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Guest Post: Preppers Who Make Surviving The Apocalypse Even Less Fun
Submitted by Brandon Smith from Alt-Market
Preppers Who Make Surviving The Apocalypse Even Less Fun
Being forced to endure and survive a catastrophic macro event like a monetary or social collapse is perhaps one of the worst experiences I could imagine. Such a crisis leads to just about every crime and inhuman action in existence, and, the time required for a culture to right itself and rebuild is severely protracted. A hurricane or earthquake or tidal wave; these calamities are short lived and easy in comparison. The point is, as survivalists who are preparing to make an economic end-game scenario as “comfortable” to live through as we can, it is incumbent upon us to consider the kind of company we keep during the gambit. Some allies will make that mad world bearable; others will bring the madness to your doorstep.
Many preppers are aware of the dangers inherent in our progressively deteriorating nation. Unfortunately, some of them are completely unaware of the dangers inherent within themselves. Building a solid community of people to rely on during a collapse is absolutely essential, and the larger the group of liberty minded neighbors the better. But, if certain ground rules are not established from the very beginning, a rainbow of personal issues and character flaws could very well destroy years of effort. Care must be taken by all parties involved to ensure that internal conflicts remain at a minimum, and when they do arise, that each person is wise enough to resolve issues in an adult manner.
I hate to say it, but you will inevitably run into some folks that are beyond compromise and beyond hope. Working with them is like pulling teeth…shark’s teeth…from your jugular. Here are just a handful of powder keg personalities that will make the apocalypse more than a living hell for you and your friends if they manage to latch onto or take leadership in your survival watch…
1) The Self Assumed “Leader”
The “Assumed Leader” is not actually a reliable or practical leader; he just thinks he is, and reminds everyone loudly whenever he can find occasion. He does not generally do this by screaming “I AM YOUR LEADER!” Instead, he attempts to micro-manage every aspect of the survival group and shows early signs of control issues. The Assumed Leader will first make forceful suggestions to test the waters, scoffing angrily whenever people do not strictly follow his advice. If he gains traction, his suggestions turn into orders, and he begins to act as though he is somehow in a superior position to the rest of the community.
He seems to have an answer to every question or concern, which would be nice if he actually knew what he as talking about half of the time. Usually, this is not the case. He may have expertise in a certain field, like farming, or building, or engineering, or even defense, and this is indeed valuable. However, his mastery of one area of knowledge has inflated his ego to massive proportions and he now pretends as if he is some kind of hyper-educated elitist potentate. When approached with alternative options and methods, he will respond with ridicule as if you have no clue what you are talking about. When his ideas are criticized, he will react with fury, and try to remove dissenters from the community entirely.
The best way to avoid these people is to discover them early in your prepping project, and to make certain that NO ONE becomes a De facto dictator. Every person with particular expertise within the community should be given respect in that specific field, but not given authority over all decisions. The experienced farmer should offer leadership when it comes to farming, but step aside when it comes to defense and defenders, and vice versa. It is best to keep in mind that the most effective leaders always ask those around them for aid and advice before coming to any conclusion. The worst leaders already assume they know everything.
2) The Feudal Lord
The Feudal Lord is an Assumed Leader who has managed to lure other preppers into a Commune, rather than a Community, and there is a considerable difference. He is often a well-off survivalist who has suddenly realized that for all his money and land and supplies, he is basically defenseless, and needs an organized group to protect his bounty. He entices other preppers into the fold with ideas that he is building a legitimate and fair community, and with land already available, many take interest. The problem is, the Feudal Lord believes possession of the land that the group is defending automatically makes him Grand Poobah, and that those people are not equals, but servants and serfs.
I have found that Feudal Lords also have a tendency to charge people "fees" for the right to join their communes. They will argue that this is designed to "vet" candidates and see if they are truly "serious" about survival prepping. In the dark corner of their minds, however, they actually believe that they are OWED a tithe from anyone who wishes to earn the "privilege" of becoming a permanent installment on their property. From the very beginning they go into the project with almost no sincere regard for the people they are working with.
The reality is, the Feudal Lord’s land and supplies are utterly meaningless without security and without aid. His survival riches can be taken in an instant by a mere handful of looters, or even one experienced raider. Without other people, treated as equals in survival and ready to lay down their lives to protect each other and him, he has nothing, and is foolhardy to think otherwise.
