So, we rise from the rubble...
Friday, August 27, 2021
"This Is A Moment In U.S. History That Will Forever Live In Infamy"
"This Is A Moment In U.S. History That
Will Forever Live In Infamy"
by Michael Snyder
"There are certain moments that just make you want to cry. The bombings in Kabul that killed 13 U.S. troops and at least 90 Afghans didn’t have to happen. If we didn’t have completely and utterly incompetent political leaders and completely and utterly incompetent military leaders, things could have turned out very differently. The end of a 20 year war is being capped off in humiliating fashion, and nobody is going to be afraid of the United States after this. And that is actually a really bad thing, because fear of U.S. retribution has kept China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and a whole host of terror groups largely in check for the past several decades. Now that the U.S. is seemingly unable to play the “restrainer” role any longer, the stage is set for tremendous global instability.
For years, our generals were telling us that the Taliban had been defeated. Obviously, that wasn’t even close to the truth. And ISIS had supposedly been bombed into oblivion, but apparently that wasn’t true either.
Everyone knew that having so many evacuees crammed into such a small area would be a really tempting target, and our leaders were depending on the Taliban (the guys we have been shooting at for 20 years) to protect us. Needless to say, that was a recipe for disaster, and that is precisely what we got.
In the aftermath of the bombings, Joe Biden promised to hunt down those that had attacked us… "Speaking to the American people in the wake of a devastating terror attack at the Kabul airport that left scores dead on Thursday - including numerous U.S. troops - President Biden promised the U.S. would strike back against those responsible. “To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this - we will not forgive, we will not forget, we will hunt you down and make you pay,” the president said in a somber White House address.
Yes, I am sure that they are shaking in their boots. At this point, nobody is afraid of our “woke military” and the snowflake generals that are leading them. The head of U.S. Central Command was asked if the Taliban allowed the ISIS terrorists to get close to the Marines, and “there’s a failure somewhere” was the best that he could come up with in response… "The commander of U.S. Central Command said Thursday he did not know if the Taliban - whose members the U.S. was relying on to screen individuals getting to the airport - let Islamic State suicide bombers get through and conduct at least two bombings that have so far killed 12 Marines and injured 15 more. “Clearly if they were able to get up to the Marines…at the entry point of the base, there’s a failure somewhere,” said Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie at a press briefing on Thursday."
We know that more ISIS terrorists are lurking in the vicinity right now. So will there be additional attacks in the days ahead? One source told Fox News that it is “likely” that there will be more… "A source briefed on the situation in Kabul told Fox News that some Americans stranded in Afghanistan will likely be left behind after Thursday’s bombings. The source told Fox News that “hundreds” of ISIS-K fighters remain in the vicinity of the Kabul airport and that the attacks are “likely to continue.”
Hearing that “some Americans stranded in Afghanistan will likely be left behind” should make your blood boil. What in the world is wrong with our leaders? Trump was impeached over a phone call. How much more does Biden deserve to get impeached if he leaves Americans behind in the hands of the Taliban?
And what makes things even worse is the fact that the Biden administration has actually given the Taliban a list of Americans and others that needed to be evacuated… "U.S. officials in Kabul gave the Taliban a list of names of American citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies to grant entry into the militant-controlled outer perimeter of the city’s airport, a choice that’s prompted outrage behind the scenes from lawmakers and military officials. The move, detailed to POLITICO by three U.S. and congressional officials, was designed to expedite the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan as chaos erupted in Afghanistan’s capital city last week after the Taliban seized control of the country. It also came as the Biden administration has been relying on the Taliban for security outside the airport."
Some are calling this a “kill list”, and that is exactly how the Taliban could choose to view it once all U.S. military forces are gone for good. And thanks to our recklessness, Taliban fighters are going to be armed to the teeth as they begin their new reign… "A government watchdog group says the U.S. military is leaving behind 75,000 vehicles, 600,000 weapons and 208 aircraft in Afghanistan as forces evacuate the country after a 20-year war.
We’ve made the Taliban into a major U.S. arms dealer for the next decade,” said Adam Andrzejewski, CEO of Open the Books. “They now control 75,000 military vehicles. This is about 50,000 tactical vehicles, 20,000 Humvees, they control about 1,000 mine-resistant vehicles, and even about 150 armored personnel carriers.”
To make matters worse, you and I paid for all of that equipment. How can any of the brass at the Pentagon keep their jobs after such a debacle? I just keep looking at those numbers and I keep wondering how our military leaders could possibly be so grossly incompetent. And the rest of the world is watching.
If a ragged group of opium dealers and goat herders can absolutely humiliate the once mighty U.S. military, why should anyone else ever be afraid of us ever again? What the Taliban has pulled off is going to greatly inspire terror organizations all over the globe, and it is going to embolden America’s most prominent enemies.
I think that the Biden administration was hoping that withdrawing from Afghanistan would be a move toward peace, but instead their incompetence has set the stage for more war.
As America is humiliated in Afghanistan, there have been lots of news stories about how China has been practicing for an invasion of Taiwan… China’s long-standing threats to invade Taiwan would require the biggest amphibious invasion in human history - and analysts say recent military activities, including exercises using commercial ferries, appear designed to practice exactly that. If you think that global supply chains are messed up now, just wait until that happens.
I know that a lot of people are cheering the fact that things are becoming more unstable geopolitically, but this new period of instability will not end well. For decades, the United States dealt with everyone else from a position of strength. But now the rest of the world can see that the emperor doesn’t have any clothes, and a power vacuum will always be filled."
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Related:
"How It Really Is"
We never learn, do we?
"Your national greatness, swelling vanity; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages."
- Frederick Douglass
Greg Hunter, "Comirnaty CV19 Vax Approval is Actually Fraudulent"
"Comirnaty CV19 Vax Approval is Actually
Fraudulent – Chris Martenson"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"Dr. Chris Martenson holds a PhD in toxicology from Duke University and is a futurist and economic researcher. Martenson says the FDA just approved a Pfizer CV19 vaccine named Comirnaty, but the public is not getting it. This is classic bait and switch because the public is still getting the same Pfizer jab they have been getting all along. It’s still experimental (Emergency Use Authorization or EUA), and it still gives Pfizer total immunity from liability. Dr. Martenson explains, “For all practical purposes, there are two identical drugs. One stays under EUA, and one has been given approval. The problem is the one given approval, and if you are in the United States, you can’t get it. There is none here. So, they approved something that doesn’t exist. This feels like legal wrangling. People say, oh, they have approved this vaccine, and they have our best interest at heart. I say if that were true, they would have released a lot more data. We did not get any new data on the filing, and they would not have given us this legal Rube Goldberg runaround, and we would not still be seeing people being injected with something still under a EUA, which absolves the manufacturer of liability. That’s the situation we are in right now. If the FDA was looking to build trust with people who were a little hesitant, I think they completely dropped the ball on that and committed a huge error.”
