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Doomsday planning for less crazy folk
- f_allwein 9y agointeresting book that takes a similar angle: ‘The Knowledge: How to Rebuild our World from Scratch’ http://the-knowledge.org/en-gb/the-book/ http://the-knowledge.org/en-gb/the-book/
- TheAceOfHearts 9y agoCame in here to post the same thing! Read it a few years back and thought it was superb. Found out there were tons of gaps in my knowledge.
- pmx 9y agoIs there a plugin that makes websites like this easier to read on modern devices? The lines of text here are too long for my poor brain to parse but I don't want to have to resize my browser for each badly designed website.
- aMoniker 9y agoZoom in.
- nebalee 9y agoIn Firefox (Chrome probably too) you can enable Reader Mode by clicking on the icon that looks like an opened book on the right end of the location bar.
- kapep 9y agoFirefox has a "Reader View" mode build in. It makes ugly websites look good and easy to read. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-reader-view-clutter-free-web-pages https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-reader-view-clu...
- mrob 9y agoReader view defaults to low contrast text, but it's possible to set your own text colors with custom userContent.css: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15080363 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15080363
- carapace 9y agoTHANK YOU!!!! You have solved a problem for me today and I am very grateful. :-D Seriously: I am so happy. This is one of those little things that is going to keep me grinning all day. Thank you so much for figuring this out and posting it.
- kjsthree 9y agoThe Brave browser has a great reader mode.
- _pmf_ 9y agoI'm using it on Android, but cannot find that option.
- gedy 9y agoSafari has built in Reader View in on Mac or iOS
- greenhatman 9y agoI just installed this one on Chromium. Works well. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/easyreader/boamfheepdiallipiieadpmnklbhadhc https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/easyreader/boamfhe...
- azdle 9y agoI just use a simple bookmarklet that I label 'Make Narrow': javascript:(function(){var%20b=document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0];b.style.maxWidth='50em';b.style.marginLeft='auto';b.style.marginRight='auto';})() Just manually create a new bookmark and put that as the URL, then when you click it, it runs that snippet and make the body have a max-width of 50em.
- FooHentai 9y agoOoh handy, thanks. I'll put this alongside the incredibly useful 'Kill Sticky' bookmarklet that kills overlays.
- thomas_howland 9y agoA 10 AM Bay Area earthquake is the highest plausibility * severity event you're likely to experience around here on a day to day basis - leaving some people with a 25 mile commute back to a structure that might or might not be standing, intermittent at best communications, and potentially impassible roads. IMO if you don't have a case of water, a road map, and a change of walking-around clothes in your car around here, you're asking for smiting. Fortunately that's about $10 in total, and you can drink the water even if there's not an earthquake. Additionally, near everything that would be handy in case of an earthquake (gloves, pry bar, basic trauma supplies, etc) is useful in case of a car crash, which actually is far more likely.
- lettergram 9y agoIMO tsunami in the bay area would be equally plausible with a much higher potential severity. When a tsunami hits a bay, the waves will rise. Further, with Alameda and Oakland at just a few feet above sea level... well...
- Retric 9y agoSlip falts have much lower risks of tsunami. It most definitely could happen, but a large earthquake is far more likely.
- justinjlynn 9y ago> you can drink the water even if there's not an earthquake you should rotate stock like that anyway to prevent it from unknowingly going bad
- yazan94 9y agoSorry, but water goes bad? Or would it be that chemicals in the container dissolve into the water? Water itself going bad is news to me...
- logfromblammo 9y ago
- dankohn1 9y agoI love this sentence from the piece: "In the 90s, it seemed that you couldn't go wrong by getting into professional journalism, opening a video rental store or an arcade, or selling calculators, encyclopedias, disposable cameras, answering machines, and audio CDs."