This is not to say that all landowners who try to centralize a group on their property are seeking to become mini-kings of a mini-kingdom. If rules and agreements are made early on, and everyone understands their role, then such an arrangement could work. But, if the landowner purposely avoids set agreements, appoints roles to people without asking them, changes the plan regularly to suit himself, and tries to leech money out of participants, then it’s time to walk away now before it is too late. Eventually he WILL use his position as landowner as a means to dominate, and will threaten to cast people out who disagree with his methods.
The best way to avoid these characters and the commune situation altogether is to not centralize on a single piece of land, but to organize in a neighborhood fashion, where everyone maintains sovereign control of what they do and all aid is voluntary.
3) The Moral Relativist
There is, sadly, a small subsection of survivalists out there who do not plan to live off their own preps; they plan to confiscate the preps of others by force and solve every problem at the barrel of a gun. In their mind, a crisis situation calls for the abandonment of conscience and the application of a “survival of the fittest” mentality. They believe that morals are all well and good when civilized society remains, but a source of weakness during catastrophe. Their philosophy is: Only the strongest of men will be able to set aside principle and “do what needs to be done”. That is to say, they believe you must become the monster to defeat the monster.
In fact, only men who are able to hold onto their principles during the worst moments are strong. Weak men run away from conscience, using the excuse that times are “different and difficult”. They are not survivalists, they are terrorists in every sense, and they will only hurt our ultimate goal of rebuilding a free, prosperous, and individualistic society.
These people should be avoided like the plague. They will make enemies wherever they go, ask you to do highly questionable things, and push your community into annihilation. Eventually, somebody is going to put them out of their misery, and it’s best to not be around when that happens.
4) The Obsessive
The Obsessive is a person whose drive is initially impressive but also ultimately destructive. His entire life revolves around survival prepping and impending doom. Certainly, it is better to be extra concerned about the economic crisis on the horizon than to be utterly oblivious. A smart man over-prepares. But, there is such a thing as overkill, even in the world of survivalism.
No one can ever do enough fast enough in this person’s eyes. He will whine constantly about how he is the only one taking preparations seriously, and how everyone else is a lazy bum. He will become frantic on a daily basis, admonishing the group or community on their lack of urgency. In a leadership position, this person is a nightmare, creating constant waves of tension and panic, instead of calmly offering solutions or constructive criticism.
Obsessives are generally unimaginative people with little talent or intelligence who use their prepping lifestyle as their only means to feel superior to others. They tend to become legends in their own minds, dreaming of the day when everyone will desperately cling to them and their remedial survival know-how. They fantasize about all the people who "wouldn't take their advice" (usually smug advice), crawling in squalor begging them for help one day.
The Obsessive’s motto is: “Let me tell you why you are wrong and how you are lazy!” Instead of: “How can I help you fix this?”
We all need a break once in a while from the horrors we know are waiting for us. To step back and enjoy what we can of a beautiful day or good friends is not the same as being a freeloader or a backslider within your prepper group. Survival is about more than sustaining the body. It is about more than chopping wood, stockpiling ammo, and slaving over a piece of land from sun up until sundown like a mindless drone just to get by; it is also about sustaining the heart and the mind. Otherwise, what is the point of living?
5) The Ulterior Motive Drama Queen
The Drama Queen is a man or woman who is loosely interested in survivalism, but wants to join your community for other reasons, and these reasons may cause many members dismay. The opposite of The Obsessive, you’ll notice a strange non-involvement on their part or lack of interest as far as participating in survival discussions and decision making. They will often hand over all their survival preparation plans to another person or persons, while hovering like a gnat around the community searching for that special something.
They may be looking for friends and social recognition. They may be afraid of collapse and simply trying to lock into ANY group regardless of whether they fit, becoming disenchanted later. They may enjoy the excitement of feeling like they are involved, and are living vicariously through the accomplishments of others. They may just be looking for a date. Ultimately, their primary objective is not to build a working community, but to get something out of the community beyond safety.
