L (who might possibly be on some mind-altering substance) writes:
For some time I have been frustrated with web-based pontificators with memberships/advertisers touting “the end is near.”
I have no objections to the notion that we are headed for calamity, and in fact think we are.
BUT
My frustration(s):
1) Would someone toss me a freaking bone and tell me WHEN … I keep hearing “any day now” and have for the past 12 years … I am getting “survival fatigue.” (NOTE from Claire. Only 12 years, L? Why, you’re just a babe in the woods. “Any day now” has been going on since the Nixon Surprise in August 1971. Or maybe since 999 when millions were sure Jesus was about to arrive in a really, really bad mood …)
2) None describe what to do POST calamity – i.e. pick up pieces, new constitutional convention, coven of witches, aliens abduct us, whatever … (NOTE from Claire: Personally, I’m for the alien abduction thing. The constitutional convention outlook is much scarier.)
Most tell us hide in your:
a) “Geobunker 3000” with your 10,000 MRES conveniently on sale this week with our sponsors
b) Bug out to your unabomber cabin
c) Move to Buenos Aries, Fiji or Antarctica (NOTE from Claire: Why don’t any of them say Tahiti? Tahiti really seems like the place to me.)Again, no problemo.
But AFTER (and there is always after) what then?
Is it just me?
Maybe i should start a cult or become a web-pontificator, too. BUT have the “Post Apocalypse 3000” game-plan complete with DVD, home version, and hire Wink Martendale to do the infomercial for it. (Note from Claire: Anyone? Anyone? Is Bob Barker still alive and unembalmed? Pat Sajak?)
As re when … i have no idea and am getting to where I not sure I care.
Because I can’t tell the difference between chaos/end of world crap and what I see on the news anyway.
How much worse can Apocalypse be than “Dancing with the Stars” and Snooki? (NOTE from Claire: I’m not sure, but I’m fairly certain the Apocalypse can be even worse than Fox News, certainly worse than MSNBC.)
Where is Monty Python when you need them? (NOTE from Claire: They’re recycling old Monte Python material. At least Eric Idle is.)
That is my rant for the day.
—–
And a fine rant it is. So seriously … we can understand why highly paid commentators carefully avoid the “when” question. Might cut into their profits, you know, should they happen to miss. But what happens after? Now that would be fine thing to know. Not “after” as in “while you’re eating dried lentils and fighting off zombies” but as in, okay, the zombies are dead, the lentils are gone, you made it through the crisis with a little ammo left over, all your children and pets uneaten, and life goes on.
When will it happen and what do we do after? Oh my! Someone’s missed the point.
It already started: 1913 (or maybe 1861 or 1789). We’ve been trapped in a slow-motion coup d’etat ever since. The “crash” or “disaster” many are waiting for may never come; history says it probably will continue to unfold slowly. Problems will sneak up on people unaware. Ask a historian to specify a date (or even a year) when the Roman Empire fell.
What will we do then? I think Claire has been covering this for years. We continue to do what we should be doing now.
Trust in God (Okay, I said that). Work diligently at whatever you think is best for your life. Invest where you believe is most useful according to your values. Teach those you meet how to be more self-reliant (especially in their minds). Be a good neightbor. Deal honestly with others.
Does that answer the questions?
Apparently, if you want to live forever, become a gameshow host. All of the ones mentioned are still kickin’. They’ll probably be around to tell all the grandkiddies how they survived the apocolypse.
Pool our resources and start a libertarian commune? (I know, I know… oxymoron at best, unworkable at worst.) Well, how about a Hardyville? The point being, it’s NOT the time to go back to doing what we’ve always done. We may pick up our individual pieces, but as a society which deteriorated into suck-ville, we better know what we believe and why — and be willing to live it this time!
I’m sure the Powers That (Wanna) Be will be out in force trying to quickly round us all up and back into the sheep fold. The working question is: how do we resist that next time?
Rick Burner had it mostly right as individuals (and sorry for leaving out the God part) when he said: “…. Work diligently at whatever you think is best for your life. Invest where you believe is most useful according to your values. Teach those you meet how to be more self-reliant (especially in their minds). Be a good neightbor. Deal honestly with others.”
But it’s important to be self-reliant physically and vocationally too. And always, like good little scouts, we must… Be Prepared. Prepared in self-defense, prepared to recognize political BS when we hear it, prepared to work together instead of nitpicking over semantic definitions, prepared to say NO to our illustrious (wannabe) leaders — and above all, *prepared to back it up!* We can’t afford a repeat society; I doubt this world will give us another opportunity to do it right.
I think if you’re suffering from “survival fatigue” you’re doing it wrong. Instead of waiting for the other shoe to drop (cuz the first one already has) start living as if you are already in a free society as much as you can without the zombies (cops, government extremists, Caligula the City Councilcritter, etc.) eating you for lunch. Be sneaky and live. Think of it as a game and enjoy your Outlawry!
The “after” is what my new blog focuses on. In a fictionalized way.
