Civil Unrest: You’re Pretty Much on Your Own If You Are Caught In a Riot or Other Violent Demonstration
This article comes to us from long-time friend and contributor Lisa Bedford. Visit her fantastic preparedness and planning web site at The Survival Mom [1] and don’t forget to read her latest book [2].
SHTFplan [3] Editor’s note: As has been noted countless times on this web site and many others, the system as we know it is progressively devolving into chaos. Personal and governmental safety nets that have maintained system stability thus far are being shred to pieces as tens of millions of people overwhelm our government’s food and medical assistance programs. People are losing their homes, their jobs, and their ability to repay their debt, as well as to make make ends meet. Like we’ve seen recently in Greece, the middle east, north Africa, and elsewhere, the people of the world are on edge and they’re starting to crack. Over the last few years we’ve seen peaceful protests here in the U.S. turn to sometimes violent demonstrations – including violence from protestors and police alike. Likewise, we repeatedly hear stories of desperation as mobs of people (usually youth and teens) join forces to rob local convenience and retail stores. As the dark cloud of economic malaise worsens across America, so too will the mobs. As such, we must prepare ourselves for the rioting we’ve seen over the last several years to move from our television sets to right outside of our front doors.
What will you do if you find yourself out and about with your family when a flash mob or violent protest erupts? It can happen without warning and very quickly. In the article below Lisa gives us a primer on mob mentality, what to (not) expect from law enforcement, ways to avoid getting stuck in the middle of such an event, and considerations for war-gaming scenarios ahead of time so that you don’t panic if you’re ever faced with a screaming violent irrational mob.
Coming to a Location Near You: Civil Unrest
by The Survival Mom [1]
It’s not my imagination. Angry groups of people are gathering together more and more often, protesting perceived injustice, failure of leadership, the financial malpractice by our government and banks, and just about any unpopular decision [4]made by a governing body. Sometimes these groups go so far as to cast their anger, and blame, [5] on those far from the source of their original complaint. They may even show up at the private homes [6]of individuals they have targeted for one reason or another.
Riots and mobs have long been a part of life in second and third world countries, and as America’s fortunes continue to spiral downward, it’s highly likely that, at some point in the future, you will be confronted with surviving an encounter with a mob.
Just recently a small group of self-identified, “anarchists” attacked a Starbucks in New York City.
“Mob of Anarchists Attack Starbucks [7]”
Reading the article, a few facts jumped out at me.
- Only 25 people were involved in the group.
- Those inside Starbucks must have been terrified with no place to go and probably no forms of self-defense.
- The anarchists advertised their event.
- Some were wearing masks, increasing their anonymity.
- They were willing to attack private property and law enforcement alike.
The problem with people
People are unpredictable and as a general rule, the larger the group, the lower the overall IQ. How else can you explain the crazy college students who go out and burn police cars to celebrate winning a championship game? Think about it. These young people had to present their high school transcripts and take at least one admissions test in order to be accepted. Then, they set cars on fire because their team won or lost a game. A large group of people with a lower collective IQ and fueled by alcohol is an even deadlier combination.
Another issue when it comes to protests and demonstrations is that it increases the cloak of anonymity that people believe they have. They feel free to do what they have always wanted to do but felt constrained by the fear of being identified. Look at this photo of a protest that took place in Iran and you’ll see what I mean. How likely will anyone remember the dark-haired guy in the white shirt a third of the way from the front?
Many of these groups are made up of cowardly bullies who would never confront a police officer on his/her own or break windows or strip innocent bystanders [8], but when they are part of a larger group, they’re emboldened to do things that they would never do alone.
A final issue with mobs of people is that they adjust their behavior to that of those around them. You can see this occasionally in photos and videos when one protester will glance at others around him and raise his voice, increase his level of anger, raise his fist, etc. The mob, not the individual, is in control.
Where does law enforcement come in?