If they do not get what they want, they raise hell, using whatever excuse happens to be handy without ever admitting their real motivations. They will deliberately start unnecessary drama, attempt to create divisions, focus on one person as the cause of all their troubles, or blame the whole group for the heartache in their life. They will attempt to draw everyone into their personal soap opera in the hopes of becoming the focal point, sharing strange and extremely private issues with anyone who accidentally offers to listen.
Eventually, they will be seen for what they are and will lose the ear of the other preppers, who obviously have better things to worry about, but not after wreaking some havoc in the process.
6) The Zealot
The Zealot has a perfect picture in his mind of how his survival community is going to look. Absolutely perfect. The problem is, all people are imperfect and all have different conceptions of life, and this disturbs and disrupts the Zealot’s fantasy. It is one thing to be careful in whom you associate with when assembling a prepper organization, but it is entirely another to hold everyone to insane standards that even you cannot meet.
The Zealot usually wants to be in charge so that he can vet and control each member of the group, but this is not always the case. Zealots are also sometimes highly anti-social, showing interest in a group for a short time and then suddenly walking away as if no one is up to par. He may base his zealotry on a misplaced religious fervor or philosophical inflexibility, but he will not be happy until everyone sees the world the way he does, or until they meet his grandiose brand of moral flawlessness. For him, it is not enough that the community around him shares a love for liberty and a disdain for tyranny, they must also be “spiritually pure” in his eyes.
One mistake or disagreement by a member of the group earns them a black mark on the Zealot’s list which he never forgets. From then on, that member is the enemy, and the Zealot will engineer conflict after conflict until the person gives up and goes away, or until he can convince the group that person is more trouble than they are worth.
The great dilemma for any survivalist is to balance personal freedom and a peaceful home life with the reality that they will not last long without relying on a group. Other people bring talent, friendship, and safety to our lives, but they also bring baggage. The key is to work with those who know how to manage as much of their own baggage as possible, who are aware of themselves and are willing to police their own quirks, and who have not swan dived off a cliff into extreme disturbia. No survival community can withstand the savage assault of national collapse otherwise.
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THE REAL FISCAL CLIFF -- 46% of FY2013 BORROWED!
from the Washington Times:
The federal government borrowed 46 cents of every dollar it has spent so far in fiscal year 2013, which began Oct. 1, according to the latest data the Congressional Budget Office released Friday.
The government notched a $172 billion deficit in November, and is already nearly $300 billion in the hole through the first two months of fiscal year 2013, underscoring just how deep the government’s budget problems are as lawmakers try to negotiate a year-end deal to avoid a budgetary “fiscal cliff.”
Higher spending on mandatory items such as Social Security, Medicare and interest on the debt led the way in boosting spending compared with the previous year, which also highlights the trouble spots Congress and President Obama are struggling to grapple with.
All sides agreed to discretionary spending cuts and automatic spending cuts last year, but have been unable to agree on ways to control entitlement costs, which are the long-term drivers of deficits and debt.
Fiscal year 2013 began on Oct. 1 and so far the government has spent $638 billion and taken in just $346 billion in revenue.
I was told this earlier this week:
Beginning Jan 1, there is a new Obamacare tax on ammunition. It's a 70% tax!
Can anyone confirm this?
If so, stock up BEFORE year's end!
sbenard,did your souce provide details?
I was told this earlier this week:
Beginning Jan 1, there is a new Obamacare tax on ammunition. It's a 70% tax!
Have a link, or is this a rumor?.
MOST suppliers would already be aware of this, and prices would already be through the roof.
I´m glad that I can announce about the positive outlook of RE market for 2013, so there probably won´t be any apocalypse.
Anyway, I think humankind is on its way to a final extinction. And I don´t care. Don´t try to save yourselves. It does not make a sense. Our apocalypse will be probably some new type of Bird flu or virus that will just instantly kill us. I don´t believe there would be this kind of stuff we can see in the zombie movies.
No shotguns, no flannel shirts, no baseball caps, no bats etc. Just death everywhere.
laura take your prozac. whats coming is what russia had under USSR..gray days, gray food gray clothes..and massive drug abuse with damaged livers. drab the new black.
I have been thinking since 2008 that the USA will have the same sort of crumbling as the USSR. Afghanistan is the graveyard of a lot of empires. When the rigged elections gave us the muzzie it was game over.