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- saryant 9y agoI've been in a number of major natural disasters at this point. Fukushima, Ike, Colorado's 2013 floods. I've also been in two shooting incidents (where fortunately only the shooter was hurt). My point is, I've been lucky so far because none of these posed a major problem for me. I made it out with manageable inconvenience. However, I can only get lucky like that so many times. So now I keep the following at home: * 5 gallons drinking water * Canned food for a week * First aid kit * Matches, lighter, Sterno cans * Solar USB charger * Many flashlights with spare batteries, plus a battery-powered lantern * Hand-crank radio * Solid liquor collection ;) * Equipment to make a fresh cup of coffee with no electricity (Sterno, hand-crank coffee grinder, French press) * A big bucket for, well, sanitation I've also got my camping supplies, which includes a Coleman stove and a few small propane canisters. Having been in a few floods I will also never live in a ground-floor apartment. I also keep all this stuff boxed up in plastic crates, so if I needed to evacuate I could load up my car with all this gear in about 20 minutes and be on my way. My goal is to be able to survive a week trapped in my apartment with no utilities, or living out of my car for the same amount of time. I bike to work and in my pannier I keep a Leatherman multitool, pocket knife, latex gloves (mostly for fixing my bike chain, but also useful in other emergencies), 3M N99 mask, flashlight, poncho, a garbage bag and a small thing of duct tape. In most of the kinds of disasters that hit Colorado, I would be able to get home, either walking or by bike. I only live about three miles from work.
- vvanders 9y agoIt might be crossing into the prepper territory too much but I'm really happy to have a 2 meter radio in my car/handheld tranceiver in my bag. The cell network went down south of us during the eclipse but repeaters were still running just fine. Even if you don't have a license you're allowed to transmit in emergency situations.
- knz 9y agoIs there a 2m radio model that you would recommend?
- 9y ago
- dmix 9y ago> It's not that life-altering disasters are rare: every year we hear about millions of people displaced by wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes, or floods. Pretty much always in the sames typical places though... See: 'tornado alley', island nations with tsunami seasons, california wildfires, etc, etc (over a long enough timespan)... > Heck, not a decade goes by without at least one first-class democracy lapsing into armed conflict or fiscal disarray. Ditto See: countries with a perpetual history of dictators and authoritarianism (although westerners and capitalism/socialism typically receive the blame in popular depictions)
- f- 9y ago[Author here] > [...natural disasters...] Pretty much always in the sames typical places though... Most people live in "typical places" without realizing it, though. I mean, you know when you're in the tornado valley, but tornado / hurricane risk is relatively high for basically the entire eastern half of the US. And wildfire risk is very significant for the entire western half. Add to this earthquakes, etc, and it turns out that most people live in a place that is likely to experience a major regional disaster every couple decades or so. Still, the guide is not really about that; or rather, it covers natural disasters to some extent, but it puts a lot more emphasis on personal preparedness - being able to cope with another run-of-the-mill recession, a house fire, and other likely occurrences of this sort. More general preparedness is almost a side effect of that. > [...economic crises and armed conflicts...] Ditto. See: countries with a perpetual history of dictators and authoritarianism (although westerners and capitalism/socialism typically receive the blame in popular depictions) Well... Greece, Iceland, etc?
- pjc50 9y agoGreece certainly has a history of political instability ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_military_junta_of_1967%E2%80%9374 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_military_junta_of_1967%E... ) but Iceland was a straightforward economic crisis - Kaupthing discovered how profitable leverage was and just kept going because there was nobody to tell them to stop, until the whole thing blew up. I don't remember hearing this translate into political instability, I think Iceland is too small a country for that.
- weisser 9y agoThe context sections of this article are super helpful. I've recently become acquainted with this subject matter. Doing a quick audit of my lifestyle I realize how unprepared I actually am. I think this speaks to the safety I've felt growing up. I've been following this guide: https://theprepared.com/guides/emergency-preparedness-checklist-prepping-beginners/ https://theprepared.com/guides/emergency-preparedness-checkl... I really need to take the time to go through and thoroughly cross-reference these two resources.
