In Defense of Barbarism

This guest post by Heartless of Bradenton and entry in our non-fiction writing contest.

barbarism: bar·ba·rism noun \ˈbär-bə-ˌri-zəm\ Definition of BARBARISM
1 a : a barbarian or barbarous social or intellectual condition : backwardness
b : the practice or display of barbarian acts, attitudes, or ideas
2 : an idea, act, or expression that in form or use offends against contemporary standards of good taste or acceptability

Time’s coming folks. Time’s coming. All our toys and gadgets, our day-to-day dreams and plans are soon to be gone. We who’ve planned and prepped, stored and dare hope that we – of all the people in this land – will survive. Well at the very least, we’re going to be tested in our resolve, our readiness and our destinies. We are entering a new age, a repeat of a much older way of living, an age of barbarism. And in order to face the reality of it, I offer some counsel on how to deal with it. Thus, this is my defense, your defense – against failure, loss and worse. To rise to the defense, that of becoming what I’m sure to be called – barbaric; in a manner of speaking, is to become what is to be the norm amongst those who survive and perhaps – prosper. Perhaps to force our heads around to face what is ugly and not something most wish to view, that also can be considered somewhat barbaric.

As I’ve done what I can to prepare for the events bound to occur. As I see the horizon filling and growing towards the sky with all the possibilities of woe and dreadful change, I think of the list of things I’ve yet to do, the lists I’ve followed and those too of what fragments I’ve been able to accomplish. This writing cannot be as comprehensive as those changes awaiting us all in the near future are to be; but; however, nevertheless, I shall try to address the theme. So, I take the very list offered as a guideline for this essay and elaborate upon it – coming to the defense of my barbaric viewpoint:

Saving Money, Bartering and Investing, Self-Employment

Is it for some financial future, a time of plenty to come; or, is it for the now, the present and soon to be that we safeguard our funds? Shall we set back cash that may be soon be worthless, concern ourselves with paper …. anything of that sort, that’ll become little more than scrap material to be used for prosaic and practical purposes – like fire, to write upon, to insulate with, to use as the means for elimination hygiene?

Or does the phrase evoke in some of us the need to spend now; what we’ve little of; and for so many who’ve already lost so much due to the last few year’s events – a greatly lessened remnant of what we once had, to acquire as much as we are able in the remaining moments we’ve left? Perhaps to set aside some metal coinage that will still have a value in trade or barter in the times to follow the beginning of this period of great endings? Even to invest in those items, stocks of goods, necessary things, trivial things that just might lighten our burdens we shall bear would that not be ‘saving money’ in a sense? After all, it, they, may soon be our very tickets for survival.

Any decision now made needs to be taken with this uncertain, yet certainly changed, future we face foremost in our minds. When the times coming arrive, we will all be placed in the position of being personally responsible for all our conduct and actions; including, where our efforts are to take place or are to be performed, what we gain or lose by our decisions. What we now assign a premium value to will most likely will be reduced to a minimal, if not complete, state of no importance whatsoever. Need, raw desperation, has a tendency to clarify such problems of choice. We will all awake to a day we are each our own boss. No longer will any person have the luxury of blaming anyone else, for anything, beyond that person in the mirror. If we choose to struggle and work, fight or yield, live or die; it will be due to what each of us decides for one’s self. Welcome to self-employment. The saying, “it’s a good life, if you don’t weaken” is quite apt.

And all we encounter will become cognizant of the same. Thus, what we have – as skills, as stock or excess or merely things we feel we can part with that some other person desires – that is barter. A simple, non-interest bearing or demanding economy. Trade in its purest form often done with no middleman, merchant, storefront or established medium of exchange. Whether gold or silver or some other metal or currency takes root and is accepted is not to be relied upon in this future we face. No amount of gold is worth a single cup of clean water, a bite of food, a bullet, medicine or any other real need of life at the time of paucity. No gem or jewel, no item whatsoever has any value to a person who at that time has no present and crucial need for it. That is what we must all remember when we consider ‘investing’ for security during insecure times.

Product Reviews

An ‘Acme’ tool, seed or book is so much better than its competitor….. that is the mantra we’ve lived by for some time now, now in this ridiculously logo competitive nation we’ve become. Will ‘name’ brands matter so when the need for the task to be accomplished by some item is at hand? Or will the ability to use any item we can lay hands upon be paramount? Are we to argue and waste our energies debating and extolling, denigrating or comparing one to another? It seems rather pointless a way to spend this little span of time we’ve got. Rather I’d counsel us all to just get what we feel we will need, learn it’s use and usage – well. Stay clear of anything that’ll need replacement or we cannot mend, keep functioning – for the rest of our lives; yet, staying within the budget of what the total of all we shall require means to the allotment of a portion of our funds to that ‘thing’s’ purchase in the here and now.

