Water is Life, by Damon S.

If you have to bug out, bug in, or even just hang out in the Superdome with the other hurricane survivors, you can go for 10 days or more without food.  It will be unpleasant, you will feel ill, unhappy, and desperate.  You will, however, live if you get a reliable supply of food within a few weeks of your TEOTWAWKI event.

Water, however, is a different story.  It’s not just something you use to bathe, wash your car, or do the dishes.  It is, literally, the elixir of life.  You will die if you go four, maybe five days without it.  Even if you are without it a few days you will begin to suffer potentially permanent ill effects.

When you prepare for disaster, civil disorder, or other TEOTWAWKI events, water should be at the top of your list of considerations in my opinion.  Fortunately water is one of the most common things on Earth, right?  Absolutely.  You are right, water is everywhere.  The problem with that observation, however, is that very little of it is consumable.  About one percent of fresh water on Earth is potable, or about .007 percent of all water on Earth is potable.  With that in mind, water for your family to drink becomes a much bigger issue.  There are ways around this problem, though.

Americans are blessed with a water system that provides healthy and usually quite good tasting water for use of our citizens.  It comes out of a convenient metal fixture in my sinks, my bathtubs, and my water hose.  What happens if that water supply stops?  The best answer for anyone would be a good long term solution, such as a well.  With an aquifer beneath your property supplying a well with fresh water, you have the advantage of the Earth itself filtering your water.  Unless you have dangerous metals contaminating that well, you will have access to fresh water for your family that will be both convenient and reliable.  If this is your situation, you are indeed very lucky.  The first thing you should do is ensure that you have the means to get to that water should the electrical grid fail you.  I still remember the hand pump behind my grandparents house.  They’d always save a little water to prime the well so that they could get as much as they needed from the ground.  I used to think they had it rough.  Now I know they had security.

Another method of securing water for your family long term is access to a stream or river.  A lake will do just fine.  There is, however, risk associated with water open to the environment that isn’t as much of an issue with well water.  Contamination.  Well water is, as mentioned, filtered by the Earth.  Open water is contaminated with decaying animals, bacteria, animal and human waste, and potentially chemicals that will poison you as surely as if you sucked the mercury out of a thermometer. 

A way to get around the contamination problem does exist.  In fact, there are several ways.  You can buy a pre-made filter, plenty of extra filter [element]s, and keep stocked up for a long term ability to filter your water of chemical and biological contaminants.  You can also make your own filter, it’s not that hard.  Activated charcoal and increasingly fine mesh filter media used inside a PVC pipe can do a pretty good job of cleaning water.  No matter what you do as far as filtration goes, you should also boil your water.  As can be seen with the current cholera outbreak in Haiti, microbial contamination is a huge threat in TEOTWAWKI situations.  If the Haitians were all boiling their water, it would go a long way toward putting an end to the cholera outbreak.  They are, however, due to their financial situation unprepared for the problems associated with the earthquake that devastated their country. 

Boiling water takes fuel.  A wood fire will do, maybe propane on your camp stove.  However you do it, you must have a container to boil the water in that will stand up to repeat use as a boiling pot.  Since you must use fuel anyway, I have a different suggestion that I use for my family.  Distillation.  I built a still, and I plan on building another.  The one I built costs me eighty dollars.  I plan to put aside a few hundred dollars soon to buy and build a larger still. 

To start with I bought a thirty-six gallon aluminum pot from Sam’s Club.  It is quite thick and sturdy, able to stand up to open flame or a burner.  I have no idea of knowing which I would have to use, so my pot is the best I could find.  The pot came with a nice thick lid as well.  I bought a couple of C-clamps to hold the lid in place, preventing steam from escaping.  Some still does, I am planning on adding a gasket to the lid to make a better seal. 

The next step was to give that steam in the pot a place to go.  I didn’t want to build a bomb, so I put a plumbing fitting through the lid.  I drilled a hole of the proper size, and the correct fittings from the local home fix-it store.  A hardware store will likely have all the plumbing fittings too.  I’m not going to give out part numbers, if you’re a prepper you’re already smart enough to figure out how to use a gasket, select a plumbing item, and create a way for the steam to pass through the lid of the pot.  I selected my fixture so that I could use garden hose gaskets as gaskets for my fitting.  They are cheap, and heavy duty.  You also get several in a bag.  The next thing I did was attach a flexible faucet hose to the fitting on the lid.  I’m talking about the braided steel hose that attaches the faucet fixture to the wall spigot.  You’ll see why I selected a flexible hose in a minute.  They have plastic hoses as well, but I paid a few more dollars to add the durability of braided steel.  I then attached a fitting to the other end of the hose that would allow me to attach and remove a one half inch copper pipe to the steam pot.  I cut a two foot section of pipe for this.

