Definition is Live on Amazon

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Jim

Definition, a new novel set in the not-incredibly-distant and the not-overly-pessimistic future (see previous post), is now available on Amazon. This one is exclusive to Amazon, at least while I try out the Prime lending library. Special thanks to Sharon and Bob for the edits, Joe and Shawn for the feedback, and the late great Robert A. Heinlein for a spectacular idea worth borrowing.

Definition Cover Image

Definition tells the story of an ex-military pilot sneaking up on middle age. He thinks of himself as another typical “bus driver” ferrying materials and occasional passengers around the solar system, but to others, he’s something of a war hero. Twenty years earlier, in a moment of desperation, Tom Ford had a brilliant idea and delivered victory from the jaws of defeat – the potential end of humanity.

With the help of an old war buddy or two, a kid in a wheelchair, a ship named after Marilyn Monroe, an asteroid miner cast adrift, the guy who invented the key technology of the victory, and one angry ex-girlfriend, Tom finds himself drawn into a mad scramble to defend humankind against a new and ominous threat… Ourselves.

I hope you enjoy Definition.

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Optimism in Human Nature

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Jim

I just uploaded a new novel (again). Some kind of snafu occurred the first time. For those of you hoping that it is Decay, I’m sorry to disappoint you. In its favor, writing this novel rescued me from my two major problems with Decay. Sometimes, you just have to look away to solve it. In any case, it’s called Definition, and it’s the polar opposite of the Renewal story in some important ways. Let me explain…

We’re at an interesting place in history, and I know most of you can feel it. We are living at the fork in the road. We can choose one path, and end up in the world of Renewal, collapsing under our own weight. Yes, I know Renewal is pretty optimistic as far as apocalypses go, but still, it would be better to avoid even the mildest forms of systemic disruption. Or, we can choose another path, and continue to grow and develop into a world that works much better than the one we have now.

Most of the discussion around our current state of affairs acknowledges that we have painted ourselves into a corner. We are mired in a whole host of political, economic, medical, and constitutional problems that no one seems to have to the combination of will and authority to solve. Many of my readers would say that the solution involves going back to the Constitution and individual liberty, and I would agree. One of the great things about writing fiction is that it’s possible to explore those ideas to whatever depth the author sees fit.

I want to go back even further. Let’s go back to human nature. First we’d need to agree that such a thing exists, that we are born with instincts and behavioral programming and that they can vary from male to female, possibly even from race to race. Before the blank slate people get rowdy, I also agree that we are capable of adapting to many layers of cultural conditioning that arise from everywhere, from our parents to our entire heritage. To suggest that there are underlying differences is not racist. It’s just part of acknowledging our innate human nature, and I think we can all agree that no one has gotten it right yet, so there’s room for an honest recognition of our nature all around.

One of the fundamentals of humanity is that we are born wanting more. We can and will use up everything that we can reach until something external slams on the brakes. This is not new. We’ve been doing it for a very long time, and it’s universal. Even our Native American icons of living in balance with nature most likely had to learn the hard way, since there is good evidence that the earliest humans on the continent managed to erase the Pleistocene ecosystem in a relatively short time, and that was with a comparatively small number of people.

Always wanting more drives us to expand. Once we in America had the whole of the West to absorb, discounting the people who were already there, who we displaced or otherwise removed anyway. Today, we have suburban sprawl, 12 lane highways, parking lots that involve a hike to the store, and entire landscapes covered in tract housing. When we have no place to go, we fill in the gaps.

Just these two little slices of our nature mean that there are finite limits to our existence. The more crowded we get, the more rules we need to keep from killing each other over Black Friday sales and such. The more rules we get, the less freedom we have. The more people that occupy a given area, the more infrastructure is needed and the more resources are consumed to keep a standard of life. This is not a theory; it’s a known mathematical fact, and that’s ignoring the elephant in the room. Eventually, there will be no more stuff to get. The world is finite, and everything it provides for us is finite as well. The fact that we are able to ignore this fact while sharing the world with billions of people is a great testament to our built-in optimism.

