I meant to post this last night but then forgot about it and the scheduler didn't work which I find happens regularly with me.
So you get it on Monday. Enjoy!!!
I happen to enjoy reading blogs of all types, creeds, political affiliations, points of view or what have you. I often find myself reading posts and browsing blogs that I would never in a million years deem worthy enough to put a link to on here. Not because I think they are poor writers or something so petty but because their thought process is obviously flawed so badly or so biased towards their own agenda it would be a disservice to prepper or sustainable readers to do so.
Feminist sites, heavy paganism or long drawn out rants about how we should be helping the poor with more social programs are sure black marks but there are plenty of gray areas as well.
The truth is there are very few blogs out there that keep a 100% compatible point of view with my own ideology anyway. I usually find I need to settle for common parts or bits of the whole that fit in nicely and then shoot for a holistic approach overall.
Every once in a while however I come across a blog that offers some great information or ideology for us Sustainers but also sadly likes to diverge into social engineering propaganda, utopian Multi-Cult dreams or vast global warming rants. There's a couple of blogs that fall under those categories linked on the left side here. I have to weigh them and decide if they still offer enough good info to offset the bad.
A few un-named examples would be one's who pander to Women... LOL if I de-linked every site that pandered to Women I would have zero III% sites linked, well ok there are a few who don't. Those who falsely preach regionalism which sounds speciously like the White Nationalist separate country crap and is just as ridiculous if you ask me....
But the one's that really make me shake my head are the Utopian dreamer sites. There are a few of them out there that for all their flaws have some real common sense when they look at the future. They understand what is happening to our resources, see the reduction in energy and realize there is no replacement. They get the fact that we are in debt so far we will never come back and see that sooner rather than later we will be moving back to a more local and agrarian society. Then they turn around and complain corporations get all our money and we don't do enough for the poor or we are all racist bastards full of White privilege and we should bring more third world immigrants in.
That last one really drives me crazy. How is that an open borders, we are all equal, Multi-Cultist loon who believes in global warming can also think it's a good idea to bring third world immigrants here? I mean really wouldn't said immigrants' carbon footprint be like 1000 times greater here than in some Guatemalan valley? Think about it, they are promoting their own acknowledged worst enemy and they can't even see the hypocrisy in it.
One site in particular which again I will leave un-named is like that. The author is very knowledgeable about growing things, how the world will work without cheap fossil fuels, is an expert in old technology and yet can't admit that basic human traits like tribalism, greed, panic or cruelty will rear their ugly heads. Ever. In fact he seems to think those traits were never an issue in the past either somehow even though White Men are all racists.
I just have to shake my head and then imagine them reading "A World Made by Hand" again.
I have come to a conclusion. Economist, sociologist, social engineers and Liberals may in fact have some important inputs into seeing this decline but only those writers who have a strong background in true History are capable of taking in all the variables and seeing the probable outcome. I am not talking about the various specialist historians either. NO only the non-biased without an agenda or the ones who are willing to admit these non-politically correct variables exist, stand a chance of accurately predicting our decline with any certainty.
In the end I can only say that the world is changing. We are in decline and no one reading here disagrees with that I imagine but keep in mind that being able to see reality is just as much an important survival trait as growing a Tomato.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
Great last line PP, excuse my ignorance but what is "A World Made by Hand" about?
ReplyDeleteJohn
"A World Made by Hand" is a novel by Howard Kunstler (I think I got his name right) that is actually a pretty good post collapse story. Kunstler himself is a kinda a big socialist Liberal guy but he managed to keep most of that out of his books but his little community lives almost in a vacuum too with little preying on others and absolutely no racial issues. His second book "The Witch of Hebredon" also had some same sex contact and Male prostitutes in it. What it boils down to is these authors can have amazing talents with seeing the way the wind is blowing but choose to ignore other variables that don't fit their specific social agenda.
DeleteJust an FYI. Where Kunstler lives has had almost zero black population. The factories that were in the area opened up at the wrong time to draw on the great migrations from the South.
DeleteAlbany, the State capital has a black population somewhere around 30%.
But, and a big but, Saratoga County, just north of Albany County, and I think where the book is set, has a 1.7% Black/3.3% Hispanic population, Washington County, where I believe he lives, is just east of Saratoga county and has a 3.3% Black/2.4% Hispanic population.