Dr. Martenson says he looked at the Comirnaty data and contends, “So much of this has been unfortunately conducted. We would like to see a lot more data coming out around this. In the FDA release about this approval letter that they just put forward, we can see a lot of things in there that are actually fraudulent in my opinion. They mention in there a 91.3% effectiveness rate, which was the original rate of effectiveness of data that was gathered way back on March 31, 2021. The CDC, all on its own, just 5 days before the August 23 approval of this Pfizer Comirnaty thing, the CDC said the most recent data they had said there is a 79.8% effectiveness, but the FDA is sticking with 91.3%. This is a huge disagreement between the CDC and the FDA. All I can imagine is inside the FDA, they couldn’t flat out bring themselves to approve this. I am sure there are all sorts of legal ramifications and bureaucratic ramifications and on and on and on. Again, if the intent was to make people feel less hesitant and less resistant, they needed to be completely open and completely transparent, and they didn’t. They actually used data that is old, that everybody knows is completely out of date and no longer true. . . .There is so much data that is not there. I am not sure if they just ‘lost it’ or it has not been submitted or it’s being hidden. I don’t know what the story really is, but I can tell you there is a lot of data missing.”
Martenson also talks about the Federal Reserve and how the central bankers have set the country up for a huge economic fall in the not-so-distant future. Martenson contends this fall will destroy businesses, families and cost a lot of lives. There is much more in the 40 min. interview."
(Programming note: The Martenson interview will take the place of the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 8.27.21)
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with
the founder of PeakProsperity.com, Dr. Chris Martenson.
Thursday, August 26, 2021
“I Have No Money! Forget Your Pride, Get a Job! Banks Closed; You Need Cash”
Jeremiah Babe, PM 8/26/21:
“I Have No Money! Forget Your Pride,
Get a Job! Banks Closed; You Need Cash”
"Supreme Court in 6 to 3 Ruling Blocks CDC and Biden Eviction Moratorium"
Michael Zuber, PM 8/26/21:
"Supreme Court in 6 to 3 Ruling Blocks CDC
and Biden Eviction Moratorium"
Reportedly 12 million evictions, 30 - 40 million people put on the street.
What then?
"New Report Finds US Has Spent Over $2.3 Trillion On Afghanistan War"
"New Report Finds US Has Spent
Over $2.3 Trillion On Afghanistan War"
by Dave DeCamp
"Brown University’s Costs of War project released an updated report Wednesday on US spending for the war in Afghanistan. The report found that since the 2001 invasion, Washington has sunk over $2.3 trillion into the war.
Click image for larger size.
The spending includes operations in both Afghanistan and Pakistan and is broken down into five categories. The biggest chunk is the Defense Department’s budget for the war, which is just over $1 trillion. The State Department’s war budget adds another $60 billion. War-related Increases to the Pentagon budget account for $433 billion.
Estimated interest payments on war borrowing accounts for $532 billion, and spending on care for veterans of the war adds up to $233 billion. Costs of War did not account for future interest payments or future spending on lifelong care for veterans, so the total will still increase even after the US completes its military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Costs of War released its last Afghanistan update in April 2021. At the time, the project estimated the war cost $2.26 trillion. The project also tracks casualties of the war. As of April, Costs of War estimates up to 241,000 people were killed in the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Out of the 241,000 people killed, 71,344 were civilians, including 47,245 in Afghanistan and 24,099 in Pakistan. The numbers do not account for indirect deaths due to conditions caused by the war, like loss of access to food, disease, or infrastructure damage.
The Taliban take over of Afghanistan and the swift collapse of the US-backed government shows that the massive amount of spending was for nothing, except to line the pockets of US defense contractors."
"Panic And Chaos Sweep Across Supply Chains As Shortage Of Everything Push Prices To Skyrocket"
Full screen recommended.
"Panic And Chaos Sweep Across Supply Chains
As Shortage Of Everything Push Prices To Skyrocket"
by Epic Economist
"These days, everyone seems to be talking about a "global economic recovery", but the truth is that more problems are emerging with each passing day and the global economy is still very far from what it was before the onset of the health crisis. Even though consumer demand is still booming, supply chains all over the world are in a state of total chaos. Shortages of essential parts and products are making things extremely difficult for hundreds of thousands of manufacturers and the process of shipping products overseas has become insanely expensive, oftentimes resulting in horrendous delays. On top of that, a historic shortage of workers is aggravating the supply chain crisis even further while retailers struggle to restock their shelves for their customers in a timely manner. This level of disruption is something that we have never seen before. The crisis is getting so severe that even CNN is admitting that things are bound to get worse.
A recent CNN article described that "the vast network of ports, container vessels and trucking companies that moves goods around the world is badly tangled, and the cost of shipping is skyrocketing". And that’s extremely upsetting for retailers and consumers. After 18 months into the health crisis, "the disruption to global supply chains is getting worse, spurring shortages of consumer products and making it more expensive for companies to ship goods where they’re needed," the article reported. Unresolved issues, and the emergence of new problems including the Delta variant, means that consumers are about to face even higher prices and fewer choices this holiday season.
Here in the United States, many experts have been sharing very bleak predictions about the upcoming holiday season, citing a global shortage of containers and severe port congestion as the main drivers to shortages and shipping delays. "Name almost anything and it seems like there's a shortage of it," one industry executive said. "Retailers are struggling to replenish inventory as fast as they're selling, let alone prepare for holiday demand. As we've been forecasting for months, shoppers are going to see some bare shelves during the holidays. And if you buy most of your presents online, get it done early. Delivery time may be four to six weeks," he warned. Of course, the US is not alone. On the other side of the ocean, in the UK, recent reports describe that the country is facing “worst supply-chain crisis since the 1970s” and that could potentially “ruin Christmas”.
Right now, one of the greatest problems the British are facing is an unprecedented shortage of workers. Business owners are urging for more workers to be allowed into the country because they believe that will help to ease the crisis. Numbers released by the Road Haulage Association suggest that the UK needs another 100,000 truckers to continue to deliver goods to stores. Here in America, we have been dealing with similar issues. At this point, all retailers across the nation are struggling to find truck drivers to hire. According to Benjamin Walker, the senior vice president of sales at Sysco, finding new drivers is “next to impossible,” and at the same time, freight costs are rising daily.
But even if we had enough truck drivers, we would still be facing widespread shortages. One of the main reasons for it is the global shortage of computer chips. Industry executives have been alerting that the semiconductor shortage is causing major headaches for American manufacturers across thousands of industries. And given that Asian factories are being shut down once again due to the rapid spread of the Delta variant, all manufacturers who need these tiny chips to get their products running will face more disruptions in production this year. In the US, automakers alone will make 1 million fewer cars this year because they’re unable to get all the computer chips they need.
Apparently, American consumers will have to get used to facing shortages for the foreseeable future. Even our vice-president is warning that is only going to get worse, as we discussed in yesterday's video. But warnings don't seem to convince most Americans. In any case, when they start to realize that empty store shelves and shortages are here to stay, they will have to wake up to this new reality. Our entire economic infrastructure is being shaken to its core, and our society is just starting to notice that the “invincible” U.S. economy is not that invincible after all. The coming holiday season is definitely not going to be "normal". And don't expect things to "come back to normal" in 2022 either because we are headed to crazy times, and they are only going to get crazier."
Gerald Celente, "Afghan Tragedy, War On The Horizon If We Don't Stop It"
Full screen recommended.
