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| Little-known fact: When they're doing it right, the Special Forces are like the Amish. Only with guns, explosives, and radios. Be like that. |
The perenially too-busy John Mosby has taken the time to write a far too rare and excellent essay on Sustainable Survival at his blog today.
...in the original tasking of SF, the core mission of Unconventional Warfare (UW) involved more than just organizing an irregular, paramilitary force, and slaughtering boatloads of commie vermin. Instead, the men who stood up SF understood that, in order to do that, in hostile-controlled territory, meant being able to gain the trust and support of the people, and THAT, in turn, meant getting the women on our side.One of their conclusions, well borne out by my personal observations, regarding preparedness, is that if you get the women on your side, you’ll get their husbands. If you want to get the women on your side, simply showing up with guns and explosives, and talking about killing commies isn’t going to be adequate. Instead, we have to approach it in a manner that takes THEIR MICE-RC motivations into account.
So, what do the women want? They want healthy kids. They want nutritious food to feed those kids, to keep them healthy. They want dry beds, in a home that keeps the weather—and preferably as much wildlife as possible—outside, where it belongs.
Go there. RTWT. Take a pen and paper, and make notes.
NOW.
If any of what he wrote really blows your mind, print the entire essay out, and highlight the salient points with a shaded marker.
11 comments:
Job 1, of SF has ALWAYS been: T-E-A-C-H.
Or so a former Librarian at the Schoolhouse (JFKSWCS) explained to me eons ago (I think he was still librarianing then)
I have joked for a few years that if SHTF I would head east of here and become Amish for a reason.
The actual Amish only exist as a benign parasite amidst a larger society.
If TSHTF, they'll be eaten whole in about five minutes by people with zero respect for their right to exist.
The word for non-violent species in nature is "prey".
Grid down is estimated cause a 90% die/kill off. One out of ten will live. That means it's a waste of time to "prep" for in my case. You are welcome to eat my carcass, preferably after thorough roasting, with a nice cabernet sauvignon and wild onions.
You don't prep to survive. It is going to be a 99% die-off, not a 90% ( centralized food production with overseas artificial fertilizer, plus transportation ). You prep in case you survive against all odds, then you have the tools to make a go of it. Remember, the last one in the stewpot wins.
Mosby's essay reminds me of the "pigs and chickens" project as practiced in Vietnam by our Boat Guys to help sustain the families of their Viet crewmen. Tom Cutler (VN Boat Guy, historian) wrote about in his book " Brown Water, Black Berets"
BG
Exactly. That's all I can say to that essay.
Since this country won't harden the damned grid because we have to pay for Beaufort's EBT card and medical care, even though an EMP has been warned about time and time and time again by all manner of experts to congress - and they still won't do a damn thing about it, we decided to prep.
I dug down and down and down in my mind daily with massive thought exercises to the part where I can make my own pectin, yeast, we keep bees, we have a massive garden, a root cellar, know how to keep things cold with cold water, our well has a backup manual pump, I know how to compress vegetable oil and have a manual expeller that can do that (oil will be VERY high in demand). I also know how to make tallow candles, and I understand that our solar system here will only be effective for so long.
Some of my family thinks I'm nuts for keeping so many sheets and blankets on hand. I have a MASSIVE amount of old linens that I cleaned and bagged for any materials that will be needed in the long run. We also keep rabbits and alpaca - wonder why? Well Aesop won't, some people will. We have a loom and I can make yarn and weave. I also made sure that we have manual tools - how many people remember manual hand-held eggbeaters? We have five (that just happened, but there we go - barter goods). That's an example. I bought a wood cooking stove -the real old-fashioned kind. Essentially I went back in time in my mind, did a ton of research, and learned everything I could about how it WAS done, because if an EMP hits us that's where we're ALL going.
Hell, I know people that can't even do a simple hem stitch by hand. They can't do needlework of any kind. I have a treadle sewing machine and tons of replacement needles. People won't have a CLUE about how to do laundry, or how to make a laundry soap that won't leave a ton of residue and that might even smell nice (we ALL use detergents currently, and laundry soap will kill modern washing machines - how many men know that?).
You've said often in your blog that I would be a problem in any survival situation because I'm in a wheelchair sometimes. I understand this, but I also understand that know-how is going to be my barter. How is everyone going to get salt when they're not by an ocean? How is everyone going to bake bread? How many people can plant wheat in states that don't normally plant wheat, and how many people have hand mills? How many people can sew, or make candles out of tons of available fats or oils? The idea is to get through the first "freak out" by amassing what he said - community. My community knows the value of know-how, and they know how to fight. After things settle into a new order though, people like me who know those skills and are willing to teach them are going to be in short supply and highly valued. Unless and until then, all of what I learned make for fantastic hobbies that sell remarkably well on Etsy, so there is that.
I'm not totally down on the wheelchair-bound.
Remember the mechanic at the refinery in The Road Warrior?
There ya go.
Like I said I have joked. Those I generally said it to don't have much of a clue about whats coming and refuse to open their eyes and mind. Did not agree with mountain guerrilla saying a wall wouldn't help because of the tunnels. Tunnels are choke points. I like his attitude though.
Nitrogen fertilizer is made from natural gas entirely here USA w/ USA nat'l gas.
Most grain crops grown in the US are not edible in field form.
Baldrick -- Mosby has some posts regarding "Auxillaries" that likely applies to your situation. Survival is about a community or family, not the individual.
I would think the first job is to recruit allies/students, not teaching.
I don't think the Amish are parasites, but yes, their multi-generational perseverance is only a function of right place and right time. However, in a violent collapse, I wouldn't be surprised to see them engage private contractors for protection reasons -- they find loopholes for electricity for mobile phones, auto transport, etc, so likely would for protection/survival too...
Mosby's article is on point.
There is a large Amish community here in the Ozarks, they show up mostly at estate sales and auctions to bid on hand-tools, iron cook-ware, bulk fabric, and AMMUNITION. I had to bid hard against the Amish farmers for some of the ammo, and I didn't have any luck bidding for the guns. They might be peace-lovers, but they WILL defend themselves as a community.
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