So, we have two options going forward. One, we can collectively learn to shrink. We can institute draconian rules to control births, and food, and fuel, and just about anything else that we use freely today. This possibility not only goes against every freedom that we accept as our American right, it goes against human nature itself. In other words, it’s doomed from the start. People will learn how to cheat the rules. People in power will use the differential in wealth to make themselves even richer and more powerful. Ultimately, we will all fight over the scraps at the table.

Option two is glaringly obvious to me, and yet just as obviously unpopular. If we as a species want more, then we already know where to get an infinite supply of “more.” Look straight up. That’s right. Our little planet is roughly 8000 miles across and can be circumnavigated by a solar powered boat, even with Somali pirates clogging up the sea lanes. However, it’s a swimming speck in a solar system with so many resources that by the time we even make a dent in the untapped well of space-borne riches, we could probably be swarming around any number of other stars.

I’m fully aware of the arguments on both sides of the space equation. Some people think it’s ridiculous to spend money exploring when we have hungry, illiterate children in our own cities. Some would prefer that we stay here, where we can be limited and controlled. Some people are even unaware of how much of our modern life was driven by the original space race and that leaves them unable to imagine what further progress would yield.

Our economy is predicated on growth. We’ve run out of room for growth without extending the artificial limits even further, and our economy is stalled out. We either need to redesign our economy for long term steady state conditions, or we need somewhere to find more growth. Straight up.

The elegance of the space option is the simple fact that we already know most of what we need to start taking advantage of all those resources. A private group, aptly named Planetary Resources, is working its way outward today. If they are the only ones in the game when they get there, they will amass wealth that is orders of magnitude more than anything we’ve seen yet. They’ll make the Facebook IPO look like a bankrupt third world nation. The second point of elegance is that we can take the burden for resources and heavy industry off this tired little planet of ours. We can turn our home into a garden while the ugly parts of human wealth creation move somewhere else, somewhere that doesn’t damage our environment every time we drive a bulldozer of the trailer. The most important point of elegance is that from a human nature standpoint, we can have our “more” cake and eat it too. Endless resources, endless energy, endless wealth, endless growth.

Some of the response to the formation of Planetary Resources has been, “Our government should  do this, not some private company.” They’re right. The fact that our government would rather spend our dollars squabbling over limited pools when there are oceans for the taking is criminal. They might not realize it, and we might not realize the magnitude of that mistake until some private company becomes profitable and our government ends up asking them for permission to leave the ground. At that point of profit, the gold rush will be unbelievable, and our public trust will be too late. But the ‘only-government” response is wrong too. Everyone with the means, private or public, should be working to get out there and carve off a piece of some rock full of exotic metals worth trillions of dollars. Either way, growth will be created and our lifestyles will benefit.

One final point of elegance is the “eggs in one basket” argument. Right now, someone could set off a nuke. A meteor could hit. A volcano can erupt, throwing enough dust into the sky to kill off food production for years. The Mayan Calendar could end. (ok, kidding) The point is that the sooner we get people to places that are not vulnerable to a single event here at home, the more likely we will survive. Heck, if we do it well, those adventurous souls could probably help us fix whatever we screw up. As long as we are all here in one basket, we are vulnerable.

So, we have the control of human nature response, and we have the follow our expansionist instincts response to our current problems. Two paths to the future… Which one sounds better in the long run?

In very sketchy terms, Renewal is what happens when our closed system runs out of steam, and Definition is what happens when we choose an open system and follow our basic nature where it leads.

But, maybe I’m just too optimistic for my human nature.

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Life is Like a Box of Compliments

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Jim

Hey, folks! I’ve gotten some really great Amazon reviews and blog comments lately. I just wanted to offer up a loud, front-page expression of my gratitude. Thank you all!

PS. – Luna thanks you too. I told her the snacks were from you. :)

Thanks!

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Risk Management

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Jim

I was watching the news – again – and it seems that a Navy jet has crashed into an apartment building. Considering how rarely such an event occurs, I would expect a certain kind of media spin. Perhaps something about how accidents are rare, and yes this is tragedy, but it could be so much worse. Naturally, the media is spinning it in the other direction, as it does with so many other stories. In aggregate, these stories almost seem to be directed at making us believe in a ridiculous myth.