I spoke with a few individuals in various law enforcement departments, and here is the gist of their advice: You’re pretty much on your own if you are ever caught in a riot or other violent demonstration.
That’s right. Police and other law enforcement departments have multiple plans for dealing with angry mobs. What they don’t have are plans for rescuing you if you are caught in the middle. You absolutely must have a plan for staying safe. Not for taking on a hundred people single handed, just staying safe and getting away.
Information can be your best defense
It’s vital to know what is going on in your town as well as national trends. The protests and violence following the Trayvon Martin [9] incident spread far beyond Sanford, Florida. Listen or watch local news and sign up for email and/or cell phone alerts from local TV and radio[10] stations. Very often they will send out alerts far more quickly than law enforcement.
Staying informed is especially important if you live or work in a high-profile area, such as an urban area with many government and corporate buildings. If this describes you, you should also have a Get Home Bag [11] and multiple routes [12] for getting to a safer place.
Groups such as Communist Students [13] and sites such as Protest.net [14] publicize their grievances, plans, and protest locations. Law enforcement keeps tabs on these groups, so why not you? Follow them on Twitter, sign up for their emails (establish a separate email address for this), and track them down on Facebook. If you hear of a protest scheduled near you, at least you’ll have advanced warning to be prepared or to be somewhere else on that day.
What about real self-defense?
One friend in law enforcement told me that he would want to have a concealed handgun if he were ever caught in a mob. I have no problem with being armed but would definitely think twice about the circumstances and my plan for self-defense.
For example, firing a gun would immediately identify me as a target, especially if my appearance didn’t fit in with the crowd. I’m not so sure facing down dozens of angry people is my idea of a good survival plan. As well, stray bullets could hit innocent people or a police officer. A firearm might be a better choice for back-to-the-wall self-defense among a smaller mob or if caught in a building that provides a degree of cover.
It’s important to not underestimate the force and combined anger of a large group of people and how rapidly it can amplify. The smartest self-defense weapon in this scenario is your brain and previous planning.
Plans and tactics when peaceful becomes violent
Here’s the problem with these protests. They are made up of people, generally angry people, who have a grievance. It takes very little to turn a peaceful protest violent. In fact, many groups have trained individuals who purposely stoke anger and, hopefully, cause a violent reaction against police, bystanders, and private or government property. To some, a protest isn’t a success until several of their members have been hauled off to jail.
I recorded this video with more tips for staying safe during a time of civil unrest. Please add your own suggestions in the comment section and remember to enter this giveaway for a free Big Berkey water filter and a signed copy of my book! [15]
[2]Lisa Bedford is the author of Survival Mom: Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe and Secure—No Matter What [2]. Undaunted by the prospect of TEOTWAWKI (The End of the World as We Know It), Lisa Bedford tackles every what-if and worst-case scenario head-on, offering practical advice on how to prepare your family for whatever might come your way.
Article printed from SHTF Plan – When It Hits The Fan, Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You: http://www.shtfplan.com
URL to article: http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/civil-unrest-youre-pretty-much-on-your-own-if-you-are-caught-in-a-riot-or-other-violent-demonstration_04182012
McGrath: “The Control Grid is Being Put Into Place to Handle What They Know Is Coming.”
Charlie McGrath of Wide Awake News offers an insightful and succint breakdown of what’s really going on behind the scenes of government and finance, and says that the people have had enough. The push-back has been growing for quite some time, starting first with Tea Party protests in 2009 and then with widespread Occupy protests in 2011.
With the system already in the midst of collapse and slowly destabilizing, many have not yet realized what’s happening.
Excerpted from Charlie McGrath (video follows excerpt):
You’re going to see what’s happening in the rest of the world come to this country. It Is Inevitable. It Is Going To Happen.
Do you think for one second Department of Homeland Security is ordering 450 [million] man shredder rounds so that they can sit back and plink at gofers on the weekend? Absolutely not.
