I pulled part of the following from a comment Wes left on my What Was Old Will Be New Again post from the other day.
He said that he had cut his comment way down so I emailed him and asked him to elaborate a little more. He did and I think it is absolutely spot on but even then he said he cut it short because he doesn’t have the time nor energy to try and educate people anymore.
He is too busy walking the talk.
For those who may not be aware, Wes is a fantastic gentleman who I have had the great pleasure to meet with very briefly a couple of times.
He hunts, he farms and he along with his family are basically as self sustaining as anyone I could personally point to as an example of what it takes to live and thrive on their own anymore.
He is also a fantastic wordsmith in his own right and has penned a couple of stories about his experiences growing up that Kenny posted over at his old site a couple of times that I just absolutely loved.
Unfortunately I can no longer find those as Kenny has let the domain lapse on that old site due to having so many problems with it.
I will try and contact him later to see if he still has those stashed away.
Anyway, the comments Wes left are brutal assessments of what the true state of Mankind really looks like from someone who knows what it takes to live and thrive the hard way.
Down deep, if you are really honest with yourself, I think you will see his point.
Long post – Delete:
short edit:I had damned near a book written out in response to this but anymore my heart just isn’t in it. For all but a few the human race is doomed.
Sadly if we ever suffer a situation where cheap, abundant energy goes away most folks will be dead or thinking about eating their neighbors within two weeks.
The simple fact is learning about carpentry, electricity and electronics, mechanics, hydraulics, hydrology, animal husbandry, farming and food growing, resource extraction, sewing, hunting, fishing, foraging, food processing and preservation, alternative energy sources, health and medicine, dentistry, firearms, shooting and reloading, and on and on and on — hell even manual skills such as how to use a shovel efficiently is beyond all too many let alone figuring out how to make do with what they have, forget about it.
Like I said most people are just going to be shit out of luck.
That was his self edited comment that he left, this is the longer version and it is a bullseye.
“I’ll have to learn. No, you’re going to die”
Originally written as a comment to the post What Was Old Will Be New Again
If we ever lose cheap, abundant energy, petroleum based or electrical take your pick, most people are going to die.
I went to a home to help with a guy with a repair. At the home his two young adult step children were visiting. They live over the mountains in a blue hive.
The conversation went something like this:
Stepdad “Here you explain it to them”
me “explain what?”
stepdad “about survival”
me “I’m just here to fix a piece of equipment”
stepdaughter “he’s nuts, he’s become a prepper”
lots of cross talk about prepping, conspiracy theories and disaster scenarios
finally me “look ignoring the causal event what if something really bad happens?”
the girl “we’ll just drive over here”
me “no you won’t. Unless you get out in the first hour the highways will be a parking lot.”
the girl “well I guess we’ll have to walk.”
me “what if it’s the winter and there’s three to six feet of snow on the ground?”
the girl “I’ll find a way”
me “ok, what are you going to do for food because on foot it will be a several day hike at best?”
the girl “I’ll have to shoot a deer”
me “have you ever shot a deer?”
her “no”
me “do you have a gun?”
her “no, I’ll have to find one”
me “have you ever shot a gun”
her “no I’ll have to learn”
me “ok, so let’s say you find a gun, figure out how to load it, find a slow deer that will stand there and commit suicide, what are you going to do then? Have you ever dressed out any animal?”
her “what does dressed out mean?”
me “eviscerate”
her “what does eviscerate mean?”
me “gut the deer”
her “that’s gross, do you have to be so blunt?”
me “well, I can tell you haven’t gutted a deer before so what are you going to do?”
her “I’ll have to learn”
me “once it’s gutted what are you going to do to process the carcass?”
her “I’ll have to learn”
me “no, you’re going to die”
that was the end of the conversation.
The sad truth is for most people there is too much to learn, about too many things, in too short a time for them to survive. In my estimation at the macro level there are five things needed for physical survival – breathable air, potable water, food, shelter and defense. Each of these topics has multiple sub points.
Consider the breadth of food alone. Raising livestock, growing a truck garden, foraging, fishing, hunting and all the attendant details that go with each of these. What and how many species of livestock? How about their feed requirements? Hay you say. Where is it coming from? How are you going to put it up? Materials for fencing, vet supplies? How many varieties of garden plants? Where does the seed come from for next year and the year after and the years after that? How about irrigation? Fertilizer? What wild game with what weapons? Ammunition? What fishing methodology? Once food has been acquired and there is no electricity to power the freezer how is it processed and stored?
Extrapolate these types of questions about everything, and I mean everything else. I’ve seen people that didn’t know which way to turn a screw to tighten it. People that don’t know what a combination wrench or ratchet is. How about understanding the basics of internal combustion engine theory and the differences between gasoline and diesel engines. Have any of them ever hot wired a car, truck or farm tractor. It’s fairly easy on the old tractors, not so much on the newer ones all computer controlled.
Turning to the home front what are these people going to do when they turn on the tap and no water comes out. I’ll guarantee most of them have never given serious consideration to providing safe drinking water for themselves and those dependent on them. How about preparing that food you’ve somehow grown or raised?
And the gangs, it won’t matter what you think you have, if you can’t protect it you are at the mercy of the next group that is stronger or bigger than your group. Who stands watch, for how long and how do you know they haven’t been killed because they got bored and took a nap because nothing ever happens.
I could go on for pages of different topics and the discussion will be the same, too much to learn in too short of time. Us deplorables will have an edge of course because we’ve been dealing with this type of shit since childhood. All the others, it goes back to my earlier comment, when all goes south, I’m sorry, you’re going to die.
wes
wtdb
It isn’t pretty to think about but Wes speaks much truth here.
The human race is so disconnected from the land and the harsh realities of what it takes to survive without cheap and easily available energy that without it, most would perish.
Sue there are pockets here and there but the vast majority of people have absolutely no idea what it truly takes to provide the basic necessities of life for themselves anymore and to be honest I would have to include myself in that category .
It’s not so much that I don’t have the knowledge, it’s that my body is pretty much shot at this point. I simply do not have the physical ability to work as hard as it would take to be able to supply all the needs of myself and especially those of my family if I had to start from scratch.
I would very much like to thank Wes for providing his insights and I would dearly love to be able to visit with him for more than a short period again and again.
He and his entire family are amazing people.
