Too much fluff in this part 1. Found it hard to read. Now is not the time to write a novel.
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Because we care about improving our understanding of the changes we are facing.
This applies to the macro issues unfolding in the world and the micro issues about what is happening in our garden. This site is about information and it needs to and does provide that for a wide spectrum of individuals.
Fortunately we still have a choice about what we want to read and if an article is not of interest then you can move on without penalty.
Marie, Your comment:
" It would have been more honest to bring the site down for a while than this."
in my opinion is a clear attempt at gaslighting and ignores any interests other than your own, which by the way, are not clear to me.
Coop
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@Maria, PP is all about the things you say. But for people to prepare and plan they must first understand why it is necessary, and be able to assess their risks & feasible options based on their unique situations. I would say most all of the long time members are well prepared and many are actively helping others - part of that is by sharing expertise and wisdom. So to that end I would suggest your list be amended to this:
- Understand (well) that which is relevant to your life
- Prepare
- Help others
- Keep abreast of new & ever involving information to know whether running is even an option, and if not, what does one need to do to survive and hopefully even thrive while staying put.
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The issues in Afghanistan do effects me and the way in which I prepare if only just emotionally.
How much do I put faith in the government, the active military, the retired military, the ability or desire of the federal government to “provide for the common defense?”
I’m prepared for a natural disaster. I’m not prepared for the UN or Capitol Police rolling through town. I’m not prepared to lose all the microchips out of Taiwan. I’m not prepared to look the service member who lost is wife and family because he had to do one more tour in Afghanistan in the eye and tritely say, “thank you for your service.” And although I remember the Iran hostage crisis I am not prepared for Afghanistan hostage crisis that seems to be on the horizon and will likely include women and children.
Helping my neighbor buy ten pounds of rice isn’t going to address my lack of emotional preparedness.
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MDW - It is critically important that we get as many people to understand as much as possible about what is going on leading up to collapse.
Without enough people onboard and prepping for collapse all the prepping in the world will not help you.
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I think it is valuable to look behind the curtain always and take note of things that could be coming. I appreciate Chris’ look at possibilities. And I trust that this site will not stop there but will support and encourage appropriate action in the now. There is one very immediate very important one and that is Biden’s call for vaccine mandates. Those of us who are not affected by it should none the less join in a massive protest. I do not want a precedent set that the government can dictate personal health decisions. So my request to all of you who do not want mandates but are in a job where it is being threatened - form groups of protestors. Invite the vaccinated to join the group (many do not like the forced regimen) and also outside people to help fund and support you. Let your employer know that you will walk out of your job. Let them know you will boycott their business. Prepare to do it. Biden truly threw down a gauntlet with his ridiculous legal requirement to vaccinate all the unwilling. The answer should be not just no but HELL NO! If just 10% of people walk off their jobs the economy would take a huge hit and I think weak old Joe et al will back down. This needs to be the message everywhere. I will not conform. Be like Joe Rogan. No hate to anyone - just the firm message that I will not be another one of your sheep. I have a right to determine my own medical decisions period. I am not the cause of your breakthrough infection - Pfizer is the cause. You were lied to. The vaccines are not safe and not even effective. So all the people who do not want to be vaccinated need to take a stand but also all of us not affected need to support them. PS I did get the vaccine - 2x Pfizer. After a month I had a hemorrhagic stroke. No history or related history. I thought I had died and will never forget that experience. So it’s been proven to my satisfaction that the vaccine is not safe. Not effective. Not free in any sense of that word.
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Yes. Thank you Maria. There is such a flood of information available to sift through and impossible to keep up with. This one is not worth the time.
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Chris just talked about the importance of orientation.
Some of us have been at this awhile and we’re not really reacting to these developments emotionally. We are cool and collected. We can suss-out the big picture stuff, because we’ve already done the Kubler-Ross tap-dance to the worst case scenario outcomes…like a decade ago.
In fact, we’ve been waiting for this moment our entire lives.
We are the leaders we have been waiting for.