You can’t distill water if steam is the only thing coming out of the end pipe.  You need a chiller pot.  I bought a sixteen quart enameled stockpot as my chiller.  Again, I put plumbing fixtures on the pot, but this time I put them through the wall of the pot, not the lid.  I put one near the top, and one at the bottom.  On the inside wall of the pot is a pressure fitting that allows you to press your condensation coil into it.  That will create a tight seal with the copper tubing of your condensation coil.  Your condensation coil is created by purchasing a coil of copper tubing that is flexible, and then creating a spiral from the top fitting to the bottom.  Make sure that your spiral is angled down at all points, as water will not drain if it condenses into a ‘valley’ in the coil.  If the water cannot drain, it will act as a plug and create back pressure in the steam pot.  This increases the possibility that steam will escape instead of condense and flow out as pure water.

The outside attachments on the chiller pot are the same attachment you use on the end of the braided steel hose.  Make sure you caulk the inside and outside of the fittings on the chiller pot liberally, you’ll need to make sure your water in that pot doesn’t leak out.  That water will absorb the heat from the copper condensation tube, turning the steam from the steam pot back into water.  On the bottom fitting, the one that the condensed and purified water comes out of, I put a six inch copper tube to allow for a bowl or pitcher to be used to collect the distilled water. 

This design can be improved.  For one thing, by the time I distilled a quart of water, the water in the chiller pot was steaming from the heat transferred to it.  You’ll have to change the water in the chilling pot (which doesn’t need to be purified, just reasonably clear so as not to make the pot too nasty) for every quart otherwise too much steam will escape and not be saved as water.   The next thing is that I believe the chiller pot needs to be bigger and also have another fixture at the bottom so you can drain the water from it without disassembling the still.  Refilling it would then be a matter of just closing that valve and pouring more cold water into it.  Make sure not to mix your distilled water and your chiller water, or you’ve just wasted all your effort.  I also believe that a bigger chiller pot will allow you to use a longer condensation coil.  The longer the coil, the less likely it is that it will get hot enough for steam to travel the entire length of it. 

My current still design is nice in that you can put the chiller pot inside the steam pot, allow you to travel with just the one pot as far as space goes if need be.  The half inch copper transfer tubes can be shortened as necessary to allow them to fit inside the steam pot as well.  Once you use the still, you simply scrape any scum left in the bottom of the steam pot out to prepare it for the next use. 

Distilled water isn’t that great tasting, but it works.  Mine removed salt and food coloring from the water.  Boiling is included in the process, of course, so all life in the water is killed.  There is an urban myth that distilled water is bad because it leaches minerals from your body.  This is wrong, the water is perfectly safe and any mineral imbalance that might give any weight to the leaching idea is fixed immediately as it mixes with the contents of your stomach.  You did store food too, right?  Even if you didn’t, there is no risk from distilled water.  Distilled water is used in the saline solution that you are given in hospitals.

The great thing about a still is that it will clean very contaminated water.  The downside is that you need fuel and a place to set it up that will be secure.  If you don’t have that, you’re going to need short term water to get you by.  That involves storage on hand prior to TEOTWAWKI.

My family stores water in portable six gallon water containers that we pick up locally to avoid shipping.  Wal-Mart has containers that are free of BPA (bad chemicals) in the sporting goods section for ten dollars.  When you compare that to fifty-five gallon drum storage, there are several benefits.  The large drums are generally nearly a hundred dollars by the time you add in a hand pump to get the water out.  Just try picking up a fifty-five gallon drum to pour out the water for dinner.  After shipping the cost of a large drum can be well over one hundred dollars.  The six gallon containers, at ten dollars each, give you sixty gallons for one hundred dollars.  They are portable, you can pick them up to pour out what you need.  They have handles that you can use to carry one with you if you need to do so.  They’re still heavy, but you’re much more likely to carry one of them instead of a barrel. 

We also have about six hundred bottles of water on hand.  If we bug in, those will be available for any excursions we have to make, as well as for home use as we need.  They’re very convenient, and can store for a good long time.  Usually it’s less than four dollars for a pack of thirty two at the bulk stores.  We also save our two liter bottles and fill them with water after they’re empty.  They’re designed to last long term with liquid inside, and we stack them like you would stack wood.  On their side stacked up about five high.  You might be able to stack more, but I don’t want to put too much pressure on the bottom bottles and promote leaking lids.  The last method of short term storage is your bathtubs and your toilets.  The water in your toilet tank is perfectly good if it came from the water system prior to TEOTWAWKI.  Once you have room in another container, siphon it out and store it safely.  You can then use non-potable water to flush your toilets if you have a source.  Remember the rule for that.  Let yellow mellow, if it’s brown flush it down. 

