Winging It,
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629621003327
Did you read that? Did you read the title or the whole paper? (Thanks for the link, Susan)
I read the whole paper, and I think it's ok to just read the title, because the authors did not have a plan.
Charles Hugh Smith, who has been a college-age construction contractor, guitarist, vegetable gardener, and lives/adapts on the corner of cheap and liveable, has a book out, which I plan to get, as I have some of his other books. (Susan is going to get it, too.)
Global Crisis, National Renewal: A (Revolutionary) Grand Strategy for the United States https://www.oftwominds.com/GCNR.html
I know Charles has done a lifetime of homework, as have many of us, if we put our experiences into useful context.
I'm not going to say anybody has to read a book. I will posit that "Modernity is incompatible with planetary limits" is obviously true upon its face.
Let's Go!
I can't necessarily adapt to a future without fossil fuels, but I am already adapting to a future of less fossil fuel, less transport of my food for thousands of miles, less reliable cooling and heating, an erratic economy, and schemes to get rid of me and take my stuff as resources decline. Concepts and plans are not enough.
Taking steps while you can to be less vulnerable to approaching changes, with an eye to a fairly rapid decline in fossil fuel availability everywhere in the next few years.
The rumor is "Oil-Crisis-in-2023". It's a reasonable rumor. The exploration binge ended in 2015, after spending a lot and coming up with a little for the 8-10 years before that. I remember Oil-Crisis in the 1970s, when we lived a lot closer to everything and had fewer cars, and I didn't have a car at all. I did not even have a bicycle in the 1970s. It was normal to walk 5 miles to work and 5 miles back at numerous times while I was in college. I moved closer, though.. I borrowed a bike and a guy in a truck hit me, ruined the bike, cussed me out and drove off. I had to pay for the bike. I moved closer to campus and work. There are a lot of problems that come up that we can't prepare for, but just have to deal with. Proximity to essentials and bike access are important. There is a lot more property theft in our Austin suburb lately. There are more desperate people.
It's hard to live in Austin; expensive. Other people's problems become your problems when times are hard. Cities have a lot of people. Cities with a lot of people living marginally become toxic to everybody.
We all have social capital where we are. Most of us have jobs. Building alternatives means extra work. Ride a bike for an hour a few times a week and think about stuff while you're riding. Cook at home. Garden if you can. If you can't, is there an option for you to garden somewhere that you can bike to, a community garden?
I know that's not a plan for the looming oil-crisis-that-won't-end, but the grand plan is to get rid of most of us. That's what humans always do when there is not enough, get rid of a lot of other humans. That's what kings and rulers and nobles specialize in.
The Great Reset, The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Build Back Better (without me) are all about that. Having digital currency on your smart phone tied to your social credit score is being beta tested in China. Bad citizens eventually won't buy food, clothing or shelter, nor ride the train.
Who is at the top decides who gets cut out, like Obama deciding who gets droned in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Mistakes were made", they may say...
I'm advocating bike commuting, and being able to get groceries and get to work by bike in a pinch, growing a substantial vegetable garden, keeping beans, rice, onions, garlic, canned tomatoes, dried peppers, dried fruit, oil, salt, and spices around. Be a good neighbor. Spend locally. Use cash. Don't shop where it's not accepted. These are all little things. If you do them, you'll meet other people doing them. We live in a big self-organized social economic system. When we make strategic changes away from convenience, towards autonomy and resilience, we reorganize the system a little. I don't think we can do more than that. Big plans are like Fascism, Stalinism, and "You'll Own Nothing And You'll Be Happy With A Chip In Your Brain". Big, top down plans always put all of the losses onto those not making the plans.
People with a lot of valuable, mobile, unprotected stuff get hit first. Nobody steals sweet potatoes from the ground, as a rule. We can get around Yoakum on bikes, and Jenny could get around Austin on a bike if she worked closer. It keeps being a consideration. I usually do bike to work, but wimp out when it rains. Adapting your body and situation to the next stress is better than dealing with it through wealth, because wealth will be stolen. Vegetable gardens, cooking oil, bags of beans and rice are not things that usually get stolen. Bikes get stolen. Sorry. Bikes do get stolen regularly. I use a big U-lock for the frame and front wheel, with a cable through the rear wheel into the U-lock. I still would not leave it outside overnight.