Baseball caps?
Economic collapse often is the precursor to plagues and large scale war when they do occur.
The contradiction in the article's premise is all too glaring. Inherent in the concept of surviving when no one else can are the tendencies towards self-absorption and narcissism. Self centerness, separateness and individualism give rise to the 6 effects the article calls attention to.
It is indeed ironic that the article asks self-centered, separative preppers to guard against the precise outcomes that are the natural and logical consequences of what they are, themselves, doing in the first damn place.
That's rich.
More succinctly:
"I wanted to join Paranoids Anonymous, but noone would tell me where they meet."
The contradiction in your message and approach is glaring. Nobody should observe the world, identify dangers, and try to avoid them. You believe humans should be zombie-lemmings, ignoring the world around them and walking over cliffs. And if someone notices a danger, they should not worry about it, they should not take steps to avoid the bus barreling towards them, they should just stand there and get run over.
It is precisely the collectivised aspects of mankind that are causing the catastrophe. It is precisely the collectivised notions that nobody should think about themselves, and everyone should submit their life, their efforts, their savings, their attention --- to the predators who are destroy civilization and everything good by punishing honesty, ethics, liberty, individualism, productivity, and benevolence.
Any honest, rational, sensible meanings of the terms "self-centered" and "narcissism" only refer to humans who take actions that HARM others in their pursuit of their own benefits. Someone who saves their money, invests in goods they store for later rather than consume now, has taken nothing from anyone, and has not harmed anyone. They have only deprived THEMSELF of goods now so they can have goods later. Is that not a choice every human being should have --- when to consume the goods they earned by their honest and productive work? Would you steal their goods with some dementing feeling of justification simply because they chose to consume their goods later than others? Must everyone consume like irrational children, otherwise they are anti-social? Is that your idea of being responsible?
Give us all a break. You are psycho... completely psycho.
What do you mean by "surviving when noone else can"? What does that mean? What if everyone was a prepper? What if everyone had a garden in their back yard? What if everyone had their own solar-panels and wind-turbine? Could they not survive? OF COURSE THEY COULD. But they didn't. And now, because you and they CHOOSE to make fun of people who are prudent, when the collapse comes, and you DID NOT take the simple actions they took... somehow THEY are irresponsible and YOU are not? Are you freaking kidding us?
Listen up. RESPONSIBILITY == SELF-CENTERED. That's right. When you take responsibility for yourself, you are taking responsibility for your SELF. Get it? Dimwit? You advocate IRRESPONSIBILITY and criticize RESPONSIBILITY. Get it? Dimwit?
But most importantly, understand that it is 100% your theory of life... the collectivist theory... that destroyed mankind, and made it necessary for honest, productive, benevolent humans to take prudent actions to survive the disaster YOU and your collectivist, authoritarian predator friends created.
Bravo Ann, Bravo.
Unfortunately, the irresponsible ones out-number those who have built/saved/prepped and would consume the host if enough time is alloted.
And since our "State" is complicit in pillaging for the 'irresponsibles', doom to both of them and speed up the clock.
Delete
Delete
Delete
So you join #2, but act like #1, telling #4 and #6 to play shop steward for #5, and make #3 take all the nightwatches.
People should read up on the way people survived in the former Soviet Union when it collapsed or Yugoslavia. Most Preppers are far too influenced by zombie flicks than reality, it seems.
As to the OP:
Self Assumed Leader is meaningless unless he is providing finances or knowlege to affirm that leadership role. You dont become leader just because you say so; you have to have/bring something that persuades people to put up with your quirks and requests.
The feudal Lord might not survive his own followers after the cataclysm.
The moral relativist is just a fucking theif and those guys will have a very short half life individually but they tend to recruit new ass holes before getting their final comeupance. It is important to kill those fuckers ASAP when you catch them in the act. As to their friends who were just going along? The saying 'You ride with an outlaw, you die with an outlaw' has been around for a reason. Frontier justice for the win.
Drama Queens can still be useful but they have to tone down the drama one way or another and those leading need to tell them this plainly up front.
Zealots and obsessives each have their uses also, but dont let them be in charge.
The important thing is this: most of society will survive because society is not built on consumption, entertainment or luxuries.