Remember that water needs should be at the top of your stores.  If you have kids, buy some cocoa mix or fruit drink mix.  They’ll snap that right up, mine do so now.  So many of us are preparing for the worst, but if you don’t have safe water you may well be buying those goods for other survivors who find your stash after you die from dysentery or cholera.  You owe it to yourself and to your kids, if you have them, to ensure you have a water supply that is safe. 
Happy prepping!

A “Loophole” to a Statist Few is a Birthright to the Majority

I’m tired of hearing hoplophobic whiners in their endless prattle about “the gun show loophole.” Just what is this “loophole” they are talking about? It is in fact perfectly legal commerce between private citizens of the same state. This not a “loophole”. Rather, it is merely the exercise of free trade in used household goods between sovereign citizens within their own states. Gun shows are a time-honored tradition–not some sort dodgy maneuvering.

The leftist whiners are again begging congress to apply the Interstate Commerce Clause to restrict intrastate sales. That is just plain extra-jurisdictional and hence absolutely unconstitutional. (Does the phrase “No nexus” mean anything to them?) In light of the U.S. v. Lopez decision, there is no way that the Commerce Clause can be contorted to fit their expansive view.

Some of the biggest whiners are the members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a civilian disarmament cabal that was created by billionaire Michael Bloomberg. Most of the members are leftist big city Democrats from eastern states. Ironically, this group has a membership roster with a remarkably high felony conviction rate. According to Conservapedia their roster has included these criminal mayors:

  • Former Mayor Gary Becker of Racine, Wisconsin. (He was convicted of attempted child sexual assault and child enticement. With a shopping trip to the juniors’ section of the lingerie department of a local store, Becker threw a monkey wrench into the sentencing phase of his trial. Just as he was on the verge of getting a light or suspended sentence, he instead earned himself a three year prison term.)
  • Former Mayor David Delle Donna of Guttenberg, New Jersey (Federal extortion and mail fraud charges. Both he and his wife are now serving four+ year felony sentences.)
  • Former Mayor Sheila Dixon of Baltimore, Maryland. (Found guilty of four counts of perjury, two counts of misconduct, three counts of theft, and three counts of fraudulent misappropriations. A “probation before judgment” (PBJ) sweetheart sentencing deal enabled her to keep her $83,000 per year pension.)
  • Mayor Jerramiah Healy of Jersey City, New Jersey. (Convicted for obstruction of justice in 2007, but still in the mayor’s seat!)
  • Former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick of Detroit, Michigan. (Two felony obstruction of justice sentences stemming from his efforts to cover up an extramarital affair. He also pleaded no contest to charges of assaulting a police officer attempting to serve a subpoena a friend in that case. He is now back in prison for violation of parole, and he still faces trial on additional charges. That trial will most likely begin in mid-2011.)
  • Former Mayor Larry Langford, of Birmingham, Alabama. (He was included in a 101-count indictment for conspiracy, bribery, fraud, money laundering, and filing false tax returns in connection with a long-running bribery scheme. Convicted on 60 counts, he is now serving a 15 year sentence.)
  • Deceased Mayor Frank Melton of Jackson, Mississippi. (At the time of his death was under felony indictment on civil rights charges. He died before a scheduled re-trial, following a mistrial.)
  • Former Mayor Eddie Perez of Hartford, Connecticut. (Felony bribery, fabricating evidence, conspiracy to fabricate evidence, and first-degree larceny by extortion. Now serving a three year prison sentence.)
  • Former Mayor Samuel Rivera, of Passaic, New Jersey. (Corruption, influence peddling, and extortion charges. Sentenced to 21 months in prison.)
  • Former Mayor Will Wynn, of Austin, Texas. Convicted of a Class C misdemeanor, for “a choking assault on a man who had crashed a party.”

If the foregoing isn’t enough, Conservapedia also details numerous firearms-related scandals involving members of the mayors’ group, including Bloomberg himself.

It goes without saying that once someone is convicted of a felony, it is crime under Federal law and most state laws to possess a modern cartridge firearm. So perhaps if these do-gooders want to restrict “Illegal Guns”, then they ought to start by disarming themselves.

(Permission to re-post the full text of this particular post is granted, as long as a link to SurvivalBlog.com is included.)