So to some degree, it is easy if you live in that section of New York to sound very benighted on certain issues. You have no Blacks, and since you also have no jobs, no Hispanic influx, therefore you can say what ever you want about racial/immigrations without having to actually find any workable solutions.
Russ - My own county is less than 3% Black but that doesn't mean I am ignorant of the where the problems that will be created elsewhere. Seriously though I was not necessarily speaking of just racial issues anyway. Religious, other forms of cultural etc. or routinely ignored by the greeny enviro-freaks even the ones who seem to have some insight into how things will begin to fall apart. It's like all other issues of the world past and present will magically disappear. Which was my real point.
DeleteI was beating up on him, Pioneer, not you. LOL
DeleteYour have relatively close by, by my understanding, one of the most problematic urban areas in the country, and that was true long before the Ferguson fiasco. Memphis, TN is another one of those areas you hear all sorts of relatively quiet, but scary, news from.
Russ - Sorry guess I should have put more smiley faces out :) Sometimes people think I am being snippy when that is far from my intentions.
DeletePersonally I don't worry much about St. Louis, KC or Memphis. those areas will pretty much cancel themselves out if things go bad real fast. There is simply too much suburbia surrounding the urban jungles and too much easy pickings close in. The skirmishing will be so severe I doubt any of it will make it more than 50 miles out.
Just my opinion but I know others share that view.
I guess I don't have to worry much, I'm not popular with folks. You have read many of my posts from my blogs. I am but a humble man who never seeks much.
ReplyDeleteRob - It isn't so much a being popular thing as a truth thing. When bloggers or authors start preaching the MUlti-Cult or liberal tune to the effect it can get people killed if they believe in it.
DeleteIts the Witch of Hebron. Both books and the third display the writers bias. However they do pretty much depict where we are heading. In the first book WMBH, yes I can't be arsed typing it each time,the christian sect that take up residence in the town do explain why they went to Union Grove, the town in the book, was because it was quiet, white and without race trouble that they had experienced elsewhere. There were no race troubles because of the racial make up of the town not because of tambourines, gospel and harmony!
ReplyDeleteThe second and third books point out how such a society has little tolerance for self indulgence, or the gay lifestyle. It performs no function and therefore has no use. The town with the prostitutes, male and female, is depicted as a failing dying place, morally and financially bankrupt!
JHK does have a thing about white southerners though, mostly depicting them as "corn pone nazis" who are dull and only interested in Nascar. Mind you he's not complimentary about blacks at all either.
As books go they are quite slow but are interesting.
Incidentally he ia practicing what he preaches as he is creating a garden and chickens etc though its rather small to provide any significant output. The garden can be seen on his blog Clusterfuck nation.
The town the books are based on is his own town.
regards
Ro
Ro - Interesting I haven't read the third book because the second one turned my stomach a bit. If he is calling the cult with the fat mother a Christian sect then he has some issues himself but Kunstler isn't really who Iw as writing about here although he is a somewhat good example in some ways. Not so much in others. I guess basically he is trying to go the other extreme and say the pagan non-Christian (his view anyway) of life is better in the end?
DeleteIt think basically it is a christian cult. A bit like the branch davidians of Waco type of thing. I think his basic premise is that times will revert more to the 1800s in social strata. Landowners and businesses at the top etc.with community participation on large civil projects.
DeleteAs a place to ride out the collapse Union Grove would be a handy bolthole were it real. However given the multitude of weapons in circulation in the US it is highly unlikely such a refuge will ever exist in peace!
regards
Ro
Ro - Well Kunster flat out ignored tribal or racial problems in the first book and really in the second too. My biggest issue with the first two were his obvious dislike for White Males and how he had to make them out to be the perverts and predators constantly while ignoring where the real issues would come from.
DeleteI don't consider the Waco group anymore a true Christian sect than I would the one in the books either. They aren't because they break many fundamental ideologies even if they hide them well.
Peaceful communities will in fact come about and much faster than most think if there is a complete shut off of cheap energy. To be honest bandits and looters require peaceful towns and villages in order to survive themselves so at some point we always reach and equilibrium there. Also the weapons aren't the issue it's the amount of ammo available that would make a difference and you can only get that from civilization.
