Thoughts of Today

Earlier we were discussing a little advertisement on the back of a hot cocoa box. It showed a smiling, happy family sitting around drinking cocoa. The caption read, "Today the pond froze solid and we skated all day." It was done in sepia tones to make it look like an old photo.

My oldest son remarked on this as a bit of advertising trickery. How very true. Today if you allowed your children to skate around on ice that had just frozen you just might be turned into the government for child endangerment.

I remarked that it's the nature of corporations and the industrial system to use as a marketing tactic the very world they helped to destroy. It's the same phenomenon you notice with office and industrial parks ... they are always named after what they destroyed. i.e., "Peaceful Meadow Office Park", "Shady Oaks Industrial Park", "Whistling Creek Shopping Mall".

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Many consumers live blissfully unaware of the potential of a major and permanent disruption in the delivery system. The stores will remain full of toilet paper, canned goods, and chocolate. Sleep well, oh ye sleeper!

But in some there is a glimpse of an awakening. They peek through the cracks in the facade and a cold chill runs down their back. "But what ... what ... what if that stuff isn't there?"

It's the horror of horrors. The consumer is deprived of his means of consumption! The very first thing they latch on to is the concept of "prepping". I know because I was once there. "In case I can't buy all this stuff, I'll just buy it now and store it!" That was my mindset, and a foolish one it was.

Somewhere along the lines I realized that if you stockpile 30 days of food then you've set 30 days for you to die. If you stockpile 300 days of food then you've set 300 days to die. I thought, "I'll store enough food for me to get by until I can plant a garden."

You can't just plant a garden and get enough food to get by. Most soils are terribly depleted and take a long time to build fertility. Plus, the techniques of the successful gardener need years to hone. What a horror it would be to learn about insect predation, drought, frost, or disease while watching your family slowly starve. And you can't expect to plant a 4'x8' garden bed and learn those skills. They don't fully apply as you scale up!

In order to get by you must turn from the concept of being a consumer and go to being a producer. A producer of food, raw materials, or small cottage industry. These are the things that preserve your famnily and set a course of obedience to God. Will they keep you alive? Maybe. There are no guarantees, but I will say that survivalism and preparedness are a losing proposition without that obedience.

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The first thing new preppers and survivalists latch on to as a means of ensuring their survival is the "bugout bag". I have a "get home" bag, but no bugout bag. Where would I bugout to? Is there a group of people who wouldn't also be in equal jeopardy who would be willing to take us in? Do these bugout bag neophytes think that if they pack a compass and some extra socks they'll make it out to the farmland and survive? Why do they think they'll survive in the farmlands? The farm people are hard and hardy and many of them won't survive ... and they certainly won't welcome refugees traipsing across their property, even if those refugees packed a bugout bag. Do they think they'll trade skills for food once they reach the rural countryside? If I had a dollar for everytime I heard someone say about something I was doing that they'd read it in a book that it should be done differently. There is a profound difference between book knowledge and actual hands-on experience, as I have learned somewhat painfully.