Doom 2.0
The prepping path.
I have been noticing a trend lately.
It appears that writers, formerly focused on how fucked we were, since that’s now a forgone conclusion, are transitioning to writing about ways to help prepare for what’s coming.
I think it’s a good move, since there’s more than enough information about the precarious nature of our existence. Some practical advice on how to get ready is an idea whose time has come.
Wildfire has been putting some articles up that are well worth the read, including her post this morning about going to the bathroom.Alan Urban has compiled a massive amount of information on his Collapse Survival Site.
There are going to be things you need to be able to do and things you need to know how to do that can only be learned by doing them.
I just came across Justin McAffee’s
page this morning and I like what he’s doing.There were already general prepper sites such as Canadian Prepper who has been around for years and provides a lot of good info.
The thing that, up until recently, was never mentioned was, what do poor people, who can’t afford fancy meal kits, cabins on an isolated piece of property, expensive camping gear, or any of the myriad items that the privileged can buy.
It is my opinion that if you are poor, you’re in a much better position. You’re already accustomed to living without, one of the most valuable prepping skills that you can have, because it’s something that people who are accustomed to being able to get what they want, when they want are going to have to learn from scratch.
It won’t be an easy lesson, and most of them will fail.
Things that you will need to know straight away is how to find potable water, how to protect yourself from the elements, how to locate food sources, how to protect yourself from other humans, and did I mention learning to do without.
An anecdote:
I was working in a coffee shop in Santa Monica a while back and a woman came in wanting some weird, convoluted coffee drink. I was in a bad mood that day, a common occurrence, and I just told her that I wouldn’t make that drink for her. The people that came in to that coffee shop were well-to-do and unused to having people say no to them. The look on her face was priceless. I could actually see everything she knew about the world and what was right crumbling. She was shell shocked. She backed away from the counter and staggered out the front door. Being a mischievous sort, I tried this out several more times during the next few weeks, just to make sure she wasn’t an anomaly.
She wasn’t.
During the course of my research, I found that no one who frequented that particular coffee shop could deal with, even, a small attack on their worldview.
Imagine, if you will, the cumulative effect of a collapse scenario on these people.
It would be madness.
A chaotic clusterfuck.
I would kind of like to see it.
Some more resources:
A valuable single source reference book is the original 1911 version of The Boy Scout Handbook. I like it because it was put together before we had the things we have now, which is what we’ll most likely go back to. You can also find the Merit Badge Pamphlets, sold individually, here.
Two books by one of my old outdoor skills instructors are How to Survive Anywhere and Extreme Simplicity. They are both valuable and should be on your bookshelf.
If you have any other suggestions about good books and resources, I would love to hear about them in the comments.
Stay calm and push the button marked ALARM!
Good stuff, Michael, and so necessaary. I am very grateful for the years when I was very poor. A mantra from that time: Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without!
I would like to have a front row seat as well. It would be good for a few laughs. But mostly, I think of these people as the ones who will die out first as all of the comforts they take for granted disappear. They will have no clue on how to survive and will either sit down and die or, the most likely scenario, be killed by those who do have a sense of survival and are not afraid to kill others for their resources. I don't plan to hang around to watch the chaos unfold. I will be headed for the hills to get as far away from the humans as possible if I am still around when the collapse occurs.