Gardening

Dig a hole, hoe a row, till a patch and drop the seeds in. Seems simple enough. Provided God smiles upon our ignorance. That his weather stays fair and stable, that we’ve the time and means to safeguard those precious little kernels we sow. Given that we have done this before, that the perils of relying upon those homestead skills are something we have within due to harsh-won trials and errors……….. and know how to recognize what it means when the leaves turn brown, the stalks become sodden or brittle;or that the creatures that abound upon this earth have not found a haven and larder that they will claim for their own. Let us pray that we all have the knowledge of how to choose the best and the most appropriate choice of what we poke into the ground. And how deep, in what soil, watered and oriented towards the sun, at what time of year and all those myriad of things needed for those struggling buds of life to burst forth and thrive.

Preserving Foods

Fervent hope that there is a need for this portion of preparation is a good start. That those same crops above have come in, in abundance and we’ve to spare, enough to store for the cold times, the bleak and grey times. The spare times. That we know to wash, slice and pare, pit and skin, when to boil, to dry, to pressurize, to sterilize, to seal and where to place the canned, jarred, hung or shelved fruits of our labors.

Cooking with Basic Foods

Considering that our mindset should be that food IS basic, this particular category has me somewhat jovial. As the time is approaching that being picky, having some particular aversion, feeling the need to express likes or dislikes, preferences or nuances of spice and preparation; what can a one man such as myself comment on here? Be thankful each day that you were able to sustain life. Be especially humble if you are in receipt of the knowledge and facts that tomorrow will not be a struggle. Of course, always strive to prepare and serve up what you have to eat in as tasty and plentiful a manner that you are able. Observe the health and safety rules when cooking – anything. Finally, learn that man is able to eat and remain alive by imbibing most anything that he can choke down.

Food Storage Ideas

If considering what we term our “preps” – the obvious strategem is to go with care, with intelligence and forethought and to practice the skills and methods that work best and safest with any and all foods we can stow away. As time passes beyond the initiation of what is to come, it will be more important to resupply, restock, put back, cache … whatever we can. When we can. How we can, limited as we shall be in our ability to do so. Last, where we can and know that we can retrieve it when the need is upon us for those same supplies.

Raising Chickens – Raising Rabbits – Raising Goats – Keeping Bees

Oh what rose-colored glasses we possess. Those concentrations of energy now being placed on raising up caged meat reminds me so of the hippie days and communes during the flower-child era – of which 99.9% failed. Whereas any effort as regards animal husbandry is a noble and worthwhile venue to pursue. And the particular list of creatures we humans can choose from does include the four specifically stated here, all of which are relatively simple and efficient producers of food. The truest and best advice is to know how through experience, having actual past hands-on day-to-day gained expertise. I will grant that these four are practical and easier by far than larger stock, or stock requiring large areas of land; but too, I will mention that they also require the one need that may be in shortest supply. That is, a stable, safe and defensible location to set up a food producing operation. Whereby less land, less water and less provisioning is indeed factual considering these four, the space for waste disposal, feed accumulation or grazing needs is still, as for any livestock, an enormous issue. One that again requires security to affect the process. As with any stationary endeavor, time is the essential ingredient to success. Secure, safe, time.

But the procedures needed for all animals to be reared as farm stock animals is as always: keep them safe and protected, warm in the cold weather, shade for them to avail themselves of in the sun, clean water always available, sufficient and healthy food for them to eat, a reasonable and enjoyable clean space for them to live their lives, separation of the genders unless breeding time is at hand, care and monitoring always of even the littlest health issue, daily and proper disposal of waste, intelligent culling and genetic choices, always keeping in mind that they are not pets, humane and quick harvesting; and finally, remembering to thank them for the lives they give you and thanking our Creator for the same.