VERY strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, PM 8/26/21:
"Afghan Tragedy, War On The Horizon If We Don't Stop It"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."
"Fools, Traitors and America"
"Democracy is a government of the fools,
for the fools, by the fools."
- George bernard Shaw
"Fools, Traitors and America"
by Brian Maher
"A nation can survive its fools, it is said - but not its traitors. Yet we have long suspected the opposite…That is, a nation can survive its traitors. But it cannot survive its fools. That is because a nation’s fools infinitely outnumber a nation’s traitors.
Please answer this question: How many traitors occupy the District of Columbia? Now answer this question: How many fools occupy the District of Columbia? The ratio must run 9,000:1 - against the traitors.
Being a fool is no crime of course. We would presently languish behind the bars if it were, serving a long, long sentence. A great portion of the population would be with us. But our legal status renders fools no less dangerous. A fool with a bad idea in his head is a menace. He is the equal of a baby with a loaded gun in his hand...
Woodrow Wilson, Fool: Was Woodrow Wilson a traitor for meddling in a European civil war 104 years ago? We would never suggest it. He may have meant the best in the world. He may have wished to make the world safe for democracy - and by extension safe for America. (He certainly made the world safe for the large American banks that loaned to the allied powers).
But was Wilson a fool for hurling the nation into a European civil war? Almost certainly. The warring parties had nearly bled themselves white by 1917. Neither side could shatter the other. They would have likely exhausted themselves, come to terms… and limped home, honors even. “Never again!” they would have cried.
But Mr. Wilson dispatched the doughboys over there in 1917. It shifted the battle tide against the kaiser. And the allies “won.” Yet the Versailles Treaty that closed the war to end all wars... spawned the peace to end all peace. Mr. Wilson’s fool crusade did not make the world safe for democracy. It made the world safe for fascism… and communism. And WWI was “The Great War” until an even greater war raged 20 years later.
All Roads Lead Back to Wilson: Here our former colleague David Stockman hauls Wilson into the dock - and indicts him for every crime on the calendar: "Had Woodrow Wilson not misled America on a messianic crusade, the Great War would have ended in mutual exhaustion in 1917 and both sides would have gone home battered and bankrupt but no danger to the rest of mankind. Indeed, absent Wilson’s crusade there would have been no allied victory, no punitive peace and no war reparations; nor would there have been a Leninist coup in Petrograd or Stalin’s barbaric regime.
Likewise, there would have been no Hitler, no Nazis, no Holocaust, no global war against Germany and Japan and no incineration of 200,000 civilians at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Nor would there have followed a Cold War with the Soviets or CIA-sponsored coups and assassinations in Iran, Guatemala, Indonesia, Brazil and Chile to name a few. Surely there would have been no CIA plot to assassinate Castro, or Russian missiles in Cuba or a crisis that took the world to the brink of annihilation.
There would have been no domino theory and no Vietnam slaughter, either.
Nor would we have had to come to the aid of the mujahedeen and train the future al-Qaida in Afghanistan. Likewise, there would have been no Khomeini-led Islamic revolution and no U.S. aid to enable Saddam’s gas attacks on Iranian boy soldiers in the 1980s.
Nor would there have been an American invasion of Arabia in 1991 to stop our former ally Saddam Hussein from looting the equally contemptible emir of Kuwait’s ill-gotten oil plunder — or, alas, the horrific 9/11 blowback a decade later.
Nor would we have been stuck with a $1 trillion Warfare State budget today."
A Fool, Not a Traitor: Does David simplify events? Do we simplify events? Very likely, yes. The world was - as it always is - to its neck with fools. And these fools would have certainly gotten themselves up to mischief somehow or other. Yet we believe the hottest hells of the 20th century would have been averted had Mr. Wilson sat upon his hands in April 1917. But again: It was not treason that sent Mr. Wilson buccaneering into Europe’s war. It was foolishness. Of course Wilson was not the only fool to ever sit down at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue...
Never Fight a Ground War in Asia: Never fight a ground war in Asia, warned Douglas MacArthur. Here was the sage counsel of a fellow who had fought two. But fool Lyndon Baines Johnson soon had the United States fighting a ground war in Asia. Eventually it came straggling home, bandaged, beaten, broken. 58,000 of its sons came home horizontal.
Was Johnson a traitor? It has never been suggested, to our knowledge. But a fool? This time the “domino theory” was the fool idea that fetched an American president...
“Ridiculous”: But old Gen. MacArthur - no pacifist - toppled the domino theory. “Ridiculous,” he labeled it. Scroll the calendar back to April 1961... MacArthur met freshly minted president Johnny Kennedy at New York’s Waldorf Astoria. MacArthur, said Kennedy aide Kenneth O’Donnell: "Implored the president to avoid a U.S. military buildup in Vietnam, or any other part of the Asian mainland, because he felt that the domino theory was ridiculous in a nuclear age. MacArthur instead advised the youthful president to battle communism with America’s mightiest weapon - its economy. He believed a free economy would knock the devil out of a communist economy."
Kennedy vastly respected MacArthur’s experience. Would he have taken aboard the advice… brought home the advisers he had dispatched to Vietnam… and quit the country altogether? We will never know. The fool idea won the day - and America lost its way.
Combining Two Fool Ideas: A half-century later, another fool idea infested the White House. This fool idea was wedged within the dense cranium of President George Walker Bush. And the United States once again shooed aside MacArthur’s advice against Asian ground wars.
The United States combined a variation of Wilson’s fool idea... with the fool idea of a reverse domino theory. It would make the Islamic world safe for democracy. The democratic dominoes would then proceed to fall, knocking down the region’s dictatorships and autocracies. The Taliban and Saddam Hussein would go out. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison would come in. Afghanistan would become a Kansas in the Hindu Kush, Iraq a Utah on the Euphrates. But what happens when you combine one fool idea with another fool idea? Could there be any doubt?
So Much for Democracy: Saddam Hussein is out, it is true. And our ethereal sources inform us he is suffering lamentably in his present location… even if he finds the company agreeable. Yet is Iraq a democracy today? Then a wilderness is a democracy, a jungle is a democracy.
And in Afghanistan, the Taliban is presently installing its own democracy. Its Constitution is the Koran, and its justice system is Sharia Law - which includes: Severe punishments such as execution, stoning, cutting off limbs or whipping. These include offences such as zina (unlawful sexual intercourse such as fornication), unfounded accusations of zina, drinking alcohol, highway robbery and some forms of theft.
Here is mercy itself. Only “some forms of theft” are punishable by execution, stoning, cutting off limbs or whipping.
Capital Offenses: We would vastly expand the roster of offenses punishable by the methods listed. For example: The sale or ingestion of hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, Vitamin D and other poisonous substances falsely claimed to treat COVID-19.
For example: Denying that the mRNA vaccines are 100% safe and effective.
For example: Refusing to sport a facial mask when alone out of doors.
Each would be punishable by execution, stoning, cutting off limbs or whipping. Perhaps worse. But let it go for now. Let us return to the main road...