Society is built on loyalty, duty, service to the community and commitment to each other. This is why extended families and networks of such are the backbone of society, not money, energy or anything else. When artificial ties begin to trump natural ones, like money trumping family ties, watch out because that shit aint gonna last long.
The pop culture morons who think they are a fucking island are the ones who are going to suffer the most, and I pity them. Reality is a harsh teacher.
You want to survive an apocolyptic event? Join a fucking church, make a close circle of friends, be part of a large family. Learn a useful hands-on skill like smithing, tailoring, reloading, etc, think 'new frontier' for a while.
The odds of your survival are actually fairly good (as most people survived the fall of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia for example) but mostly already fixed, though some material and learning prep will help a good bit. You might survive but in a much lower status and probably far less comfortably for a long time. How quick you bounce back will be heavily weighted by your individual knowlege, associations and loyalty.
Oooh... you forgot one...
The Stereotyping/Pigeonholing Malcontent
Prone to simplifications of human personalities.
"Prone to simplifications of human personalities"
Oh, so 90% of the population.
Seriously though , if you want to survive an apocalyptic event , read some pre-industrial revolution technical books. Chemstry, electricity, metalworking, mining, woodworking, logging etc...
No sense in reinventing the wheel.
Learn how to make everything from scratch.
I would recommend the Foxfire series. Old School do-it-yourself.
Walmart has Nalley's "hot" chili 'n' beans for $1 a can .... it's not that spicey .... they make it spicier by adding more chili and less beans .... so add your own beans to stretch your budget ?
I enjoy the convenience of these pull tab tin cans .... but I don't think they would hold up to storage like the old cans ! Some survival company should buy up the old canning equipment and can staples like grains, dried beans and macaroni under vacuum .... like coffee .... no air .... no bugs ?
Can you say Mormons?
They're gonna outlaw your weapons pretty soon. For those who don't want to comform, they've got to lock them up in those FEMA camps.
Bla bla bla the world is going to end
Whatever.
Lets hope many of us will be on the hunt for Wall St. "Investment Bankers". I know I will.....
Prep with weekly goals. Also, I like this guy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVKzA4692Rs
I thought Preppers were fellas who wore chinos and Weejuns and liked to sail.
This very article puts the author into category 6. Not that there is anything wrong with that ;)
OK, I've been thinking about this stuff for several years now, and thought I had it fairly well figured out. But all of a sudden I'm a little confused on something, and that is reconciling the survivalist mentality with the need for PM.
My theory, which has been pretty well researched:
This is all intentional by TPTB. Those of you who think that they don't have a plan or know what they are doing haven't considered a few things outside the marketplace. If you are one of those that think they are just blindly following some financial method, keynesian whatever, without considering the consequences are wrong. They know exactly what is happening and what they are doing. These people are too smart to follow some system that leads to the crash of all society and some post-apocolyptic world where it is survival of the fittest. They are the fittest and this is fixed. They are smarter than us and that's why we can't do anything about the impending doom.
It starts with the idea that the world is overpopulated and there are not enough resources for everyone. Middle Class can not be sustained. There isn't enough oil, or water, or food, or lumber, or metal. So an idea is born, to reverse population growth. It starts as a book called Ecoscience by John Holdren which is all about eugenics and controlling populations. Dear John is the current science czar to Obama by the way. The way to reverse pop growth and the middle class is through deindustrialization. So a system is set in place, through special interest groups, extreme environmental groups, and wall street to get rid of industries in the U.S. through regulation and making it more favorable to move your industry oversees. Global cooling, warming, to climate change. A global carbon tax will be imposed so that the UN can tax us and take away our sovereignty. (I was in Yellowstone, by the way, last year, and the security guards had UN patches on their sleeves. Think about that for a minute). The military becomes global in NATO (and I worked for NATO in Germany in the late 80s), the UN takes global governmental control, and after the dollar finally crashes the IMF creates a new global currency. Three branches of global government. A mass depopulation event has to occur because I believe they are too impatient to wait forever for austerity to slow growth (and population is the problem). Something in the way of a false flag, perhaps nuking the shit out everything and blaming it on some other country, or a pandemic (which the NSA has policies on how to create) or something. Now you tie in Leo Strauss and the godfather of the neocons. Absolute power theory that holds an entity can not have absolute power in a democracy because they need the approval of the people in foreign affairs. This school of thought is passed down the line to Wolfowitz, Cheney, Bush Sr. etc. who implement the foreign policy of taking over the middle east (9/11 being a false flag). Then you have Brzezinski who is on the democratic side who differs from the neocon theory a bit but still want absolute power for the US/UN. He developed the idea of the mujahadeen and eliminating strong dictators with puppet dictators in the middle east (The Grand Chessboard). After Syria and Iran drop, it is Russia, and perhaps pitting Russia against China in theprocess. Absolute power.
