WHERE TO BEGIN?
Begin right where you are. Some interpret the famous quote “The Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” by Lao Tzu as “The Journey of a thousand miles begins beneath your feet” or”…right where you stand”. Before taking the first step you should choose a direction. Before choosing a direction you should arm yourself with a compass – some information that will help guide you in making your decisions. Below you will find the thing that I am using as my compass. I took this from “The Survival Podcast” website (with permission of course) and it really is spot on.
- Individual – Job Loss
- Localized – Damage From Strong Storms
- Small Region – City Riots Spreading To The Suburbs
- Large Region – Large Scale Hurricane Damage To A Coastal Region
- National – A Well Organized Terrorist Attack on 25 Major U.S. Cities
- Global – A Rapid Climate Shift Brings On An Ice Age
Threat Probability Matrix
The rules of the matrix are quite simple, the less people effected by an event the more likely it is to occur to an individual. That statement may seem counterintuitive but it really isn’t, just consider the following line
Individual – Localized – Small Region – Large Region – National – Global
Now think of one disaster for each of these and ask yourself how likely you are to actually experience this event in the next year or next ten years. You can think of any disaster and then just assign it to one of the six categories and you will quickly see that in most instances the larger the effected area, the lower the probability that it will actually happen. Here are some examples…
– Jack Spirko, TSP – http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/articles-by-jack/tenet-six
A survivalist may have 10,000 rounds of ammo for each of their guns but hasn’t updated their resume in 6 years. What good is that ammo if the disaster that strikes isn’t global economic meltdown but the loss of a job? That would be a personal economic meltdown and the resume would be a far better tool for dealing with it than the guns and ammo. Now sure, the resume doesn’t mean squat if the economy collapses but which of those two scenarios has a greater likelihood of occurring?
THE THING THAT STARTED IT ALL
THE THING THAT STARTED IT ALL is my desire (not a strong enough word) to be free from Fortune 500 Corporate Amerika; my longing to not be a slave to it. WHY? Because I resent the amount of loyalty demanded/expected/required while absolutely none is given in return. I am so dependent on Fortune500 CorpAmerika that I am basically a slave to it. My entire livelihood is tied to it, so much so that if it were to cast me out (if I were to lose my job), I would be devastated. It would cripple me and the ability of my family to survive.
So many of us are living in fear of losing our job, especially in the current economic environment and companies know that. Moral is in the toilet, and people feel (rightly so) that they have no voice and no choice. The talkers and pretenders are the ones rewarded. I don’t like the feeling that a coworker I have a good rapport with is suddenly someone I should distance myself from because someone has taken a disliking to that person. I won’t do it, but there is that constant nagging it the back of your mind that you may get pushed under the bus with them.
WHAT HAPPENS IF you lose your job? Do your circumstances dictate that you must find one immediately? What happens if you can’t, how do you survive? What are the things that you absolutely cannot survive without? Without food you and your family will starve, so what are some options there? What about shelter, will you be able to retain your current shelter? You have to have shelter not only to protect you from the elements, but to protect and store your belongings. You have to have clothing and the ability to bathe if you are to have any hope of finding new employment. If you have kids, they need to be clean and have clean clothes for school or CPS will take them. And so on, and so forth. Before any of that happens you need to take some measures to mitigate those risks. Your rent or mortgage is one thing in which there is most likely no flexibility or wiggle room. You pay what you pay with no negotiation possible. Food on the other hand, while still one of the two main necessities, has some cost flexibility. In addition to buying cheaper food and perhaps eating less (in a worst case scenario), you could grow some of your own food. Growing just 10% of my family’s food would free up $75 each month. Thing is, the garden has to be growing before the financial disaster strikes. So that is one of the first steps I am undertaking. This is not going to be a blog about me complaining. It is going to be a record of the steps I take to take back my liberty.
THE REASON FOR RESILIENCY: A RANT
So I am going to have to take a half day off of work today due to a sick kid, my wife and I split the day because she doesn’t get paid if she doesn’t work. I was off yesterday, and in the environment which I work I feel uncomfortable taking this afternoon off, even though I got to work at 6 AM and will put in 6 hours plus use ½ vacation day. It’s ridiculous to have to dread using a vacation day for a sick kid. It’s also offensive that “they” refuse to allow me to do my job remotely. There are many employees that can, and there are contract workers (temps) that can do it. There is nothing about my job that requires me to be in my cube to do it, nothing. There seems to be no company policy around it, it seems simply to be a matter of who you know. I despise the environment I work in. Moral is in the toilet, you can’t believe anything management says (like reducing salaries by 6% to avoid layoffs, then having in excess of 40 people laid off one month later), the “more with less” attitude constantly being forced down our throats, never knowing where the axe will fall next, etc. What it must be like to work in an environment where you treated like an adult and treated with dignity.