Like Messieurs Wilson and Johnson, Mr. Bush was no traitor - except perhaps a traitor to the good senses. Yet he was a fool to believe he could transform these alien cultures. A fool? No. A dunce.
Fools, Drunks and the United States of America: We wonder what fool idea will next prevail. War with China? In the economic realm, perhaps Modern Monetary Theory? Or the Green New Deal? We know only that the fools are busy. Principal among them are the fools of the Federal Reserve. They are a menace to American happiness.
“God has a special providence for fools, drunkards and the United States of America,” said Germany’s Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. Let us be glad of it. We hazard the United States of America will require God’s special providence in the times to come..."
Musical Interlude: Dan Fogelberg, "Nether Lands"
Full screen recommended.
Dan Fogelberg, "Nether Lands"
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Separated by about 14 degrees (28 Full Moons) in planet Earth's sky, spiral galaxies M31, left, and M33 are both large members of the Local Group, along with our own Milky Way galaxy. This wide-angle, telescopic mosaic captures colorful details of spiral structure in both, while the massive neighboring galaxies seem to be balanced either side of bright Mirach, beta star in the constellation Andromeda. But M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, is really 2.5 million light-years distant and M33, the Triangulum Galaxy, is also about 3 million light years away.
Mirach, just 200 light-years from the Sun, lies well within the Milky Way, along with the dim clouds of dust drifting through the frame only a few hundred light-years above the galactic plane. Although they look far apart, M31 and M33 are locked in a mutual gravitational embrace. Radio astronomers have found indications of a bridge of neutral hydrogen gas that could connect the two, evidence of a closer encounter in the past. Based on measurements, gravitational simulations currently predict that the Milky Way, M31, and M33 will all undergo mutual close encounters and potentially mergers, billions of years in the future.”
The Poet: Mary Oliver, "There Is Time Left"
"There Is Time Left"
"Well, there is time left –
fields everywhere invite you into them.
And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away
from wherever you are, to look for your soul?
Quickly, then, get up, put on your coat, leave your desk!
To put one's foot into the door of the grass, which is
the mystery, which is death as well as life,
and not be afraid!
To set one's foot in the door of death,
and be overcome with amazement!”
~ Mary Oliver
"What Is Hope?"
"What Is Hope?"
"What is hope? It is the pre-sentiment that imagination is more real and reality is less real than it looks. It is the hunch that the overwhelming brutality of facts that oppress and repress us is not the last word. It is the suspicion that reality is more complex than the realists want us to believe.
That the frontiers of the possible are not determined by the limits of the actual; and in a miraculous and unexplained way, life is opening creative events which will light the way to freedom and resurrection. But the two — suffering and hope — must live from each other. Suffering without hope produces resentment and despair. But hope without suffering creates illusions, naïveté and drunkenness.
So let us plant dates even though we who plant them will never eat them. We must live by the love of what we will never see. That is the secret discipline. It is the refusal to let our creative act be dissolved away by our need for immediate sense experience, and it is a struggled commitment to the future of our grandchildren. Such disciplined hope is what has given prophets, revolutionaries and saints the courage to die for the future they envisage. They make their own bodies the seed of their highest hope."
That the frontiers of the possible are not determined by the limits of the actual; and in a miraculous and unexplained way, life is opening creative events which will light the way to freedom and resurrection. But the two — suffering and hope — must live from each other. Suffering without hope produces resentment and despair. But hope without suffering creates illusions, naïveté and drunkenness.
So let us plant dates even though we who plant them will never eat them. We must live by the love of what we will never see. That is the secret discipline. It is the refusal to let our creative act be dissolved away by our need for immediate sense experience, and it is a struggled commitment to the future of our grandchildren. Such disciplined hope is what has given prophets, revolutionaries and saints the courage to die for the future they envisage. They make their own bodies the seed of their highest hope."
- Rubin Alves
"Why The Other Side Won’t Listen to Reason"
"Why The Other Side Won’t Listen to Reason"
by David Cain
"At some point during your first year as a human being, the adults throw a real curveball at you. They expect you to start understanding what right and wrong mean. These lessons come in the form of mysterious reactions that follow certain things you do. After you pull all the books from the bottom shelf onto the floor, quite a feat for a one year-old, they scold you for some reason. When you pee in the correct place, they praise you. It’s completely baffling, but over time you get a sense that adults are extremely preoccupied with classifying actions into two broad categories: okay and not okay, or good and bad.
You quickly gather this is how the world works. And there is some logic behind what’s rewarded and what’s punished: “bad” actions are usually (but not always) ones that hurt, annoy or inconvenience other people, and “good” actions usually (not always) help in some way, or at least don’t hurt anyone.
This classification system is so strongly emphasized by the adults that you develop a keen sense of it yourself. You see rights and wrongs everywhere, particularly where you stand to gain or lose something personally: in the fair distribution of treats, in acknowledgement for chores done, in which cartoon characters deserve to be happy (or in a police wagon) at the end of the episode.
Seemingly everything is morally relevant. There are right and wrong ways to speak, play, fidget, ask for things, touch people, and express your feelings. The rules are endlessly detailed and idiosyncratic. There are right and wrong places to sit or stand, things to wear, things to stare at, even expressions to have on your face. Some acts are okay in one place and very bad somewhere else. The adults insist that navigating this sprawling bureaucracy is simple: just be good.
You make use of this system. You argue your case to your parents when your sibling takes something of yours, or plays with a coveted toy too long—if you feel slighted, there must be wrongdoing, and you say so, perhaps listing reasons why you’re right. You petition teachers to take action against other kids who are being greedy, annoying, or mean, and you defend yourself when you’re the one being accused.
There’s Something Fishy About the Way We Judge: By adulthood, morality has become such an intuitive part of our thinking that we barely realize when we’re making a moral judgment.
Hundreds or thousands of times a day we assess the character of another person. We feel we know enough to commend or condemn (usually condemn) a person from the way they park, a word they chose to use in their comment, the state of their front lawn, how they stand in a queue, what they laugh at, where and when they look at their mobile phones, how long they take to get to the point of their anecdote, or any of ten thousand other morally salient micro-actions.
Our moral sense works with great speed and force. Every news article - even the headline alone -gives us a strong, immediate, and seemingly unmistakable sense of which are the good and bad parties involved. Virtually every time we feel annoyed, we reflexively assert some wrongdoing on the part of another human being, even if it’s someone we’ve never seen. If service is slow, some employee is being lazy or inconsiderate. If traffic is crawling it’s because the city always schedules construction work at such stupid times. If an item’s price is unexpectedly high, some greedy CEO is getting paid too much.
There’s something fishy about all this moralizing. We treat our moral feelings and judgments as though they’re truly all-important; seemingly, nothing deserves as much energy and attention as determining the right and wrong of everything done and said in the human world, and lamenting that world’s failure to meet our idea of what’s right. (For endless examples, just check Twitter.) Yet for all their importance, we’re extremely flippant with our moral judgments. We make them all day long, with ease and even a kind of pleasure, and very little second-guessing. Maddeningly, other people have almost perfectly opposite positions on the same moral issues - drug policy, immigration, pornography, whether mayo belongs in guacamole - and they cast their judgments with the all the same ease and certitude.