Butchering Livestock and Game

Perhaps at once the easiest and most complicated of all tasks we shall face. Too, one of the oldest talents we’ve gained as a species is also the one most controversial in some respects. I fall back to those times when a life was taken to survive upon its flesh by many men and women by their direct actions; and the first thing the person who has chosen to do so is to thank God and the animal’s spirit for giving their life that we may live. The rest is easy and bloody. Kill the animal in an efficient and humane manner. Let me repeat that word – you will have to kill. Get the animal carcass off the ground, skin it, cut it up into usable, moveable, ‘wrappable’ (that a word?), storable or preparable states. Know what parts of the animal must be used first, will turn/go bad quickest and use them up within that time frame. Know what parts of the animal cannot be used safely (not that it is all that crucial in the lower 48 states; but as an example, polar bear liver should be eaten sparingly if at all due to excessively high levels of Vitamin A as a constituent portion of its content).

There is a use for almost every part of any animal. From hoof to hair, hide to sinew. As a species, most of us, we’ve long been removed from the process entailed in any butchery for the most part, as a percentage of our population. It’ll be time to get over such delicate aversions. Quickly.

And preserve, smoke, dry, boil and can, stew and render as much as possible for the present and the future. See, simple, isn’t it?

Hunting, Fishing, and Trapping

Opportunity, location and availability of skill and mechanisms to do these three is the primary concern. A simple ‘whatever works’ attitude is needed. A learning by experience and observation, having been taught and understanding the basics; even more important, to understand the prey. What its needs, motivations, characteristics and habits are. What seasons are best, what tempts them, what limits that nature has given them and what strengths. What we as the hunter, fisherman or trapper can do to augment that understanding and put into practice methods to circumvent those protections built-in into our prey.

I will repeat that as lives are taken, we as a species need always to consider thanks as a part of any such harvest. There is no glory in death; merely, sustenance.

Building Projects, Survival Retreat Locales, Retreat and Home Security, Nonlethal Boobytraps and Alarms

Much is spoken about bugging-out versus bugging-in, leaving just ‘in the nick of time’ as the crisis arrives. And there indeed will be those lucky enough to either already have made a move or successfully accomplish this feat of logistics and travel from where you are now to where you think is to be better. In the long run it may not matter. Because when all is said and done you will either flourish and prosper where you are planted, take root and grow; or, your own personal patch of ground will turn fallow.

I do agree that, if possible, a choice of locations is always better than no choice. Part and parcel to personal responsibility being undertaken always requires as many choices one can produce for a planned action to be done. The place you decide to stand your ground and declare and defend as your’s is one of the most critical you shall face. But, always remember that it is better to live to fight another day than to die striving to keep the unkeepable. Matters of honor, pride, oaths given and dignity not withstanding. There are reasons to not budge. Just accept that the final resolution, the outcome, of such a decision is your’s to make – only for yourself. Whether others choose to ally themselves to you in such choices, must always be a matter of free-will, lest you lose an essential part of what it means to be human. Even barbarians know when to withdraw from battles being lost.

Security, traps and alarms all assume a fore-knowledge of the intruders’ own set of training, skill, experience, numbers and will for the defender to prevail. Of these three categories the last – alarms – is the most important. Any warning given or produced in advance of an incoming eminent threat cannot but help your basic motivation and chances of surviving through the day.

Communications, Off-Grid and Emergency Power, Alternative Fuels

The first rule of communication is that a person is honest with one’s self. The internal dialogue that is ever-present and on-going within the individual should dispel faithfully all self-aggrandizement, falsehoods and erroneous assumptions. That same general statement can then be applied to those you choose to or must have converse with. Knowing the truth in any exchange of ideas, data or plans being made – the motivations behind those same – should be the apex or hallmark of any survival communique.

As for the ‘hows’ of these contacts being enacted, that is a long matter for discussion. Like all subjects pertinent to the days ahead, so much depends on resources, time, location, education and training in the field of electronics, signal processing, more basic methods of communication such as Morse Code, flag signalling, sound or visual mechanisms (flares, fires, smoke….) and so on. The means, tools, hardware required, like all else in the less civilized world we are entering, will be as we can either make, have stored and those we wish to speak or pass information to and from also possess. Consider this, it is worthless to own a radio capable of tuning into every high-band, VHF or UHF frequency if the vital piece of information is being transmitted on an AM signal range. Just as “one if by land and two if by sea” would not have been understood by both parties without prior agreement and protocols set in advance; or worse, the time for the approaching enemy had been at noon or those same signal fires had been obscured from the recipient’s vision by fog, rain or obstruction.

