NO RESOURCE IN NEIGHBORS
Neighbors suck. I’ve rarely met one who was worth two craps,
let alone one crap. I’ve never met a
neighbor I’d wish to have follow me into the apocalypse, even the off-grid
neighbors. Or should I say, those ON
grid neighbors who were surrounding my off grid property. Sure, it was only power and phone on grid,
not water or sewage, but while that might be their idea of roughing it, it
surely isn’t mine. What a bunch of
pussies, needing a generator buzzing for hours at a time or a $5k power line
hook up or the ability to waste as much well water as they did city water. That isn’t roughing it, when your biggest worry
is the mud you have to drive through ( and from the condition of the road, they
worry very little, just flooring the accelerator and spewing mud everywhere,
digging huge trenches into a road that was adequate before all the humpers
moved out there. I moved there, I had
three neighbors over the whole section.
Now it is closer to thirteen. And
that doesn’t include the next section over that went from five to fifteen ).
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Let that be a lesson to
you. No matter how nice a place you move
to, if you can see a power pole in the distance you’ll soon enough have
neighbors. I think that is why I don’t
sell my other Elko land. One has a
chance of never getting the electric grid closer to it and the other is
guaranteed to never having a line come anywhere close to it. If I move back from the city I’ll strongly
consider moving further away from the asshats.
How hard is it to ask to be left alone?
Not that your neighbors want to see you.
For some reason, they think being latecomers entitles them to harass you
if they don’t like your set-up. And city
neighbors? Even lazier and with worse
attitudes than rural neighbors. I used
to get pissed about intrusive city ordinances like leash laws and such. Now I realize they probably aren’t stringent
enough, with the selfish asshattery attitudes of city pukes. These people are worse than oxygen
wasters-they are entitled oxygen wasters.
Everyone thinks they alone worked hard to pay rent or a mortgage and
everyone else is intruding on them. I
mean, I’ve lived in far worse places, don’t get me wrong. At least in this small town everyone is
somewhat civil. There are all the small
penis idiots driving their diesel trucks, spewing black smoke and making a
racket as they try to drive like it’s a gasoline powered vehicle and has
acceleration rather than torque, or the small penis morns who program their
little rice burners to make as much noise as possible, the inevitable no dingus
Harley Davidson motorcycle riders during the warm months, but if you stay off
the road and are afoot most folks will nod or say hello.
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But as neighbors, they are
worthless. As community members
they have nothing to contribute. As tribal mates they will be far more hindrance
than help. And I’m not just blaming
them. I have no interest in being
overtly friendly. The southern neighbor
is reclusive, building a higher wall even though we barely loiter outside
except to smoke. The eastern neighbor
won’t even reply when hailed, as they are aloof asswhore civil servants and are
pissed about the NOL’s renters always trying to gank their parking spot ( that
they don’t use, but I do see their point anyway. They fail to understand you can’t control
renters, only moderate their behavior on a good day ). The western neighbor is older than God and while
friendly is worthless. And the northern
neighbor is an insurance office, contributing traffic and nothing else. Kiddy-corner the neighbors are young punk ass
renters with noisy dogs. Everyone else I
couldn’t even point out in a police line-up, they are so elusive.
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Any preppers in the
immediate area? Doubtful. Oh, I’ve met a few, but they really have few
interests in a group. More lone
homestead types. Which might also be my
fault, being both a homebody and reclusive by nature. And I get the feeling they are more “Backwoods
Home” types than rabid survivalists.
Which I might be construed as.
Hey, so friggin sorry I believe the ass will fall out of
civilization. You try living in this
beautiful brain for a few days. Hell, I
try to fool myself some of the times, to soften the coming reality. Not that it sticks, I just keep getting more
and more paranoid even as I give less and less of a crap about how much longer
I live. But I refuse to purposely
endanger myself, anyway, just out of principle.
And that is what getting involved with non-prepper folks will do. Hell, even the wrong kind of preppers ( like
Mormons ) are dangerous. If there are
1-3% of the population prepping, and most of those are pussy preppers ( a first
aid kit, a case of MRE’s and an AR, does not a prepper make ), so make that one
tenth of one percent of the population, the odds are astronomical that you’ll
ever have a prepper neighbor ( Idaho Homesteader, are your neighbors
survivalists, or Yuppie Scum Preppers?
It wouldn’t matter if you are more of a Yuppie-no offense, as you were
living the life a decade before me and I can only respect that-but if you are
more and they are not… And BTW, thanks for this article idea ).