Letter Re: Build Your Own HF Transceiver Antenna

The following is my contribution to SurvivalBlog about antennas for High Frequency (HF) Transceivers. One antenna that has served me well over the years and easy to build is the G5RV antenna. Louis Varney, a British ham, came up with idea for the G5RV which also his call sign.

The G5RV is a dipole antenna with 51 foot legs and the center feed point being 28’6″ of 300 ohm twin lead transmission grade twin lead connected to RG58 coaxial cable (“coax”). There are other construction methods, but for simplicity, we use a 1″ outside diameter PVC Tee to create a center feed point. To seal this all up I used caps and cemented them to the two openings closed. Before you seal them up you drill a hole in end caps and slip them over the 51 foot length of wire and put a knot in the end of the wire that will be inside the tee. Pull both lengths of  wire through the tee and using a 10 to 12 inch section of PVC pipe that you cement in the opening that will point down the wire through the tubing and solder to the 300ohm twin lead. Before soldering the twin lead split it down middle about six inches. The reason for this is to allow the twin lead a little room feed the wire you will solder the twin lead to. This is where you have to eye this very carefully because once you seal this up in the tee then you are “up the creek” if you did not do it right. At the bottom of the PVC tubing we drill a couple of small diameter holes to slip a couple of tie wraps through to form a strain relief  on 300 ohm twin lead. Put enough caulking inside the end of the PVC to seal it up. On the tee I usually tie 550 cord or equivalent  small diameter rope so you throw this up in a tree and pull it up in a tree or a mast.  The length of RG58 we use is about 50 ft. at the most you can use more. But due to power loss we would keep it to that magic 50 foot mark. This just a guess but through 35 years experience as a two radio tech and U.S. Merchant Marine radio officer on Navy ships. Use your imagination connecting the twin lead to the coax.

When you solder this up make sure you do not short out the coax, We highly recommend using a 30-40 watt soldering iron to solder all connections. concerning the end of the dipole legs. We have used a one inch diameter PVC pipe/tubing cut to the length of four inches. Drilling holes in both ends put the wire from the dipole leg through it and using about a foot. wrapping a the wire around itself until you wrap it all the way. Then wrap electrical tape around to protect the end of the wire and keep moisture out.The other end put  a length of 550 cord though it and use it to tie off the dipole legs  I use Radio Shack  PL-259 crimp-on connectors for the connector to connect to the coax to the antenna tuner.  

Now concerning antenna tuners for the HF ranges. This probably is a mystery to you who are reading this posting. But to use a dipole or any other antenna with a HF transceiver you probably need an antenna tuner. HF transceivers cover from 1.8 to 30 MHz . This is not like your CB radio, as it uses a small section of the HF frequencies. 26.5 to 27.5 Mhz and this only a guess. We are covering almost 30 MHz with a real HF transceiver.

You match the different impedance  to the radio. The radios are set up to work with 50 ohm inputs. Using the antenna tuner you match the radio to the antenna keeping the 50 ohm match to the radio. Now what brands are out there that affordable and reliable. Over the years we have used a MFJ 949D/E etc antenna tuner it match  many a ham transceiver. MFJ Enterprises makes a great line of HF tuners. Also, I’s would like to write about automatic antenna tuners. One brand we have used and very happy with is LDG Electronics. LDG makes a variety of  tuners. The one which I chose for simplicity and the price was the Z-100. This operates on the same 12 VDC power supply that many ham HF radios already have available.  LDG and other manufacturers make connecting cable to use with different radios. We used the Z-100 with a Yaesu FT857D  which is small HF solid state transceiver and also has 6 meters, 70cm, and 2 meters. We used this combination while on a month-long school in Florida, six years ago. I used a commercial antenna that adjustable in length up to a hundred feet.

In closing, this is one of many wire antennas that can be used portable as well fixed location. Also another radio that is small (and also 100 watt) is the Icom 706 MkIIG, a great little radio with a good receiver. A lot of the information you will need is on the Internet and also in amateur radio books.

Just one final warning: Don’t just get a HF rig and get on the air without a license. A lot of ham radio operators will direction find (DF) you, and turn over to the FCC. In an emergency you do not need a license. – Ben N.

Letter Re: Confusion on Food Grade Buckets

James,  
First, thanks for all that you do. God bless you and your family.  Second, to reiterate what you’ve already posted, the five gallon buckets sold at Home Depot and Lowe’s are not food grade buckets. They are stamped with the number 5. Yesterday I discovered that the buckets in the paint department at my local Wal-Mart are marked Food Grade. They are selling for $2.50 each, which is half the price of those at Home Depot and Lowe’s.  Also, the lids, which have rubber gasket seals are selling for .98 cents each. Be sure to check your local bakery. Many of them have the 2 gallon and 3-1/2 gallon buckets for free. Hope this helps. – H.W.