Here’s the myth: “We should eliminate all risk from life.” And while we’re at it, “The best risk management system on Earth is the United States government. Those dudes will handle your problems, people.” We’ll save that topic for another day.

For now, forget that second part. The base of operations for the crashed F-18 has been there for a long time. It was once in the middle of open land which has since been packed full of development. If you choose to live under the daily flight paths of high performance jet aircraft, you are automatically, whether you consider it or not, assuming the risk that one day, one of these machines may fall into your living room. If you decide to build your apartment complex under the same piece of sky, better check your insurance coverage carefully. Seems pretty basic, right?

Well, that’s the thing. If you listen long enough, one of two things can happen. One, you can come to believe that life is as safe as the media and its glossy commercials tell you at every opportunity. Or two, you can think it through, understand that life is chock full of risk, and make your decisions based on what you can actually control. Just like women are bombarded with a standard that is virtually guaranteed to make them feel inadequate, all of us are hammered with a mythical message of a safe and secure life that only makes sense if you fail to pay attention.

Why? Paying attention reveals that the mythical message is far more insidious than simply selling us on an image. At the same time we are being told that such security is possible if we only trust in the right authorities, we are being shown a constant stream of fear. Terrorism, sexual predators, home invaders, and environmental disaster lead a parade of amorphous threats than can undermine us in a million ways. If we’re not very careful, we could, heaven forbid, take a hit on our 401(k), fail to collect the optimum number of miles from the dangling carrot of credit card rewards, or offend the cultural sensibilities of a person with an extraordinary collection of tattoos. Video games make our children fat and violent. Foul language destroys our very souls. Fear it! Fear it all! Then buy the thing that can miraculously fix it, whether the fix is Life Alert (I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!) or another bloated government program full of unintended or unpleasant consequences (TSA anyone?).

Paying attention can also reveal that it’s all bullshit (there goes my soul). Everything you hear through a media outlet has a purpose. It’s never just an altruistic desire to tell you what you need to know. Even this blog has a purpose or two. I’ll just go ahead and fess up. Yes, I want you to buy my books. Yes, I want you to tell your friends. Yes, I’d even like it if you click through on my Amazon links from time to time. But behind that is the reason that I write at all. If there is a common thread in all of it, it’s that I want us all to understand that we can think for ourselves, that despite the many messages with many agendas, we owe it to ourselves to take charge of our own rightful thoughts and beliefs, and to live as if he we have the right to make our own decisions.

So, risk. Life is risk. You can be attacked in the parking lot. You can be hit by a bus that rolled up on the sidewalk after the driver had a massive heart attack. You can die in your bed when a Russian satellite from the 60′s punches a hole in your roof. You can slip and fall as you hike the mountainside. Your children can grow up to be drug addicts. You can become the target of an insane arsonist. Literally anything is possible, but even if you add up all the risks you can imagine, the odds are still in your favor.

You can prepare, you can plan, you can make every reasonable move to protect yourself, but you cannot eliminate risk. No one can save you from it, so all I ask is that we stop trying to believe that we can ultimately be saved from every pain that life can offer. We do the best we can, and we keep moving ahead, no matter what happens. We mourn the tragedy, we make reasonable adjustments, and we recover to live another day.

To every talking head who is throwing out the question of whether the whole concept of flying jets around populated areas is something we should stop, I say the real question is, should we allow unbridled development around military bases with all their dangerous machinery? If we want the security of a strong military with well trained pilots and top-notch aircraft, then the obvious and unavoidable cost is to accept the minor risk that every now and then, something will go wrong.

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It’s What’s in Your Head

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Jim

You can blame pocofish for this one. He started it. :)

Let’s say someone was stalking you, casing your home, preparing to take something valuable to you. You went to work that day, like every day. Your kids went to school, and your wife went to her job, or went out to do the myriad things that stay-at-home spouses do. Not long after the house was empty, a young man walked up and rang your doorbell. He waited, got no answer, and rang again. If you had answered, he would have apologized for choosing the wrong address and departed your home with a friendly smile. He listened carefully whole time he stood on your front porch, verifying that no one was home.

