It’s been a few days since I posted here. I got busy making a living last week and decided to just let the site coast for a few days. When I tried to come up with something new to post I drew a blank. After a week away from the driver’s seat, I’ve discovered a few things, or maybe accepted is the more correct term.
One of the issues I’ve been hammering for the last few months, or even years, is the the sad state of our American political system. It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to realize that the whole thing is rotten, straight to the core. Many people, including me, have offered possible solutions to this dilemma, ranging from third party candidates and ballot access to constitutional amendments aimed at removing corporate personhood rights our illustrious treasonous Supreme Court enshrined a couple years ago with the infamous Citizens United decision. Others have suggested an Article V convention to make even deeper changes to the Constitution.
I can’t disagree with any of these and many other ideas, but from a pragmatic point of view, to be brutally honest, if it hasn’t happened yet, it ain’t gonna happen any time soon, and honestly, if gets really depressing thinking about this shit day in and day out, week after week with no improvement of the odds to be sen anywhere.
Don’t get me wrong, I can no more give up and totally walk away from trying to help find a solution than I can grow gills and learn to breath underwater, but for the foreseeable future I think it’s time to broaden the scope of this blog. If we can’t fix this totally fucked up world, and we obviously can’t, then I think the intelligent thing to do is to begin making contingency plans for how to survive things like climate change and permanent economic turmoil.
What would you do if the social safety net failed you and you found yourself unemployed? How would you cope with circumstances similar to those we grew up associating with third world countries: lack of food, water, shelter, medicine, transportation, etc.?
I don’t expect most of us to have to deal with these problems tomorrow (though it’s not inconceivable), but I do suspect that many of us will have to face these or similar challenges in the coming years, if not permanently then for extended temporary periods.
With that in mind I think perhaps it’s time to become what we used to call survivalists, but what most people today prefer to call preppers. It’s time to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. After all, when you’re ready for a disaster that doesn’t happen, every day becomes a really good day.
What do I know about surviving in less than comfortable circumstances? Not much, but I do have a few ideas about what we all ought to be considering and learning. I know at least one of my regular readers is an avid backwoods camper / hiker, and I hope to spend more time in the coming months learning and practicing those skills.
I believe we should all be learning all we can about not only growing our own food, but how to forage, use, and preserve wildcrafted foods and medicines as well. I purchased several books on this subject in the last few years, as well as one or two on survival medicine. Again, I’m no expert in any of these subjects. In fact, I’m about as ignorant as one could be in some cases, but when there is no doctor available or you haven’t got the funds to see one, knowing how to treat minor injuries and how to recognize what you should and shouldn’t treat on your own might be invaluable to many of us at some point in our lives.
These and many other topics are the sort of things I think we should all be thinking about and exploring, and I welcome your thoughts, hints, and expertise as we travel a further down the road.
That said, what do you think are the most important subject(s) or skill(s) we should be learning to deal with the uncertain future our clueless leaders are dragging us toward?
Email
Where Do We Go From Here?
It’s been a few days since I posted here. I got busy making a living last week and decided to just let the site coast for a few days. When I tried to come up with something new to post I drew a blank. After a week away from the driver’s seat, I’ve discovered a few things, or maybe accepted is the more correct term.
One of the issues I’ve been hammering for the last few months, or even years, is the the sad state of our American political system. It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to realize that the whole thing is rotten, straight to the core. Many people, including me, have offered possible solutions to this dilemma, ranging from third party candidates and ballot access to constitutional amendments aimed at removing corporate personhood rights our
illustrioustreasonous Supreme Court enshrined a couple years ago with the infamous Citizens United decision. Others have suggested an Article V convention to make even deeper changes to the Constitution.I can’t disagree with any of these and many other ideas, but from a pragmatic point of view, to be brutally honest, if it hasn’t happened yet, it ain’t gonna happen any time soon, and honestly, if gets really depressing thinking about this shit day in and day out, week after week with no improvement of the odds to be sen anywhere.
Don’t get me wrong, I can no more give up and totally walk away from trying to help find a solution than I can grow gills and learn to breath underwater, but for the foreseeable future I think it’s time to broaden the scope of this blog. If we can’t fix this totally fucked up world, and we obviously can’t, then I think the intelligent thing to do is to begin making contingency plans for how to survive things like climate change and permanent economic turmoil.
What would you do if the social safety net failed you and you found yourself unemployed? How would you cope with circumstances similar to those we grew up associating with third world countries: lack of food, water, shelter, medicine, transportation, etc.?
I don’t expect most of us to have to deal with these problems tomorrow (though it’s not inconceivable), but I do suspect that many of us will have to face these or similar challenges in the coming years, if not permanently then for extended temporary periods.
With that in mind I think perhaps it’s time to become what we used to call survivalists, but what most people today prefer to call preppers. It’s time to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. After all, when you’re ready for a disaster that doesn’t happen, every day becomes a really good day.
What do I know about surviving in less than comfortable circumstances? Not much, but I do have a few ideas about what we all ought to be considering and learning. I know at least one of my regular readers is an avid backwoods camper / hiker, and I hope to spend more time in the coming months learning and practicing those skills.
I believe we should all be learning all we can about not only growing our own food, but how to forage, use, and preserve wildcrafted foods and medicines as well. I purchased several books on this subject in the last few years, as well as one or two on survival medicine. Again, I’m no expert in any of these subjects. In fact, I’m about as ignorant as one could be in some cases, but when there is no doctor available or you haven’t got the funds to see one, knowing how to treat minor injuries and how to recognize what you should and shouldn’t treat on your own might be invaluable to many of us at some point in our lives.
These and many other topics are the sort of things I think we should all be thinking about and exploring, and I welcome your thoughts, hints, and expertise as we travel a further down the road.
That said, what do you think are the most important subject(s) or skill(s) we should be learning to deal with the uncertain future our clueless leaders are dragging us toward?