[Opinion] 5 Rules for PO Prep.

buzzard · Tar Sands Joined: May 31, 2004 Posts: 90 Location: skrazo

I. Technology is what got us here. Don't count on it to take us home.

II. Learn to distinguish needs from wants.

III. Stand- don't run. (But always have a back door).

IV. Always trust your dog's evaluation of other people.

V. Knowledge + Experience = Wisdom
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Refrain: Do it yesterday
_________________
"I've been dazed and confused for so long it's not true."
Led Zeppelin

ThePostman · Tar Sands Joined: Apr 03, 2006 Posts: 44

Hmmm, unconventional times call for unconventional thinking so I'll try a few out of the norm...

1. Use a single sheet of drywall to secure hard goods instead of a safe. The home safe is a primary target, even if well hidden but nobody is going to tear down all your walls lin the hopes of finding valuables. You on the other hand can access them in seconds with nothing more than a hammer.

2. Learn to use a compound bow. Silent, deadly and the "ammo" could be made from various parts if you get in a pinch.

3. Buy a used exercise bike at Goodwill, a car battery, some used car alternators, an inverter and an amp guage. See what you can power with it after some simple rigging with wire and belts. You get exercise, free energy and education for bigger projects.

4. Take up backpacking as a hobby. Exercise, good survival and rationing experience, investment in useful gear (especially water cleansing), knowledge on living with less, even if only for a day or two.

5. Diversify your liquidity into foreign currencies, Canadian and Euro are probably best. If the U.S. dollar crashes, you'll be a millionaire, if it doesn't, you can always convert it back. And DON'T try to pay off your house. The lender can't call you on the loan. EVER. They can only require your monthly mortgage. And if the dollar craters, you can convert your foreign currency back to dollars and probably pay off your house in one shot (e.g., I was a "millionaire" in Russia after their collapse because I had a couple hundred bucks on me - Ruble was 5000 to 1 then.)
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"I invoke law 7 of the laws of 8..."

buzzard · Tar Sands Joined: May 31, 2004 Posts: 90 Location: skrazo

Opinions seem to vary mainly as to priority and focus. Some of us feel that it is important to walk, hike, exercise, work-out. Some of us feel that it is important to remain mobile and to prepare a "bug-out-bag", keep options open. Some have a very specific list of how-tos and what-to-dos based on their perception of what will be needed to survive a collapse. Then there are others of us who are old.

Age can tend to temper one's perspective about a lot of things. Not only is it not important for those aged among us to remain mobile. It is down right laughable to consider it. Oh yes, by all means pack a bug-out-bag to hang on the back of our wheelchair. See you on the other side-- of the sidewalk. Upon reaching a certain stage of life it becomes very important to be where you are going to be-- forever. If I am not where I need to be for the rest of my life, then it's too late. Even then, I'm here for the duration whether I like it or not. For those of us who are old enough to know better, it is important to remain in our comfort zone. Do it because it feels good. Too old for politics, too old for esoteric philosophies and too old to keep second-guessing every decision.

I'm going to make it real easy for the zombies to find me because I'm not moving and I no longer care who knows it. Instead of hiking several miles a day to remain in shape, I am installing grab bars in my shower. Instead of maintaining a good work-out regime I will replace the back stairs with a ramp. Garden? Raised two feet so I don't have so far to bend. Permaculture? Secondary to comfort. No Till? Only if I can access it from my walker. The size of my firearms is not dictated by what size I imagine my dick to be but by the amount of recoil on my poor arthritic wrists.

It would be more than pathetic if by this time of my life I let some ideology break my hip. I have gotten to the point that the die-off may come and I won't even notice. I see my mom (88 yrs old) watch helplessly as her entire generation slips silently away. The Greatest Generation. Gone. I can't take it too seriously. After all, we invented the hoola- hoop.
_________________
"I've been dazed and confused for so long it's not true."
Led Zeppelin

Pops

anagami

1) prepare mentally, meditate, relax, clear your mind
2) spread the awareness through your social network
3) prepare physically, be within your healthy range of body mass/weight
4) dematerialize, consume less, drive less than 5 kilometers on avarage, be debt free and so on...
5) make a shrine, prepare logisticaly: plant some food, prepare your house for efficiency, get useful tools, prepare for some mobility, and so on...
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anagami.net

ORCA

O.K., as the new guy I'll take a stab at this.
1) Learn to live a balanced life between work, play, and your spritual nature. It helps toward making daily stresses managable and allows for a happier existance.(and those around you will appreciate it...a lot!)