- the_prepared 9y agoI'm an exited valley founder who just launched an emergency preparedness site for the rational crowd: https://theprepared.com https://theprepared.com Have been prepping in the SF / startup community for almost 10 years and teaching other techies how to prep for a long time, but historically was face to face because of stigma, etc. We started The Prepared because prepping is very rational and it's gone mainstream enough to have threads like this on HN. Beginners checklist here: https://theprepared.com/guides/emergency-preparedness-checklist-prepping-beginners/ https://theprepared.com/guides/emergency-preparedness-checkl... Post on reasons why liberals should be preppers: https://theprepared.com/blog/five-reasons-why-liberals-should-be-preppers/ https://theprepared.com/blog/five-reasons-why-liberals-shoul... Happy to help anyone in their journey. (long time personal HN members but this is a new account)
- maxerickson 9y agoYou should own your Amazon referrer link existence and not hide them behind your own tracker/reflector.
- the_prepared 9y agoWe're not hiding anything - it's plainly written around the site we make affiliate fees on some of our links, and it never affects what we write or recommend. We make nothing on most of the top links people click on. Our URL redirects are for our analytics.
- agentdrtran 9y agoThat site seems great but it's still a tough sell when the "welcome to rational prepping" guide includes AI and CRISPR as causes.
- jorazzle 9y agoWhy? Elon just said AI is a bigger threat than North Korea.
- 9y ago
- AndrewKemendo 9y agoThe major thing overlooked here is mindset. After 14 years in the military and experience with several armed conflicts and humanitarian disasters, I have seen that pretty much all your plans and preparation will go out the window, so you need to learn to move adapt and improvise. If you're going to survive any contingency scenario you need to be resilient, excruciatingly innovative and mentally tough. Think more like MacGyver and less like Dr Strangelove. Be minimal, learn how to forage and scavenge, learn how to blend in and get along and take nothing for granted. The most successful trait I've seen in survivors it's to know when to stay put and when to move. Whether it's hiding from a mob or a bear, or finding a different county or state to go to. Take risk when necessary but not unnecessarily. Again, having the right mindset, through intentional training is the key. There are all kinds of survival schools and the best ones will teach you this. I suggest adventure traveling as a start. That means you go someplace with no plans and the most minimal of supplies. Edit to add: The key problem with most prepper folks and this article is that they take an approach of "alone and unafraid." Things like stocking up for months and having all kinds of weapons. In practice this is just a great way to get your cache raided by a group of scavengers. In reality you need to find or create a small community of survival minded people that can work together successfully over a long period with a variety of skills. As humans we need groups for survival, so the best bet in a crisis is to build a resilient flexible community until things settle down.
- stutterSpeaker 9y agoSurely being economically prepared as well would be useful. Having the gear both for bug out scenarios and bug in scenarios. I know it's fun to rag on preppers, but in what way is keeping a year of food stocked and rotated through a bad idea? How is having solar panels a bad idea?
- AndrewKemendo 9y agoIt's not a bad idea per se, it's just probably overkill. I mean I keep a bug out bag and a tub of supplies, so I don't disagree wholly, but it gets out of hand quickly if you aren't thinking critically about it.
- rubatuga 9y agoBeen looking into getting a pocket knife/ multitool, any good options?
- the_prepared 9y agoAre you thinking more self defense or utility? Makes a big difference. For example, we love folding Karambits for self defense everyday carry.
- nebabyte 9y agoWhat've you got for everyday self defense
- the_prepared 9y agoIn terms of pocket knives, I personally use the Fox Emerson Wave folding karambit https://theprepared.com/pick/fox-479-emerson-wave-folding-karambit-pocket-knife/ https://theprepared.com/pick/fox-479-emerson-wave-folding-ka...
