Thursday, July 26, 2018

collapse camp 2 of 2-article 2 of 2 today


COLLAPSE CAMP 2 ( article 2 of 2 today )
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COLLAPSE CAMP 2
Camping is only enjoyable with the right gear and skills, and the same is true with the apocalypse.  And just as camping ain’t really roughing it and hence isn’t even really camping if you cheat too much, neither will you really be able to survive the apocalypse if you cheat on your gear.  With camping, an emphasis on luxury, comfort and substituting money for skill makes the whole enterprise camping only in name.  With the collapse, an emphasis on luxury, comfort and substituting money for skill makes the whole endeavor surviving in theory only.
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Just because you are sitting around without a house surrounding you doesn’t mean you are camping.  All you are doing is substituting on grid luxuries for off grid luxuries.  Doing without luxuries should be camping.  That doesn’t mean you are living like a savage, it just means you are minimizing your logistics trail.  Minimizing the dependency on modern non-replicated goods.  What you are attempting to do should be more like getting as far away from modern living as you can, not trying to duplicate as far as possible that kind of life.
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A Coleman gas lantern for super bright light, that is luxurious.  A LED headlamp or even a LED flashlight with solar recharging built in, that is far higher of a technology piece of equipment than a candle in a lantern, but the price is similar to candles and LED’s last a lot longer than the fuel.  It is minimizing your need for illumination, not trying to duplicate a room’s brightness from your home, while minimizing  your needs and investment.  Setting aside the need to abide by fire prevention regulations, two soup cans burning twigs make as efficient a stove as an expensive butane burner using canisters of gas.  You aren’t shunning modern materials, you are just minimizing them.
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You’ll have fire long after the butane would have run out, and another two AA batteries are a much cheaper back-up for illumination than another liter of fuel.  You are maximizing the use of every item as cheaply and with as few accessories as possible.  Granted, less expense and less luxurious also means greatly reduced performance or convenience, but for the life of me I can’t understand why that is considered a bad thing.  Manly men go camping and rough it.  They shouldn’t be pampered females about it.
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Anyone that was in Army can relate to this minimalist experience.  The military wasn’t too concerned with your comfort or providing any kind of luxury ( like, say, sleep ).  If your unit was mechanized all that did was ensure you were out in the field a lot longer than if you had only a backpack for provisions.  But the lifestyle was exactly the same- living out of a backpack.  The only difference was three to five days compared to three to five weeks.  And you know what?  I remember a good portion of that month long deployment in the boonies better than the rest of my time at the unit.  I say the Army ruined camping for me, but it wasn’t a terrible experience.  Since officers dislike camping, being the pampered princesses they are, they mostly leave you alone out there.
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But really, the best part was the closer contact with nature.  Fresh air except when inside your fart sack, and a better grasp of primitive living.  It was just more natural.  Just as the military allows you to embrace your natural state of violence and hatred, camping gets you closer to your primal state that was far more natural than farming and its hovel dwelling ( a wilderness hovel isn’t occupied long enough to breed vermin ).  What I disliked about it was the controlling nature of everything that would have made it far less primitive.
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Simple things you wouldn’t deny yourself even in the most simple camping experience, such as hot water to shave in, or take a whore’s bath with.  Carbohydrates with your meals.  A full nights sleep.  A fire to warm yourself with rather than relying on living in Artic gear.  Stripping that gear to sleep, rather than leaving it on for tactical reasons.  Don’t get me wrong, I’d do it again the same way just for practice in deprivation if needed.  What chapped my ass was the deliberate rules against individuals seeking these small comforts themselves as a control mechanism.  Evidently one morning of hot water to shave with would have eliminated all the training gained by living in a cold tent in winter with no bathing or hot meals for a month.
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So, military camping is needlessly primitive, and most modern civilian camping is needlessly luxurious and wasteful.  I trust the average bear is smart enough to pick and choose between the two.  Can you do the same with the apocalypse?  Not so luxurious as it endangers you nor so primitive it is just needless torture.  You don’t need a grand in Mollie super tactical web gear, dozens of AR clips and other equipment, nor do you want merely a wool blanket and a handful of cartridges for your hunting rifle.  I would be thinking about caches instead of enough gear to carry around the kitchen sink, and I’d be more worried about training for ambush as a light infantryman than being a Ninja equipped for close order combat.  But that is just me.
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I’d rather have a small primitive underground cabin than a deluxe aboveground concrete bunker.  But again, that is just me.  I’d rather buy a buttstock recoil pad for my old surplus rifle than buy a fancy plastic gun that came with a recoil spring as standard equipment.  You have the same amount of comfort with a lot less money ( oranges to oranges, compared to an AR-10 rather than an AR-15 ).  It is just the 80/20 Rule.  80% of the gain for only 20% of the cost.  It is a tiny amount of skill or deprivation over throwing money at the problem.
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Rather than modernizing your post-collapse experience, add some primitiveness to it.  Can you really enjoy the apocalypse if you look on every day as your fancy equipment subsides to entropy?  That is nothing but stress!  But if you move closer to a pre-industrialized lifestyle ( with exceptions, obviously, such as smokeless gunpowder and LED’s ), there is less to break down or run out.  Focus on taking the edges off the too primitive.  A deck of cards is great entertainment, compared to none.  A electronic game system with solar panels to run it, that is too luxurious.  It is too close to modern life and not close enough to post-apocalyptic. 
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If you cling too hard to now, post collapse will be a miserable experience for you.  Plan for and transition to less luxurious.  It will pay off in intangibles you ignore now.
( .Y. )
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26 comments:

  1. Mind over matter. In USMC infantry (Reagan's era not Obama's =differences) we purposely were deprived of comforts and humped our gear everywhere. Helo and truck rides were rare and only training for pilots and drivers. Minions should train/excercise in austere conditions and live the privations now. Be the guy without a coat and the window down in the winter. Eat 'rations', not gorging on franken-foods. The camping-wilderness living should quickly and efficiently become second nature and not result in fiddle fucking with cold fingers at that dick's sporting goods gear bought with yuppie credit cards. Prepare, time is short.

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    1. And, bonus, you get to dip your toe in rather than be thrown in like you were in the military ( does not apply to wingnuts or squids )

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    2. This squid suffered just as bad as any grunt or mudhen running small boats. Try spending 3 days without food or water, try being exposed to heavy seas so much you could stand your uniform up in a corner for daily quarters because of all the salt in the fabric. My favorite was the run where I froze to death on one side of an island and had to strip on the other. Still love ya all;)

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    3. No offense, but as you know even if you hated your own service, you were compelled by duty to hate the others far worse. I only took partial pity on the Jarheads after my son was one, but I'm humbled by my weakness ( and you should have heard what he had to say about squids ) :)

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  2. Jim, suggestion for that good times feeling of a 30 caliber recoil. Have a internal pocket with a button closure sewn into the "inside" of whatever battle coat or field jackets that are expected to be utilized for security/ patrol/ exterior movements, etc. Use a gel type or firm closed cell foam pad cut dimensionally for the pocket sized accordingly to your shooting shoulder. It will be in place already, and after experimenting and using successfully then mentally no flinch-orgasmic expectations to interfere with shot accuracy or laying down fire if necessary. Just thinking it out here, no thoughts of downgrading or spending money at poodle guns necessary then.

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    1. I just spent the big bucks, back when I could, on a shoulder pad. Also have the squishy screw on replacement for the brass buttstock cap. You make a great point. Recoil pad equals better aim and fire due to less fear of pain. Manly men sucking up recoil is a stupid attitude. Get the tool that helps you fire less rather than more.

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    2. I enjoyed u tube videos of ukraine/donbass conflict fighters in action. (White people out killing each other-much better at it) the fellows were smart enough to cut some foam squared pads and hang from the back of their gear belts. They had a cushion to insulate their asses from the cold wet ground or armored vehicles when riding aboard. The little hi-jinks grunts do makes all the difference when stuck in the middle of some shit.

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    3. I could say something about OtherColor's being so lazy they can't even try to kill each other better, but I'm too nice of a guy.

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    4. Look at video of Syrian Free Shit Army and how they are afraid of having a stock touch their shoulder or look at sights correctly. Guns are obviously to scare the enemy with loud noises, or (maybe) inspire your side with loud noises.
      Firearms are already so much better than the traditional way of killing neighbors that there's no need to offend the Prophet by using them well. If it jams or runs out of ammo, throw it away and return to the traditional blade method (bringing knife to gunfight).