You’d think that if determining right and wrong were truly what’s important to us, we’d be far more careful about making judgments. We’d want to gather a lot of information before saying anything. We’d seek opposing viewpoints and try to understand them. We’d offer people the benefit of the doubt whenever possible. We’d be very wary of our initial emotions around the topic, and very interested in how our personal interests might be skewing our conclusions. We’d refrain from making conclusions at all if we didn’t need to.
In other words, we’d employ the same reserved, dispassionate, self-scrutinizing ethic we use to examine questions about anything else: physics, history, biology, engineering, business, or any other arena of understanding where premature conclusions can create a big problem. We’d have a keen, ongoing interest in learning how we might be wrong.
But we’re not like this at all. We make moral conclusions freely, immediately, and without self-scrutiny, recruiting as much emotional tilt as possible. We dismiss counterpoints reflexively, as though it’s dangerous to even consider changing our minds. We only rarely admit that an issue is too opaque or complex to be sure what to think.
Why are we so smart and careful when it comes to figuring things out in most areas of inquiry, and so dumb and impulsive when it comes to moral questions, which are supposedly the most important ones to get right?
Why We’re So Stubborn: Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt sheds a lot of light on our confused moral psychology in his book, "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Religion." It’s a fascinating read, but the main punchline is that our moral sensitivity didn’t evolve in order to make us good at determining right and wrong. It evolved to help us survive and thrive in highly social environments.
Our moral feelings are quick and reactive because they developed to aid us in real-time social interactions, not in careful, solitary periods of reflection. These feelings are often conflicting and illogical because they adapted to meet a number of different social goals:
• Our desire to protect the vulnerable, and our hatred for cruelty and carelessness, adapted to motivate us to keep children safe at all costs, and keep potentially dangerous people away
• Our resentment for cheating and unfairness adapted to help us avoid getting exploited by the rest of our group
• Our respect for loyalty, and our fear of betrayal, evolved to help us form coalitions, and identify disloyal people before they make trouble
• Our attitudes towards authority, and those who subvert it, conferred an advantage at positioning ourselves within social hierarchies
• Our moralizing around cleanliness and the sanctity of bodies, sex, and bodily functions, adapted to help us avoid infection and disease
• It’s no wonder our moral intuitions are so strong, quick and often thoughtless. They are essentially survival reflexes, conditioned by our upbringing and our instincts.
Our moral reasoning - our capacity to explain why something is right or wrong - comes only after our emotional intuitions, if at all, and is tuned for persuading others of our value to the tribe, not for helping us find the most sensible moral stances. Haidt describes our moral reasoning as working much like a press secretary or company spokesperson - its purpose is to justify positions and actions already taken, using any explanation that sounds passably good in the moment, true or not.
• Our desire to protect the vulnerable, and our hatred for cruelty and carelessness, adapted to motivate us to keep children safe at all costs, and keep potentially dangerous people away
• Our resentment for cheating and unfairness adapted to help us avoid getting exploited by the rest of our group
• Our respect for loyalty, and our fear of betrayal, evolved to help us form coalitions, and identify disloyal people before they make trouble
• Our attitudes towards authority, and those who subvert it, conferred an advantage at positioning ourselves within social hierarchies
• Our moralizing around cleanliness and the sanctity of bodies, sex, and bodily functions, adapted to help us avoid infection and disease
• It’s no wonder our moral intuitions are so strong, quick and often thoughtless. They are essentially survival reflexes, conditioned by our upbringing and our instincts.
Our moral reasoning - our capacity to explain why something is right or wrong - comes only after our emotional intuitions, if at all, and is tuned for persuading others of our value to the tribe, not for helping us find the most sensible moral stances. Haidt describes our moral reasoning as working much like a press secretary or company spokesperson - its purpose is to justify positions and actions already taken, using any explanation that sounds passably good in the moment, true or not.
Note that none of the above social goals require our moral feelings to be fair or logically sound, and in fact, that can be disadvantageous - a tribe that viewed all outsiders as predators likely would have protected its children better than a tribe that was most concerned with never falsely accusing someone of being dangerous.
In other words, our moral intuitions are strongly tuned to make us groupish and tribal, not even-handed and insightful. And our moral reasoning is tuned more for soliciting approval from others than for actually discovering moral truths.
This explains why we’re so susceptible to rhetoric, prejudice, selective hearing, and fake news. It also explains why it’s strangely pleasurable to take hard moral stands, no matter how poor or nonexistent the reasoning behind them - hard stands, declared publicly, reliably generate a small flood of praise and approval from the tribe that shares those positions.
You can see what a powder keg this moral psychology is liable to create in an increasingly global, internet-connected society, composed of people from many different backgrounds, all of whom enjoy getting Retweeted, Liked, and Favorited.
It’s why, when it comes to politics, the other side simply doesn’t listen to reason. Of course, all of us are on someone’s other side."
"I Know Why You Did It..."
"There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the government. They promised you order, they promised you peace, and all they demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent."
- "V For Vendetta", slightly modified.
"Maybe..."
“We’ve all heard the warnings and we’ve ignored them. We push our luck. We roll the dice. It’s human nature. When we’re told not to touch something we usually do even if we know better. Maybe because deep down, we’re just asking for trouble.”
- “Meredith Grey”, “Gray’s Anatomy”
"The Brutal Truth About Violence When The SHTF"
"The Brutal Truth About Violence When The SHTF"
Selco interviewed by Daisy Luther
"Are you prepared for the extreme violence that is likely to come your way if the SHTF? No matter what your plan is, it’s entirely probable that at some point, you’ll be the victim of violence or have to perpetrate violence to survive. As always, Selco is our go-to guy on SHTF reality checks and this thought-provoking interview will shake you to your core.
If you don’t know Selco, he’s from Bosnia and he lived through a year in a city that was blockaded with no utilities, no deliveries of supplies, and no services. In his interviews, he shares what the scenarios the rest of us theorize about were REALLY like. He mentioned to me recently that most folks aren’t prepared for the violence that is part and parcel of a collapse, which brings us to today’s interview.
How prevalent was violence when the SHTF in Bosnia? It was wartime and chaos, from all conflicts in those years in the Balkan region Bosnian conflict was most brutal because of multiple reasons, historical, political and other. To simplify the explanation why violence was common and very brutal, you need to picture a situation where you are “bombarded” with huge amount of information (propaganda) which instills in you very strong feelings of fear and hate. Out of fear and hate, violence grows easy and fast, and over the very short period of time you see how people around you (including you) do things that you could not imagine before.
I can say that violence was almost an everyday thing in the whole spectrum of different activities because it was a fight for survival. Again, whenever (and wherever) you put people in a region without enough resources, you can expect violence.
We were living a normal life, and then suddenly we were thrown in a way of living where if you could not “negotiate” something with someone, you solve the problem by launching a rocket from an RPG through the window of his living room. Hate stripped down the layers of humanity and suddenly it was “normal” to level an apartment building with people inside with shells from a tank or form private prisons with imprisoned civilians for slave work or sex slaves.