Even if you are one that does work in that type of environment or for that type of company, I think you should pay attention to this video on downward class migration. Coming soon to a society near you!
So what’s the point? Be prepared. I may have said this before but it bears repeating: I am more of a resilientist than a true prepper or survivalist. However there is a lot of crossover, so much so that at times it is hard to tell the difference. I think my distinction between the two lies in the purpose or approach of each. A prepper is planning for disaster(s) that they feel are eminent, whereas a resilientist is looking at having more liberty and freedom in their life. And a survivalist is prepping for the worst possible scenario to happen. A survivalist may have 10,000 rounds of ammo for each of their guns but hasn’t updated their resume in 6 years. What good is that ammo if the disaster that strikes isn’t global economic meltdown but the loss of a job? That would be a personal economic meltdown and the resume would be a far better tool for dealing with it than the guns and ammo. Now sure, the resume doesn’t mean squat if the economy collapses but which of those two scenarios has a greater likelihood of occurring?
I think Resilientist, Prepper, and Survivalist are varying degrees of the same mentality. Perhaps the difference stems from the motivating factor/driving force (belief) that leads us to do what we do.
I need to be able to live my life on my terms. I no longer want to be a debt serf.
Resiliency
Day to Day Action – Be the Revolution
The revolution is about thinking for yourself and not being so dependant anymore. It is about living the life envisioned by the founding fathers in the country they founded.
It is about Liberty.
Bear with me as I learn to walk in this online journal, and that’s really what this blog is to me, a journal. Sometimes my thoughts are going to be random. Ultimately Suburban Resilience is about liberty; and thus it is a form of rebellion. I am rebelling against the status quo. I look around and know in my heart that something is not right – not the way things are.
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The things in my life that I value most do not get the lions share of my time or attention. That is going to change.
My hope is that others who feel the same way I do, yet feel just as lost, are going to be able to look through these journal entries and find mistakes to avoid as will as find pearls of wisdom that I may stumble upon, and perhaps find a way they too can start living life for themselves. Some people don’t know where to begin (me), and some are afraid to try and fail colossally (not me). Hopefully those people will see that you can start small and still accomplish the goal. I am hoping this journal allows them to build upon my successes and avoid my failures. Mainly I want to give them hope. I also want to use this as an “accountability” blog, a way to track my progress and hold myself accountable for doing something on a regular basis to achieve my goal of being my own person.
And So It Begins
What is the purpose of the Blog?
– A beginners guide to resilience and sustainability
– Online journal of my journey toward the above
– The ability to survive the collapse of one of the systems that make up “the system”
– A return to living life the way the LORD intended
– It is about living the life envisioned by the Founding Fathers in the country they founded.
It is about Liberty
We need to be willing to re-evaluate how we are living as life keeps getting more expensive, and especially if things start to fall apart. That is going to mean not giving a crap what the neighbors, other family members, etc think. Your real friends should support your decision, and if they don’t, then it is time to start looking into building up more social capital. Even if things are not crumbling, if you are truly miserable in your current situation you should consider this as well. Would you really rather re-decorate than tell that miserable, slave driving, micro-managing sob you work for to go to hell?
Who is the target audience?
This is for people that are most likely going to remain in the suburbs for whatever reason, even if the writing is on the wall. Maybe buying a piece of land is out of reach due to some limiting factor like the fact that moving would put you too far away from work to be feasible. Maybe you can’t get a loan whether it’s for a second property or even if you were willing to sell your current residence.
What started me thinking this way?
First, keep in mind that a huge majority of my thinking has been influenced by – and huge majority of my information comes from – Jack Spirko @ TSP. Dude’s critical thinking skills are off the charts.
It all started for me with a desire to acquire a reserve of F. U money – the ability to survive in the face of minimal income, and thereby the ability to tell the powers that be (my boss, company, or what have you) F.U!; a desire to be able to take care of and provide for my family on minimum wage if necessary.
SuburbanResilience 