After I die, I'll leave behind a direction of endeavor in my life that may be helpful to those continuing the journey into the world of less fuel, transportation and manufacturing. I have worked out succession-rotation gardening schemes and use them. I am drip-watering with city water. This would be a lot different without it. I can't go there now. Maybe another generation will have to. Dirt farming without diesel is really a hard life, and depends on undependable weather. The house I've designed, has windows to let the prevailing summer winds blow through to keep heat from building up, and will have a screen porch. It's still a hard to live without electricity when it's 90 degrees and 90% humidity at midnight. Maybe I can't live that life very many days. Some people do, already.
People who can't live in a place under prevailing circumstances will move or die. I would not start this journey from Phoenix, Arizona if I could help it.
I really expect a lot of migration in the next few decades. People from Chicago might move to Texas and dies in the summer when the electricity goes out. People from Honduras might move to Texas and feel ok about it. People from Chicago might move to farmland in the region. Most people can't farm unless they grew up doing it.
Charles Hugh Smith recently put up an article about when to move, now, or when you have to? You probably can't move when you need to, which is why there are refugee tent camps. Maybe you can't move now, either. Maybe you have family that you would house or that would house you. Maybe.. "Become the change which you would see in the world."
We are preparing a homestead where family can meet, maybe stay, if necessary. It has mostly tolerable weather except for those summer nights, and has a vegetable garden.
We might benefit from rain catchment. We may work on that. Everybody around here used to store rainwater in cisterns. There's no groundwater shallow, and the deep stuff is still no good. Czech and German farming communities moved here in the 1830s to 1850s and farmed, farmed it themselves, no slaves, no cotton.
This area pumps natural gas. Texas has not been able to liquefy and ship much of that, due to expense. Economies break down when the fuel is too expensive.
I kind of hope we keep having natural gas in Texas while I live.
So I will keep working on the problems coming sooner, with an eye to general shape of the problems coming later. The biggest help is divine guidance. Boy do I pray daily for divine guidance, and really try to listen to that kind, calm and quiet voice.
That's not like "Build Back Better", but I'm not plotting to dispossess and kill you, either. Just be aware of those schemes and work against them at every step.
Vandana Shiva and Russell Brand dissect the Great Reset and the motives and psychology of the ruling elite
Destroying people’s life support systems “is an ecocidal and genocidal instinct,” she said.Shiva told Brand:
“If you are creating conditions for most of humanity to not meet their basic needs, and creating a condition in which they can’t exercise their fundamental right to clean air, food, water, freedom, education or mobility … it’s an idea of dispensability equal to the idea of extermination.”
She said, “This is not just happening, it is being made to happen through deliberate action.”
“VAERS is telling a very frightening story,” data scientist and immunology researcher Jessica Rose, Ph.D. told Kennedy.
VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) data show 618,548 adverse event reports (as of Oct. 29), but that number doesn’t account for under-reporting, explained Rose. (As of Nov. 19, the latest VAERS data show 664,745 adverse events, excluding foreign reports).
“If you consider the under-reporting factor, which I’ve based on the Pfizer phase 3 clinical data — which is probably questionable data anyway — the under-reporting factor is 31,” she said. So to get an accurate count of adverse events, “you need to multiply the VAERS numbers by at least 31,” Rose explained. “It’s really staggering. We’re in the millions.”
“If you consider the under-reporting factor, which I’ve based on the Pfizer phase 3 clinical data — which is probably questionable data anyway — the under-reporting factor is 31,” she said. So to get an accurate count of adverse events, “you need to multiply the VAERS numbers by at least 31,” Rose explained. “It’s really staggering. We’re in the millions.”
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/rfk-jr-defender-jessica-rose-data-vaccine-adverse-event-reporting-system/
A couple of friends sent me this. Long list of successful ilumni, indeed. Hi Bill. Hi Angela. Hi Emanuel. Hi Pete. Hi Justin. (Hi Boris? Oh. my!)
