yes but

YES, BUT

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note: the movie "The 5th Wave" is at Redbox.  Certainly not a great post-apoc film.  Sanitized Kiddie Lite Apocalypse.  As well as a teenage chick flik.  Many times during the film you will find yourself yelling at the screen with the proper, corrected course of action.  But, with lowered expectations, it can be an enjoyable, semi-post-apocalypse movie.  Far better than the befouled Hunger Games.
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I’m fixin to continue on in the Civil war 2 article series, or at least I hope.  After probably too long rehashing the familiar I’m at last attempting to introduce less repeated topics.  I don’t know how much in the way of new ideas I’ll be introducing, whose lack thereof would be the only way I’d shorten the published material.  For now, a break from that, with this.

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Back in the day, pre-New Old Lady, the in-laws sucked rabid honey badger balls.  Among other names, the step-daughter was known as “Yea, But”.  This was in honor of a half a lifetime of coming up with one excuse for another for every failing she possessed ( “can I borrow money, I promise I’ll pay you back”, “Oooh, about that money, see, let me tell you a story” ad infinitum ).  I used to call survivalists that had all the excuses in the world for not doing anything that hurt but was necessary “Yea But Survivalists”.  However, along with my hair growing to an ever greater sheen, my thinking has also progressed.  I no longer hold most people truly responsible for acting like dumb asses ( and, no, Virginia, I don’t believe I’m superior to other people-I’m as retarded as the next guy, the only difference being I know it ).  People are hard wired in their behavior in oh so many ways, but of concern to us today is the propensity to always shift as in a compass needle to north to whatever reinforces their primary directives ( I know there is a term for it, but I really have a hard time remembering them so prefer analogies or folksy descriptions to professional labels, at least in this case ).

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You either view life as an optimist or a pessimist.  You cannot change that orientation through wishful thinking ( like most other mindsets and emotions, only pain truly changes your views ), such as chanting Business Guru slogans, or by spousal nagging ( I’m not sure if Pavlovian positive reinforcement through sexual favors would change you, or even negative ones.  Emotional pain is enough to rewire your thinking, but most of most of our lives the only sexual signals we receive were negative anyway, so that might be a wash ).  This seems to be especially noticeable in survivalists, or at least it does to me since I’ve been overanalyzing those involved in that field for decades.  We, writers and commentators, waste almost all of our time arguing over doctrine, and it is indeed a complete waste of time.

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Almost all of what we are doing is, rather than arguing AGAINST the other persons view, is arguing FOR our own prejudices.  We all think we are right and hold the correct view.  None of us stop and think why that view is held as sacrosanct and inviolate.  Without getting into a whole can of worms with psychology and such and what-not, one aspect of our preconceived notions has to do with how we view the universe.  Are unicorns real, with their glittery sweet smelling farts?  Or is the world a giant suck-fest out to get you for no other reason than you exist?  If I am an eternal optimist, nothing can change my mind that regardless of events happy conclusions are foregone.  Despite the odds and the condition we find ourselves in, Good Crap Happens.  If I am a pessimist, no one can convince me that I won’t be brutally dry humped, tortured and thrown in the stewpot come the apocalypse.  Bad Crap Happens. 

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And it doesn’t matter how intelligent or stupid either side of the argument is.  You can’t convince someone, regardless of the facts or arguments or persuasive language, that the sun is bright and happy if they are living under a cloud.  You can’t “prove” that it is a crappy day to someone high on life.  I hope all this seems pretty self-evident.  As I am by nature pessimistic, all it took for me to forever avoid crowds was reading about the Who concert in the 70’s where a stampede crushed and killed several people.  Using a chainsaw once and scaring the crap out of myself, and reading the statistics on accidents using them reinforcing that fear, which simply fit in with my worrisome fretful nature.  When I had a couple of jams with my M-16, which was constantly in a pristine Basic Training state of cleanliness, obviously I would forever after assume it would continue to do so and avoid it like the plague.  When one wife after another screwed me, why should I assume that wasn’t the normal state of affairs?  Even after finally being proven wrong, my attitude is merely one of appreciating a freak accident, along with a glumness that I waited nearly until the end of my life to experience The Exception That Proves The Rule. 

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Nobody is going to say anything that changes my basic nature of fear and loathing.  Everything I point to as proof of collapse is being forced through my paradigm, and even knowing this I can’t change my orientation.  And when I tell you “if I’m wrong you are pleasantly surprised but if I’m right you are insured against the worst”, you respond as is your nature.  “Oh, he’s so full of crap-we’ll get through this some how.  I just need a bit of a cushion against unemployment or natural disaster.  And, you‘ll have to pry my chainsaw from my cold dead fingers.”  Or, “Good Christ On A Cracker, I KNEW the friggin sky was falling.  Full prepping ahead.  Way to go, Lord Bison!”.  I think we evolved from something that hit its head one too many times.

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