While everyone else is frightened, we stand with steadfast resolve and servant leadership. If you watched the Crash Course (and please tell me you have watched the Crash Course…) then you will know that humans are evolved to see things like a charging lion, and then have a flight or fight response. Humans don’t have a flight or fight response to concepts that are temporally distant. The adrenaline doesn’t start pumping in fear of climate change or desertification. Chris talks about the existential threat of the exponential function. This is high-level fabric of reality stuff.
I mean, what if I told you that all of the problems we have today started 15,000 years ago?
It’s true. Yet, it’s so far removed, temporally from our level of thinking that we can’t see it.
It’s easy to run from a charging lion or a flash flood. It’s not so easy to run from the emergent complex systems that is being referenced here.
P.S. Mememonkey is a legend. And this is exactly the high-level conversations that I want to see at Peak Propsperity. Thank you, Mememonkey.
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“Please, on this September 11, for one day, will you take those virtue-signaling signs off your lawn, to respect those gay Afghans who will be thrown from roofs, the women executed for singing a song or worse, presenting the news.”
[embed]https://www.gregpalast.com/my-own-forever-war-afghanistan-and-9-11/[/embed]
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Lets just say that a trend takes off where countries who’s economies have been heavily suppressed through various foreign policy actions find their way clear and begin to build and grow.
China as an example has brought several hundred million or more people out of poverty and their middle class is growing by leaps and bounds. Vietnam is expanding their economy rapidly but still maintaining socialism. Indonesia in general is growing and structuring themselves for broad economic prosperity. Much of Asia has the potential to grow their economies and increase living standards which is the stated goal coming from all leaders.
Latin America, South and Central, is poised for another socialist revolution and with Imperial US taking several blows to its hegemony this one might just stick.
Russia and most of the formerly soviet states have enormous potential for growth and a young population itching to realize it. Russia has 6 of the top fastest growing cities in the world China also.
So lets just say that over the next 5 years or so 3 or 4 BILLION people begin to prosper and begin to increase their consumption accordingly. Even a modest increase in global consumption represents a ten fold increase in the consumption of natural resources. This in a world where all the easy pickings of natural resources have been exhausted and we are now scraping the bottom of the oceans for resources. Every single strategic resource is 10 to 100 times more difficult to produce than it was 50 years ago. The waste stream from current and legacy production has already brought us to the brink of global destruction. The degree of environmental destruction that this kind of exponential growth in demand would represent would be absolutely catastrophic and would accelerate total collapse to a matter of years.
Not to mention that all of the military exploits of the last 100 + years have been about securing resources, unfettered access to resources for our corporations and perhaps most important of all and not talked about by ANYONE is DEMAND DESTRUCTION. Making sure that nobody else uses OUR resources. We do this in several ways such as financially, sanctions, and when everything else fails “bomb them back to the Stone Age”.
Quite a predicament the US finds itself in. They can not possibly allow such rampant growth or it means the end of “the American way of life”. They do allow it and we all go down in a flaming caldron of sheite.
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I happen to like Charles Eisenstein’s framing that we are between stories as inconvenient facts, that Chris’s crash course is so good at pointing out, have destroyed the old narrative and thus we find ourselves looking for a new guiding story to live by. The “great reset” is one such story, but I suspect this community and ones like it can create a better story. Using permaculture principles to guide us, the first stage is what I’ve found to be the most uncomfortable step of sitting back and observing what is going on rather than jumping into your “brilliant” solution as that usually fails in some unexpected way. (Note: I’ve also learned this lesson from working with the Biomimicry Guild, as with pretty much any problem nature has already figured out a solution or ten and if you take the time to quiet your mind you can often observe an answer right in front of you . ) Way to go FLCCC!