I’m one who said for years that there would never be a “moment”, and that it would be a slow slide to hell. Death by a thousand statist cuts, if you will. My model is Venice, the richest European nation/state for 400 years, and one that barely gets a mention today. It actually died about 200 years before Napolean arrived to administer the final blow. It had quit being a world trading power as soon as the age of sail took hold. But it’s vast wealth managed to keep it at the top of the heap for a couple of more centuries.
However, in 1999 I worked on a project involving military reform. I came to realize we were broke by any standard and there was no accounting in government that didnt’ involve fixing the books. I knew we were doomed when we ran the numbers. There was simply no way to continue as we were without ever larger amounts of borrowing, which couldn’t fix the problem, only prolong our status… and that’s exactly what happened.
As for what comes after, don’t anyone worry. Someone will eventually rise to the top and consolidate force for the good of the country and Libertarian communes will be crushed in his rise to power, people enslaved, cruel resistance movements formed with the best intentions, and generally life will suck for a few life times. Have a nice day.
Jack Spirko of TheSurvivalPodcast.com likes to point out that survivors are positive people. That they look forward to the future. But he says not to plan for failure (the zombie hoards, total fed gov take over, FEMA camps, etc) but to plan for success. Plan to survive, plan to thrive.
His catch phrase gives the answer to “survival fatigue”: Helping You Live the Life You Want, If Times Get Tough, Or Even If They Don’t.
He presents ideas that anything you do to survive should also make your current life better even if the zombie hoards never show up. Taking that approach will prevent fatigue and better your life.
I’m gonna go ahead and join the chorus, but I can still sympathize with the lady’s complaints. The hyperinflation/total collapse/SHTF/EOTWAWKI scenario has been around for a helluva long time, has inspired who knows how many impassioned rants and sold who knows how much product, both good and bad. If you concentrate on that, as it’s easy to do, sooner or later you’re gonna sit down in the middle of the sidewalk like a toddler and wail “WHEN?” Because it really does start to look like it’s all a game.
The only way to get around it, if you’re really serious, is to forget all that and just do what you oughta be doing anyway. The time to be an outlaw prepper is now, not when the stores close and the zombies show up. First because the life takes practice, and also because you really won’t be worse off if those things never actually happen. (I’m still a little skeptical about the zombie thing.)
Yeah…and get out of the city…and good friends/squads/rifle teams are nice…
For some the apocalypse has already hit em, and *shock* they’re still alive….a little battered and bruised and somewhat surprised, but still alive…..For others the apocalypse has hit them, but they don’t realize it yet (especially when it comes to gov coming to get you and not in a helpful way)……
It all depends on how you define “apocalypse”……
All the doom and gloom…What never gets talked about are all the success stories that began during the last/first Depression….companies, ideas, people survivors….even in a dire situation there are ways to make it work for you, if you pay attention and do a little work to get it going……
No matter how much you’re prepared, you can never be prepared for everything…..something’s “gonna get you” in some way, somewhere along the line…..sometimes multiple things at once….But I notice those who whine and worry are missing an opportunity to live while they can, right now…..
I agree…the question’s too easy. When did the Apocalypse start? It depends which aspect:
Philosophically? About 6,000 years ago
Politically, for America? Either the 1850s or 1913, technically 1789
Militarily? Either Waco or Guerena
For most individuals? The day of arrest
Monetarily? In a few months most likely, though possibly tomorrow
None of that matters, because destruction is an ongoing process. But so is production, so the really important question is, “When does the Rebirth start?”
And the answer to that is even easier: Whenever you decide.
FWIW, the 1930s were a time of great technological advancement, and of the beginning of quite a few great fortunes.
I’ve likened today’s kerfuffle to a slow-motion train wreck. Since I figure I can’t predict when there will be some ultimate “Oh, poop!” I don’t worry about it. I track the data and the various events, but see no reason for all that to keep me away from telling jokes and enjoying my Dos Equis.
The tribe is really the most important element. Better to have very little and a network of people who have your back than to have enough dried lentils and cans of 7.62 to last generations but be surrounded by turds who will turn your children in for a few scraps of food.
It’s weird, I’ve been studying self-sufficiency and low-tech methods since I was a kid. Not because I wanted to prepare for some disaster, but simply because I found it fascinating. But now we’re somehow required to have some apocalyptic SHTF scenario in mind, just to live the way I’ve been wanting to live since I was 4?
Sorry, prepping is not an act of paranoia for me, it’s a lifestyle choice. I’ll live the way I choose to live, come worldwide calamity, prosperity, or apathy :p
I was reading collected versions of Kurt Saxon’s The Survivor before I was out of high school, and he was confidently predicting that civilization would collapse before Jimmy Carter was out of office. One of my friends tries to be St. Paul to Kurt Saxon’s Jesus (spreading the word every way he can) and he never really realizes just how silly he sounds. Not to mention what happened when the boy cried “wolf”…
Saxon himself basically said that the thing to do would be to get your preparations in order (Bugout Bag, escape vehicle if you live somewhere likely to need escaping from, things like that) but not to let the survivalist thing take your life over. As he said “No Survival Religions, Please.”