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    5. May the name of the prophet be blessed, our holy warriors pose for the cameras to spread disinformation!

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  3. I think that the low tech camping approach, supplemented with caching, is a good strategy. A hard shelter is a good thing to have for extreme elements, but don’t put so much into it that you wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving it behind if need be (Think “Our Gang” clubhouse here). As I touched on in my recent guest article, I don’t feel that the well hardened, and “must be defended” compound is a sound strategy for most survivalists. It’s better to be mobile, and ready to move on in a moments notice if necessary.

    I recently picked up the Dave Canterbury book, Bushcraft 101. Dave covers the low tech, wilderness camping basics, in this book. Rather than a high end frame pack, or an expensive sleeping bag system, Dave suggests a wool blanket (The wool blanket is utilized in a way that it also serves as your pack, in addition to your sleeping system). Now you might find yourself in a situation in which a frame pack will better serve your needs (though it needn’t with a proper cache system) or that a -20º sleeping bag will be needed for your area (But again, the shack, or other effective shelter, as mentioned above, should negate this need).

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    1. Given the weather here and lack of trees, mobility would only work here in the mountains, or interrelated tribes for fallback positions. You could always have a tarp and shovel for minor amount of dirt over a living shrub skeleton. Yeah, I guess it is pretty doable everywhere.

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    2. I agree that the "must be defended" compound is likely suicide. Maybe if you are super remote it works? And I agree you should be capable of going mobile at any minute, BUT... I caught a glimpse of nomadic life in Ranger School and it sucked balls. Lack of sleep and lack of food will cause you to fall asleep standing up and/or walking. You'll make poor decisions. You'll hallucinate. You'll be weak as a kitten in short order. It's f'ing terrible.

      I know you're not thinking of walking all night, every night, with 100+ pounds on your back in various climates. However, depending on where you are it could become a necessity. It was harder than hell at 23 years old. I don't see how the average American, over 30, could do this for much longer than 90 days. I was in great shape and looked like a holocaust victim after just 68 days.

      I don't know exactly what my point is other than that I have been grappling with this reality in my mind. Urban and suburban life are a no go. A compound sounds great today, but I see the downside. Mobility is important, but it sucks in the long term. Let me say that again...IT SUCKS!! I'm kind of leaning toward a small rural town.

      I don't have the answers. Just thinking out loud.

      JeSteR

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    3. It isn't really true mobility, per se. Just the ability to be able to scoot away when attacked rather than go down with the ship. Then, caches sustain you after you set up another place. The idea is to have disposable shelter. Think junker RV's now. You can walk away from it if needed. The more temp shelters on the way are to keep you safe from the weather until you can set up a better longer term but still disposable home. German peasants would have a cache up and away from the village. The brigands attacked, stole and torched the place, the peasants came back down with supplies to rebuild and re-sow crops. Look into that Russian guerrilla movie, the one with the James Bond actor ( Defiance ???? ). I can't remember most of it by I seem to recall something about temp shelter ideas.

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    4. The German peasant thing seems reasonable to some extent. The Afghans do the same thing. It makes a lot of sense to not have all your eggs in one basket. I'm just thinking that once you bug out there is a 99+% likelihood the rest of your life will be nomadic. Unless you can do what the Afghans and Germans did, but that supposes there will be something to come back to. I dunno.

      I'll check out the Russian flick. Thanks.

      JeSteR

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    5. I would imagine the Afghans have kin in the other locations, and can wait for a war to reclaim their property? Without such a network, your concerns are valid. But I think any problem can have a counter plan. We just need to noodle on it long enough.

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  4. I entered that man's army in 1974 and by 1976 I had figured out that the least amount of army I had to put up with was out in the field so that year I volunteered for 173 days in the field. Almost half a year but not all at the same time. Sat on guard posts much of the time, and menial chores the rest, but was mainly just left alone. I was sort of a gray man out there. Created my own box of "goodies", canned foods, civilian cold weather gear, quart cans of sterno, pints of hard liquor. Yes it was colder than hell most of time but tolerable with the right equipment.