Thus I feel it is worth taking the time and observing what is going on in the world and how it is impacting our local, it will be different for everyone, which is great, as each will come up with different solutions and by synthesizing those solutions we can generate a more representative story. For those familiar with Joseph Campbell or Micheal Meade’s work often that synthesis, which has to take into account such non quantifiable factors such as love and spirituality is not literally true in the scientific sense, but reaches a much deeper lasting truth such as found in the ancient myths. I believe this to be one of the key problems with our current story in that things that aren’t quantitative we have no way to value their importance in our economy or our education for that matter. This is one of the many reasons I’m so excited that Evie is now helping lead the community. The wonderful poems are a nice example.
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I am frequently amazed at the “solutions” to current problems that I hear from younger-than-me adults who were never taught American or world history. At times they literally cannot hear the echoes of the words they use bouncing through the channels of time. It reveals the “misundereducation” that has helped weaken the American character and sense of purpose, to our and the world’s loss. We definitely need to look out more.
Back in my seminary days I studied Islam at the internationally recognized Macdonald Institute at Hartford Seminary. I read the key works of one of the early jihadist theoreticians, the well-regarded scholar Qutb, a brilliant man who knew both Islam and the West directly. He revived the idea of a vanguard, ascetic Islamic religious warrior class who would lead Islam forward into its past glory. He wrote that the West would lose to Islam because we have no spiritual strength. Our spiritual faith, he said in the 1960s, has died, and so we have no significant cause to propel us in any meaningful engagement. We have no reason to live, he opined, and so we are afraid to die, and that is our weakness.
No one in the West paid him any mind in his heyday. We were on a roll that we thought would last forever, and we were still steeped in the vestiges of the post-WWII “boosterism” that taught (with significant help from the Rotary Club) that if you can’t say anything nice about America and business, don’t say anything at all. After all, “the business of America is business.”
Line up that sentiment next to Qutb’s analysis. There’s the last 60 years in nuce.
Next to our historical myopia is an underappreciation of the emergent contemporary global context. People who fail to see the connection of events on the ground in the Middle East or Southeast Asia to immediate, near-term, or coming problems in the U.S. and Western Europe are mind-blinded to the preparations they need to make; preparations both material and emotional-mental. One can’t prepare for what one can’t see. And you can’t fight with your eyes closed.
What does the brand new Saudi military compact with Russia have to do with the West’s supply of oil and gasoline? Or with the petrodollar? Why does it matter to Canadians that China has domesticated the Taliban, and whether they will remain on the leash? And, why does China care about Afghanistan anyhow?
U.S. Americans, in particular, are among the most smug and myopic of people in the world. Just Saturday night I was gathered with a small group around an evening fire when the talk turned briefly to our retreat from Afghanistan. What no one else entertained was the notion that the U.S. didn’t withdraw, but got ejected from Afghanistan; or that we are being steadily ejected from the Middle East altogether. And the world. Today, we cannot reliably stand against China short of using nuclear weapons, and that fact has already eclipsed our authority in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean. Now Russia has a burgeoning military port north of Israel on the Mediterranean, and has the stated intent to be a “presence” on those waters. The U.S. will steadily withdraw.
I was smugly assured Saturday eve that “the U.S. will shine. Money talks.” Which indicates a supreme ignorance of monetary policy on top of the rest of the arrogant ignorance on display.
The U.S. is an empire in decline. Our last presidential election demonstrated it. Never mind the corruption of the vote itself - the choice was between a demonstrably senile old and corrupt political hack who vaguely wanders off in both speech and place (rather like U.S. policy), and a backwards-gazing businessman who thinks America’s future is her past (rather like U.S. citizens). The average American willfully believes the official lies that assure them we’ll get everything back to normal soon - because to acknowledge the state of the country and the world is nothing short of terrifying; terrifying because they have not looked up past their daytime cubicle walls and nighttime television programming (and it is programming) in their entire adult lives.
As we fade, two trajectories open themselves to us. One is the risk of the Thucydides Trap at the international level. Nuclear war is the risk there. The other is the risk of declining into domestic authoritarian senescence. Both of those are present independent of the Davos crowd’s global resource management plan, which - let’s face it - is at heart a CCP resource management plan that looks uncomfortably akin to North Korea. Both risks are real.
