Preparedness, security, guns and calling it as I see it.

Today during Christmas lunch my wife’s family dropped by. After giving the kids what “Santa left for them at grandma’s house” and eating we ended up talking about current events during desert.

Light was out again at my mother in laws house. Yesterday they spent Christmas eve over at the house of other relatives and power went down there as well. When someone drove my mother in law and sister in law back to their place, they saw that most of the neighborhoods they went by where pitch black.

My mother in law told me that this Thursday, they robbed the bank around the corner from where they live. The robbers hit one of the clients and he died of a heart attack. The man died around 10AM. The cops arrived, then the ambulance but since he was dead on arrival and it was a crime scene they left him there in the sidewalk and only picked up the corpse around 6 PM.

This type of thing happens very often. Specially with older folks but adults in their 40s and 50s too, they get scared during the robberies and die because of heart attacks. It also happens when they torture people during violent home invasions. The cruelty some people are capable of is underestimated by most law abiding citizens.

She also told me of another robbery she witnessed recently. A Toyota Hilux was driving around the neighborhood, smashing display store windows and stealing merchandize. They would smash the glass and cut the padlocks of the rolling grille doors with bolt cutters and steal what they can quickly, then get back in the car and hit another store. During another incident a Bingo joint was robbed. Since they couldn’t get through the armored door they simply cut a hole into the brick wall of the building.

What’s the purpose of these examples? It’s the other side of the coin. On one side we have the financial meltdown, with unemployment, inflation and a broad spectrum of situations we must prepare for, but on the other side we have the consequence of the economic collapse, the violence, the lawlessness and crime. Hyperinflation is no joke, you’ve got to prepare for it, you need  to know what to do in case that coma moves a digit to the right all of a sudden. I went through that and it does send a very cold chill down your spine to feel the money in your pocket melts like that. But inflation wont kill you. Bullets, fists, knives and sticks (or heart attacks)  will.

I was just checking a new “Preparedness” website, one of the dozens that have been popping up since “preparedness” went mainstream and is offered like gadgets for perfect abs. Sterile, politically correct, and of course, little or no mention of this side of the coin. These type of emergency preparedness websites and books are almost out of FEMA. They look nice and tidy, (better than my messy blog  ;-)  ) but you can just see the business guy behind it and how its clearly all about the money and so very little about real preparedness.

These marketing type gigs are usually easy to detect. Designed for “click through” efficiency but little content. Same thing for the books. Every possible trick is used to stretch maybe 50 pages of real data into +300 pages.

I’ve been applying a little technique lately. Instead of wasting my time I just read the table of content. If the book (or website) even implies that its intended for anything other than wilderness survival and it doesn’t give serious consideration to “the man is wolf to man” problem (Homo homini lupus),I just stop wasting my time right there. The topic is that important, and anyone trying to sell you “preparedness” info but not willing (worried about losing the more PC type market) or capable of covering it due to ignorance of the subject isn’t worthy of your time and money.  The marketing textbook basically says to avoid the word “survival”, or even worse, “survivalist”. Preparedness is more politically correct. Avoid mentioning guns, its taboo and will turn away the sector of the market composed of sissies. That may be good sales scheme but it sure as heck is poor ethics. 

The economic crisis is already alive and well, the social consequence is just around the corner. People will and already are suffering this. You guys see it yourself clearly with all the emails you send me about violent crime, home invasions and other incidents that weren’t nearly as common before.

During good times you can afford to say useless BS, but when the chips are down and S really HTF beating around the bush and being politically correct about what’s going on will get people killed.

It’s wolves, sheep and sheepdogs out there guys, and this year will bring even more wolves. They are the natural consequence of our times. Just wait until the children of the “new poor” turns into adulthood. Children that saw their parents losing their jobs and not finding one again,  saw them drink, commit crimes and go to jail Poor kids that grow up hating the middle class. Just wait until the unemployment checks stop rolling in. The problem is already there, there’s already more crime than before.

Just wait a couple more years.

FerFAL