Nothing that I saw or read before could have prepared me for the level of violence and blindness to it, for the lives of kids, elders, civilians, and the innocent. Again, the thing that is important for readers is that we were a modern society one day, and then in few weeks it turned into carnage. Do not make the mistake of saying “it cannot happen here” because I made that mistake too. Do not underestimate power of propaganda, fear, hate, and the lowest human instincts, no matter how modern and good your society is right now and how deeply you believe that “it can not happen here”.
You’ve mentioned warlords and gangs in several of your articles. Were they responsible for the majority of the violence or was it hungry families? Fighting of the armies through the whole period of war brings violence in terms of constant shelling from a distance from different kind of weapons. For example a few multiple rocket launchers (VBR) could bring in 30 seconds the destruction in an area of 3-4 apartment buildings, and being there in that moment and surviving it gives you a completely new view on life. Snipers were a constant threat and over time you simply grow a way of living that you constant scan area in front of you where your next steps gonna be. Are you gonna be visible and from where? Etc.
Most brutal violence was actually lawlessness and complete lack of order between different factions and militias, so in some periods there were militias or gangs who simply ruled the cities or part of the city where they were absolutely masters of everything in terms of deciding of taking someone’s life. In lawlessness, you as one person could be really small and not interesting, or join some bigger group of people to be stronger, some family or militia or gang.
An example of a gang would be group of people of some 300 or 500 people who “officially” were a unit or militia and operate for some faction, but in reality they operate mostly for themselves. That included owning part of the black market, having prison (for forced labor or ransom), attacking people and houses for resources, smuggling people from dangerous areas. Violence from those kinds of group was the most immediate violence, the most visible in terms of SHTF talking. If those people came on your door you could obey, fight, or negotiate, but mostly you could not not ask for help from any kind of authority, because there was no real authority.
In any society, no matter where you are living, there are a great number of people who are waiting for the SHTF to go out and do violent things. Small time criminals or simply violent persons who are not openly violent because system is there to punish them for that. It is like that. Some gang leaders that I knew were actually completely sick people with a strange type of charisma that makes people follow them, weird situations that can happen only in a real collapse. They are people who just waited for their time to rise. Those kinds of people together with criminal organization that are already there in any city in the world will be the backbone of SHTF gangs.
Who were the most likely victims? A very simple answer would be that the most likely victims were people who had interesting things without enough defense. But it was not always that simple. For example one of the first houses that got raided in my neighborhood, right at the beginning of collapse while there was still some kind of order, was a rich family’s home. They had a nice house with bars on the windows, a pretty good setup for defense, and they had enough people inside so they could give pretty good resistance to the mob. But they got raided simply because they were known that they are rich, so they were attacked with enough force to be overwhelmed.
It was not only about how much manpower you had and how well-organized defense of your home was, it was also about how juicy a target you were. If you are faced with 150 angry people attacking your home because they are sure you have good stuff inside your chances are low, no matter how good and tough you are. People who were alone were a pretty easy target and old people without support of family or friends.
It was not always about killing someone or violence. For example, if you were alone and without resources but you had something else valuable like some kind of skill or knowledge you could easily be “recruited” for some faction or group, not by your will of course.
What were some ways to prevent yourself from becoming a victim of violence? How do you recommend that people prepare themselves for the possibility of violence? It can be done in steps, or in layers:
• Do not be interesting (or attract attention) when the SHTF. This means a lot of things, for this article I can give a few examples with shortened explanations because it is a huge topic:
• Do not look like a prepper (before or after SHTF). There is no sense in announcing that you are prepping for EMP, civil collapse, apocalypse, or whatever. With that you are risking the probability that when the SHTF, people will remember that you have interesting things in your home. Your home should look ordinary. For example, if you are living in the city on a street where all houses look similar, there is not much sense in making your home look like a fortress. You’ll just attract attention.
Your defense should be based on more subtle means. Some examples are having means to reinforce doors and windows quickly when you need it, or to reinforce them from inside. Make changes in your yard to funnel possible attackers where you want them to be (trees, fence, bush…). You can make your home look abandoned or already looted.
• Think about what survival is! Survival is about staying alive, it is not about being comfortable at the expense of losing your life. I have seen many times people lose their lives simply because they were too attached to their belongings (house, car, land, goods…) so they simply did not want to leave something and run in a particular moment.
• Everything can be earned and bought again except life. Forget about statements like “I will defend it with my life” or “over my dead body” or similar because the real SHTF is usually not heroic or noble. It is hard and brutal. When you are gone you are gone and there might be nobody to take care of your family just because you have been stubborn or trusted in movies when it came to violence. To rephrase it: Be ready to leave your home in a split second if that means you and your family will survive, no matter how many good things you have stored there.
• Be mentally ready for violence: In a way, it is impossible to be ready for violence, especially widespread violence when the SHTF, but you can minimize shock when that happens with some things. If you are not familiar with what violence is, you can try to get yourself close” to it today (in normal times). It can be done, for example, by doing some voluntary work for example in a local hospital, ER or similar… or simply by working with homeless people. Sounds maybe strange but activities like this can get you a bit of a feeling of what it is all about, not to mention that you can learn some practical and useful skills for SHTF.
• Have means and skills (physically) to defend – or to do violence: No matter how old or young you are, your gender or religion I assure you that you are capable of doing violence. It is only a matter of the situation and how far you are going to be pushed. It is not just “some people are capable of violence.” Everybody is capable. Not everybody enjoys doing it or is willing to do it so easily.
In today (normal times) you can learn some violence skills and you should do it, again no matter if you are a woman or old or young. You should own a weapon and know how to use it. You should practice with it, or have at least some basic knowledge about hand-to-hand combat. The worst case scenario is to have a weapon that you try for the first time when SHTF.
Be familiar with your means for defense, let your family members know what they need to do in case of attack of your home, have plan, and go through it. Only through practice will you minimize chances for mistakes.
• Use common sense: I know lot of survivalists almost dream about how they are going to use weapons against bad guys when SHTF, and that they will be something like super heroes from movies, saving innocents and killing villains. Truth is that in a real collapse, a lot of things are kind of blurred and you are not sure who the bad guys are. Good guys turn out to be lunatic gang members who want to bring food to their kids. There are no super heroes when SHTF, and if some of them show up they end up dead quickly.
There is only you and your skills and mindset and what you prepared. Use violence as a last resort because of the simple fact that by using violence you are risking of getting killed or hurt. Remember when SHTF there is maybe no doctor or hospital to take care of your wound. It is a time when even a small cut can eventually kill you through infection and lack of proper care.
I’m a single mom with a household full of girls. In an SHTF situation, what would our best strategies be to remain safe? Just like I have mentioned before, strategy is always same for any part of survival, and shooting from the rifle is pretty similar no matter are you man or woman. Being single mom with household full of girls on first look make you as a ideal target in some situations, but we are talking here in prepper terms so there is no reason not to be perfectly well prepared as a single mom with girls.
But yes I admit it is not perfect situation, even if you are prepared well, some things are sure, you need to connect with other people even more. House with couple of girls will always look like easy prey for some people. It is like that.
Were people in the city safer than people in the country? Can you tell us more about rural living during this time? In my case definitely no. In the essence it always come to the resources and people. City meant more people less resources, country (rural) meant less people more resources, and because that level of violence simply was lower. That was most important reason.