- GlenTheMachine 9y agoFor pocketknives, some standard quality makers are Spyderco, Benchmade, CRKT, Kershaw/Zero Tolerance, and Buck. Prices really run the gamit, a low end Buck or CRKT will be $20 but will have lower quality steel that will dull rapidly. A high end Zero Tolerance will be from a known knife designer, will run an exotic super hard steel and cost $300. If you want a decent knife that you can rely on in an emergency, expect to spend $50 to $100. Spyderco knives are very well regarded, although some people find them ugly (I do, but I carry one anyway). "Traditional" knife makers - for pocket knives like your grandpa used to carry - are Queen, Great Eastern Cutlery, some Buck knives, and A.G. Russell. Prices tend to be lower than for modern knives. For multitools, it's really hard to do better than Leatherman. A Wave or a Skeletool will be about as good a multitool as you can buy. For fixed-blade knives, which are better for hunting/fishing, camping, and general "survival" tasks, Bark River makes a very complete line and does a great job at it. They tend to run in the $150-$250 range. The Bravo 1 is considered to be their "do everything" knife. You can also buy fixed blades made by Browning, Helle (Norwegian outdoors knives), Buck, Benchmade, and Spyderco. If you want to investigate this topic a lot further, there are several good websites. I read EverydayCommentary by Tony Sculimbrene, who reviews knives, and KnivesShipFree, which sells them.
- bla2 9y agoPrevious discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10906232 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10906232
- computator 9y agoIt's great to see HTTPS being adopted everywhere: even a Polish guy's personal blog on a Christmas Island (.cx) domain is encrypted. That's what I thought until I realized that I was looking at the favicon. He's not using HTTPS. He's using a lock symbol as his favicon and that alone was enough to throw me off. The browser vendors keep gratuitously changing the shape, color, and position of the lock icon, so a lock symbol anywhere in the browser edges is enough to fool most of us.
- pjc50 9y agoTo me, the #1 marker of "crazy" in disaster preparation is a focus on violence against your fellow civilians, and I'm glad that this guide pushes that out into the far end of unlikely and extreme end of scenarios. For what this scenario actually looks like, a post on Metafilter about Sarajevo: http://www.metafilter.com/78669/What-if-things-just-keep-getting-worse#2430771 http://www.metafilter.com/78669/What-if-things-just-keep-get...
- Gustomaximus 9y agoFrom reading forums the other marker seems to be those 'who know' what they are prepping for e.g a solar flair or nuclear bomb is going to happen. This vs. the attitude disasters can happen and to have general coverage. And if you look at the history of the world it's reasonable to have some level of prep going. Disasters are low chance but consequences are severe. It's reasonable odds at one point in your life there will be a major disaster. Historically it's unlikely to get through 2 lifetimes without something significant happening. Most people have house/car insurance for these low risk events but feel prepping is unusual. I'd prefer to have some coverage from a low chance but high consequences disaster than have the cost of replacing a car covered.
- novaleaf 9y agoanyone have good book recommendations? specifically looking for wilderness survival, first aid, and edible plants (pacific northwest)
- the_prepared 9y agoI carry the SAS pocket guide: https://goo.gl/hnDJm7 https://goo.gl/hnDJm7
- novaleaf 9y agothanks, the 3rd edition is still cheap :)
- chrismealy 9y agoThere are ton of great foraging books for the PNW, a lot of them published recently and easy for beginners. All the local bookstores have them. I like the one by Douglass Duer. Langdon Cook's books are also great. Survivalism is totally dumb but free food is fun.
- Fiahil 9y agoPocketed that link under the "Apocalypse" tag. Thanks !
- notadoc 9y agoIs it just perception or is 'prepping' becoming mainstreamed?
- the_prepared 9y ago100% going more mainstream. I know it'll seem like I have an ulterior motive, but it's the opposite - we recently started our site after teaching people one-to-one for a decade because we've seen it go mainstream just in the last 1-2 years, and particularly since the election. Almost everyone starts off thinking it's a fringe thing until they find out their friends and neighbors are into it too.
