army training sir

ARMY TRAINING SIR!

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note: how cool is this?  Ultra low-tech distiller.  A clay vessel shaped like a dunce cap with drain hole.  See in the fifth episode of Tales From The Green Valley, minute twelve.  click here 
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The movie “Stripes” had a lot of memorable quotes, the title of this article one of them ( “what kind of training did you receive, soldier?” ).  My other favorite was “lighten up, Francis”.  It was also one of Bill Murphy’s better films ( granted, this is not saying much.  Bill and Chevy were in my opinion mostly overrated past their younger days-and that is only because Hollywood made better films in the ’80’s anyway ).  The reason I loved it back in the day, but don’t care if I see it now or not, is because it did a great job poking fun at a subject taken way too seriously.  Can you imagine the movie being made today, as we are expected to jingoistically salute all things martial.

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Being in the military, I loved watching the humor directed at the institution I had erroneously attached myself to.  Yes, they were incompetent puds.  But, even so, it’s good not to take ANYTHING too seriously.  Dedication, sure.  Devotion, no doubt.  Discipline is important.  But for goodness sakes, don’t take yourself too seriously to the point you can’t see the hilarious side of yourself.  As soon as you can laugh at yourself, life is much more enjoyable.  You can laugh at your own dumb ass, you can laugh at everyone else’s antics.  And seeing them take themselves too seriously can at times be hilarious.

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Which brings up the coming collapse.  It IS going to happen, as day follows night.  You can take any excuse you want, from room temperature fusion ( now called “fracking” ) to ‘Murican Hubris Uber Alles, and that don’t stop Malthus Mayhem.  You add water to flour to get a pancake.  Works every time.  Now add overpopulation to contracting resources.  Different outcome this time?  Your ass ( the Green Revolution was very small parts new grain strains and very large parts extra petroleum.  GMO’s are only securing increased company profits, NOT increasing the food supply.  All this century, we are growing less than we need, and the old reserves are almost gone.  NOW, add in energy contraction ).

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I know, you know, and Ross Perot knows that the collapse is baked into the cake.  If you desire to make things even more dire, add in Gore Warming, if you wish.  But things will be bad enough as it is ( actually, other than food production, weird weather will have far less impact on us later than it is now, as post-modern we will have far less irreplaceable infrastructure than we do now ).  And it doesn’t look like we’ll have a heck of a lot of time before it happens.  But does taking that so seriously REALLY mean we are preparing better?

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I respect anyone dedicated enough to alter their current lifestyle to prepare.  You almost have to, to make a difference.  And yes, you do have to do a lot of things differently.  From starting to eat more of that whole wheat you’ve stored, to weaning yourself from the motor vehicle ( wean, not withdraw ) to getting your head right on a lot of things ( starting to hate strangers enough for when you must kill them, start accepting your own early death, beginning to pull back on luxuries you believe to be necessities ).  But do you have to lose your sense of humor?

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Training is by definition hard.  But everyone takes it WAY too seriously.  All those folks being hard core right now?  The extensive PT, the budget crushing ammo expenditure?  They are needed, BUT!, I would submit to you that you are taking it too seriously.  The fact of the matter is that any training is insufficient at this point.  Training is not life experience and never can be.  But training is never a substitute because all of us view training the wrong way.  We think we are going to school and will get a degree and become proficient.  Unfortunately, this is complete crap. 

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How do we learn life?  As children, we learn by watching and then learn by doing and then improve with practice.  But only by daily repetitive practice.  Those super studs that are crack shots under pressure, or are in the physical prime of their life?  They are One Trick Ponies.  It takes so much time and energy to master that one aspect that they leave room for very little else.  If you had grown up doing these tasks, as in the days of yore when training was a lifetime endeavor ( or when they started early enough in an apprenticeship ), then it would take little every day as an adult to stay proficient.  When you start training as an adult, you must place a far larger block of time and effort keeping mastery.  And that becomes your specialization.  Which blocks out other skills acquisition.

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Adult education is vastly overrated.  And childhood education is vastly underperformed.  Vocations must be started with childhood, not adulthood.  Now, the way things are in our society, you don’t really have much choice with this insufficient education.  Here is what I’m suggesting.  Rethink specialization and take a moment to reflect.  Don’t you think it is pretty funny that you are doubling down on the type of training ONLY applicable to the Oil Age?  You think you have no choice, to compensate for lack of vocational training, but you are also boxing yourself in by restricting the range of your activities.

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I believe it is far better to be passably acquainted with many skills rather than be really good in one.  Just like that quote from Robert everyone loves to use ( “specialization is for insects” ).  Where I disagree with that quote is its realistic application.  You only learn what returns on your investment, so most of us can only read about most outside our job activities.  That is the present reality.  Our only exception is our hobbies.  The problem with THAT, is we are just specializing in ONE other thing.  We still stay specialized!  Many preppers compensate that by accumulating books, but then they are accused of not being skill proficient.

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But to become skill proficient, most likely you are forced to compensate by specialization.  You are back in the same place you started, except now you have one paycheck skill and one apocalypse skill.  And both will eventually be antiquated.  Because most likely, they are using Oil Age supplies.  Are you starting to laugh at yourself, yet?  I know it doesn’t seem so, and you will get all serious and testy and defensive, but think about it.  Are you prepped for the die-off, or the apocalypse?  I’m going to cover that tomorrow, but let’s return briefly to wider skill sets before we wrap up today. 

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On one hand is owning a book, and on the other is being good at a specialized skill.  One is insufficient and the other is too all inclusive.  I would suggest that you just try your hand at as many crafts/skills as you can.  Don’t worry about getting good or great.  Just become familiar.  I’m of the mind that a broad approach is the only way you are going to be successful.  This goes against all we’ve ever been taught or been compensated for.  Continued.

END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2gUPhGl )

 

 

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