JWR Replies: This expands on what I wrote in the Rawles Gets Your Ready Family Preparedness Course. I concur that bakeries are a great place to find used food grade buckets for little or no cash outlay. Also ask at delicatessens, catering companies, or other vendors that utilize foods bought in bulk.

Economics and Investing:

Reader G.W. wrote to mention that the Coin Debasement Modernization Act passed on November 30th. It is now waiting President BHO‘s signature. I’ve been warning folks about a likely change in the composition of the U.S. Nickel (Five Cent coin) for more than three years. This may be your last chance to get real nickels at no premium over their face value and without the effort of any sorting. (Once a coin composition change takes places, it will become labor intensive, just as it did with pennies.)

Jason in Central New York sent this: Was There A Big Recession Warning Buried Inside This Week’s ISM? Jason’s comment: “Looks like manufacturing being purchased for inventories ratio is a good indicator of what’s to come.”

MERS: The Mortgage Database That’s Clouding Millions of Titles

By way of Forbes, Michael Pollaro itemizes U.S. Government Debt Monetization

Items from The Economatrix:

Why Governments Will Buy Silver  

Jobs Rebound Will Be Slow  

Bernanke Doesn’t Rule Out QE Exceeding $600 Billion. (Of course he doesn’t! Note that Bernanke stonewalled congress for more than a year about announcing the size of the bank bailouts, and the roster of recipients. It was only last week that we found out that it was actually $9 trillion in taxpayer-guaranteed loans, lent to just a handful of big banks at ridiculously low interested rates.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Texas Calls in the Law in Its Beef With Feral Porkers; You Can’t Shoot Them From Helicopters in Dallas Proper; Subtlety Is Required. (Thanks to F.G. for the link.)

   o o o

Also from F.G.: For Jacksonville couple, historical re-enactments are real business

   o o o

There are now more than a dozen family preparedness podcasts out there. Two of them that I find particularly useful are The Prepper Podcast and The Chip Monk Family Survival Podcast.

   o o o

Tired from a hike? Rescuers fear Yuppie 911

Notes from JWR:

SurvivalBlog may have some downtime when we make server changes this Wednesday night. The blog page should be back online in less than 24 hours. Don’t panic!

—

As we remember Pearl Harbor Day, we need to be vigilant, both as a nation, and as individuals.

—

Today we present another two entries for Round 32 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 250 round case of 12 Gauge Hornady TAP FPD 2-3/4″ OO buckshot ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $240 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, B.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and C.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 32 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Where’s the Bad Guys? — Morality When the SHTF, by Kelly A.

1

You don’t have to read many gun blogs before you are faced with discussion regarding Bad Guys (“BG’s”). The BG shorthand is the current forum-speak for “Bad Guy”. In these discussions you’ll find that BG’s are always in desperate need of having an end put to their pathetic lives, and that they are nothing really but a target waiting to be acquired. But does reality reflect forum logic? Does every BG have an angry scowl and use someone’s beautiful daughter as a human shield?

Life, unlike some forum discussions, is chuck-full of gray areas, shadowy concealment, and moral dilemmas where right and wrong are difficult or impossible to distinguish in the short time to takes to apply draw, front-sight, press, front-sight. We don’t like to hear that. We prefer to think that when the waste hits the whirler we’ll know exactly what to do, but reality screams otherwise. Ask any combat veteran or beat cop about reality versus training, the tunnel vision and hyper-awareness of a genuine adrenaline dump can greatly effect one’s perceptions of the situation at hand, and severely limit our ability to find the coherent choices we may need in those split seconds that tick by so slowly in hind-sight yet are over in a blink in real-life.

We train for just such reality. We prepare for just such circumstances. We train so that muscles do their job even if minds turn to butter, just like we prepare so that we’ll have the particular supply in hand the moment the need arises. Yet there is an issue of preparedness which few people intentionally train for, and fewer still take the time to ponder in any degree comparable to how they worry about food, ammo, or shelter. That issue is morality.

Morality is completely irrelevant if the BG is always as readily identifiable as the dude on those full-color paper targets which are so popular, but bad guys are never so simple to spot. More people have lost their lives at home and abroad to unexpected encounters with a smiling stranger than with an obviously motivated mugger. Now if the bad guys are hard to spot, don’t think the good guys are always easy to distinguish either. To further play into this difficulty, remember that you are a stranger to a great many people, and in TEOTWAWKI any stranger might decide you are a threat to be shot first and questioned only afterward. To these concerns we must realize that morality is the straw that braces the world from tumbling into darkness. Morality is also a very relative term, and an even more fluid target to try and live in even a relatively peaceful world like most of us enjoy today, to say nothing of a post-disaster, or dollar-starved, social environment.