Communications like all else will de-evolve considerably. Skill at words, at actual writing down on paper of thoughts – thus handwriting, long-distance communiques may mean from one hilltop to the next, or the use of a central bulletin board in a barter zone/community. Like it or not, we will all have a major adjustment to do when it comes to the time it will take to get even a simple message across the miles. Gone will be the instant texting, IM, voice-mail, email, remote access chats, and the myriad of other tweeting, posts and blogs. If we wish to talk to each other, get our ideas and thoughts to another, we may very well be forced to wait. Sometimes days, weeks or even months….. perhaps years. Never know, we may see the rebirth of the Postal Service, the Pony Express or simply asking a traveler to carry a letter for us when that person is heading in the general direction of one we wish to get a message to.

When the term ‘off-grid’ is used, I presume it is meant to evoke a self-fueling or locally sustainable energy source. Quite often meaning wind, solar, tidal, geo-thermal, hydraulic/hydro-electric, methane/bio-gas, home-distillation of liquid or gaseous fuels, various heat exchange devices and so on. And I laud any and all who have the means, knowledge and wherewithall to construct, maintain and thereby generate any form of usable power for themself and/or their locality. The bottom line is always the time and security issue I’ve already discussed in reference to other plans for survival. That is, coupled with an increase in the need for technical skills, mechanical skills, regional sources for the primary energy input to any system constructed. Last, the load that will be placed upon any system will at once dictate the size of the system and the system will dictate the size of the load, the capability and principal purpose/usage of the system. All systems are bound to operate around that maxim.

Emergency power actually is a temporary, short-lived condition response. It is what we all will fall back on initially when things go awry. And all such battery-based, conventional fuel or fuel-distribution-based systems will definitely be temporary. If for no other reason that the very fuels themselves must be maintained in a usable condition. Diesel grows algae, gasoline goes to wax, gaseous fuels such as propane, butane, methane require seals that will last and pressures to effectively function well. Solid fuels like coal, wood, waste materials need mining, cutting and drying, gathering. All work, energy, put into the task before one erg of power is produced. Batteries can be built provided the raw materials and the know-how to do so is present; but, it is unlikely that the products of home-brew efforts will fit the cases of most portable devices. Things therefore we now rely as portable will one by one cease to be a part of our life.

What is ahead? Candles, oil lamps, fireplaces and adjusting our living and working hours to the sun will replace much of our need for lighting, our entertainment will become cards, box games and hobbies and crafts. Our social networking will be those around us, our families, neighbors and those close enough in our area’s community to get together with when time allows. Schools, churches, civil organizations will eventually become once again the centers of life rather than often unmet Facebook “Friends”, Twitter Tweeters, bloggers, chats and media personalities and venues. Our news will be more and more local, with less concern about broad spectrum alterations of societies and alien viewpoints. Our priorities will change.

Alternative Medicine, Emergency Medical Care

One major problem with being forced to take upon individually total personal responsibility will be that each person will have to bear the burden of any reprecussion for physical acts done to or by that person. Take for example the ever-present dialogue in this country concerning abortion. (I love an inflammatory topic!!). Without modern medical care, modern medical clinics or facilities a man, a woman who come together and initiate/conceive a child will most likely have a child; or, a complicated pregnancy and birth. There will be no other choice beyond some native or folk ‘remedy’ for the premature inducement of labor – an early termination. Consider how this little fact will change so much in terms of the society we shall find ourselves in. Promiscuity will come with a built-in price to be paid both biologically and in terms of survival of both the infant and the mother. Perhaps the base reason for modesty and morals will be recalled. As perhaps the base reason for social institutions such as marriage.

There will be few if any elective procedures. You will have to elect to set a bone, bind a wound, sew a gash, clean and tend, prescribe and medicate with whatever is available. Or do without. Commonly (now) survivable injuries will become possibly fatal. There will be no artificial joints, complicated pinning of bones, replacement of teeth, transfer of organs or any other body parts from one to another. It will be a blessed thing for any community to be aware of and able to blood-type and have available some means to transfer whole blood from a donor to one who needs it. Medicine will be triage-based when mass injuries occur. A harsh and pragmatic system to ensure that the limited scope and training of available personnel and supplies will go to those most able and likely to survive – first.

We are humans. We take chances. We are courageous and brave. And those traits both preserve us and give us sufficient cause to face this future. And those traits too ascertain that injury and death will be prevalent and a part of our lives. How much, to what degree will often be defined by the choices we make, the stands we take, the work we undertake, the lives we lead. Think on the great sayings of the past such as “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country” for a simple and eloquent example of what I am striving to get across here. Honor and dignity may mean a fore-shortened lifespan.