There are few more reasons why it was much better in the country. People in the country (rural settings) were much more “connected to ground” they were more tough if you like, they grew their own food, had cattle, lived more simple life prior SHTF and when everything collapsed they had less problems getting use to it. Yes they also did not have electricity and phones, running water or connection to other places but they adapted easier to the new life because they had more useful skills then people in the city. Life was harder for them too than prior to the collapse, but they had means to get resources: land, woods, river…
Another thing is that people in small rural communities “in the country” were more connected to each other, people knew their neighborhood and some things were easier to organize, like community security watch, help in case of diseases and similar.
What types of weapons did people have for self-defense? It was different political system prior the collapse where it was not so usual to own a weapon legally. And to own one illegally could mean a lot of troubles. Right prior to SHTF, it became possible to buy different weapons on the black market but still, a majority of people did not own weapons. When it all collapsed, it was possible to get a weapon through trade.
Because of the military doctrine here prior to the collapse, we used “East Bloc” weapons. A favorite was AK-47 in all different kind of editions, or older weapons like M-48 rifle, SKS rifle, 22 and similar. People used what they had, so in one period you would be lucky if you had any kind of pistol and knife. Later through the different channels weapon become more available so people had them more. A lot of that was actually junk that some warlords somehow “imported”. Weapons 50-60 years old without proper ammunition, or not in operating condition. A lot of people simply did not have a clue how to use any kind of weapon so a lot of accidental deaths happened.
I remember people storming abandoned army barracks that was mostly looted, but they found in one building a lot of RPGs while other part of the same building was burning. Two guys were trying to figure out a single-use RPG, and while they were messing with it clearly not knowing how that thing worked, they accidentally armed it and launched a rocket that flew through the crowd, not hurting anyone and exploding in wall 100 meters from where they stood. They were smiling, clearly happy because they thought they figured out how that thing worked.
What weapons do you suggest to have for SHTF? It is a never-ending discussion and a favorite prepper topic, and I must say that whole discussion is overrated. I have used them in a real situation, and tried and tested lot of different kind of weapons and what works for me may simply not work for you. For example, here for me good choice is AK-47 rifle, maybe for you wherever you are it is very bad choice.
Good advice is: you need to have a weapon that most people have around you because of multiple reasons: spare parts, repairing, ammunition availability, possibility that you can pick that rifle from other people and you know how to use it. What caliber and similar is a matter of discussion again. I am talking from the point of owning a rifle. Another thing is that you need to know how that weapon works. Luckily, most of my readers live in an area where gun laws are great comparing to region where I am. You have much more choices when it comes to owning a weapon and practicing with it. Use that.
And do not forget that using a weapon in a real life situation is not like shooting at beer bottles with your friends after a barbecue. In real life you might be in a situation to use a weapon while you are tired, dirty, and hungry and while someone is screaming next to you. It is going to be maybe when you are not ready to do that, maybe in pitch dark, maybe after you have been awake for 48 hours. At least think about that.
When should you use violence? Contrary to some popular beliefs in the prepper community, the point is to use violence only as a last solution. The reason is as I mentioned already, the risk that you can be hurt or killed too, but also once you do violence you change your own rules, or push it more forward, and it is easy to get lost in violence. There are consequences to that, and you are not going to be the same person ever again.
Violence is a tool, not a toy. You need to know how to use it as best as possible, but also to avoid using it when it is not necessary. It is a good idea to set up a clear set of rules (mentally too) when you are gonna use violence and to try to stick to it. For example you will use weapon if someone tries to break your home and attack you, and you need to be ready to do that without hesitation.
What else should we know about post-collapse violence? Think with your head and research. One thing that is absolutely important when it comes to understanding how violent it is going to be and what can you expect in your own case of SHTF, is to understand how much media can influence people in making their decisions about violence.
In my case, the media built up situation where people feared so much from other people that they actually hated them. They hated them so much that they actually strip them down from humanity. In a real-life example, it works in a way that people killed other people, including kids and women, because they hated them so much because media told them.
It may look ridiculous and not possible to you, and you might again think “that can not happen here” but please trust your own resources, look for independent information, not mainstream media, in order to get the right information about what is really happening in the beginning of collapse. Do not be pulled into “popular opinion” just because the “man from TV” (whoever he might be) told you so. It is easier today. Because of the internet, you have much more choices for correct information than in my time. But still be careful, you might find yourself rioting together with 500 people just because you trusted some media."
• Do not be interesting (or attract attention) when the SHTF. This means a lot of things, for this article I can give a few examples with shortened explanations because it is a huge topic:
• Do not look like a prepper (before or after SHTF). There is no sense in announcing that you are prepping for EMP, civil collapse, apocalypse, or whatever. With that you are risking the probability that when the SHTF, people will remember that you have interesting things in your home. Your home should look ordinary. For example, if you are living in the city on a street where all houses look similar, there is not much sense in making your home look like a fortress. You’ll just attract attention.
Your defense should be based on more subtle means. Some examples are having means to reinforce doors and windows quickly when you need it, or to reinforce them from inside. Make changes in your yard to funnel possible attackers where you want them to be (trees, fence, bush…). You can make your home look abandoned or already looted.
• Think about what survival is! Survival is about staying alive, it is not about being comfortable at the expense of losing your life. I have seen many times people lose their lives simply because they were too attached to their belongings (house, car, land, goods…) so they simply did not want to leave something and run in a particular moment.
• Everything can be earned and bought again except life. Forget about statements like “I will defend it with my life” or “over my dead body” or similar because the real SHTF is usually not heroic or noble. It is hard and brutal. When you are gone you are gone and there might be nobody to take care of your family just because you have been stubborn or trusted in movies when it came to violence. To rephrase it: Be ready to leave your home in a split second if that means you and your family will survive, no matter how many good things you have stored there.
• Be mentally ready for violence: In a way, it is impossible to be ready for violence, especially widespread violence when the SHTF, but you can minimize shock when that happens with some things. If you are not familiar with what violence is, you can try to get yourself close” to it today (in normal times). It can be done, for example, by doing some voluntary work for example in a local hospital, ER or similar… or simply by working with homeless people. Sounds maybe strange but activities like this can get you a bit of a feeling of what it is all about, not to mention that you can learn some practical and useful skills for SHTF.
• Have means and skills (physically) to defend – or to do violence: No matter how old or young you are, your gender or religion I assure you that you are capable of doing violence. It is only a matter of the situation and how far you are going to be pushed. It is not just “some people are capable of violence.” Everybody is capable. Not everybody enjoys doing it or is willing to do it so easily.
In today (normal times) you can learn some violence skills and you should do it, again no matter if you are a woman or old or young. You should own a weapon and know how to use it. You should practice with it, or have at least some basic knowledge about hand-to-hand combat. The worst case scenario is to have a weapon that you try for the first time when SHTF.
Be familiar with your means for defense, let your family members know what they need to do in case of attack of your home, have plan, and go through it. Only through practice will you minimize chances for mistakes.