How does one prepare for such a world? How do we train for the situations we might face regarding a fallen or collapsing moral structure? If truth be told I fear some of our own good folks sometimes. When I hear some prepper buddy talking trash about BGs in the context of complete legal ignorance of even our existing laws, it scares me. When that same individual seems to get a twinkle in his eye at the thought of zero prosecution in a weak or fallen local civil structure I start maneuvering my kids away from him, because here is one that might be a bit too trigger happy.

Want a practical example? Assume everything fell and the crops are growing well in your little hide-away. You return from a hunting trip and find a man with a rifle under one arm and load of your fresh produce under the other. The trigger-happy hero wannabe draws his .45 and taps two rounds center-mass, thump, garden fodder? Does he even consider that fifteen minutes later the mother of that fifteen year-old “man” might be at his feet wailing the loss of her son? Can he take-back those bullets when she explains that they had company coming and needed to borrow a few things. Knowing he was away on a hunt they had assumed they could barter appropriate payment when he returned, but instead the lad is dead. He’d brought a rifle because everyone carries a rifle now when they are alone… it’s a different world when the SHTF, and our trigger-happy “friend” wasn’t morally ready for it. He did not train his mind & heart to work in tandem with his body.

Training Day – Seven Everyday Ideas to Practice
Obviously every day is training day when it comes to morality. Any trip to Wal-Mart or visit to a neighbor’s home is an opportunity to practice one’s judgment of the intents of others, while putting your own best manners all the way forward. On a practical level though, it’s hard to train without narrowing the focus. Like all our other prepping, we should specify the particular needs and scenarios we might face. For this, I’m going to narrow the moral field to seven specific areas, not in their particular order of importance per se, but I’ll discuss them in the order in which they build upon themselves to form a full moral foundation. Others might divide these differently, or might disagree with the ones I put forward, but that is training in itself since the real world is nothing but differences of opinion on how we should all get-along.

I won’t bother explaining the source for my divisions at this point, since it will be clear by the time we reach the end of the article, but keep in mind all throughout that general morality is not the possession of any particular religion or sect, it is the factor which sets every man apart from the animal kingdom. The very fact that an individual can form words into language and thereby communicate his own most personal thoughts to another individual is light years ahead of even the best communication among beasts. Likewise though, the necessity of words and language in such communication is also the loose thread that can pull the entire garment to pieces, so we must be careful. We’ll build one piece onto the next, in order, and with reason, we’ll construct a concept about morality which, if communication proceeds in peaceful lines, will permit the discussion to grow, and the ideas to be perhaps steered toward a far more useful implementation than is suggested here where only my one mind is spewing the ideas.

Life. Our concept holds that life is afforded only to individuals, and for life to continue it must, without exception, be subject at various times to the will and whim of other individuals. For our first moral analysis let’s consider the abrupt termination of life we term as murder. For society to thrive, before or after a fall of any kind, we must not tolerate “murder”.

One: Don’t Murder
If we must not tolerate murder then it is vastly important that we properly define murder, so let’s call it the intentional termination of a human life without justifiable cause. Such a definition helps us differentiate taking a human life versus an animal life, something we’ll deal with in greater detail later. It also helps us focus on the motive behind taking this life, when we must stop to consider whether such an act is “justifiable” we come face to face with society. The very term “justifiable” implies that there is some entity other-than the one taking said life, an entity to whom the homicide must be accounted to. Most any of us might “justify” homicide several times a day, during brief lapses from rational thought, but knowing the matter would be judged by others makes us all think twice (God-only knows how many ill-tempered managers have been saved from a “death by stapler” through such efforts of conscience). Like the example of our trigger-happy friend in the garden , an individual might justify lethal action within his own mind during a particular situation, but it can be another thing altogether to stand among your peers and explain exactly why you pulled the trigger, what events led-up to it, and what other options may have been available. Depending on how bad things get in TEOTWAWKI, our neighbors and any remaining law-enforcement might be a bit more lenient than now, but we should hope that they keep a rational judgment of such things, and that we don’t see the better aspects of society fall to fear and panic.

What “justifies” the application of lethal force? Most likely the same factors we consider now, would apply just as well in times of massive societal stress, but the situations might be more frequent, and more severe. Specifically, there are three clear indicators an individual must consider in those split-seconds when he is “choosing” whether to defend with lethal force. This BG might indicate the ability to kill or maim, having weapons or known skills. He must also show the intent for grave bodily harm, displaying or verbalizing an immediate threat. Finally he must have the immediate opportunity to exercise his ability & intent.