Do you think this one internet bill after another, this trying to clamp down on the sharing and free ideas on the internet because it’s not good for people? No. The control grid is being put into place to handle what they know is coming. They already know this is coming. A kinder gentler government is on its way out the door. Par tyranny is what’s on the menu.
…
Two days ago we have an elderly pharmacist go before parliament [in Greece], put a gun to his head, and blow his head off. In his suicide note he writes “I would rather die than rummage through the garbage. This is sparking a new onslaught of riots inside of Greece.
But it’s not going to stop with Greece. Just like the Greek debt deal did not fix the problem.
The problem is people are being abused and thrown away like trash; they’re being treated like serfs. At some point they’re going to push back.
So, isn’t it fortunate that we have all these pieces of legislation waiting in the wings? Isn’t it fortunate for the government that we have the security industrial complex squarely aiming 450 million forty caliber human shredder rounds at the people that might want to push back.
An unbiased look at the evidence suggests that the financial, economic and political systems of the world are in the process of destabilizing, and the only thing world leaders have been able to do is extend the deadline for the inevitable breaking point.
Despite throwing trillions of dollars and tens of thousands of pages of government regulations at the problem, nothing has been resolved.
In fact, the American economy, our quality of life, our government’s respect for the rule of law, and our liberty as outlined by our founding documents are worse off today than at any time in our nation’s history. We are, by all accounts, in the midst of a massive paradigm shift that promises to fundamentally alter the American way of life – and not for the better.
While the majority of Americans are oblivious to the warning signs around them, recent actions taken by our government and the governments of other industrialized nations suggest The Powers That Be know very well where we’re head. They are and have been taking steps for quite some time to prepare for what is coming next.
- What is the purpose of the National Defense Authorization act unless they plan on indefinitely detaining American citizens without charge or trial?
- Why does the President of the United States (and his proxies) have the ability order the assassination or execution of an American citizen, again without trial, charge or reason?
- For what reason does President Obama’s ‘Doomsday’ executive order (National Defense Resources Preparedness) allow the seizure of food, land, energy resources and skilled laborers?
- Why is the Pentagon actively war-gaming economic collapse scenarios and the civil unrest that would follow such an event?
- With roughly 1 million active law enforcement officers in the United States, why is the US military training tens of thousands of personnel for domestic urban response, riot control and mass detentions?
- For what purpose do we require some 30,000 armed surveillance drones over American cities?
- Why has the Department of Homeland Security acquired in excess of 140 million emergency rations, over 450 million rounds of ammunition, bullet resistant checkpoint booths, and expedited the regionalization of supplies.
When it hits the fan, and things go critical, the recent actions of our government demonstrate that it is only capable of responding in one way – through brute force and tyranny.
Everything they have done in recent years with respect to liberty-restricting legislation, the militarization of our police forces and the expansion of the security industrial complex has been to prepare for the inevitable.
They already know it’s coming. They’re getting ready for it. You might want to consider doing the same.
Visit Wide Awake News for your daily dose of alternative media and tune in to Charlie’s daily Wide Awake Radio Show (7pm – 9pm CST) on the Rense Radio Network. If you liked the video above, follow Charlie McGrath’s Youtube channelfor regular video news updates.
Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Perhaps it’s like shouting an alarm, unheard above the engine noise of two trains on a collision course. Or, screaming helplessly as a car slips its brakes and rolls toward a toddler playing at the bottom of the driveway.
It is gruesome imagery and I apologize for invoking it. But if anything, it may be inadequate to the prospect before us.
One only has to ask, “What is heading our way?”
Headline:
The Department Of Homeland Security Is Buying 450 Million New Bullets
And don’t kid yourself; they’re not for target practice. It’s .40 caliber ammunition, hollow point rounds that promise “optimum penetration for terminal performance.” The department also has a bid out for up to 175 million rounds of .223 caliber ammunition.
This isn’t the flipping army, you know. This is an internal national police force, a department that didn’t even exist 10 years ago.