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So what damn good are
neighbors? If you choose to ignore them
as much as possible, just like now, if they are a necessary evil, I get
that. Just don’t think they could be an
asset. If you live out in the country,
and you have electrical lines and a well and a septic tank, that doesn’t make
you a prepper. If you use a tractor to
farm, using artificial fertilizer, that doesn’t make you a prepper. A shotgun for self defense and a pantry full
of canned food doesn’t, either. Those
neighbors? They are living cheaper, but
that isn’t necessarily living in preparation for civilization collapse. Living cheaper is commendable, as is living
healthier, but don’t confuse it for self-sufficiency. Just because they are worried about the
future doesn’t mean they are truly prepared for it. You can’t chose your neighbors, but you can
chose your post-apocalypse tribe. Choose
wisely.
END
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Pretty slim pickens, most of my family and friends would be dead weight. Still most of your requirements would disqualify me too. I wonder how many survivors would die after feeding the last of their wheat to the chickens, or water to keep the cows alive.
ReplyDeleteMost of us are disqualified, make no mistake. The only asset any of us are going to bring outside minimal preps is an attitude embracing deprivation and hatred. Those are free, but rare.
DeleteIn my area, I would venture to say that probably a good 25-33% are survivalist minded. And not yuppie survivalist, either, not enough money around here for that. We've even had an a few extremely wealthy folks move here as well as a major movie star. They try to keep low key, but it's a small town so everyone knows that they have brought in supplies.
ReplyDeleteMost people around here freely talk about economic collapse, government FEMA camps, UFO's, Obama never leaving office, the UN, Agenda 21, basically it's like living in an Alex Jones' reality. People talk about this stuff at the library, the post office, over coffee, and at neighborhood get togethers.
It's funny to see folks who first move here and are afraid to bring up their pet conspiracy theory because they are concerned about being labeled a nut. Up here if you DON'T have a conspiracy theory, you don't fit in LOL.
The area is mostly lower middle class so not enough money to be "Yuppie Survivalist". Many folks hunt, garden, heat with wood, build their own home, live off grid, store basic food like beans and wheat, can vegetables, plant fruit trees, etc. Plus, we live in a wet area with lakes, rivers, streams, springs and a good amount of rainfall. There are many ham radio operators and weekly check-in nets. Kinda like a "Country Boy will Survive" type of place.
I was the Preparedness Coordinator for the local LDS Church for almost 10 years so I know ?vaguely? the preps some people have. Also one winter, the local city councilman hosted 'preparedness meetings' to help everyone gain knowledge on basic things like long term food storage, raising chickens, alternative medicine, tanning hides, etc. We all took turns teaching classes on what each of us knew. I also coordinated bringing in a load of bulk beans, lentils and wheat for people to buy.
That being said, I have concerns about my area. IMHO, most people drastically underestimate the number of calories needed to survive. They will get a few buckets of wheat, beans, some freeze dried food and it looks like a lot. They forgot how dependent they are on going to the grocery store weekly, having gas, and 2 day delivery from Amazon. Though, most are pretty good about stocking ammo.
Geographically, my town is in a good place and could close down the roads pretty easy. We're surrounded by mountains and have thousands of acres between us and other cities.
It's not perfect but I honestly don't know of any other place that has more like minded people and has a sizable portion of the population at least somewhat prepared.
So if we are lucky and squeak by with just another "Great Depression", the area will probably limp along just fine. If we have a "Mad Max" scenario, we are just as screwed as everyone else.
Idaho Homesteader
I'd say "yuppie survivalists if it's more ammo than food" but I think that is probably common for all of us everywhere, all spectrums of prepper/doomers.
DeleteIdaho Homesteader, I think nobody preps for real until they confront reality, in all its strangeness and its mystery (i.e. what really happens is unknown, how it will unfold even more).
DeleteOnly then will people ditch their habits, and their chains... and don new ones.
It doesn't make sense to live a self-sufficient life FOR REAL when alternatives provided my the modern world are so easy and cost so little.
When you spend your days cultivating your garden with anxiety because it's all you're ever going to eat, and add to that weather-related anxiety, you have a bad time.
Neighbours at present might be useless, but the key factor here is not what they bring to the deal but how well they cooperate. You need them, they need you, and if your potatoe patch fails, a community can setup a form of community granary or something.
Alas, most people are indeed Section 8 dependent or on a higher equivalent (mortage, debt slaves etc.), meaning they don't need others FOR REAL.
"Most people drastically underestimate..." It was an eye opener the first time I looked at 20 buckets of wheat, rice, and beans and said, " but that will only feed us for about 3 months." I had thought it was so much food til I did the math.
DeleteMath blows, yo.
DeleteI'm of the kind we are in a depression & have been for some time now. It's easy to hide it when social security is doled out electronically and all the stats are fudged to such an extent as to be meaningless
DeleteAnd government blows worse. You must admit however, as we don't know the true numbers at least we aren't panicking. So it works, even if we're on to their ruse.
Delete"Any preppers in the immediate area? Doubtful. Oh, I’ve met a few, but they really have few interests in a group. More lone homestead types."
ReplyDelete"Eagles don't flock - you have to find them one at a time." - Ross Perot