- TheAdamAndChe 9y agoOf course it's becoming mainstream. Quality of life for most people has been declining in America for a while. Trust in our government is at an all-time low. Most people don't have _any_ friends, let alone a sense of community. Much of the country is _still_ recovering from the economic crisis, even though the stock market has fully recovered. An unexpected illness can bankrupt most families in the country. Social mobility is going down every year, and it's basically a requirement to be in the top 20% of performers to be able to live comfortably. Political partisanship is higher than ever. Old forms of media have been recently exposed as rigged and controlled by the rich, and the new forms of media online provide so much input, most people can't emotionally adjust. With an increasing anxiety on the state of the nation and a decrease in security for most people and their families, it's only natural that prepping would become mainstream.
- aryehof 9y agoIt seems to be in the USA. However, I attribute that to the fear based culture prevalent here, the "winner or your a loser" mentality, that government is untrustworthy viewpoint, and the high degree of tribalism and differentiation throughout society. Edit: language
- eregorn 9y agoThe honest answer is it's not. There was an uptick from the North Korea situation, but the comments here just remind me of that New Yorker article. As in, it is Valley-streamed right now.
- beebmam 9y agoHow about we plan on not having a doomsday in the first place? Why are nuclear weapons not banned? Chemical/biological weapons are. Let's end nuclear weapons too, and take this world back from the possibility of doomsday.
- randyrand 9y agoit worked for the dinosaurs! sadly, planning for unknown unknowns is kind of hard. doomsday is possible with or without nuclear weapons.
- unlmtd1 9y agoNuclear power is the root cause of nuclear weapons.
- damnfine 9y agoYou forgot your /s
- pdfernhout 9y agoUnrecognized irony is the root cause of nuclear weapons -- since what is the point of fighting over oil fields or farmland or other resources with nuclear weapons when you have advanced materials and advanced computing and advanced energy sources that could produce abundance for everyone?
- pbarnes_1 9y agoWhat's the point of living through the zombie apocalypse? I honestly don't understand any of this stuff vs the normal 3 days of water/food/etc thing. If shit's that bad, we might as well be dead. Why live for The Walking Dead?
- mmagin 9y agoLike most philosophical questions, there's no one easy answer. Furthermore, there are plenty of sub-zombie-apocalypse situations for which you might again get back to something resembling normal life. Consider for example any of the genocides of the past century.
- twobyfour 9y agoOr you could just be stuck in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina.
- unlmtd1 9y agoAn all out thermonuclear war would be the end of the human race. Thankfully, it won't happen simply because thermonuclear warfare is now obsolete. An all-out electromagnetic nuclear war is its successor, which would only spell the end of our civilization. But chances are we just devolve into civil wars breaking out and a few viruses. Our base case is a 25-33% fall in population in one generation. Bottled water won't help. Large rain water collection systems are a lot more likely to give a survival chance.
- cairo_x 9y agoGet obese and buy a bunch of electrolytes and water. You'll be good for a whole year without food, provided you keep those electrolytes in check, no problem. #FACT
- androck1 9y agoThis reads like a practical guide to being an adult. Incredibly valuable.
- geff82 9y agoI love this article, because in its essence, it does not prepare you for prepping as much as leading a solid life. It is also one of the first articles about prepping with a positive tone. I personally do some mild prepping (as my mother always did herself). But I don't like to be associated with the "typical" preppers and stay clear of them, because prepping is no lifestyle that leads anywhere. I think prepping should be a side topic - to keep your good life good in case an anomaly happens.