He walked away, and two minutes later he was dialing his prepaid cell phone to alert the crew in the van that the coast was clear. When you arrived back at home that night, ready for  some tasty meatloaf, you discovered that your home had been robbed. Everything of value was gone. You called the police. They made the report. All the feelings of fear for your family and violation of your personal life rolled through your head for days afterward. The insurance company cut you a check, and you replaced everything you could. Technically, life was back to normal, but something had changed.

What about a bigger change? What if forces beyond your control came into play? You lost your job at the company you had given your entire adult life to support. The retirement you had worked for disappeared in a corporate scandal. No one helped because too many others in your situation had already been helped and the limping economy just couldn’t support any more. Your house fell inevitably into foreclosure. Your possessions began to disappear to any place that could provide a few dollars in exchange, but the pattern was set, and the trend led to the point at which you would take any job to keep your family in a tiny apartment with bargain food on the table. The apartment was not the nice kind. It was the kind that was scraping by with the rest of the country, and was willing to forget things like credit checks in return for the prospect of rent. The new neighbors’ only positive attribute was the hard life lessons they were about to provide your children in the ugliness of the world on the wrong side of the tracks.

At that point, a point you never imagined could happen, what can you do? If you had chosen one of the few careers that always need workers, you would never see that situation in the first place. If, like most of us, you chose a career based on the house of cards we call an economy, you could be in serious trouble. The more money you had before, the more likely you lived near the top of the house of cards. Any slight breeze of economic pain could blow you right off the top. If, like many Americans, you had focused all your time and effort on developing the high level of specialized skill that it took to get to the top, then whatever skills you had gained would be nearly useless down at the gritty foundation of our economy.

You would be less qualified to work at the fast food joint than the kid who had been running to the dumpster and pushing a mop. See, that kid was a known quantity in FoodFAST(tm) number 1317. He showed up for work, and he even occasionally covered the fryer during lunch rushes. You are less qualified for entry level retail because you haven’t worked retail for many years – if ever, and frankly, your salary history scares the hell out of potential employers. They don’t want to hire another cook for their kitchen, figuratively speaking; they want someone with no expectations, no potential for disrupting the work environment, and certainly someone who is happy to make thirty cents over minimum wage. On top of that, you just don’t look as good in the uniform as that fresh faced twenty-something, old man/woman.

Even if you could talk your way into a low level position, it doesn’t solve the real problem, which is keeping your family in some semblance of the manner to which they have become accustomed. Not even close. Many good people cover this shortfall by working three jobs, spending literally every waking minute scrambling for a third of what they had while working a single job with long lunches and no time clock. Many good people, through bad luck, bad location, or lack of will, never find a combination that works.

What do you do in that situation?

Instead of bending all your energy into one focused skill set, maybe you went out of your way to broaden your own personal foundation. Maybe you can fix a bike, throw great parties, hot rod a car, alter clothing, build a greenhouse, make the cake that everyone remembers, wire up electronics. Maybe your garden is the talk of your neighborhood, maybe you’re the geek who everyone asks all the techie questions, or maybe you can teach one of the things – like karate – that doesn’t require a federal security clearance and a blood sample – like basic math. Who knows what you could do?

But know this: Every skill you have is a potential door to open if life doesn’t work out just the way you planned. Every skill is a potential job, livelihood, or way of life. You could even find that your own version of change drives you straight into the arms of a better, more fulfilling life. Every skill is pure opportunity when opportunity seems lost.

Even better, that skill lives in your head. It can’t be stolen by burglars, it can’t be repossessed by the bank, and it can’t be driven out by the most sweeping changes in life. Barring massive head injury, it’s in there forever, waiting to grow, waiting to offer something back to you and those you love, no matter what comes your way. It’s what’s in your head. Now go out and fill it with great stuff!

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How to Lose a Customer in Four Easy Steps

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Jim

I’m a DIY’er. For the most part, I’m pretty good at building and fixing things. The project of the moment is our dryer. It’s an old Maytag unit that is somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty years old. If I really knew what I was doing, it would be fixed by now, but part of the fun for me is figuring out the problem.