Klaus Schwab's School for Covid Dictators, a Plan for the 'Great Reset'
...In 1992 Schwab established a parallel institution, the Global Leaders for Tomorrow school, which was re-established as Young Global Leaders in 2004. Attendees at the school must apply for admission and are then subjected to a rigorous selection process. Members of the school’s very first class in 1992 already included many who went on to become important liberal political figures, such as Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Tony Blair. There are currently about 1,300 graduates of this school...Killing people to steal what they have that can be taken elsewhere (unless they prevent you) Thanks Eleni.
Afghanistan: Same, Same; Again, Again , Patrick Armstrong Bill Ehrhart arrived in Vietnam in 1967 believing everything. His first indication that all was not as expected came when he wasn’t welcomed the way Allied soldiers had been in 1944. A couple of days later he was shocked to see “detainees”, bound hand and foot, casually tossed off a high vehicle by other Marines. This didn’t seem to be the way to treat people the Americans were there to help said he to his companion who told him to keep his mouth shut “until you know what’s going on around here”...
By sending massive shipments of offensive weapons to a rabidly Russophobic regime Washington is demonstrating its witting culpability.
All the stories say "The first person in the UK has died 'WITH' the Omicron variant", AND what else, if I may ask? Gunshot to the liver? IV heroin and cocaine?
Appendicitis? I would really like to know because all the stories have this beguiling little snippet, the same exact words, and no details.
Good ideas re preparing for a future with less. I am happy to see your homestead coming together in record time. Being relieved of your day job no doubt helped. As they say around here, Gracias a Dios.
ReplyDeleteI would say that most important for survival is to cultivate your network of family, friends and neighbors.
The current pandemic response works remarkably well in sabotaging traditional we social networks. Can your network function across the vaccine divide or do you have to choose sides?
Food is important. Where does it come from? What does your supply chain look like? We live in a farming region but all the groceries that everyone relies on come from the wholesale markets 3 hours away via truck twice a week. No trucks, no groceries. Luckily, the people over 50 grew up in a time of self sufficiency. A portion of the community still lives off grid in mountains and canyons accessible only by horse or mule. There are a handful of people in town that make saddles and tack for these animals. Reverting to a pre modern economy would be a hardship but not impossible with an older generation to teach the younger.
I would say that in the US, having Amish or Mennonite neighbors would be a blessing as a source of knowledge to innoculate a new generation of agriculturalists.
The internet eliminated my long reply,
Deletesigh...
You are much closer to options for more basic living, Wolfgang, though Yoakum was settled from 1830s to 1860s by German and "Bohemian" (Czech) farming communities. It was mixed farming, never slave plantations. Vegetable gardens are a source of pride.
I was aware of Mennonites about 45 miles away, about 30 years ago, but I don't see evidence of them now.
Yoakum was the trailhead of the Chisolm trail, and a lot of grass-fed cattle are raised in the area, with some corn, sorghum and maize fields here and there.
The Rio Grande Valley is a produce source for Texas, and is not too distant by Texas standards. There is a rail line through Yoakum, a town of 6000, which runs behind the HEB grocery store. HEB is a good, Texas family company, it's largest employer, and keeps good relations with growers. There is a meat packing plant (COVID spread there last year).
My position as a COVID expert is more respected in Jenny's large, extended family, since I have treated many of them with ivermectin-based therapy. Neither my mother or her husband, nor any of my siblings have contracted COVID. I sent them all HCQ Rxs to hold in early March 2020, and all take vitamin-D. They have all taken vaccines, and variously accept the official narrative, though with reservations, having heard things from me months ahead of narrative pronouncements to the contrary. My brothers listen well, and think for themselves.
My adult kids all got vaccinated at work/school, though both daughters had natural immunity already. They are well aware of substantiation of my positions and concerns, but have lives to live, and got vaccines when concerns were more abstract, not as concrete as now. Granddaughter is not in danger of vaccination for COVID.