    I plan to live as normal as possible as long as possible no matter what the rest of this earth decides to do. I didn't work as hard as long as I did to let shitheads dictate how I'm supposed to live. Fuk-em-ded, and if they got something to say about it the whole neighborhood around has something special for em and they ain't gonna like it.

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    1. I don't know if you are a recreational reader ( from what I've heard it doesn't seem so, but I don't presume ), but if you are this book has your piss poor social attitude ( and I say that with utmost respect ) done in spades. Besides that, this guy is a first rate author, Clayton Linemuth:
      https://amzn.to/2uTj35o

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    2. Seems like I go in spurts regarding actual books regardless of genre, every few years or so. When I was in the army I read rapaciously, starting the Don Pendleton's "Executioner" series, musta read 30 of em. In the early 90's I learned about Michael Crichton and read everything he had back to back. Did the same with Grisham a few years later. Then I finally got to Rand after stalling on her for decades. Read all her stuff edge to edge in the 00's. Currently have more than 300 hard books on the shelf acquired over the past 10 years waiting to be dealt with. I put your Linemuth on my amazon wish list, and I downed one of your free amazon recommends to my tablet a couple weeks ago but haven't jumped on it yet. Thanks.

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    3. Just remember that usually with free you get what you pay for. But that is how I learned of the recommended author, so it is worth the slog. I remember liking The Executioner series. So much I grabbed a bunch of them at a library sale. Not sure if they'll hold up after 25 years, but when a book is a nickel you buy it even if just for apocalypse toilet paper.

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    4. Despite agreeing with the libertarians on more than a few issues, I’ve never read Rand. I’ve always been suspicious of females calling themselves “libertarians” or “conservatives”, and tend to see them as posers, since I understand all too well that the collectivist nature of females runs deep. There was a reason why past societies restricted the power of females (or feminized males) and modern societies tend to forget that all too valuable lesson. All it took was one radical dude shooting up a black church, and having a few Confederate flags on his Facebook page, and that good female conservative, Nikki Haley, outlawed the flying of the Confederate flag at the state buildings in her home state. And for all the whinging by Margaret Thatcher that feminism didn’t get her where she was (it did) that old feminist bitty sure spouted off an awful lot of feminist drivel! I read a few articles by that Claire, what’s her face, libertarian chick, and sure enough, it was laced with plenty of feminist rhetoric. I’ve noticed that a lot people calling themselves libertarians, are really just social liberals, that like the party because it’s friendly towards perverts and fetus yanking.

      Of course, I’m sad to admit that most of these men in power aren’t much better, as most of them today are beta, nu-male, mangina feminists (On both sides of the aisle). The only thing that can fix what ails us now is a massive collapse and die off. The gene pool is long overdue for a cleansing.

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    5. Atlas Shrugged might surprise you. Strong female lead, but she seeks a stronger man to dominate her. Or something like that. Read it several times, but decades ago. Rand is a philosopher and none get everything right. But she is right enough. And her writing is literary rather than propaganda. I would recommend it, seriously.

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    6. Thanks for the clarification Jim. To be honest, I’ll probably never read it, but I’ll keep in mind what you said, and perhaps consider it at some point. I generally don’t read anything that’s politically oriented, though lately, I have been. Right now I’m reading The Consequences Of Equality, by Matthew S. Battaglioli. The author makes a strong case as to why attempts at equality screw everyone far worse in the long run, and also ties it into handing so much power over to the banksters. He also goes on to explain why a democracy is the absolute worst form of government imaginable. Next up is The Feminist Lie: It Was Never About Equality, by Bob Lewis (I’m looking forward to this one).

      I’ve also been reading some white nationalist publications (I don’t hate anyone, but I’m sick and tired of whites being the scapegoat for all of the worlds ills).

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    7. Right Jim. I put Rand off for way too long. That 1034 page tome is a mouthful and just about all of it well worth it.
      Yes, Dagny Taggert wore the pants but required Hank Reardan to keep her straight. I highly advise.

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    8. When you read it the second time you can just skip the end speech that is a huge glob of mental mucus. Definately worth the first read, but after that...saves a bunch of time.

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    9. 8:01-I pretty much totally gave up on politics. Serves no purpose anymore now that the votes mean dingus. Even the history of it isn't interesting to me anymore. Politics is just power and redistribution anyway. I find anthropology much more interesting. How we tick never gets old.

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