Headline:
Supreme Court OKs Strip Searches for Minor Offenses
It’s okay with the Supreme Court if you are detained and subjected to a demeaning strip-search for such serious offenses against the State as violating a leash law or having a headlight out.
Really, is being strip-searched and perhaps even forced to take a delousing shower for riding your bicycle without an audible bell reasonable? Of course not. So much for the 4th Amendment.
Headline:
Police Are Using Phone Tracking as a Routine Tool
Even in the absence of judicial authorization, cell phone tracking has become widespread. An ACLU report covering more than 200 police departments finds that nearly all engage in the practice, but only a few bother with a warrant.
Would you be shocked to discover that some police departments are trying to keep their activities secret because of the legal implications? Officers have even been warned to keep their cell phone tracking out of police reports. Now what was that oath about upholding the law?
Headline:
The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)
The crown jewel of Federal spying is a new $2 billion, high tech center in Utah, a million square feet devoted to data gathering and storage. “NSA has turned its surveillance apparatus on the U.S. and its citizens,” reports an account of the program.
The facility will help manage information from 10 to 20 domestic telecom “listening posts.” “We are, like, that far from a turnkey totalitarian state,” says William Binney, a former senior NSA crypto-mathematician.
What Is heading Our Way?
These are only a few recent headlines. But the police state is growing much faster than even these stories suggest. There is the developing proliferation of domestic spy drones; a variety of so-called cyber-security bills – internet kill switches – are working their way through Congress; and, of course, there are executive power grabs like the presidential power to target American citizens for assassination found in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Some Germans, although not all, were willing to ask what wicked thing was headed their way in the 1930s. Sebastian Haffner was a young law student and aspiring court clerk at the time. After his death at the age of 91 in 1999, his son found Haffner’s account of the era stuffed away in a drawer.
Haffner’s manuscript, which he had left unfinished in 1939, was published as Defying Hitler,” and became an immediate bestseller. The book is graced by fine writing, shown in a New York Times review citing Haffner’s description of Hitler: ”… personal appearance was thoroughly repellent – the pimp’s forelock, the hoodlum’s elegance . . . the interminable speechifying, the epileptic behavior with its wild gesticulations and foaming at the mouth.”
But it is the candid search for self-knowledge, his honest inquiry of “what became of the Germans,” that makes the work a place to begin answering how “it” could have happened. Haffner writes that nobody saw what was to come with any clarity in the early days of the fascist transformation of the land in 1933, but that he “had a sense of what was in the air. I felt distinctly that what had happened so far was merely disgusting and no more. But what was in the offing had something apocalyptic about it.”
Haffner suggests that Germans saw in Hitler a “do-over,” a chance to transform the defeat of World War I into victory. The martial mood he invoked, like that of the war, “provided far more excitement and emotional satisfaction than anything peace could offer.”
A 9/11 Do-Over?
Is it possible that Americans are squandering their birthright of liberty in nostalgia for post-World War II triumphalism, a golden age myth of good wars and greatest generations? It is a myth that exaggerates our might and insists on our universal benevolence.
But it is a myth that was shattered on 9/11, when we discovered ourselves to be both vulnerable and unloved.
Like the Germans, determined to prove that history got it wrong with the Allies’ victory in November 1918, is ours an attempt to cling to an illusion about America that made us hold absurd beliefs about democratizing the Mideast and being “welcomed as liberators”?
Are Americans spending themselves into warfare-state ruin now to reenact the myth (for it is a myth) of the universally admired and invulnerable hero?
Like a middle-aged man squandering his savings on face lifts and hair plugs, on expensive sports cars, and absurdly inappropriate clothing, night clubbing with girls half his age, trying to relive a youth that was never anything like his imagination, are Americans trying to recapture a period that was nothing at all like the myth of their belief?
Is it the lingering myth of invulnerability, an unspoken promise for the storied omnipotence of skies darkened with aircraft and seas blackened with ships that has Americans spending almost as much as the rest of the world combined on warfare, and digging themselves deeper into ruin?