If all three of those reasons are present, (ability, intent, and opportunity), and you cause the BGs death, then you might not face prison in our current American system, but there are always factors which can complicate things, and there is rarely indisputable evidence that you made the right choice. So much the more in a world fallen into potential chaos. Will your peers be thinking rationally or will we default to the Old West 1.0? If so you might be able to “get-away with” some bad choices (which trigger-happy folks look forward to); but keep in mind that evil can likewise turn your way with little recourse of justice if we fall that far morally. Will the BG put all his cards on the table in time for you to make a clear choice? He might sneak-up with a smile, all three indicators might not be present, and ignoring your gut could get you dead.

Here is where it’s vitally important that we “train” even for moral actions. In a world where any stranger might be a murderous zombie you need to have more options that just live and let live, but when that world is also inhabited by people of generally good character we also can’t adopt a kill or be killed attitude. Good training is to take day to day situations now, and apply them to your best-guess post-fall neighborhood. There’s a strange car in the drive, how should you enter the house? Should you drive around the block and reconnoiter via phone or observation? Do you have access to the tools and ideas you’d need to resolve this? What if a stranger catches you chopping wood in the backyard and is quickly approaching, should you draw your .45 and shout for him to reach for the sky? Do you carry a pistol while you chop wood?

You don’t need to actually act-out these scenarios, but at least play them through your mind a few times. What moral issues might you face if your family is potentially held hostage? You might be physically prepared by having weapons stowed in your car or an outbuilding, but are you morally prepared? Would you enter guns blazing & risk killing family? Would you snipe the supposed BGs through a window and risk escalating a simple scavenging mission into an ugly blood-bath? How would you react to the sudden introduction of a random stranger to your daily routine? What actions could you take that would balance hospitality with awareness of the potential threat? Be creative.

Those who have trigger-happy tendencies should man-up and recognize the trait in themselves now, before the SHTF, and train themselves to spot the good in folks before they wind-up in an ugly situation where they were blind to the innocent intentions of someone whose life they ended too soon. In contrast, those who have milk-toast personalities and get squeamish at squashing spiders should also man-up and realize that if they truly hope to prepare for the rough times ahead, they need to train their moral-center now, so they can be ready to protect those they love. We can prepare our stored goods, and can train our bodies, but the readiness we need to have morally can only be forged in the furnace of day by day application and creative mental considerations. There truly is “a time to kill, and a time to let live”.

When it comes to homicide, some people are natural-born-killers long before they ever learn to use a weapon. They have trained their minds everyday by looking for excuses to hate and hurt. Such people see end-game scenarios as a place to play-out bloody fantasies. Others see the coming times as a cleansing of society, the natural result of greed and elitism, but an event which can right the wrongs which politics and wealth couldn’t touch. Such people want to help put the pieces back together after a fall, and their minds, though aware of potent danger, are honed to find ways to build community, and strengthen the moral foundations of their neighborhoods – they look to strengthen life, not end it.

In that respect, moral-training should be constantly looking for creative ways to resolve difficult situations. That might mean thinking outside the box when it comes to family disputes, looking for new ways to respond instead of just doing what dear old Dad did. It might mean trying extra-hard to keep a smile on your face when you feel offended during some menial act of commerce. Such things may seem silly and small, but it’s the kind of mental self-control we train for at the range when we swap mags between strings of rapid-fire target practice. You work at something till the muscle-memory takes-over even under stress, and your mind is a muscle which can be worked in the same way.

Two: Don’t Steal
Stealing, more so than murder, helps us to really begin to see how morality can begin to blur the lines a bit between the good guys and bad guys. Even thugs view the taking of a human life as a pretty serious thing, but when we begin to talk about taking property a lot of otherwise good folks find peculiar ways to justify what is undeniably theft. So to make matters clear, let’s define “stealing”as taking what belongs to others. In some respects, theft is just a lesser form of murder – I mean really, even life is only our possession temporarily, none of us keep it forever, we eventually give it up as we do all our belongings. So do we take life more seriously than property, or are we really much more serious about our belongings than we realize?

Anyone who has ever had anything of value taken from them knows the flood of emotions that can pour into your mind. It’s easy to start fantasizing about catching that person red-handed next time. That’s part of why some states have castle-doctrine laws, but there can be a wide gap between legal and moral justification behind protecting one’s property, and so much the more when it comes to stealing the property of others.

