Saturday, March 24, 2018

you're the dead one


YOURE THE DEAD ONE
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note: from a caring minion:
Here is a link to The Survivalist movie you were talking about. You might like to pass it on to minions. Word of warning – there are multiple links to different streams & whenever you click any link a window will open. You just gotta bear with it
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There is a saying that goes something like, “two people can share a secret if one of them is dead”.  The question becomes, do you want to be the one that is dead?  Now, I don’t know about you.  Perhaps you were born with a micro-penis and you embrace the sweet prospect of death.  Me?  I don’t really care if I die-after a certain age it just becomes embarrassing if you don’t acknowledge the Grim Reaper is stalking your ass-but I’m not going to make it easy for the bastard, am I?  Sharing a secret is all about making yourself vulnerable.  And while sometimes that is a perfectly acceptable compromise, sometimes it is anything but.

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Look, I’m all for having a tribe.  But you cannot offer a black and white choice to everyone along the lines of “tribe up or die”.  That is just silly.  Hell, I’ve already lost a quarter of my potential tribe through his inability to adjust to living locally ( a rather social chap who left most of his lifelong friends down south, he couldn’t make good friends here-so he went back to wince he came-and I’m a bit jealous as he is just as isolated but in a much smaller town one tenth as big ), and there is a chance my in-laws might move if a local job doesn’t pan out.  My last “tribe” left much to be desired, the ex-in-laws.

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The advocates for tribal organizations are either anthropologists ( myself, of an obvious hobby amateur variety ), are extroverts that see no other way, or are selling you something that requires a tribe ( Yuppie Scum Survivalist Guru’s selling books, or vendors selling bulk items such as the $2k ghost gun milling machine ).  I might see an inevitability of tribal organization post collapse, but I’m also happy to admit I’m an introvert who sees ALL the bad in people, even if I have to invent some.  I can see the need to go alone until social order is restored and before the Industrial Age surplus stockpiled items are gone.

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The items substituting for people, obviously ( wheat in lieu of a group to raise oxen and tend fields or mechanics and biofuel experts to tend tractors, as an example ).  But there is another component always ignored by advocates of tribalism.  And that is cultural conditioning.  Almost all of us were raised as semi-autonomous individuals trained at solitude ( the TV ) and relying on the nation state for most of our needs ( we’ll see how well these rugged individuals oozing Libertarian principles fare once the oil import valve is shut off ).  There is certainly nothing wrong with attempting to tribe up and change our conditioning.  Folks from cult members to survivalists try it every day.  I only warn of too high of expectations.

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And here is another reason to be leery of a tribe, IF and only IF you have no luck and that ideal just isn’t working for you ( and if you already have a tribe, feel blessed ).  Guerrilla warfare.  This is where we return to the Two Can Keep A Secret.  While having comrades to fight with certainly is a good thing, it can also prove to be a vulnerability.  The autonomous cell does indeed fight well without being vulnerable.  But you also live and die by your cell.  I’m NOT saying this kind of fight is bad.  We are social creatures and we evolved to fight in close knit groups.  You’ve seen this for yourself.  Past your partner alongside you in a cruiser and a couple of buddies also on the force, or past the folks in your immediate squad, there is little fraternity.

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You might wear the same tribal colors, and mouth the same slogans and pinky swear allegiance, but where the rubber meets the road you’ll usually only risk you life for a very select few.  So, while a small band of brothers to fight with is effective and realistic, if you DON’T have that available option, at least you can console yourself with the fact that tactically you are much safer.  A solitary man out and about with mischief on his mind is going to be far harder to find or stop ( setting aside the initial issue of rank amateurism ) than a group.

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I’m not suggesting you fight this way, I only suggest that if you never have time to tribe up you aren’t necessarily at a disadvantage militarily.  Being a loner does have its advantages.  As a survivalist being a loner is the ultimate OpSec.  And as a fighter, it does the same.  And I can almost guarantee that if the waterfall tip over journey lasts too long, there will be prolonged combat ( as opposed to combat until that short time hence when all the supplies are gone ).  And while conventional wisdom preaches strength in numbers, there is also weakness in numbers.

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In time, after acquiring experience assuming you don’t die, a squad of civilians works out a rhythm and can very effectively work together.  Until that time, there is arguments, variable levels of commitment, zero skills posing a danger to others and in general other problems crowds represent.  And yes, training is a solution.  But finding dedicated individuals willing to train at that level is part of what makes finding a decent tribe so problematic.  More likely, your tribe is from family that had zero prior commitment, and hence no training.  Ancient tribes grew up together.  Group dynamics came from a lifetime of “training together”, just from sports and hunting and other real life on the job training.  Even the introvert had enough training to function.  Today?

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Given all the hurdles of both preparing for the future and learning to fight there, going solo might not be the worst solution.  Far too often our Hollywood melted brains confuse what is ideal and what is realistic.  We somehow think we are Tony Robbins wishing success into being.  A less than ideal plan that is realistic is the better plan all along.