- legulere 9y ago> first-class democracy lapsing into armed conflict I can come up with none > Throughout much of the recorded history, the monetary systems of the western world employed so-called commodity money, generally settling on coins minted out of silver or gold. This is false. Silver and gold coinage was largely restricted to international trade, transactions were mostly done by keeping tabs. Gold and Silver coins developed most likely as you can easily produce them to share the spoils of war with soldiers. The important property of Gold and Silver is that you can easily steal it. See Debt the first 5000 years (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_First_5000_Years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_First_5000_Years) > Biking on public roads? Wear a helmet Head injuries are way more common in cars than on bicycles. Wearing a helmet while driving a car has a bigger benefit.
- aedron 9y agoWhat is the safer place in a 'doomsday' scenario - the city or the country-side?
- dsfyu404ed 9y agoIf you have to ask you will probably be better off in whichever environment where you know more people.
- eighthnate 9y agoThe countryside. It's where the food is. Imagine if all transportation/energy/etc were destroyed. Imagine NYC or LA completely dark and with no food coming in. Millions of people without food, without light, etc within city limits. It would get very dangerous, very quick. Nevermind the garbage piling up, nonexistent sanitation, etc.
- aedron 9y agoThe 'prepping' phenomenon is an expression of the extreme individualism (or less graciously, ego-centrism) of our time and society. Rather than assuming that society will come together in a crisis and help each other out, we need to become an army-of-one, stocked up for every scenario and armed to the teeth against dangerous others who are undoubtedly coming to take our shit. It's sad. I honestly think this another example of the huge class divide in America causing such a negative outlook on other people, similar to how slave owners lived in comfort, but also constant paranoia. Perhaps we should work on improving conditions for the bottom of society, so we can have an expectation of helping each other when the shit goes down.
- jemfinch 9y agoWhat you call "extreme individualism" or "ego-centrism", we used to call "self-reliance".
- kerbalspacepro 9y agoSelf-reliance is a myth made by conservatives to justify cutbacks to the poor. Nobody in history has been entirely "self-reliant". Even the pioneers of the Americas had an entire support network in the east and for those that lived around them. If they didn't, they died.
- QAkICoU7IDNkpFu 9y agoA conspiracy, if you will... :'D But seriously, you seem to imply it's bad that people plan ahead, for when shit hits the fan, and somehow those people are the bad guys? Maybe that's not what you intended, but it's what you seem to imply.
- jemfinch 9y ago"Self-reliance is a myth made by conservatives to justify cutbacks to the poor" is a myth made by liberals to justify government overreach. No one's arguing that anyone has been entirely self-reliant, let alone that preppers today are. That's just a straw man you're bringing into the conversation. The prepper mindset is simply to be as self-reliant as they can be, even if they can't be entirely self reliant.
- fallingfrog 9y agoI think placing thermonuclear war in the "Zombie Apocalypse" category is probably wrong; it should go into category #2. JFK estimated after the cuban missile crisis that the chances that could have developed into a full-blown nuclear exchange were about 1 in 3. Not terribly long odds. Given the current political situation the probability is much lower- but political situations change, and the weapons are still here. The real risk is impossible to know, but unlike zombies, nuclear weapons are real, and they have been used on civilians once already.
- saalweachter 9y agoIt's fair to note it as the most probable of the "Zombie Apocalypse" category, but "impossible" isn't the common theme of that category, it's "civilization ending". Under all of the scenarios in Problem Space #3, the world is irrevocably changed and there is not necessarily any reason to think it will go back to the way thing are now in the survivors' lifetimes. In the other two problem spaces, you are looking at perhaps-widespread but finite disruptions. Maybe an entire country or region of a large country is hosed for years or decades, but you can either expect things to go back to normal eventually, or you can migrate to somewhere where things are normal. With either a zombie apocalypse or a nuclear one, you don't have that expectation, and whatever you do to prepare for that situation will be largely the same.