Last week, it started squealing. I thought, “Belt.” We went to a local appliance shop in Lacey to get a new belt. As usual, I looked it up on the internet before I went, and then consciously decided to support the local business on the theory that it’s good to support local business on principles of local economic health, and in case things go wrong, someone is there to support me. I paid roughly twice the internet price for the belt, but I figured that’s the cost of doing business locally. I understand that local businesses need a margin to stay alive, but in the grand scheme of things, doubling the cost of an item is hard to sustain from the customer side of the equation, so let’s lets call high prices, “Step One.”

Well, the belt didn’t fix the problem. It made the problem worse. Now the dryer didn’t want to start, and when it did, the noise was even worse. In the back of my mind, I knew it was the motor, but I didn’t want to get that deep into the problem, so I looked for other causes. It turns out the two little wheels that support the main drum were incredibly tight and didn’t want to spin. I pulled them off and lubricated them. This turned out to be a very bad idea. Don’t lube them. Soooooo, I was back to the same store to get new support rollers. Again, I paid twice the going rate, and again, I justified it with my shop local ideas. Step 1.5.

Oh, those new rollers spun so nicely. Smooth. I put it all back together again, and guess what? That’s right. Still no worky. I was no longer able to avoid the motor. I took the dryer apart again, and quickly discovered that removing the motor was no big deal. I held up the dirt clotted thing and spun it with my fingers. A horrible squeaking noise issued from somewhere under the greasy dust. Ok, new motor. Sharon called the shop and they didn’t have the motor in stock, even though it turns out to be the same motor that’s in half the dryers on the planet. We were forced to reevaluate this shop local principle. From the internet, we could get the motor the next day. From the local shop, it would take two days. Oddly, the local shop’s price was comparable to the internet this time, so they won on the theory that it’s good to have help nearby in case something goes wrong. Meanwhile, the laundry was piling up, and stringing a clothes line across the house was not doing much to stave off laundropocalypse. That extra day was getting costly. Step two. Don’t be as quick as the competition.

Of course, when the motor arrived, it wasn’t a direct fit. The motor was the same, the same specs. Physically, it fit perfectly. Unfortunately, the wiring harness and connections were entirely different. There were no instructions in the box. I called the shop and explained the problem. The lady’s answer was to come to the shop around five when the technicians would be around. I went. This was my third trip across town for one part. A discussion with the lady at the counter revealed that the motor should have come with instructions and three little electrical connectors to adapt the old wiring harness in the dryer to the new connections on the motor. We could see a tiny photo of the instructions on the supplier’s web site, but naturally there was no way to download them at a readable scale. No one suggested that they try to reorder the part. Her solution was to have the supplier open another box and fax the instructions, which I would need to make a fourth trip to pick up.

“Ok. I guess I’ll wait for the technicians,” I said.

When the tech arrived, he was clueless. He was an older man. I assumed he had seen it all. I guess not. He grabbed an instruction set from the Whirlpool version of the same motor and decided it wouldn’t work. “We’ll need the Maytag instructions, and you need these adapters.” Step three. Don’t know the answers for a very common part. A younger tech came up while this conversation was occurring, casually opened a junk drawer, and tossed some adapters on the counter. I’m sure he assumed the shop would provide me with the missing adapters. I know I did, since the alternatives would be much more hassle for me.

When all was said and done, the tech not only failed to answer any of my questions, he scooped up these little connectors and they disappeared as casually as the younger tech had made them appear. I asked directly if I could have the three adapters, and the older man put on a wily smile and shook his head. I said that I thought it was the least he could do since I had a part that wouldn’t work, I had waited an extra day, and had made an extra trip. By the time I actually got the answers, I would have made two extra trips. He laughed at me like I was asking for him to provide a brand new dryer, rather than connectors that probably cost the shop exactly zero, since they had ended up in that drawer by being extras from other parts and projects. Step Four. Don’t provide penny parts that should have been in the box in the first place.

At that point, I placed my old motor in the instruction free box. New motor in the box. I turned and left. What I should have done was to demand a refund on the spot, but that would cause even more delays while we wait for another motor from a different source, and of course, there’s always the possibility of more mistakes. Instead, I walked out, never to return again.