Anyway, I apologize for my rambling and hope I'm making sense. When natural populations exceed their resources they crash to very few individuals. This is along the lines of the survivalist attitude (which I have). The assumption is that all people, including the elite will be in the same scenario and all things will be equal, a reset so to speak because natural pop crashes don't discriminate. What could set off a pop crash is virus, a bacteria, nuclear war, etc. At this point the only thing that matters is food, water, and shelter. After a population crash, the resources will greatly outnumber the population, so those things should be readily available, if you know where to look (unless radiation kills everything). So how would owning precious metals do you any good? Food will be more precious than metal. If you offered me an ounce of gold for a can of chili under these circumstances, I would not take you up on it. Gold does me no good. First of all, whose going to pay me any sort of monetary item for it? I can't do anything with it but look at it. It is not more important than the three necessities. Only after a long time of rebuilding a society would any sort of monetary system do any good. Until then it is trade for goods that are necessary.
So, TPTB are well aware of the population problem, because John Holdren and Maurice Strong are part of TPTB. You don't really think they're going to let a natural pop crash happen do you? That would mean they are susceptible. It would be much better for them to have a controlled pop crash and implement it themselves. I don't know the means but there are all kinds of hypotheses out there, most would make it look natural (pandemic). There are several things that an absolute power must have take place in order to realize their utopia: the economy must crash, the population must decrease, democracy must die, foreign threats must die. As far as I can see they are already chipping away pretty severely on all four. They will protect themselves and whomever doesn't survive the thing will become essentially slaves to serve their needs. So it will be back to a Royalty/peasant type of society. Maybe worse. Maybe outright slavery. Maybe more free but severely restricted in freedoms (no cars, no traveling, no meat, etc). Which means only the elite get to enjoy going to a lake and fishing or driving a car. Now, in the transition to this sort of world I can see where gold might do you some good, you can become one of the have's. You would have purchasing power and their would still be some sort of system in place, global though it is.
I've ramble enough. For further research here are some key words: Ecoscience, John Holdren, Maurice Strong, Denver Airport bunker, Ozark bunkers, Climate Change, Earth Charter, Club of Rome, Agenda 21, Global carbon tax, Leo Strauss, NGO, GMO, Geoengineering, FEMA, plannedopolis, sustained development, and you will find many more dots within those. I hope you can connect them all.
If you believe these people are blindly going to destroy society as we know it because they are ignorant bastards, by all means, become a survivor, but forget the gold.
If you believe they know exactly what they are doing, GOLD bitches, and hope.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xfwh5h_megacities-on-the-move-planned-opolis_news
Lots of accurate observations with a couple rough edges. If the predators are so smart (and those near the top of the hierarchy pulling the strings certainly are), they know there is no shortage of resources. They know with complete clarity that earth is one gigantic ball of molten resources --- the same materials that form the crust, and enough to create living quarters for trillions of human beings if converted into a foam structure. And, that very hot molten material contains enough energy to power 100 billion humans for a million years. Ever hear of geo-thermal?
Nonetheless, pretty much everything you say is correct, EXCEPT the whole "lack of resources" is just a bald-face lie. That is their EXCUSE for their actions, not their actual motivation. This is precisely like AGW, another bald-face lie that they KNOW is a lie, but appears to give them justification for what they want to do (suck everyone dry and finance their evil plans).