The house is designed with as many passive heat-modulation elements as possible and a screen porch for outdoor sleeping and living. Gas is used wherever possible, and there is a dual-use heat-pump unit to be installed. I have studied how people lived before electricity and modern infrastructure. We come up pretty short...
So thankful to hear that you're granddaughter won't be receiving the vaccine...I have honestly been praying over her and many others children to not receive it...and what wonderful news to hear nobody's family has been affected. Mine as well have been well, and we count our blessings always. I must say, you have so much knowledge and it saddens me to think about others that can't see that...but hopefully they will wake up. As I've said before, we all look forward to your blogs, they always make me dig further to educate myself.
DeleteThank You, Holly.
DeleteI have one question I keep meaning to ask you. The Remdesivir used to treat covid in hospital along with ventilator.. I keep hearing that hospitals are pushing that drug and it's what is hurting people more then helping them. Is it true about that drug? And if it's true, why are hospitals allowing it?
ReplyDeleteMore money and freedom from legal liability. EUAs for Remdesivir and ventilators are designed to pay more for each and every use, and completely shiled from legal liability.
DeleteYou Can't Sue for what happens.
There is no legal liability shield for things that work, like ivermectin, so cautious hospitals (coached by the deep state coordinators) forbid their use, even though people die.
If they cared, they could work vitamin-D levels and supplementation into their protocols.
Crickets, nothing. It's been clear since March 2020, and ... perfect silence ...
That constitutes "sin-by-omission".
Corporate entities are not liable, but human souls are liable.
Oops "shield from legal liability"
ReplyDelete"The biggest help is divine guidance. Boy do I pray daily for divine guidance, and really try to listen to that kind, calm and quiet voice."
ReplyDeleteIn our case divine guidance came in the form of what at the time looked like bad luck, like getting kicked out of the house we had rented for 20 years. We pretty much sold everything and decided to take to the road. That didn't last long. A friend invited us to visit her town in Mexico and we got stuck there. We didn't pick that place. It picked us. Is that divine guidance or just plain luck or who knows what? Our savings are mostly in social capital, getting
on with our neighbors, learning from them, helping them and so on. God willing, is the standard response to attempts at making plans around here. I don't know if that attitude comes from experience. Cynics might say it comes from poverty offering fewer options than wealth. We will survive, God willing.
Inshallah: Godwilling...
DeleteSynchronicity? Serendipity? More open to divine when less supported/encumbered by the earthly supports?
There are only a few ways that certain things CAN happen, and a lot of things cn happen on the road-less-traveled than can happen in a stable support system.
Things like that only happen when a person is able to engage the opportunity.
I sure don't want to miss opportunities in life.
God/Universal-Mind seems pretty helpful with making them clear.
Thank you so much for answering so quickly. WOW! I just can't understand somebody working in these situations and knowing what they are doing to pe6...how do they sleep at night? It's so sad also that the last time I spoke to my own doctor on ZOOM during 2020 ( only way to get a semi physical, she never asked about my supplements or diet or exercise, she just said get the vaccine keep your mask off and stay in home. It was very sad after hanging up of knowing that my doctor truly was part of the system.
ReplyDeleteMost doctors have been "captured" by the medical-financial-machine, and have to go so fast that all they can do is repeat script lines.
DeleteMeant to say she said, keep your mask on, vaccine ASAP and stay home. I guess it takes a super brave person that truly cares for their patients to stand up against the system and tyranny.
ReplyDeleteNo, I was just made different...
DeleteTeachers talked to my parents regularly, or to Mom alone, when Dad was in Vietnam.
Oh....one more funny, she had her mask on during our ZOOM call....😵💫😔
ReplyDeleteMaybe she had it adjusted just right for comfort, or somebody else was in the room.
DeleteIt's easier if you just get used to going along and don't think about everything, I hear.
Bill Woods quoted on pg. 121 of Shelter, B; I cannot think of a more favorable thing to happen than that we run out of gasoline. Then we have to maybe ... change.
ReplyDeleteGod's long term plan.
First supply becomes erratic, and expense goes up in money, effort and uncertainty.
DeleteThat's the next thing, like the 1970s again, but terminally so...