In the end, here’s the upshot for all local business. If you can’t make it cheaper, and you can’t make it faster, then you had better do everything in your power to make it easier – especially when it costs you nothing to do it. If you don’t, then you have exactly no value to me, the customer, and you deserve to lose out to the internet juggernaut. You’ve not only lost me, a hardcore DIY’er, as a customer, but the next time I have to decide between buying locally and ordering something from the internet, you have also made your contribution to the rapid demise of local, mom-n-pop shops everywhere.

UPDATE:

I don’t know if it was in response to my email, but I just received a “helpful” call from the company in question. The finally got a fax of the instruction, which we all knew would be almost impossible to read. Apparently the supplier had the new motors in the old boxes and none of them contained instructions. But hey, if I wanted a new motor in a new box (with instructions) it was only $50 more. All of this is moot, since I found the instructions in a nice clear pdf on an obscure but helpful appliance repair forum. Rather than use the adapters, I just used standard connectors, stripped the wires, and crimped the new connectors on. After reassembly, the dryer is now working perfectly. Nice and quiet.

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I Added Some Stuff

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Jim

Hi all! Just a quick note to say that I’ve added a few books and software bits to the “Stuff I Like” pages. More to come, in case you find yourself without anything better to do while you wait for me to finally release Decay. :)

Best,

Jim

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It’s March Already?

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Jim

Hi folks! I’ve been driving some of you crazy (along with myself and my wife) waiting for Decay. There are a number of reasons I’m still working on it, but the goal is to make it as good as I possibly can. As you can probably tell from the mistakes, Renewal was a test for me. I literally spent my adult life trying to convince myself to write. I mean, I wrote, but I never let anyone read the vast majority of it. I always ran up against the voice in my head who said, “Why would anyone care what you have to say?” There it is. That’s the argument that kept me locked down for 44 years.

I made a loophole for myself by calling Renewal an experiment in ebook publishing. “Hey,” the other voice said, “If it’s just an experiment, then you can totally screw it up and still learn something.” Under this loophole, I created the mental space to travel down the roads of Coffee County. I don’t need the loophole anymore. Thanks to all of you, I can sit down to write, knowing that I have a right to be there.

The catch (there’s always a catch) is that I now regard it as a professional activity, and I go after it with professional diligence. Without boring you with the details, Decay has six times the hours and effort involved, compared to the Renewal series. It doesn’t help that all three novels are being balanced against each other, and I’m here to tell you, 800,000 words do not balance themselves.

I’d love to tell you that Decay is coming right now, but all I can honestly say is that it won’t be long now. I’m two list items away from having my final revisions complete, and there will be a couple of rounds of proofing after that. There’s no guarantee that all this work will produce a better story, but it’s my hope that you will think it’s worth the effort.

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Mainstreaming Survival

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Jim

I watched the new show about survival preppers on the National Geographic channel last night. I notice that several grocery stores in our area have started carrying big cans of long term storage food in the past year. In the same year, I surprised myself with how many people read post-apocalyptic fiction. I sense the rising level of unease with our future. Perhaps it goes hand in hand with frustration with our government.

In terms of television, I shouldn’t be surprised at all. There’s a good chance that I shouldn’t add this new show, Doomsday Preppers, to the pile of signs that we are collectively growing ever more fearful of our direction as a nation. I mean, there are reality shows about literally everything else these days. There’s a form to the genre. I can only only imagine that every pitch for a new reality show includes the words “train wreck” and “you can’t stop watching.” On the other hand, maybe the show is part of a larger pattern. Maybe it seeks to fill a niche in our desire for security in an ever shakier world. You tell me.

Whether survival thinking is truly more prevalent or not, it feels more visible to me. As with all problems, I wonder if that visibility is just a function of more channels of information, or simply the fact that I am paying more attention to that aspect of life. I doubt if the latter is the case. I’ve been self-sufficiency oriented for a long time. I’ve been able to see potential breakdown scenarios for a long time as well. I’m lucky enough to have been exposed to some good survival training along the way. I’ve got 800,000 words of survival fiction sitting on my hard drive, but for some reason, it’s still odd to me to watch a TV show about hard core preppers doing their thing.