If, as now seems likely, China wins the battle for the Middle East (with Russia participating in a secondary, regionalized role), this will in fact be the Chinese Century. It will be a less friendly, less peaceful, less free planet. Chinese norms and values will replace American and Western classical liberalism. The Americas will be considered an outlying region of barbarians whose resources are the only value justifying bothering with us; bothering will mean increasing hegemony over us - a process already well underway through Chinese funding and financing across the Americas, including within U.S. government, education, industry, research, land and resource acquisition, and the purchase of bureaucrats and politicians (all the way up to Biden himself).
On the flip side, both will pass. Not soon, and not easily. I see two possible trajectories that offer interim landing places and that might lead to a better outcome. Neither is guaranteed. One is to own and work land, holistically with an eye to land resilience. We who pursue that direction have at least the probability of keeping food on the table, a roof over our heads, and some degree of autonomy in countries that become steadily less free. I won’t be surprised if we see the Biden Administration lock Americans in place. If the case can be made that Covid is resurging with winter, that might happen soon. Where you’re locked down will matter. If you’re where you can at least supplement your diet by what you produce yourself, you’ll have a better chance of thriving. If you’re in a city you’re in trouble, I think.
The other trajectory is bitcoin, because it is the one alternative to the immanent arrival of Central Bank Digital Currencies that will allow those who have it to keep personal finances out of the hands of governments and Central Banks. Those who have it will have a better chance of engaging in grey or black market transactions for necessary goods and services; they will even be able to take it with them if they move about or emigrate, without needing to secure anything physical that can be confiscated. But beyond such defensive elements, it is the one form of money that can thwart, or at least undermine, the power of governments to impose Chinese style social credit scoring and money restrictions. Can it be shut off? I know many on PP believe it can, but I don’t think so, as someone deeply in the space who has examined that question a lot. It can be outlawed, and the on-off ramps can be controlled or shut off, but bitcoin itself cannot be shut off and already there are P2P means of converting digital bitcoin into goods or other forms of money - even in China after it formally shut down cryptos.
I think bitcoin becomes the currency and the symbol of resistance and revolution in the near future. And that, in my opinion, is its true emergent value. I could be wrong, just as I could be wrong in thinking that developing land into production can secure my family from future hunger, homelessness, and constant under-the-thumb governance. But we each have to choose, first, whether to act or remain passive. If to act, then what basic paths we will build out in the short time remaining, with an eye to maximizing resilience against seen and unforeseen future dynamics.
We want to see as much as we can - which is why understanding international events really matters. The broader our response to what we can see, the more robust our infrastructure can become, which improves our ability to weather the unforeseen.
No one’s done preparing and building. Too many have not started, and don’t want to see what monster has already come over the horizon.
On a very immediate, practical note, there are 5 foods you need to grow to supply yourself with all the nutrients and protein the human body needs. They are: flour corn, beans, winter squash, potatoes, and eggs. If you’re starting out, master those and learn how to produce them in steadily improving soil, because the richer the soil is in microscopic life, the richer in nutrition will be the food you eat from it - therefore, the more robust your health and vitality. For growing corn, beans, and squash, study the Three Sisters intercropping system. They complement each other, and can be grown on the same ground - should be, in fact.
These 5 foods are your renewable emergency food supply. Learn how to propagate season two’s crop from season one’s. And if chickens are out of the question, double up on your potato production - potatoes grown in healthy soil have as much protein as eggs; you can live off of potatoes (as the Irish peasants knew).
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I’m really surprised no one is talking about how they just said Saudi was involved in 9/11. Their timing is impeccable. I wonder how they are going to use this because they wouldn’t come out and say that if they didn’t have a plan for that.
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You forgot to factor in the wild card in all this:
Major climate change. Its happening exponentially… For example: what happens if there are huge hail storms in July in the mid-west and the wheat crop is wiped out? Two years in a row? (That feeds a good part of the world).
Or the Kessler Syndrome actually happens and no more satellites…
We’re heading towards social collapse in our not too distant future.