But we never were what the myth says we were. It is only our failure to confront who we really are and what we have been party to that makes us subject to the compulsion of myth, so that we act in unconscious and destructive ways.
We were never invulnerable before September 11, 2001.
Just ask public school children who were drilled to “duck and cover” under their desks when the sirens went off during the Cold War.
And we were never the global “Good American.”
At least, the 20 million – 30 million human beings whose deaths the U.S. is responsible for since World War II [1] would not have seen us that way. To them, we would more readily have been recognized as mighty brutes. But since we know nothing of their perception of our brutishness, and since we don’t hold ourselves morally accountable for any of the slaughter, we have combined ignorance with our brutality.
In this unawakened state, Americans stand by silently as the national security state becomes more powerful by the day. Just as only the complete totalist state could allow Hitler to assert what was to be Germany’s ultimate victory, only the unchecked might of such a state seems equal to the task of forcing reality to match the myth under which Americans labor.
The headlines tell the story … “Something wicked this way comes.”
The line is from Macbeth. It is, of course, a tragedy about power and death.
Charles Goyette is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Dollar Meltdown [2]. His new book is Red and Blue and Broke All Over: Restoring America’s Free Economy [3]. He is also editor of Freedom & Prosperity Letter [4], a monthly political and financial newsletter dedicated to revealing the truth about the U.S.’s political scene and economic climate. To learn more, go here. [4]
Hat tip Lew Rockwell [5], The Daily Crux [6]
Prepping for the Financially Challenged: A One Month Survival Plan For Under $300
Many people are now waking up to the possibility that the future may not provide the great recovery we all expect it to be. They are begining to sense that something is wrong with the economy and it will not get better. Their first thought is the question, What do I do to protect myself and my family? They usually answer that question with the thought, maybe these preppers aren’t so crazy after all. How do you prep with very little money?
Many start answering this question with buy this and buy that but that is not the first step to prepping. Every situation is different so your preps need to reflect your situation. The first thing you need to do is get a legal pad or a note book to write in and answer these basic questions.
- Do you own or rent?
- Do you live in an apartment or a home with a yard?
- Is your home paid for or could you lose it if your income were cut off?
- Do you have some place else to go if things get too bad or you lose your home?
- Can you plant a garden or fruit trees in your yard?
- Can you own livestock or even a few chickens?
- How much can you afford per month to buy supplies?
These questions are just a start but they will determine what you will need to get by in a difficult situation.
An apartment dweller will have no need to get seeds and garden tools immediately while it might make perfect sense to someone in the country with a few acres of their own land. If you live in the suburbs and have a small yard you might be able to plant some fruit trees but what happens if you lose your home to foreclosure? Would the money for those trees have been spent better somewhere else? You need to decide what your emergency will involve and what your basic needs will be because of it.
Lets look at an apartment dweller for a minute. They depend on water from the city, food from the grocery store, power for heat, light and cooking and sanitation, all of which has to be brought into the city or pumped out of the city on a continuous basis. If all of these systems shut down for any length of time you are now stranded in a cave on a cliff with a long staircase to traverse each way. Assuming that everyone is in the same situation as you and you are not evicted from your home, what supplies will you need to shelter in place and how long will they last?