In each case, I saw some good survival thinking, good prep, good plans, and at least one aspect that made it hard to accept. In every case, some unidentified experts critiqued the methods and plans of each prepper. And in each case, the preppers themselves reacted to the critique with a fair amount of fanatical adherence to their own methods. The amount of time, effort, and money that was involved should lead a critical thinker to ask, “What if I’m wrong?” That never seemed to happen. Of course, it’s television, and there is no way that a 20-minute segment can cover the entire methodology of a person in that short amount of time. Every prepper had a favorite apocalypse scenario, and that was their reality in TV land. They were all in.

I say there is nothing wrong with that. This ostensibly free country says you can believe what you want, and live the way you want, as long as you do it within the law. Good for them. Here’s the problem, though. If your whole life is about survival, if you do nothing with your time and money except for preparing for the apocalypse, are you really living? What if you are wrong and, like it or hate it, nothing really changes?

I’m playing devil’s advocate here. I don’t believe we can maintain the trends that have gotten us to this point of insecurity with our future, but it’s entirely possible that our esteemed leaders can figure out a way to keep grinding along for quite some time. It certainly works well enough for them that they will move mountains to keep the status quo.

There are a million perspectives, and mine is worth exactly what you paid for it, but I think there are three pieces to survival – come what may.

One is the here and now. If nothing changes, you need to survive this world, find some measure of success, and hopefully gain some happiness along the way. Take advantage of relative peace and prosperity to educate yourself and live life to the fullest.

Two is the self-sufficient layer. If our leadership has proven one thing, it’s that we can’t necessarily trust them to do what is in our best interest. That means to some extent that you have to figure out how to hold your life together if they make mistakes that cause problems for us regular folks. Only you can decide what this means for you. You may live on some land, grow your own food, and run your house on a wind generator. You may develop a network of people who can help you if there are disruptions in life. You may simply gain some skills that you think will trade for value if systems break down. It’s for you to decide. Again, educate yourself and consider your own situation. Dream up potential scenarios and develop the answers that work for you.

Three is true survival situations. Earthquakes, floods, blizzard, pandemic, wildfires, war, economic collapse, and so on. If life pulls the rug right out from under you, what do you do? The odds of any single event occurring is very low. The cumulative odds of a survival event is still low, but over the course of a lifetime, it’s significant. This is another plan that should be dependent on your particular situation and needs. The way I approach it is: What’s the worst that could happen? Ok. I can’t possible survive that. Now, what’s the worst survivable situation that could occur? If you can deal with the worst survivable scenario you can dream up, that’s level three.

The ultimate plan would allow someone to maintain a life of comfort and security no matter what happens. It’s a balance of everything, and therefore almost impossible to achieve. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but I do think it would take all your time and all your money to even approach the ultimate plan. For me, a better approach is to create a lifestyle that leans towards self-sufficiency while keeping that set of tools that would allow survival in the extreme scenarios. What’s extreme? Think of pioneers moving west into hostile territory with nothing but a little rough food, a pack full of tools, and a head full of knowledge to use them.

In short, I think survival starts and ends with what you know. You can improve any situation with the ability to think and adapt to what you have to work with. Everything else is icing on the cake. Be smart.

Meanwhile, we can watch Doomsday Preppers. We can live in shipping containers arranged like a castle. We can, as a young woman, plan to hike across Houston in short shorts and expect not to be noticed. We can learn to eat weeds and hope no one else knows the same tricks. We can stockpile 30 years of gourmet food and hope that no one will arrive in force to take it. We can make fantastic plans yet allow ourselves to be morbidly obese. We can do all kinds of things to prepare for the worst, but lets not forget to live our best.

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Self-Sufficiency, Courtesy of Fritch

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Jim

Let me tell you what I know about Fritch. He’s a reader of many things. He does his homework. When it comes to self-sufficiency, he and his wife are walking the walk. He pays attention to the direction we are going in this country, and he does it all without breaking over into tin-foil-hat territory. He’s a good guy. So when he starts to round up his thoughts on the subject of self-sufficiency, it’s worth checking out.

Life in the Trinity Mountains

Posted in Friends | Tagged , | 1 Comment