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>>> I’m really surprised no one is talking about how they just said Saudi was involved in 9/11. Their timing is impeccable. I wonder how they are going to use this because they wouldn’t come out and say that if they didn’t have a plan for that.
Obviously it needs to be talked about. The lies in the official US gov conspiracy theory about 9-11 just keep piling up.
Senator Al Franken has publicly stated, in writing, that he and former Mayor Koch knew not to go to work at the WTC on 9-11.
That’s a little different than the San Francisco Chronicle having a small article the week of 9-11, saying that California politician Willie Brown got a phone call warning him not to fly.
As far as the very minor information release about the Saudi’s, that is a very tiny piece of the story. What they released was highly redacted.
I think it is in the category of “throwing them a bone”. Biden’s unique gift for the families of the Deceased, related to the politics of Biden speaking on the day of 9-11.
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Basically hit the nail on the head and summed up our entire global situation very succinctly. Half way through I was thinking; ‘OK another “we’re screwed” post with no practical solution’, then you provided two solid avenues. Excellent.
The only thing I disagree with is your recommendation to produce flour. Processing wheat into flour is extremely labor intensive without a thresher and unless you can find an antique and recondition it, you wont find much available to the small producer. Threshing can be done by hand with sticks or flails, wheat can be separated from chaff manually, then wheat can later be ground into flour but thats alot of labor for a little return. Corn can do everything wheat can do and is alot less labor intensive.
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VT never said anything about wheat. A closer reading would reveal he said flour corn.
Good to know you agree with him
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What kind of beans?
Your intro with Islam seems gratuitous. If you had studied Islam you would know that Jihad is not what people think. It is a spiritual battle. Just like Christianity, Islam has been twisted to further particular ends. I would hazard a guess that more wars have been fought in the name of Jesus than any other reason. Let’s not forget the Crusades. The animosity towards Islam by Christians has been in existence since the beginning. The wars Mohammed fought were spiritual battles. They were similar to the battles fought in the Mahabharata. Krishna (an Avatar just as was Jesus and Mohammed) enjoins Arjuna to kill his brothers as “they are already dead”.
As for your options, it is not surprising that number one would be to hunker down and homestead. Of course this has wide appeal here. There are other options which don’t get much attention here. One is to be nomadic. The world is a big place. Evolutionary biology demonstrates that flexibility and adaptation are key components of a survival strategy. Being anchored to one place makes you an easy target.
Of course should things go way south your fellow citizens will be of major concern. I remember the blackout of the mid 60’s. Should a scenario like that happen for an extended period of time people will leave the cities in search of whatever they need and if you have it well? Then of course there is the government our good buddy.
There was a person here who I struck up a friendship with who bought a very big boat with the intention of providing for his family in the event it became necessary. He no longer posts here. Then of course there is Galt’s Gulch.
As far as your food recommendations I would not put too much emphasis on potatoes. As the Irish found out that can lead to a very bad outcome. I would and do put my emphasis on sweet potatoes. They have been called the single most nutritious food on the planet. Squash has lots of issues with bugs . I don’t grow it. It does keep well. I would add shitakes to the mix. They are medicine as well as food and easy to grow.
As for your assessment of China, yes it is definitely the China century. Empires usually last 2-3 hundred years. the US is long in the tooth. It is now hollowing itself out and all that will be left will be a nuclear shell. China will take Taiwan and the US will sit and watch it happen. The US has no real allies anymore. China is playing the long game. Unfortunately there is a very large number of people who believe in the myth of Amerika. It is beat into their heads in school and it is the dominant narrative. At the local university right at the end of the anthem jets fly over the stadium and everybody cheers. Almost every aspect of Amerikaan life is linked to patriotism and the military.
China is just sitting there watching gleefully as the US implodes. The only real question is how long before we are wearing those hideous green outfits with those red stars on them.
Of course Bitcoin is the answer for anyone awake enough to ask the question but this site is not the place to have that discussion. Pity that.
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