New Mexico Urban Homesteader

Hello, I am A 50 Something, Prepper ;-}; former 60's Flower Child, don't believe in taxpayer subsidized special interest groups (political parties), DO believe in the Constitution and Bill of Rights (1st 10). Long time Independent & Informed Voter. Lover of the outdoors and firm believer that History Teaches - if only we will listen!

(No longer Urban or in NM. Now Rural in the mountains of Maine.)

This blog was started at the request of some dear friends that wish to become Preppers.

“No man who is not willing to help himself has any right to apply to his friends, or to the gods.”

Demosthenes (384–322 BC, Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens)


Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Being Prepared

Periodically throughout human history there are stories of apocalypse, Armageddon, destruction, turmoil, tribulation and the end of the world as we know it prophecies and predictions. These predictions increase in the eras where the indicators of these events appear to occur in rapid succession and or escalating frequency. This is a normal human trait or emotion to bad times. As our civilizations mature and develop more precise sciences, these predictions gather more validity. This validity raises flags of concern and caution in just about anyone with a lick of common sense.

What makes today any different than yesterday and previous generations? I’m not an expert and can only guess that it has something to do with what the people of today’s generation have seen in their lifetimes. Anyone older than 70 probably lived through part of the Great Depression. They at least saw WWII and Korean wars. Then anyone over 50 has seen science fiction become reality.

Think about it, my grandparents, whom passed in the 1980’s saw the telegraph, telephone, radio, TV, movies, in house plumbing/heating/cooling, electricity, refrigerators instead of ice boxes, the atomic bomb, automobiles, WWI, WWII, Korean War, flu epidemics, polio, measles and chicken pox epidemics (that killed back then), Great Depression, Dust Bowl, computers, airplanes and space flight to name a few.

My parents were children during the Dust Bowl and Depression years but they saw jet airplanes, microwaves, computers, cell phones, GPS, TV dinners, the birth of suburbs, SS, welfare, income taxes, inflation, landing on the moon, the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall and lived through the Cold War, as well as many of the same things their parents, my grandparents saw.

I look back on what my generation has seen from the rapid development and deployment of computers, graphics, cell phones (I remember those big military type ones), calculators (the first el-cheapo was $100), I remember A-bomb drills in elementary school, the first 8086 PC and a thing called a “portable computer” that was as clunky and heavy as a portable sewing machine of the day. I grew up on Star Trek and now quite a bit of the science fiction of that show is now reality.

Add to this the natural secretive nature of governments, militaries; the instantaneousness of communications and travel and the nature of humans to seek and possess power.

Next add that today we are at far greater risk of a nuclear holocaust than at any time during the cold war. This is because the world powers of the Cold War knew what kind of hell would result. Sure they postulated and slung threats back and forth, but neither great power wanted any part of a nuclear war. Today however we do not have seasoned leaders that know and care about this, instead we see rich mini-countries or rich large cause oriented organizations with the nuclear power and they don’t care what happens as long as they can throw their “power” around.

Many of the developed “western world” countries like the United States face other issues that could undermine our civilizations. Like the physical age of the physical components of the electrical GRID, bridges and dams. Many urban water, storm and waste systems are old and already at capacity. Water reservoirs are at capacity and many are seeing lower water levels. Aquifers are drying up.

We don’t have enough fertile farm land to grow enough crops to feed the world population and that population is growing every day.

Modern science now knows more about plate tectonics and has found thousands more very dangerous faults that are in major population and business areas around the globe.

Wow, it’s no wonder why so many of us feel threatened by today’s happenings. Many are not only possible; they are plausible and probable as well.

If this concern is building in you and you feel the need to be prepared for what is possible, plausible and probable, then it is time for you to become prepared, just in case the worst happens. You need to become an actively preparing Prepper.

Play the “What If” game. Be sure to think about what would be available and not available if each “What If” occurred. How long would it take for your area to recover? Where would you be? What would you be doing? Is your home safe and secure for each of these incidents? Would this incident have an effect on other parts of the country and what would they be? What would your neighbors and friends do? If you live rural, how easy is it for urban people to get to where you are even if they walked?

WHAT IF:

  • The electricity goes down for 7 days starting tomorrow at 5am?
  • A hurricane, tornado, flood or 7.8 earthquake hits tomorrow at 3PM?
  • Plastic disappears and humans cannot make more tomorrow at 12 noon?
  • Mexico enters a civil war and refugees start flooding our boarders tomorrow at 6PM?
  • The State comes by and puts meters on your private domestic water well tomorrow morning at 7AM?
  • The prisons run out of money and release all of their prisoners tomorrow at 1PM?
  • The sun has a huge, never before recorded solar storm and it wipes out microwaves, radio waves, TV/Satellite transmissions and electricity worldwide tomorrow at 1AM?
  • A large but not extinction level event sized asteroid hits the Pacific Ocean at 3AM tomorrow morning?
  • There is a very large, gang in the streets setting fires and spreading destruction civil upheaval in a major city like LA, NY, DC, St. Louis or Chicago tomorrow at 10AM?
  • An unprecedented rain storm saturates the Snake, Columbia, Colorado, Missouri, Ohio and Mississippi River basins hits this spring with floods that cover most of our bread basket states and farms?
  • A fanatical faction sets off nuclear explosions in one or more major cities here in the U.S. or world tomorrow at 8PM?
  • There is some kind of explosion or attack at one or more oil refineries or storage facilities or power plants here in the U.S. tomorrow at 12 midnight?

Prep On !!

Today is the Tomorrow that you worried about Yesterday

2 comments:

  1. Wow! That was a great article and very well written, I might add.

    In your article, you wrote that throughout time there have been periods of destruction, turmoil, tribulation and times characterized by "the end of the world as we know it" prophecies ... I completely agree with you.

    And I also believe that in time and history, there have been multiple civilizations that have broken down, collapsed and rebuilt themselves. The Mayans did this multiple times before they inevitably faded away into history. The Greeks, the Romans, Egyptians, Chinese, and Russians all had failed governments that collapsed, and now it may be America’s turn. The history of humankind has been marked by patterns and economic cycles of growth and decline. Perhaps, this is America's turn.

    Preparing and learning necessary skills is really the only way to get through the coming tough times. Some believe that what we will be going through in the coming years will be worse than what our grandparents when through during the Depression. They, atleast, still had fundamental knowledge on farming skills, gardening skills and hunting skills. Today, the population is very different...

    Something that may peak your curiosity Armstrong Economics: Theory of Cycles. I will put the link below.

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/21177254/Christiaan-Huygens-The-Father-of-Cycle-Theory-10-15-09

    Thanks for posting this up. It was a great read.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I will look up that article and Thank you - pass it on ...

    ReplyDelete

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