2) Think things through, don't act impusively

3) De-junk your life and learn to live simpler with less

4) Become debt-free

5) Work toward food independance or at least greatly reduce food needs from outside sources.

6) Finally, maintain a low-key, low-profile existance, and keep your own council. Remember, three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead!
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Ferretlover

Well! Nicely done, Orca. Smile

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"RRrrruuuunnnn!!!" ~Apocalypto

ROCCOFIRE · Coal Joined: May 30, 2008 Posts: 2

Greetings all:
New guy from western NYS to all this peak oil stuff, great 5 rules, excellent suggestions, but if we do fall back, then we will need a village to raise our children. Network, try to reach as many folks as possible, but in my area, they don't want to hear it, they are waiting for Star Trek or some other future science hero to save them.

Ferretlover

Welcome to PO.com, RoccoFire.
Please feel free to browse both current forum & threads, and the archives, too.
You might want to also do a search on ecovillages.
If you have questions, please do ask them. There are some wonderfully insightful people here. Of course, like any big family, we have some stinkers, too! Smile

But, they are awfully endearing.
_________________
"RRrrruuuunnnn!!!" ~Apocalypto

Irish_Farmer · Coal Joined: May 30, 2008 Posts: 2

Ok, I accept Peak Oil as a valuable statistical model, not as religious dogma nor as a magic ticket to entering a terrifically exciting Jerry Bruckheimer disaster movie. All of us have different hierarchies of values, interests, beliefs and lifestyles, but here are some suggested approaches that can be applied to diverse situations; advance apologies for the speechification:

1. PIGGYBACK/parallel track:
Hobbies and activities can also have utilitarian aspects (woodcarving, metalwork, vintage car restoration, boy scouts, adventure camp, civil defence, first aid, martial arts, green festivals, farm days, gardening, hiking/nature walks, prospecting, yadda yadda yadda; many of the things you may have been intrigued at before but put on the back burner - now you have an excuse!). Tired of your lawn? Plant some fruit and nut trees. Kids want a pet? Maybe some chickens and rabbits. Want to buy them presents? How about fuel-cell constructor or science or craft kits? Like collecting old books? How about old science and craft cyclopedias or manuals? Want a change from the rat-race? Maybe now's an opportunity to down-shift. Want a little vacation spot in the country (a community you've been in or are connected to?), maybe now's a good time to act on it. Thought about further education, but put it off before as too self-indulgent? Concerned about credit card debts - maybe this is a good learning opportunity to budget differently, and even to re-evaluate what's important in your life. There are many activities, material objects, and lifestyle changes that we can engage in or possess, that can be beneficial regardless - so an awareness of Peak Oil can be an extra motivation for them, whatever you think most important;

2. NETWORK:
Family, people, community, talents, skills, material and cultural assets, ideas. Productive specialisation and division of labour. You don't have to be Johnny Rambo and Robinson Crusoe all rolled into one. Knowing someone who has a skill you don't can be just as valuable as learning it yourself, especially if you're useless at it, or just don't have all the damn time in the world to learn everything. You don't have to be clinically mercenary in this. We are thrown into this world as social animals; It's good to be able to deal with people constructively, it's good not just to have ideas but to be able to share them with others, and to receive theirs. It's beneficial to be part of a social web of support, solidarity and neighbourliness. This doesn't mean everyone likes one another, or is jolly great friends, or is sticking their noses into everyone else's business; only that you can deal with different people, and that some people can swap favours and knowledge, and can be there to offer help when it's most important. This is generally good stuff regardless - maybe the idea of Peak Oil can motivate you to be more neighbourly without being simply the local doomsaying pain in the ass; maybe you can start to get to know your own extended family again, with all their diverse talents and connections - hey, you have that little place in the country you can all camp and barbeque in...