The best medical care is that which is not needed. Being in good health will be the most desired state to exist in. All one can do to keep within that condition will surely be desirable. Good food, clean water, exercise and safe choices climb to the top of the health ladder. The knowing of what foods will contain those elements most conducive to a healthy body will be of great concern. Supplemental agents will along with so much else disappear as time goes on. Our bodies will all have to relearn how to extract what is needed from what we put into them. Too, our bodies will have to unlearn the addictions that they now possess and we are now constantly prompting into us to satisfy those ‘needs’. Ranging from simple cravings for sugar to nicotine, alcohol, drugs like caffiene or other agents.

Those dependent upon life-sustaining or life extending medications will; no must, either find a way to supply those same medications, in the time you have left to be accumulated with your current supplies’ list(s); as the changes coming arrive – or, you will perish or at least suffer withdrawal symptoms and effects. And all around us so many will be facing the same outcomes. One medication that will always be available is prayer and the setting to rest, making right your spirit and soul.

All of us need to understand basic measures to take for the day-to-day injuries. All of us need to expand our ideas of what it means, the term ‘basic’. What so many of us now take for granted as to available care, or even the idea of what the real needs for professional care will become. What is to be adjusted are our own thoughts and view of reality. Even more of a paradigm shift will be in the demands we make when asking for assistance and it is given. What we now have clogged our legal system with in terms of claims of malpractice and assigning blame to those who do and will step up to attempt to aid us in moments of desperation – but fail, will have to cease. We must once again trust to fate, the inherent and true goodwill in those best efforts that are undertaken. That they were done sincerely and with the acceptance that there is only so much that can or could be done. And the rest is in our Lord’s hands, and his alone.

Survival Vehicles

We need only to take a glance below our waists, below our areas of reproduction and waste management to find our natural and most commonly found means of travel. Those same appendages will need maintenance, be subject to breakdown, wear and tear and tend to turn to a state of limited usage if not kept in as good a condition as possible.

Other means to get from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ will not only depend on some contrivance be it animal or mechanical; rather, much in the way of choice of movement will depend on the path or road itself. The condition(s), the weather, the hazards – both natural and man-made/caused (unfortunately also natural), what fuel is required, length of journey, load to be moved, numbers of the group and all other practical factors will need to be thought of as far in advance and for the entire route to be taken. As I started here – ‘shank’s mare’ will be constantly being exercised regardless of contrivance.

By now, having persevered to this point in this writing, you have learned the truth of what is needed. Time, the resources, the ability, the knowledge and skills, the means, hardware, fuel and will to undertake any travel. To be able to effectively protect yourself and/or your group and the possessions carried will be a rapidly escalating concern as this wave of change begins to wash over us. Whether the need for travel is simply to go through peaceful territory or regions fraught with possible harm – care and caution for all reasons will need to taken. Adjustments and provisions to deal with whatever may appear on the trail will be your biggest challenge on any trip.

The scope and reach of any travel will be limited only by your ability, will and efforts. As will the means you use to do so. Be it a bicycle, a horse, a rickshaw or pull-cart/travois, a fueled-vehicle or an electric; all choices will fall to your own capabilities in keeping the ‘vehicle’ moving.

DIY Projects

Life will become a DIY project. It already actually is. Just most of us seem to ignore that or have forgotten it. There is no such thing as waste or trash. I love old sayings; one of which to take to heart is, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. This earth, this planet has been around a long time. For the most part (barring space vehicles having now actually having left the solar system and incoming astronomical debris) what is here has been here since the beginning. All things recycle, it is nature’s way. All DIY projects can bear this in mind.

So, as I wind this up – you’ve had enough by now, I’m sure – I return to the theme I’ve chosen. Barbarism. There is a backwardness upon us all, coming in the near future. That word doesn’t necessarily mean that we will become savage or primitive. It merely suggests that we are in for a return to a condition contrary to what this contemporary society has become. And folks, that may not be so bad. Provided we each do our best to preserve the good and reject the evil we’ve allowed to intrude into our world. What can come out of this gigantic shift could very well be our salvation as a species.

This contest will end on April 22 2013  – prizes include:

• First Place winner will receive - A $500 dollar gift certificate courtesy of LPC Survival that is good for $500 off anything on their site. And  a Wonder Junior Deluxe hand-mill courtesy of Kitchen Kneads,
• Second Place winner will receive – Two cases of MRE’s courtesy of Camping Survival and a $150 gift certificate off of Hornady Ammo from LuckyGunner.
• Third Place winner will receive -  a one year subscription to Personal VPN service courtesy of unspyable.

Well what are you waiting for – email your entries today. But please read the rules that are listed below first… 

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