Being in an apartment you are limited to the types of supplies you may be able to store. For instance it would be a waste of money to invest in a generator if you know you can’t store a 30 day supply of gas. The two primary supplies you need no matter where you are involve water and food. In a system wide failure water would be the first thing you would run out of. You can only live about three days without water so it is a critical storage item. The only problem with water is that it’s heavy and takes up a lot of room if you want a several month supply. For someone in an apartment this is out of the question so how do you get around this? The solution has to be to store a small supply and have a plan to resupply what you need. The cheapest way to go is to get a supply of five gallon plastic food grade buckets to store water in. As a secondary storage device get a few thirty gallon trash cans and some food grade liners for them. These can be filled just prior to an emergency if you have any warning. Another secondary storage medium would be your bath tub. This can hold fifty gallons or more to last you quite a while. In addition to storage containers you need to get a good water filter. A gravity fed system is good but a portable reverse osmosis system is better. You may need to forage for water during a long emergency and you don’t want to contaminate your clean buckets with unfiltered water that you will have to carry home. Also you will need to filter water in your tub or other container that may not be completely clean. The reason to have some five gallon buckets is that you may need to carry water up to your apartment and more than five gallons is more than most people would be able to handle at one time.
The next thing you need to have on hand is a supply of food. The cheapest things to start off with that will keep you fed are the following items. You might want to get 3lbs of rice, 3lbs of dried beans, 5lbs of cornmeal, 42oz of oatmeal, 2lbs of powdered milk, 26oz of mash potato flakes, 30 packages of ramen noodles and 12 cans of vegetables. All of these things will cost you about $35.00 and provide one person with three meals a day for 30 days. This list is meant to prevent desperation on your part for the least amount of money not necessarily a perfectly balanced menu. A good multivitamin can fill in any shortfalls of this menu. This short list provides you with a reasonable amount of food for a very small investment and all of it will fit in two five gallon containers to allow for easy transport if you decide to relocate with it.
Another item you might want to get depending on your location is a good quality cold weather sleeping bag. This is a must if you are living in a cold climate without a dependable heat source. You can survive in a very cold place for a very long time if you have the means to stay warm and get a good nights sleep.
The next item you should have is a propane stove, at least a single burner unit, and at least a one pound canister of propane for each week for the duration you plan for. This will allow you the means to heat water and cook food and also provide heat on a limited basis. To make your fuel go as far as possible you also want to have a small pressure cooker so you can cook things like beans and rice quickly.
For light you can have a 100 hour liquid paraffin candle that will provide you with 3 hours of light every night for a month. You want to have a large box of strike anywhere matches and a disposable lighter to light your stove and candle. A hand crank LED light with a radio and cell phone charging port would be a good addition to this kit.
The final thing you would need is a sanitation system. With the power off, you might be able to flush your toilet with your water stores but the pumps that carry the sewage away will not be working so the sewer lines will eventually back up. To avoid this you need to have a portable toilet with disposable linings that you can utilize until the power returns or you relocate. A simple totable toilet and a few liners can be had for under thirty dollars. You can also get disposable liners that fit your regular toilet bowl that you can use.
Depending on how much you spend on your sleeping bag and pressure cooker, you can get everything listed here for around three hundred dollars. For that price you would be able to shelter in place for a month. If you increase the amount of food, propane and candles you get, you could shelter in place for months.
Security is not covered here because it is something that could fill an article of its own. These are the basic things you should have for an apartment if you plan to stay in place for any length of time. These limited supplies can be the difference between remaining safe and healthy and becoming desperate. The small quantity of supplies listed here would be easy to relocate with even if you had to travel on foot. In the next article we’ll talk about expanded preps for apartments and things for single family homes.
If Technology Fails, Just How Long Are Your Long Range Plans?
Tom Chatham
April 7th, 2012
The following article has been generously contributed by Tom Chatham, author of the newly released book The American Dream Lost – Economic Survival Strategy for a New Paradigm.
The Library of Alexandria in Egypt is believed to have housed technology and historical texts dating back thousands of years. It was partially or completely burned on at least five occasions, including once by Julius Caesar circa 48 B.C. and finally by Muslim conquest in 642 A.D. Most of the knowledge it held was lost to mankind forever.