3. MAKE YOURSELF AN ASSET:
If you are an asset to yourself and your family, the chances are you can be an asset to your community - or network - and your community is more likely to care about you; about seeking your help, and giving help - and protection - in return. The nature of you as an asset can be a compound; it can be knowledge, skills, finance, business-based, organisational skills, volunteerism, someone who doesn't whinge or constantly piss people off, who listens, gives sound non-bullshit advice and so on. Someone who contributes constructively to their own lives and to people around them. You can help yourself, and others, and others are more likely to want to help you. This can be through work, hobbies, and all the many different ways of being a fully flourishing human being in your social network. You don't have to be Superman, maybe just start with Clark Kent.

4. DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE VALUE OF LAZINESS:
Don't feel like you are getting the full value out of the permaculture course on reconstructing ancient Greek water-powered robotic automatons using rope-wound peg-programmed axles? Maybe you just don't give a damn. Maybe in your case you shouldn't, maybe there are other things you get more out of. Life is too short to be constantly tying ourselves in knots of guilt over what we think Immanuel Kant and the like is wagging his finger at us categorically-imperatively to do. If you don't dig vegetable gardening (groan), just plant some fruit and nut trees as landscaping (in the dormant season, for God's sake), they practically grow themselves. Kids love them. Your in-laws and neighbours won't think you are a complete freak, and will be less freaked if you do go the Green Acres route. Before you get your family worried about you with the attic hydroponics and basement fishery, start with trying to not kill the water cress and bean sprouts in one of those kitchen sprouting kits; try raising koi in a lawn pond (make a lawn pond). You can be so Martha Stewart about it all, and that's a Good Thing. Advice for would-be boat builders is to first craft a paddle; all the other main skills in building a boat are first tested in that, including your actual patience and commitment. You may find you don't want to go further, which is a lot easier way to find out; this is where NETWORKS serve their purpose! Enlightened and conscientious laziness can be a great tool for winnowing out stuff that you simply don't _want_ to give a damn about, and maybe don't really need to.

5. UNCERTAINTY IN LIFE IS AS NATURAL AS YOUR DEATH:
We are not little gods; we are not masters of the universe, and abandoning hope is just as much a conceit; abandoning our responsibility for our actions like angry children, because we feel that one or all of our bullshit gods of certainty have abandoned us. Every moment is and was and always will be an absurdly free gift; there is no way we could ever make it up to what ever force or set of circumstances led to our existence. This doesn't mean we can't plan or try to influence our circumstances, only that we should be cautious about surrendering ourselves to the illusion of control - even if that takes the inverted form of external factors totally controlling us. Death is an ever-present horizon; not just for the sunset and resting place of our possibilities, but as the foremost extension of them; the dawn of everything that we could ever possibly be has it as both its terminal focal point - and like the origin point on a graph, the singularity of all possibilities that we could ever be. So cheer the hell up: you have everything to live for - regardless of what happens (or what you or anyone else thinks might).

</soapbox>

Ferretlover

What a wonderful first post, Irish_Farmer! You are going to fit right in with our bunch. Smile

_________________
"RRrrruuuunnnn!!!" ~Apocalypto

CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1310

Agreed. Excellent first post, Irish_Farmer. I definitely like your five rules. They will do a lot of people a whole lot of good if they'd follow them. Actually, they pretty much sum up my philosophy, too.... perhaps that's why I like them Smile

Kathy

SoylentGreen · Heavy Crude Joined: May 25, 2008 Posts: 163

Aquire nieghborhood firepower superiority.Once this is achieved you can take what you need from registered democrats as needed.

ROCCOFIRE · Coal Joined: May 30, 2008 Posts: 2

Irish, most excellent suggestions. If you want free training, education, and build a network at the same time, join your local volunter fire dept, ambulance corp. always short and you meet all sorts of folks. Neighborhood watch is also helpful.

nobodypanic · Heavy Crude Joined: Jun 02, 2008 Posts: 111