Anyway, this doesn't change your story, just the details of their motivations. Their primary motivation is... they are predators, and therefore act like predators. They intend to bleed every productive individual dry and misdirect the wealth to themselves. And their desire to reduce human population is to put themselves into a position where the entire population of earth could not overthrow them. They have two requirements to make this happen: #1: reduce the number of "others", and #2: gain control of all technology and all weapon systems. They intend this to be their "permanent protection" from an accidental uprising overthrowing them. Until they have sentient computer slaves under their control, they need a certain percentage of mankind to produce sufficient goods to keep them in the comfort they have learned to demand.
BTW, I make the honest observation above about population even though that observations is absolutely, positively against my own tastes and interests. I live in the extreme boonies, and have always loved the extreme boonies. I hate cities and hate being around endless clueless human morons. In fact, I suppose I hold a lot of the negative views of "clueless moron humans" as the NWO crowd. However, I am also honest and ethical, and therefore the only solutions I can offer are productive ones to support large numbers of humans and improve their lives. And, hopefully, help make them less clueless and stupid, and encourage them to populate only as fast as new systems are created to assure a good life to everyone willing to be honest, ethical and productive.
About gold. You are correct that gold may be less valuable in the deepest, darkest times of the collapse and worldwide die-off. However, the vast majority of those humans who do survive will not be 100% self-sufficient, and they will need to trade. Since gold has the longest history of being the most honest and trustworthy and real (not fictional) medium to trade, gold may end up being more valuable than you imagine, even in the depths of the collapse. However, where you would be correct, is to note that self-sufficient goodies will probably be MUCH more expensive during the collapse, because they are so life-and-death crucial. Therefore, when the first signs of the real-deal-collapse become visible, you will probably be wise to convert virtually all your gold into self-sufficient goodies, and get the hell outta dodge.
Of course, if you do wait for the collapse to get outta dodge, you will probably (but not certainly) be too late. You won't be able to get outta dodge, or you won't be able to defend yourself against much larger screaming mobs of non-preppers.
Disclaimer: I kept all my savings in physical gold for many years. 3 years ago I moved to the extreme boonies in another country and established [pretty much] self-sufficient dwelling and infrastructure. I have water, dwelling, solar-panels, wind-turbine, battery-banks, 5 greenhouses to grow food, etc. And one small high-tech 2-seat 285kph 4000km range airplane to run errands (and fly anywhere in the south pacific from chile to australia and beyond if necessary). Oh, plus 3 separate "virtually impossible to find" underground "storage dumps" with backups and canned food (2 more than 1km from my other infrastructure). And, incidentally, no roads within 20 kilometers (not even ultra-remote dirt trails). That vaporized almost all my gold, so in practice I agree with your point about gold, just not quite so dramatically.
"This is precisely like AGW, another bald-face lie that they KNOW is a lie, but appears to give them justification"
All the science shows it to be true.
That's a big problem for the deniers.
The power-elite are fraudulent in their "solution" to the problem because for them the status quo of global warming is NOT a problem. YOU will be forced by them to lose any land not damaged in this, YOUR food supplies will be cut off from high inflated prices while THEY can print money & move anywhere.
The GOAL is not de-population. The goal is not to hoax you on global warming. The goal is to make you argue so much about it you don't actually pick up and move to where it's safe. Idiots.
You practically hand them the deed of ownership to your very children because of this idiocy.
No, ALL the science does NOT show AGW to be true. You reveal your lemmingness for the world to see, or are you engaging in satire here?
The MET released data showing that the world has been coolintg over the last twelve years, IIRC.
One data set after another when examined has shown to have been highly manipulated in very crude fasion. This 'adjusted' data has lost credibility with most reasonable objective reasearchers who have not drank the Kool Aid on AGW yet.
No such cooling matches up with any measurements of temperature anywhere.
It's not cooling in the USA. Not cooling in Canada. Not cooling in Australia. Not cooling in Russia. Certainly not cooling in the Middle East.
Purely unadjusted temperature data shows increases.
You are clueless. You want to be a slave to the NWO criminals. What is worse, you want everyone else to be their slaves too.
The climate is always changing, mostly due to natural solar, volcanic, ocean and other effects (sometimes periodic, sometimes irregular). The contribution to weather change by human beings is minor and not worth doing anything about.
We all want legitimate pollution kept in check, but CO2 is not pollution. Nonetheless, a LOT more land should be covered by trees and plants to benefit the environment and animal life.
