The Only Thing We Have to Fear is......

It seems the financial experts and survivalist types are back in the news these days. Actually they have been for a couple of weeks or more but I been far too busy to give them the time they deserve. Many an expert is predicting bad things on the horizon and many an ultimate doomer find themselves getting excited about Mad-Max scenarios and hordes of looting zombies once again as they run out to buy more ammo and canned hams to stick in the basement.

Not that there is anything wrong with more ammo or canned hams. You can never have too many of either.

I once thought like these types. I saw a collapse of any type as an end that would sink us all into a lawless world of banditry and chaos. Every one for themselves. Death everywhere. Destruction of all we know and love.

Then one day as I was researching three field rotation techniques as practiced by a small hamlet in the Southeast of present day France something clicked. The records were taken by a village priest, ok a series of village priests over the course of decades during the period of the Merovingian dynasty if I remember right. Dated somewhere around the sixth century. Only a little over 100 years after the traditional invasion periods and ultimate fall of Rome proper more or less depending on how you rate such things. The research was preserved later on when Charlemagne began establishing the educational abbeys across his realm.

What clicked then and remains with me to this day is that as war ravaged the land, new ruling groups took over, famine, taxes, pretty much anything bad you can think of happened. There were always areas that pretty much continued on as they always had.

Life goes on. It must.

Yet there is a deeper message here I think. One that we should never forget. In the midst of chaos and lawlessness human society always comes out on top. It always does otherwise we wouldn't be here now reading the words of others written 100's or 1000's of miles away over a computer screen now would we?

Even in collapse most people look for organized, peaceful, lawful, human societies to dwell within or near. Human default is not a Mad-Max free for all but organized groups for mutual protection and prosperity. Trade. Security.

No matter which collapse you wish to study you can always find areas that remained basically untouched or managed to shield itself from the violence and chaos that surrounded it. In many cases these areas then rose up themselves and brought civilization back to those lands that had been devastated.

My theory is that the basic human genetic milkshake makes this type of life easier in the end than one of conquest and pillaging. The very logistics involved in running a looting horde for any period of time is infinitely more complex than establishing a sustainable community and the moral implications on those who would participate in constant violence is also a consideration. One that is not an issue in a peaceful community set up for it's own defense.

The variables are almost endless but there is one at the top that I think trumps all the others. Even an army of looters needs a leader and any leader intelligent enough to hold such a group together is also intelligent enough to realize there is a much more efficient way of doing things no matter how blood thirsty or tyrannical they may be. In the end it is a big catch 22 that actually benefits the community minded preppers or sustainers.

I am not saying there won't be riots, death etc. especially in the urban areas. I am saying it will not be everywhere and a little common sense planning can generally find a location that will more than likely remain untouched.

Or you can panic and buy some remote parcel of land that cannot be farmed or used to sustain yourself and stock up on canned hams in your basement.

Better have a lot of storage space I guess since you ain't refilling what you use.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!!