Special Report: I See the Despair
Yesterday in town I talked with an old friend who runs a very small business. He had ten employees, now down to two. His electric bill doubled to $800.00 a month, he cannot afford health care programs for himself or his employees. His taxes have increased and rent has increased while his sales have diminished. The owner of the mall may be bankrupt and what is left in this strip mall may just close up. He has no personal health insurance, is about to lose his home and car-This is Mr. America and I weep.
The cost of living is going up. A family of 4 now spends an average of $900.00 a month on food. Thirty-six million people are hungry every day. One in six homebuyers are losing their homes, an increase of 20% from a year ago. The floods of new homeless people, now evicted, and without employment-any employment, are turning to rescue missions and soup kitchens. These eleemosynary charities have run out of funding donations and are being forced to turn people away.
When the wolf is at the door, the first domestic problem is the stress of separation. Families are breaking up and the children often wind up with the grandparents who are barely making it on Social Security income, fraught with their own health problems and rising costs. Social Services and public schools are losing ground, as there is no money.
Shall I continue? No, it is too heartbreaking. Shall I blame somebody? No, it does no good. Will government do anything-realistically? Not in our lifetime. What can we do?
I think, in these times of stress there are logical predictions of what people do based on historical fact of group behaviors.
The first is rationalization. People turn to belief systems, and magic thinking. These stressed induced states of thought, coupled with the smiling politicians comment, “…a chicken in every basket… prosperity is around the corner… new work programs…new educational paths…technology will save us… and on and on. Old Timers remember this rhetoric from the Great Depression; my father heard it before, and on and on back into the cave days. The Chinese had a saying: “ When troubled times come, many soothing ministers will appear.” So may devolving families believe this drivel?
The problem is we want to believe Big Brother is going to save us. Big Brother does not exist. He has never existed in any culture for it is the individual and the individual family unit that provides for the pyramid structure of supporting those on top. When the pyramid structure gets too top heavy, sucking up the resources below, the bottom feeders’ revolt.
Anger is the second behavior and this is based on the frustration that the belief model does not work. Once the collective angry people-often termed a pitchfork and torch majority, march on the bastion of government, a collapse is evident to all. A case in point is Iceland, soon to be followed by Demark, probably Great Britton, a number of Mid Eastern countries such as Pakistan and former Soviet States.
The elite political structure fears most the “peasants revolt.” If they have nothing to offer them as a token, then the politicians run away. The system collapses further with no centralized authority figure and chaos reins.
It is quite evident that the current economic depression and resource wars have been anticipated by sophisticated think tanks, and studies for over a decade. The Federal Government has stockpiled foods in the ring of bunkers around Washington D.C., changed the Constitutional mandates to permit Federal Troops to be trained and ready to suppress insurrections and riots in the name of the public good. Allegedly the recent FEMA National Emergency Shelters, and Tens of Thousands of Coffins stockpiled are for another Katrina. Many think this is for rounding up dissidents.
However, this is but a rising view of the people, not only here, but also abroad. We are entering a worldwide depression and no matter how you look at it, act upon it; it will effect you and your family. This is Survivalism. You have to make decisions now.
In my history, education and training, coupled with international travels what is coming has happened before and like a yo-yo it will happen again, and again, and again unless we factor in nature’s revenge, which is another entire theory stemming from the ancient Greeks: Gaia. We will save this philosophy for another occasion.
I was a prisoner of war, albeit for a short period of time. The reason it was short is because I, and my comrades assessed our situation, considered the options, and acted upon them-with success. This was a hard decision; in a life-threatening situation that required crystal clear thought, no fantasies, no rationalizing, no anger- just action to solve the situation.
Since “…no Man is an island…” gather others of similar situations, but different mindsets and form group discussions. First identify what your group fears the most. Consider options and do not discount anyone’s views, as one thought leads to another and may trigger a viable answer.
Get tough and get going. Act upon these answers. The hand of Providence helps those who help themselves.
Erase the elitist thinking that you have the loadstone of ultimate value. You have nothing. You must accept the fact that humility is a necessary experience to accept uncontaminated answers to solve your problems. Snobs just do not make it.
The only practical answer I can offer Dear Reader, considering the diversity of locations, resources etc is gardening. To this end I shall attempt to offer you suggestions to produce food, not because of the rhetoric about food source cessation, but for inflation and promoting better health.
Contact me: back2theland@sw,va.net
Copyright: 2009, Back2theLand, Mark Steel