I must admit I thought he was quite blunt over the potential for race trouble and the positive note that they didn't have any because the town was practically white only. As for perverts and predators I cannot particularly recall any in the first book though in the second there was two but againnthe county was pretty much white only.
DeleteAs for real issues, well it is just a book and an average one at that.
Secondly I did say it was a cult in my reply.
Peaceful communities will take far longer than you think. Ammo is easy to manufacture and there is a phenomenal amount of it as well as reloading setups. Heck I live across the pond and even we reload.
A fairly inventive people like you lot would be churning out propellant, primers and bullets quite easily. Don't get me wrong if you've got an AR you'll probably be stuck but lever action, revolvers and early semi auto designs are easy to make ammo for. In Brazil little factories churn out Mac10s and similar and make the ammo too. The same went on in Chechenya, Afghanistan in the 80s and in Belize, where ownership is always kinda sorta legal. The Kurds have their own reloading factories too.
It is always the assumption that it will be bandit gangs but it is more likely to be town against town if law and order goes. Each will be jockeying for resources and skills.
Ro - Making most things is easy as long as you have the infrastructure and civilization to do it with. Even 1700's era technology requires commerce and relatively civilized locations to produce what is needed for raiding, looting etc.
DeleteSimply put you cannot have any eras technology without having that eras civilization. Each requires the other. My neck of the woods could more than likely continue to produce ammo but most even in N. America would need to import some ingredient a long ways or go back to flintlocks.
In the first book Kunstler made it more of a point to just have the White guys be the violent criminal type, the second book was where almost every White Male had to have a sexual problem but there was an instance of at least two such issues in the first book.
What really matters is just how far things decline and the population density in any given area. There really are very few regions on earth that can keep surviving on their own without inputs from some other region and in order to get those inputs then some civilization must remain.
In the first book there were only white guys, are you saying that he òshould introduce a bunch of blacks to be the crims? The whole premise of the book was the premise was the town was a peaceful place to live because there was no racial problems. It really wouldn't make sense then.
DeleteI can from the book remember one guy who was impotent and the women were having trouble conceiving but they accounted for that due to the number of new flus, disease and infections. Not to mention the cult who passedthrough a radioactive DC.
It seemed to me as though he was portraying people going through hard times, much harder than known for a century or so with human faults and frailties.
If you want the all american superman type booka you'd be better off sticking with Rawles stuff!
Civilisation is not the enabler of technology, knowledge is. Blackpowder production can be done almost anywhere and that would rapidly become the propellent of choice. The necessary chemicals for primers can be extracted fron car batteries amongst other sources.
The old spice trade carried on between civilisations at far different levels of development. Trade is trade, Britain was trading with Greece long before Rome was a power.
Population density, again mentioned in the WMBH books was the reason why so many places were hard hit and in even a minor long term breakdown it can have shocking effects.
Russia now suffers from an ageing population as the birthrate in the 90s took such a hit after the fall of theUSSR. If you look at the demograhics there it shows one of the reasons why the russian economy will strugglefor a decade.
Ro - I remember the head cult preacher guy saying they moved to the town because of problems elsewhere but I do not recall anyone specifically saying anything about race or the lack of it being the reason.
DeleteAs far as the Rawles comment he is a much worse "force Die-Versity down your throat" writer than even Kunstler in my opinion :)
As far as the technology thing goes you are actually arguing against yourself. Name any time in any of the regions you mentioned that there were no peaceful communities there to allow the trade you mentioned. Infrastructure and an economy are required for real production. What you are talking about is a combination of looting and scavenging the remaining resources left after a collapse and that is not the same thing at all really. Just a short blip on the radar of the whole.
As far as primers go there is a multitude of different chemicals used to make them. Lead Styphnate, barium nitrate and antimony suphide, although the antimony sulphide is occasionally replaced by calcium silicide or aluminium and lead styphnate may be replaced or augmented by tetrazene or diazodinitrophenol depending on where it came from. You can still make a primer out of black powder as well that will work sometimes but without an infrastructure and modern day civilization the output would be so slow as to be a non-entity in the big picture. Eventually you would run into other issues with needing either nickle or brass/copper smelted, new anvils inside created not just reformed etc. etc. etc.
As for the aging population well Russia is in good company there but most countries with aging populations don't suffer from forced die-versity and demographic problems like the US does either. I think like we see with most disasters they will bounce back much faster.