- cerealbad 9y agoreminds me of the back-to-the-land movement and the foxfire books. their impetus in the 60s and 70s was a retreat from the complicated, (inter)dependent, technological ecosystem of a modern metropolis; towards a simpler redundancy structured around puritan hard work, self-sufficiency and independence of the farm and barter village. james burke had an excellent tv show in 1978 called "connections" covering science and technology (episode 1 linked). the follow up series in later decades were not as good: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnwpsp http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnwpsp it began by unwinding civilisation should a critical failure in a complex system lead to catastrophic and cascading collapse; then later trying to understand the connective steps taken from ancient pre-history to then present day. most well-educated people lack the physical endurance, manual dexterity, strength and mental fortitude to revert back to pre-20th century agrarian survival. as we belong to a society of atomized individual consumers who receive instant gratification from novelty products which require little skill, patience or forethought to use. we depend mostly on mental faculties and the mechanical advantage of machines, with atrophied social and physical abilities. how many jokes, poems, stories or songs do you know? how many hours can you do hard physical labour for? professional sports and fitness industries artificially fill this void. nobody can sell the things you actually need. the simplest short-term way to survive a disaster is to introduce yourself to your neighbours. depend on each other and share resources, car pool, grow food, recycle rainwater, repair broken things. you now have a backup network to the unavailable local, state, federal and international resources otherwise marshalled to aid you in time of need. i will conclude my boring cliched opinions with this: i don't believe a disaster you need to prepare for is coming, nor am i convinced any preparation even on a whole city scale would be sufficient. should transportation and grid networks collapse indefinitely, you will likely die. if you live in a place prone to flooding, own a boat. if you live in a place with bush or forest fires, leave you homes when instructed. if you live along earthquake fault lines, avoid old buildings. if you live in a place with high crime, legally carry a weapon to defend yourself.sense became uncommon in a world without commons. if you care for my advice, i suggest you learn play an instrument and develop your singing voice, as the oldest ongoing human activity you are guaranteed job security even during ragnarok.
- norea-armozel 9y agoI always feel that part of the reason why disasters hit us so hard is the fact that despite having some built in resilience in the current system we have it's not resilient on the small scale (i.e. the individual). If SHTF as an individual you're boned, but if you're a corporation or some other kind of organization you can weather it. It just seems to me that a whole new way of handling shocks to society needs to account for this fact more so than ever. The attempt by some to abolish the social safety net is just one of many things that our species is doing wrong. We need less efficiency and more redundancy. We need less profitability and more sustainability. Basically, we need to add resilience to the system down to the individual level where it's practical.
- daveheq 9y agoLess crazy folk? I can't tell you many "less crazy folk" believe the most nutso easily-disprovable bunk on the internet because it reinforces their feelings and beliefs on something... Completely functional people making great money or running successful businesses or raising great kids, just totally believing whatever bunk makes them feel good. It's not about "crazy", it's about people just not being willing to investigate something further than what they believe, and trying to convince them of the "less crazy" way just won't budge them if they don't want to budge.
- bluGill 9y agoOne that that needs to be emphasized is you only perfect preparation for about 2 weeks of the worst case, after that you need must less. Lose your job for 6 months, cut your budget and use your emergency savings, but most of your supplies are not used (tap water is still safe to drink). Complete collapse of civilization? 2 weeks to enough to understand how bad it is - when the power isn't coming back that implies such a reduced population that you don't worry about looting: in fact you should be with the few remaining people looting what there is. Break into WalMart for clothing. If you live in an area where you cannot support yourself farming break into a dealer's safe, get the keys to a new truck, and break into gas stations tanks along the way to fill it up until you get someplace you can survive long term. (the truck will be abandoned once you are there: fuel goes bad quickly). On those lines, you don't need to move to a rural area and practice survival skills now. All those massive corporate farms: at best they have enough fuel to get in half the harvest so they need your manual labor now. Get out of the city and you will find rural areas with plenty of food in desperate need of labor. Almost nobody knows how to harvest corn by hand. Few people know how to use a horse. they need your help to figure it out. Make yourself more valuable by bringing seeds for vegetables that are not in the fields.