Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
So, how crazy are you?
An interesting post on MeFi about survivalists - here's the lede:
"Civilization is Just a Thin Veneer. In the absence of law and order, men quickly revert to savagery. As was illustrated by the rioting and looting that accompanied disasters in the past three decades, the transition from tranquility to absolute barbarism can occur overnight. People expect tomorrow to be just like today, and they act accordingly. But then comes a unpredictable disaster that catches the vast majority unprepared. The average American family has four days worth of food on hand. When that food is gone, we'll soon see the thin veneer stripped away."It's getting ugly. Very ugly.What if things just keep getting worse?James Wesley, Rawles will be prepared.Lots more advice here. (previously)
posted by Joe Beese (119 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
Now, I haven't bothered to go look at the sites linked there. I know the mindset, and have no real need to read more of it. But I found the discussion on MeFi that ensued to be very interesting and insightful. Howso? Well, here's one comment that stood out:
A lot of this is weird to me because I grew up and live in "flyover" country.
It's strange to me that some of you don't own generators because I wonder what the hell you do if there's an ice storm.
I suppose some of you don't own guns but in Michigan it's damn near the easiest thing in the world to shoot a duck or a goose and save the $15 you would have spent at a grocery store to purchase one.
And everyone in my neighborhood has five or six gallons of gas on hand for the generator, truck, wood-splitter or whatever because the gas station is a long way off and unreliable.
So I guess the thing that surprises me most is that "survivalism" has now been relegated to "being able to keep shit running" and that's kind of depressing. People should at least have something on hand to produce food and heat in case of a natural disaster.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 9:55 PM on January 28 [3 favorites]
It seems that there is something of a bell curve here - with the complete stereotypical "survivalists" on one end, and the total "everything is always fine in my world, why worry about the future?" types on the other - and both extremes viewing the other as crazy. Most of us fall somewhere in the middle, naturally, with distributions on one side or the other of the center according to our experiences and where we live. Few of us have a Farnham's Freehold mindset, but likewise few of us would trust to fate for nothing bad ever happening to us - we make some preparations to cope with an uncertain future, whether it is only by insurance or savings or by keeping a few weeks worth of food on hand (and I don't buy the claim that most families only keep a 4 day supply of food on hand - most people shop weekly at most, and could probably subsist on "stuff" in their cabinets for a couple of weeks, even if it wasn't the sort of regular meals that they're used to.)
I've written about my own attitudes on the matter a fair amount - taking what I see as some common-sense precautions, while understanding that I don't want to just completely retreat from living my life in the present. We live in a world with earthquakes, tornadoes, flu, global warming and countless other things which can and do happen, or may realistically happen, which can lead to a period of civil disruption or at least the power being out for a few days. And yet to read the comments on that thread it shows me that I am further to the side of the bell curve than I would expect. And yes, of course I see all those who are less well prepared as being more crazy than I am.
Hmm . . .
Jim Downey
(Cross-posted to my blog.)
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considering the implications of Peak oil
Considering the implications of a post-Peak oil world, a lot of that is not really crazy at all. I envy people who are that prepared and savvy. I'm trying little by little to squirrel away a little beef jerky here and there, and I'm relatively satisfied with the size of my home arsenal.
Could use more spare ammo, but hey, it's not cheap.
I have a state job, so relatively secure, but if my institution were, say, merged with a larger state institution that's located in our city limits, there could still be cutbacks that could see me axed, potentially.
I feel pretty pessimistic about the world economy in the near term, regardless who's in charge in Washington.
Generators kill
Things like generators are great for people who know how to use them. We have 700,000 people without power here in Kentucky, and a few have killed themselves with carbon monoxide because they got generators and didn't know they have to be run outdoors.
Ann Coulter
Not much meat there, but of course the jackpot is those yummy BrAiNzzzzz!
You'd starve,
if you were relying on hers to keep you alive.
Jim Downey
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The Revolution Starts on Day Four
Back when they had the big quakes in San Francisco, the reaction by people caught in it was kindness and cooperation. Ditto for the moment after 9/11.
Hard to tell what happened during Katrina, but at least some of the news stories were characterizing as "looting" many of the situations where people were getting food. Absent leadership, the people pretending to be in control seemed to be taking a hard line with that. But overall, I got the feeling that the main response by average people was generous and helpful.
Having said that, I've seen stores stripped to the shelves during lengthy snow storms, and it's a scary image to have in your head. Three days after the trucks stop delivering, the dairy, bread, meat and produce sections are empty. The canned goods would last only a few days longer, but it never got that far where I was.
The truth is, the web of commerce that delivers food to most of us is complex and fragile. And it is frightening to think of it breaking down.
The fluffy common wisdom is that we could feed everybody in the world "if we really wanted to." I think, though, that there is not now and there never will be enough food in the world for every person ... certainly not until we get a handle on population, and probably not until a majority of us become sane and intelligent.
We seem content to be crazy and prolific, though, and those of us in the rich west don't seem to mind people starving and dying, as long as it's not us. The panic sets in when it looks like those unreal conditions might come HERE.
Heh. Aside from what we have stored in our pantries, though, we Americans have an advantage over most of the rest of the world. With some minor supplements, some of us could last for weeks, possibly even months, on our stored fat.
And isn't it interesting that this issue comes up in the public consciousness at this moment in history? I hope all of us will remember that some unknown but large amount of blame for what's happening now falls on George W. Bush, the Republican party, and all their little cheerleaders, lobbyists and hangers-on.
In private dark fantasies of future food emergencies, I imagine hordes of zombie-like starving people breaking into the walled compounds of all the fat, rich, smug, neo-con parasites and corporate fat cats, and killing and eating them. Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, even the contemptible Ann Coulter, but also all the bankers and Wall Street CEOs still giving themselves performance bonuses ... each bite would be revolting, but it would keep you alive for a few more days. (I imagine what Bush would think in his last moment before the zombies broke in: "Why is this happening to ME?" Don't they know I'm IMPORTANT?)
The motto of all these people for so many years has been "Do whatever you want. Nothing really matters." And on their level it would seem to be true. I'd hate for any of this to happen, but if it DID happen, the one silver lining would be that some of these fat cats would suffer a Marie Antoinette moment and find out how wrong they were.
That would be comic relief in the dark hungry days, huh?
Dibs on a drumstick.