weekend prepper 1 of 2

WEEKEND PREPPER

Handed down through the ages from the birth of the splitting of the atom, wisdom was enshrined in the practice of “turn off the power to your house over a weekend and see if you are actually as prepared as you think you are”.  All well and good, way back during the Leave It To Beaver era of a strong gold backed economy ( thanks, rest of the world douches, for sending 90% of all your gold here in exchange for industrial goods, or even just food,  during the war ) and the world leading producer of steel and oil and a rather homogenous culture ( this being prior to a few twats desperately trying to buy an elixir for immortality since they were about 123 years old and having served fifty terms in Congress, selling out their race and culture and opening the floodgates to Other Colors ).

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You see, back then during the pre-Vietnam Cold War, the government teaching the citizens to hunker down in bunkers for a month and then reemerging to rebuild after a nuclear exchange wasn’t as stupid as it sounds now.  Just like the closely guarded secret now is that Chemotherapy will kill you more often than save you ( not that I blame anyone for rolling the dice-I just hate they lie to you then profit off of you, dead or alive ), back then the dangers of radiation were downplayed.  In that context, given our semi-abundant resources ( which we busily burned off during Vietnam in the last effort to goose the old Industrial Economy-the war made perfect sense in that economic situation.  As do our Tiny Wars since then ), recovery was feasible even if you didn’t have as carefree of a health risk personally as you thought.

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You weren’t preparing for the implosion of the nation, country, empire or economy, as you are now.  A minimum amount of fallout protection and stockpiling was actually realistic.  All you had to do was make sure you could survive the initial disruption, and things actually WOULD return to normal.  The infrastructure was in place for that.  Back then, rebuilding New Orleans would have been No Problem, Barely An Inconvenience.

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It used to be that to con the rubes, you generally focused on the poor or the religious ( generally the same folks ).  Number one, there were a lot of them to pick from and number two, despair and longing and faith could be the base a good confidence artist could build upon.  I don’t mean that religious people are susceptible to wishful thinking or that they have a history of abandoning logic or science.  ALL people are like that.  Even scientists are as superstitious and blind to their own irrational thoughts as anyone else.  Look no further than Gore Warming and political correctness.  The preparedness industry, on the contrary, takes middle class workers as the rubes that get conned.

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The poor might fall for buying a $5 lotto ticket ( losing your ass at the casino, your odds are still much better than state lotteries ), but the adequately salaried ( one hesitates to use the term middle class today, since it is mostly the 1% Supreme Overlords, the 9% House Negro’s and the 90% Working Poor or Benefits Poor-but back when, the preppers were actually middle class ) are conned into buying FLIR scopes, AR’s ( they will do in a pinch but really do have as many issues as they have reasons for ownership ), and $85 cases of MRE’s.  $85 for a week and a half of food with a free case of constipation thrown in.  You will also see a runaway appetite as the body is craving the fresh foods it isn’t getting. 

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Those seeking salvation from doomsday are the best folks to con, from Grandma sending in half her Social Security check to the fire and brimstone preacher on the radio to the guy stacking gold to the dweebs down at the gunshop looking through bulletproof vests and best colored tipped 5.56.  The con artists have been selling the old outdated civil defense advice that presupposes the old economic and resource conditions of 55 years ago.  And the rubes line up at the door for more, the sure sign of a great con, when the victims argue the loudest that the fleecing must continue.

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In short, my fine feathered minions, turning off the electricity to the suburban castle for the weekend teaches you Jack Sprat Crap.  Because collapse is no longer a short term event.  There won’t be a quick turnaround fix.  Being without power is great practice for exactly the kind of thing we face more and more often, an overloaded grid unable to handle more and more immigrants overloading our infrastructure, but that won’t work outside the context of the Just In Time system remaining intact to supply the equipment needed to fill in for the grid as it is down for a short period only.  These folks that brag, well, MY electric was off for THREE weeks, not your paltry one and a half, and I did just fine.

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They are bragging that they bought finite resources to temporarily fix the interruption of other temporary resources and they are counting on the first set of resources to resume delivery to replace the emergency measure resources.  It is only swapping one set of dwindling resources for another.  Now, don’t get me wrong, that is still needed.  You still need to go to work to pay the mortgage and save the meat in the freezer.  But that is not prepping for any collapse.  That is prepping to pay your mortgage regardless of natural disasters.  And if you think that is the worse that will ever happen, congratulations, you are a mark in the con by the Prepper Industry shrills, selling you half century outdated advise. 

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It might not be a waste, because sure as God made little green apples, the power is going to go out more and more often and more and more items won’t replenish in time at the groceries.  But it is so incomplete it is still dangerous.  You need to prepare for when there is no more replacements of modern luxuries.  Having a generator is great, until the gasoline is no longer delivered.  Having propane is great, until the fracking field go dry.  Bottled water is great, until even the taps don’t work anymore.  Having a mighty and righteous AR is great, until you spray through all the ammo ( I just threw that one in, but it doesn’t pertain to today.  I couldn’t help myself ).

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A weekend without power still relies 100% on the grid being up.  You are just filling the downtime gaps.  Our weekend test needs to be teaching more than how to go back shopping at Wal-Mart when the grid comes back up.  Continued tomorrow.

( .Y. )

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