When the Roman Empire died , the technology and living standard that had spread around Europe slowly died with them. Things such as paved roads, sanitation and aqua ducts to carry fresh water to cities were forgotten over the generations and men reverted to simpler forms of technology. This reversion led to the dark ages. After many generations the people relearned some of the forgotten technologies and advanced once again. There was no global cataclysm that brought about this reversion , it just happened because the knowledge of how the technology worked decayed along with the Romans and the average man did not understand the significance of these technologies. Eventually , future generations were ignorant of these technologies that once existed.
Today we are blessed with truly unbelievable technology that holds many benefits for man. Almost everyone has a cell phone or computer , but do any of those people actually know how these things work? A lot of people can build a wood stove from scratch but how many can build a microwave oven or know exactly how a gas oven works? Our technology is dependent on simple machines that create parts for other more complex machines that create parts for machines that can make a computer chip. With each layer of technology , fewer and fewer people actually know how to recreate it from scratch. In our society it may not be necessary to know how to fix your own car or how a phone works because there is always someone else that knows the secrets of these devices. But , what if these people that hold the keys to our knowledge suddenly ceased to exist or if the technology somehow broke and they could not fix it?
It is not unthinkable that a natural or manmade event could create a situation where our technology is damaged or destroyed beyond our ability to repair or recreate it from scratch. If all of our computer chips were destroyed along with the complex machines that make them, how long would it take us to recreate that technology and under what conditions would we be working? How many people in the world have the knowledge to do that? Any event that would destroy our technology would create chaos around the world. It’s not unreasonable to think that this chaos would prevent those with the knowledge from reconstituting our technology base in a timely manner. The longer it remains off line , the harder it will be to recreate it. This time lag could be months , years or generations. As time passes it is less likely that information will be passed on to the next generation to be reconstructed. This is how a society can devolve into a dark age. If information is not passed on it will eventually be lost to the ages.
On a local level , if all of your conveniences were lost , how long would it take you to recreate them from scratch? Could you even do it? Even if you can make fuel for your vehicle , can you make the lubricants to keep it going or the bearings for the wheels to keep them turning? If an event took away most of our machines many would be able to rig up new machines from the parts to use for a while but what happens when these parts wear out? Even if you had a block of copper , and knew how to melt it , do you know how to turn it into a long piece of wire? A simple piece of wire seems pretty simple until you think about it that way.
When we are thrown back on our own resources , we are dependent on the knowledge we have to solve problems. If you needed to reestablish communications with another town with technology that you had to build , what would you do? The simplest form of communication over a distance is light or hand signals but what if you could not see the next town on a direct line of sight? The simplest device you could build in electrical terms is a telegraph set. Could you build the keys , wire and batteries from scratch? Could you build a wagon from scratch to transport goods? The loss of technology would cause a regression to what we are capable of building ourselves.
It is a feeling in the prepper community that you are never finished preparing for disaster. The possible collapse of our technology is the reason for this. With the vast amount of knowledge available to us it is almost impossible for any one person to know it all. This is why it is important to have a good reference library that you can refer to in times of need. I have a set of reference books that tell me how to build a charcoal foundry and from there to produce every part of several basic machining tools minus the electric motor. If I had to , I have the ability to build a small machine shop , powered by alternate means , to produce parts to build other machines. Even if I never build these things , the knowledge is there to pass down to the next generation so it is not forgotten. This could be the difference between living in a new dark age or just having a reduced standard of living for a few generations. I study obsolete technology because it is the basis of all of the technology we have today. It provides me with the basics to start the rebuilding process should it ever be necessary. Many have a plan to survive food disruptions and civil breakdown but how far out do those plans go? At some point , things will stabilize and the rebuilding will begin. Anyone that feels the need to prepare must also feel that they have a duty to the future to insure the continuation of our society. Any skills you have that can be passed on should be and for those you don’t have you should at least have books to pass on that knowledge. Our society cannot go on without a long range plan to at least provide the basics of human needs. Future generations depend on the information that we hand down to them, and lately we haven’t been doing a very good job of it.
Tom Chatham is the author of the newly released book The American Dream Lost – Economic Survival Strategy for a New Paradigm.
