australia's southernmost major mainland city) to try to contact whoever is sending the signal...
The submarine travels to an abandoned naval installation in Seattle, where a crewman sent onto land with oxygen tanks and protective gear discovers that, although the city's residents have long since perished in the fallout, some of the region's hydroelectric power is still on-line, owing to the primitive automation technology available at that time. The mysterious signal is the result of a broken window sash teetering in the breeze and occasionally hitting a telegraph key.
OTB is a superb novel and an essential part of the the Restorationist canon, IMHO.
Just don't read it while more than usually depressed...
;-)