END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2u4l68J )
 
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17 comments:

  1. Well, since Fukushima is pumping out radiation into the atmosphere the equivalent of 16,000 Hiroshima bombs so far, and thanks to the prevailing winds blowing towards North America from Japan I guess we are all going to die from radiation poisoning eventually anyway. Shhhhh! Don't tell anybody, it's a secret.

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    1. Far too many people are Single Issue focused. It's all about attempted gun control, or all about racism. It's all about Gore Warming. The problem with Fuki is, on one side are the complete deniers and on the other We Are All Going To Die. Hard to know which is which. I side with the Death crowd, but I simply see optimism as mental masturbation.

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    2. I was at Three Mile Island when it went, by saying at, I mean it was three neighbors and half a river away. I still set radiation detectors off, but not nearly as often as I used to, wish that was a joke. Radiation is survivable.

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    3. Radiation is survivable. Cancer, on the other hand ( given the nations finances and the state of our medical industry )...

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    4. That's the reason for fear of radiation, it is scary because it is hard to know how much of it you have, nor what results that level will have in your body. The long term results of too much is that you will eventually die. How much radiation it takes to cause YOU damage, and how long you have before that damage kills you is real question. Since a bus could hit you before the cancer hits you. I consider radiation a thing to avoid - especially children and breeders, but the older you get the less it matters.

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    5. Ha! That's why I fear everyone-I don't how any will react or what results they will have on my body :)

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  2. Good line of thoughts again Jim. I think minions should have an overiding concious concern of safety and survivability to all of their thoughts or actions. After getting chow in their belly, and some shelter/security, every thing should revolve around staying alive. In absence of mutant zombies, it is going to be other "people" who are the threat. Any and all potential contacts or interactions whether with strangers or neighbor/ tribe/ family are to be always treated suspect and exercise caution to keep your six o'clock covered. I would even go so far as dig a covered slit trench type of shelter a ways away from your domicile and sleep there in fair weather so as to be not jumped in the night, by your new friends you made cause you were lonely and wanted to be part of something to validate your existence. These scumbag people nowadays wil covet any of your property or smite you out of spite or pure sport of it. Act accordingly.

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    1. Ninja sleeping arrangements sound good. All you need is four foot wide and eight long, probably five deep. Cover as the B-POD, overlapping insulated roof. Year round that way. Cover with cammo.

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    2. @Anon 11:31 Damn, I like your idea about sleeping out of your fort.

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    3. >>These scumbag people nowadays wil covet any of your property or smite you out of spite or pure sport of it.

      Completely agree, but then again I'm stuck with my property and the food, ammo and other forms of stockpiled energy in it. Obviously I'm already a target.

      Maybe after a year or so I'll be more mobile, but reastically I don't think so :(

      I don't know how one can stockpile a year's worth of food, two months worth of drinking water and thousands of rounds while remaining mobile and/or stealthy.

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    4. You can't remain mobile. The best you can do is have a nearby cache. But then when/if you come back all your stocks are taken/used up, and so you might as well not have any to begin with. So, you die defending or die NOT defending. NOT just gives you a little more time. But not much and it probably a much lower quality of life than you wish. Article! Thanks.

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  3. On the Fukushima thing. Long term, the science says it's an ELE. For older farts like RP and I , we are likely to just die of natural causes from old age lol.
    Unless however you ignore the advice of the experts and consume large amounts of Pacific ocean seafood. Most of the radiation now is in the food chain and not atmosphere.

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    1. Ha! All those health nuts preaching how great seafood is. Never liked seafood-beef is where the taste is. I always suspected something was up, after they stopped measuring radiation, but I try to listen to both pro and con. Question. If it is mostly in the food chain, yet I've heard the radiation is ongoing, so wouldn't there be fresh atmospheric pollution all the time? I'm asking as I've given it very little research.

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  4. Buy yourself a Geiger counter and see what the background radiation in the Elko area is. Then look up what they consider normal! Bad news....

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    1. Do I REALLY want to do that? :(...Please, ignorance, take me away ( bubble bath soap commercial reference ).

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  5. Right now it is almost impossible to create a tribe because nobody knows what's going to happen or when, though I think just about everybody is wary that somethings going on. Once the tipping point, whatever that is, happens tribes will start to find commonality.

    My neighbor on our north property line is an example. While we aren't what I would consider friends, we are always friendly. He is 68 years old and always has a robust garden that he harvests in the fall and puts the daily items on his front porch for sale at very reasonable prices and the stuff is from seeds he harvested the previous year. During that time most of our vegetable purchases are from him rather than Krogers.

    Therefore when tshtf it is in my best interest to keep him alive and helping to keep his garden aplenty. The same is true with the neighbor across the road who is an avid hunter when each hunting season he gets at least 1 or 2 deers and several turkeys. He also has a large pound that is stocked with bass, cats and crappies, which is fed by 3 underground springs. He is my source for water and meats so it is in my best interest to keep him alive to.

    There are several others in the immediate area that will make good tribe members when the time comes. We already facilitate each other and I trust that will continue into the future regardless of what comes our way. That's my hope. But I'm fully prepared if things don't work that way. I have several levels of plans in the works.

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    1. All we can do is plan. And a plan never survives contact, but without one we would just be little girls screaming in fright and running about in circles.

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