"It starts with the idea that the world is overpopulated and there are not enough resources for everyone. Middle Class can not be sustained. There isn't enough oil, or water, or food, or lumber, or metal. So an idea is born, to reverse population growth."
Fail. No. What's really happening:We always over-populate as any living thing does then NATURE de-populates us back to normal. Cycles continue forever until extinction of each species as a long-term homeostasis is obtained.
In the mean time the power-elite realize their greatest power comes from having massive numbers of slaves who do not believe they are slaves. This means offering unfair wages that seem fair, unfair currency transactions which seem fair, unfair currencies themselves - all the while mocking fair ones like gold or silver.
This means perpetrating a hoax that the elite want de-population so that the dumbest among us over-populate. Nature will take care of the needed de-population at the ideal time for nature but in the mean time you provide excessive numbers of slaves (your children) at exceptionally low wages, boosting the power of the elite.
Fools. Only fools could be blind to this very obvious plan.
I would suggest you read Ecoscience, and other publications by your heros Maurice Strong and John Holdren. Then you will see what they are really up to.
"It used to be easy to control a million people, now days it is much easier to kill a million people than control them." - Zbigniew Brzezinski
At the rate humans interfere with natural selection, natural depopulation would take too long for TPTB tastes. Power is control. You don't gain in control by increasing the size of the masses. You gain control of the masses by implementing a global tax, global carbon tax. Whomever you pay your taxes to controls you, that's the hoax of AGW. Holdrem and Strong believe the world is overpopulated and have come up with many ideas to decrease the population, published ideas. The elite may not believe it is overpopulated but they are sure riding that train in order to gain control.
Natural de-population is plenty fast - no faster rate is desired. De-population serves NO purpose to the ruling elite. It serves US, the commoners, a purpose: that we have enough to eat & a place to live. What serves the elite is that we are alive & of lesser influence and in great enough numbers to provide cheap slavery. Higher populations serve this best: the elite want you to OVER-populate NEVER to de-populate.
No global carbon taxes are coming, NOR are any needed. Central bank printing can take all the purchasing power needed at any time from any population until reversion to a hard-money standard like gold or silver.
Gaining control of the masses always happens through offers of "consenting slavery" aka indentured servitude which requires more people than jobs which requires over-population. The elite at that time need only secure food & energy sources & transit routes then all is taken care of.
Also stay away from the redistributor who thinks that he can vote to take away your stuff.
I haven't read through all the comments, but I get a distict feeling that the grand SHTF is a self-fulfilling prophesy in hyper-armed America.
It will end with an even more militarized "solution" than in Europe.
I felt the list was avoiding other key important details. Looking at how zombie movies turn out I think is a good pointer:
#1 there's idiots who will expose your group or person to the "enemy" or disease or something, despite being told what not to do. This may be arrogance, may be emotional distress, may be cracking at the mental seams completely. A good idea would be to list warning signs of how to spot this problem. Analogous zombie movie role: "it's just a scratch, come on, we have to let Henry / Lisa / whoever back in the doors. Nothing bad will happen, I SWEAR"
#2 there are people who are flat out not physically & mentally fit to help & will drag your group down. No offense is intended but rule #1 : CARDIO. Right? The will is not enough. Insufficient preps of the body & mind, not just the supplies, is something to consider. You take your risks: a bright & well-meaning but unprepared person could turn out to be a big benefit later. You makes your choices, you choose your poison.
#3 the flat-out sociopath. This person, as in ANY situation, not just survivalist/prepping, will seek to turn people against each other, to isolate people socially & to do so with a goal in mind. Get your stuff. Get use of it. Many tricks can be used from framing evidence of an attempted harm, theft, assault, or from guilting emotionally weaker people into offering "help" that isn't really needed (supplies, putting a person giving help in dire physical risk near "accidents", etc.). Again, warning signs are needed, however, many are well published.
#4 Incompatible personalities: what do you do when 2 very competent people with very good, diverse skills you'd prefer not to be without access to flat out can not get along? It's not a fault of one person but you can't get the 2 together. Period. Now you need to think hard & choose what you will be a part of & who you will invite along. Sorry, life is like that, disaster or not.
How's that for additions?