Monday, November 18, 2013

Doomsday

I recently was overhearing a sort of doomsday conversation that I decided not to engage in even though I could certainly have added a few things to. It's actually a stance that I have encountered before and unfortunately I don't think it's a rare sentiment. It went a little like this.....

A guy was talking to a co-worker who is building up a store of food for the apocalypse. He has a year's worth of food stored and he asked if the other had any stored. The other replied no but that he had a year's worth of ammo cached though. The other said "Ha, you can't eat bullets!" at which point the other replies "No, but you just told me where there is a year's worth of food."

It's funny, but not. Funny in jest, but not so much when you think of the possibility of that reality.

It's a typical short sighted, individualistic approach.

When faced with the possibility of a grand collapse of the systems we currently rely on, you can either choose to educate yourself on ways to live without those things.....or you can focus on ways to prolong the supply of these things well beyond the death of the systems that produce them. I wonder what these folks think. An apocalypse is going to just be a temporary thing. Like everything is going to just fall apart for a year and then all of a sudden go back to normal. Who knows? Maybe. More than likely any major collapse will be extensive and re-inventive for humanity, in which case these people will shoot all their neighbors, eat all the food, and then die one year later.

No one can really predict how a collapse like that would occur. It could come from so many places, but one thing we can be certain of......banding together with a community is going to get a people much further than shooting and looting. However, I'm starting to wonder if I should be thinking about protecting myself from people like that. I feel like I would have a lot to offer a post-apocalyptic world.

2 comments:

  1. Funny, I actually think about this kind of thing a lot. On one hand, I am a non violent pacifist. On the other, I'm a police/government fearing person who knows the reality of those who carry weapons. For year my brother and I have had this discussion. I don't want guns or weapon to be a part of my life. He uses them for hunting and for "The protection of himself and family". Although I do understand where he is coming from with his fear of something tragic happening and not wanting to be at the hand of others. I feel like having a weapon would only bring that situation closer and almost through karma, to fruition.

    IM TORN.

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  2. Totally with you on that. Guns ARE really lame. As a hunter, using a gun is like taking yourself out of the equation. The factory that made the gun and bullet do all the work. I mean you gotta lone up the sights and pull a trigger but mpre akin to going to the grocery store. I guess there isnt a whole lot wrong with that aspect of it. I do walk the woods with a rifle during regular season but I have hardly shot the gun because they are obnoxious. Can hardly go a day without hearing the disruptive noise. This time of year, on certain days it seems I can hardly go an hour!

    In a cultural sense, they put instant power into the hands of the weak. The fact that it is instant is significant. One can inflict a world of hurt, acting on a whim. Not long ago if a person wanted to kill another they had to do it with their own hands, face to face, and I gotta believe in trivial matters that now end up with a bullet wound, they would more often than not call it quits before anyone died.

    There is one job that only a gun can do though and thats to protect yourself from other guns. Its a shitty spot...being opposed to guns with gun ownership being the only option against them but its a very alarming situation here where many of those with little to offer humanity are amassing large stores of guns and ammo.

    I have come to the conclusion that one can be opposed to guns while owning them. They do not have to become a fanatic, or even use it for that matter. I am a gun owner and Im not proud of it at all. However looking forward to a situation as described above I would have a better chance of surviving to help a community learn the skills needed to aquire and sustain their own food supply when the cache of factor food and ammo runs out.

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