• Use common sense: I know lot of survivalists almost dream about how they are going to use weapons against bad guys when SHTF, and that they will be something like super heroes from movies, saving innocents and killing villains. Truth is that in a real collapse, a lot of things are kind of blurred and you are not sure who the bad guys are. Good guys turn out to be lunatic gang members who want to bring food to their kids. There are no super heroes when SHTF, and if some of them show up they end up dead quickly.
There is only you and your skills and mindset and what you prepared. Use violence as a last resort because of the simple fact that by using violence you are risking of getting killed or hurt. Remember when SHTF there is maybe no doctor or hospital to take care of your wound. It is a time when even a small cut can eventually kill you through infection and lack of proper care.
I’m a single mom with a household full of girls. In an SHTF situation, what would our best strategies be to remain safe? Just like I have mentioned before, strategy is always same for any part of survival, and shooting from the rifle is pretty similar no matter are you man or woman. Being single mom with household full of girls on first look make you as a ideal target in some situations, but we are talking here in prepper terms so there is no reason not to be perfectly well prepared as a single mom with girls.
But yes I admit it is not perfect situation, even if you are prepared well, some things are sure, you need to connect with other people even more. House with couple of girls will always look like easy prey for some people. It is like that.
Were people in the city safer than people in the country? Can you tell us more about rural living during this time? In my case definitely no. In the essence it always come to the resources and people. City meant more people less resources, country (rural) meant less people more resources, and because that level of violence simply was lower. That was most important reason.
There are few more reasons why it was much better in the country. People in the country (rural settings) were much more “connected to ground” they were more tough if you like, they grew their own food, had cattle, lived more simple life prior SHTF and when everything collapsed they had less problems getting use to it. Yes they also did not have electricity and phones, running water or connection to other places but they adapted easier to the new life because they had more useful skills then people in the city. Life was harder for them too than prior to the collapse, but they had means to get resources: land, woods, river…
Another thing is that people in small rural communities “in the country” were more connected to each other, people knew their neighborhood and some things were easier to organize, like community security watch, help in case of diseases and similar.
What types of weapons did people have for self-defense? It was different political system prior the collapse where it was not so usual to own a weapon legally. And to own one illegally could mean a lot of troubles. Right prior to SHTF, it became possible to buy different weapons on the black market but still, a majority of people did not own weapons. When it all collapsed, it was possible to get a weapon through trade.
Because of the military doctrine here prior to the collapse, we used “East Bloc” weapons. A favorite was AK-47 in all different kind of editions, or older weapons like M-48 rifle, SKS rifle, 22 and similar. People used what they had, so in one period you would be lucky if you had any kind of pistol and knife. Later through the different channels weapon become more available so people had them more. A lot of that was actually junk that some warlords somehow “imported”. Weapons 50-60 years old without proper ammunition, or not in operating condition. A lot of people simply did not have a clue how to use any kind of weapon so a lot of accidental deaths happened.
I remember people storming abandoned army barracks that was mostly looted, but they found in one building a lot of RPGs while other part of the same building was burning. Two guys were trying to figure out a single-use RPG, and while they were messing with it clearly not knowing how that thing worked, they accidentally armed it and launched a rocket that flew through the crowd, not hurting anyone and exploding in wall 100 meters from where they stood. They were smiling, clearly happy because they thought they figured out how that thing worked.
What weapons do you suggest to have for SHTF? It is a never-ending discussion and a favorite prepper topic, and I must say that whole discussion is overrated. I have used them in a real situation, and tried and tested lot of different kind of weapons and what works for me may simply not work for you. For example, here for me good choice is AK-47 rifle, maybe for you wherever you are it is very bad choice.
Good advice is: you need to have a weapon that most people have around you because of multiple reasons: spare parts, repairing, ammunition availability, possibility that you can pick that rifle from other people and you know how to use it. What caliber and similar is a matter of discussion again. I am talking from the point of owning a rifle. Another thing is that you need to know how that weapon works. Luckily, most of my readers live in an area where gun laws are great comparing to region where I am. You have much more choices when it comes to owning a weapon and practicing with it. Use that.
And do not forget that using a weapon in a real life situation is not like shooting at beer bottles with your friends after a barbecue. In real life you might be in a situation to use a weapon while you are tired, dirty, and hungry and while someone is screaming next to you. It is going to be maybe when you are not ready to do that, maybe in pitch dark, maybe after you have been awake for 48 hours. At least think about that.
When should you use violence? Contrary to some popular beliefs in the prepper community, the point is to use violence only as a last solution. The reason is as I mentioned already, the risk that you can be hurt or killed too, but also once you do violence you change your own rules, or push it more forward, and it is easy to get lost in violence. There are consequences to that, and you are not going to be the same person ever again.
Violence is a tool, not a toy. You need to know how to use it as best as possible, but also to avoid using it when it is not necessary. It is a good idea to set up a clear set of rules (mentally too) when you are gonna use violence and to try to stick to it. For example you will use weapon if someone tries to break your home and attack you, and you need to be ready to do that without hesitation.
What else should we know about post-collapse violence? Think with your head and research. One thing that is absolutely important when it comes to understanding how violent it is going to be and what can you expect in your own case of SHTF, is to understand how much media can influence people in making their decisions about violence.
In my case, the media built up situation where people feared so much from other people that they actually hated them. They hated them so much that they actually strip them down from humanity. In a real-life example, it works in a way that people killed other people, including kids and women, because they hated them so much because media told them.
It may look ridiculous and not possible to you, and you might again think “that can not happen here” but please trust your own resources, look for independent information, not mainstream media, in order to get the right information about what is really happening in the beginning of collapse. Do not be pulled into “popular opinion” just because the “man from TV” (whoever he might be) told you so. It is easier today. Because of the internet, you have much more choices for correct information than in my time. But still be careful, you might find yourself rioting together with 500 people just because you trusted some media."
More from Selco:
•Selco: The Reality of Barter and Trade in an SHTF Economy
•Selco: Who Survives and Who Dies When the SHTF?
•Selco: How to Stay Warm During a Long-Term SHTF Situation
•Stories from an SHTF Christmas: An Interview with Selco
•Selco: What an “Average Day” Is REALLY Like When the SHTF
•Selco: The Reality of Barter and Trade in an SHTF Economy
•Selco: Who Survives and Who Dies When the SHTF?
•Selco: How to Stay Warm During a Long-Term SHTF Situation
•Stories from an SHTF Christmas: An Interview with Selco
•Selco: What an “Average Day” Is REALLY Like When the SHTF
More information about Selco: Selco survived the Balkan war of the 90s in a city under siege, without electricity, running water, or food distribution. In his online works, he gives an inside view of the reality of survival under the harshest conditions. He reviews what works and what doesn’t, tells you the hard lessons he learned, and shares how he prepares today. He never stopped learning about survival and preparedness since the war. Regardless what happens, chances are you will never experience extreme situations like Selco did. But you have the chance to learn from him and how he faced death for months. Real survival is not romantic or idealistic. It is brutal, hard and unfair. Let Selco take you into that world.
Read more of Selco’s articles here: https://shtfschool.com/blog/
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Related:
Laurence Gonzales, "The 12 Rules of Survival"
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