Also I should add there would be other long term issues with reloading after a collapse if there was no infrastructure for deliveries and energy for production. Bullet types alone would render many calibers almost non-usable. After the powder ran out making more is achievable but also requires many ingredients not found in most locations. No means of plating or jacketing bullets, primer ingredients would significantly change the burns and charge loads. The list goes on actually. I have studied long term ammo production for years now and without an infrastructure all you are doing is using hoarded materials until they are gone and finally being left with flint and black powder.
DeleteHave just reread part of the first book. Race trouble and the lack of it as well as the reason why is mentioned by the preacher, by Joseph at length to Robert Earle the main charecter. He acknowledges the truth of it and mentions again to Loren the town preacher. Short of throwing in a couple of baby eating black rapists I'm not sure what you expected the author to do in a story about the good fortune of a town in avoiding most ofthe worlds problems.
DeleteHe depicts people with their weaknesses and most people have them. In the fall of a cossetted American society there are going to be plenty.
It seems to me that because you know his liberal background you are projecting that dislike into the book. JHK is undoubtedly a raving lib make no mistake but his book in terms of a reasonable look at how sections of society may turn is quite thought provoking if rather bland. Rawles OTH suffers from all American hero syndrome where no problems exist that the heroes cannot overcome with ease, none of the goodies freak out, have mental problems or medical problems.
In a big grid down event civilsation is essentially gone and for a long time. You willsee towns revert to essentially city states. This is my point about town against town. Within these towns there will be a huge knowledge base enabling the production of items. This is not enabled by civilisation but by knowledge. When Rome fell city states developed but regressed because they did not have Romes centralised knowledge. They had labour and materials yet did not make concrete because for the next thousand years no one knew how as just one example.
Electroplating of metals like lead dates back to Egyptian times to assume that simple metallurgical processes will be out of reach of people is pretty absurd given the history of mankind. City states will trade, even go to war with one another for resources and even skills. But produce they will, it will not relate though to anything you would term civilisation.
As for producing ammo homemade in large number the Chechens already do!
For one as I said Kunstler was not even the point of this post just a throw is an an example of work that pretty much only focused on 1 type of bad guy for whatever reason. Secondly I don't remember that part being very long at all and instead of then going on with reality he had to begin mixing in some sort of mental fantasy with it of course with a bent towards Male bad/Female good. Perhaps you don't see it as a Liberal bent but I certainly do.
DeleteThere are many things you can do as a cottage industry but if the resources are not available it isn't going to happen and without the infrastructure and civilization you are limited to using only what is at hand. Even setting up enough individuals punching out ammo is in itself a form of civilization to be honest especially if it is done on a large enough scale to make a difference.
Honestly have you really reloaded your own ammo? When you start getting into making cases and primers by hand all the knowledge int he world isn't going to help you unless you have a social base to divide the labor up in an assembly line basis. That is civilization and can only be accomplished with trading labor for pay etc.
I guess things will get shaken out over the next couple of years. Something that I hadn't seen in prior years is that even the few obummer supporters that I talk to feel something is coming and don't have the hope that once went with the change.
ReplyDeleteSf - I think many are starting to see the charade cannot continue much longer. How many are going to be willing to see the world through non-tinted glasses though remains to be seen...pun intended :)
DeletePreppy, I have spent a handful of time wandering sites, some that were moderately interesting or informative but ultimately had opinions or ideologies that lead to where we are.
ReplyDeleteThere is a line C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength in which two of the protagonist are speaking of the ill that befell the small college which is the location of the book. One of the characters pointed out that the professors who professed the ideas that actually ended up destroying them never really believed in them as more than intellectual constructs and could not see that they had consequences when followed in the real world. This is the same thing that hounds us today - as Ayn Rand said, you can choose your actions, but you cannot chose the consequences of your actions.
Actually, I find your lists on the side to be pretty reliable. Thanks for being a good editor.
TB - Thanks!!! I got called into work this morning right in the middle of replying to comments...
DeleteSounds like an interesting book to read going on the comments.
ReplyDeleteI try not to voice my political opinions on my blog in part to using my real name. Maybe that was a mistake but only time will tell.
Kev - I really hoped the book would have been more focused in detail of how the community had adapted so I was disappointed. As I said this point wasn't suppose to be about the book though :)
Delete