In our pleasant pre-fall world we often blow-off “little” thefts. Printing that personal document on your bosses printer, or intentionally wasting time at work, are technically theft. Cheating on your taxes to avoid paying more than your rightfully “owe” Uncle Sam might be rationalized in a time when we all feel over-taxed, but let the IRS catch your tricks and there will be legal recourse. Morally speaking, there is a big difference between actually justifying something, and only rationalizing it. When the fan starts flinging foul things our personal ability to morally distinguish between justifying and rationalizing might be the difference between life or death. Lets consider some examples.
The teenager in the garden of our trigger-happy friend, was he stealing? Technically yes, in that he didn’t have permission to take those veggies. But before we label him as a BG we should realize there must have been some rational belief on the part of his mother which led her to believe it would be ok to work-out the details later. Her rational mind surveyed the need to feed her guests, weighed it against the fact Mr. Trigger was away for a while, and concluded it was not really stealing but just a trade in process. There is no way she would have rationally considered that her dear son would be shot dead by their normally friendly neighbor.

Lets get ugly now and build a post apocalyptic scene of mayhem and murder. Society collapsed almost overnight, before you could even get out of Dodge, and you are finally working your way toward the safe house where you plan to meet-up with others. Your family & belongings are in the Travel-all when it runs out of gas on a back road, very near a farm house. Your keen observation detect no signs of life at the farm, and your “Hello the house!” has raised no response. When you carefully enter the house you find a murdered family, Everything indicates that scavengers took what they wanted very quickly and moved-on. A quick survey of the premises reveals no survivors, but lots of important items the BGs missed. Now the question, do YOU become an instant BG if you “take” anything here? Ponder it. Maybe there are survivors who just wandered into the timber to mourn, will they return to find nothing to survive on because YOU stole it all? Does the fact that someone less moral than yourself could stumble along an hour after you leave it all untouched and take it anyway play into your thought process? Human beings have already adapted all manner of fine excuses for our immoral behaviors, how much more so in TEOTWAWKI?

With all moral questions it’s best to keep things simple and stick to the facts, so let’s apply our simple definition to the ugly scene at the farm. If stealing is “taking what belongs to others” then clearly the folks to whom this “stuff” belongs are no longer claiming it, that makes the property in question something more like “lost items”. Hopefully even in collapse (maybe especially in collapse?) we will live by the golden-rule, so consider if you lost something, you would hope the finder would want to return it to you. We write our names in things because we hope someone will return it to us if it’s misplaced, but in this case we know the owners because the stuff is ON their premises, and while the deceased might make no claim of the the lost items, a mourning survivor might return any moment. Like the mother of our teenage veggie-gatherer, we have have rational beliefs about our situation, we can assume beyond a reasonable doubt that there are no survivors, and thus help ourselves – there would likely be moral justification.

Playing it a little further though, assuming a survivor did indeed return, and he caught you in the act of pillaging his home during his time of grief. If that survivor is armed you now have more moral questions to ponder. From his perspective (and legally) you are trespassing, you are stealing (unbeknownst to you till now), and he might easily rationalize opening fire on you and yours! Things could go from ugly to gruesome in seconds as this survivor fulfills the honest desires for vengeance any of us might play with in such a situation. All your rational intents have taken place inside your own mind, and within your family discussion, the survivor is not privy to your insight, he sees only more looters and his own red grief. You might still be a good guy in reality, with no immoral intent to steal, but had you practiced this scene in your mind before the fall you might have considered putting a sympathetic look-out in place. Your look-out could watch for returning survivors or more looting BGs, carefully discern which one this is, and intercept them in an appropriate manner to avoid any loss of life. Who knows, perhaps this lonely survivor would make a providential addition to your little clan of like-minded friends; and at the very least he could certainly use the presence of good people as he works-through his grief.

Economic collapse, or the fall of the many powers which keep modern society in-check needn’t mean it’s time to throw morality to the wind. In fact the opposite should be, we should all the more uphold moral ideals, since such would be among very few foundations left to stand upon in keeping our humanity intact and differentiated from the animal kingdom. In that light we should appreciate that the root of theft is greed for more than we have at hand. Greed is the most likely candidate for ushering-in collapse in the first place, why should good and moral people play that same game? Thus applying factors of greed in our scene at hand, and assuming no survivors present themselves, how much should one “take” from the farm before continuing on our merry way? If you find yourself in need then likely others are in the same need, so is it morally good to take everything you can carry, including the last can of Who-Hash? Consider leaving things for the next guy, maybe even stacking them in plain sight with a note of encouragement. If one believes in providence then we needn’t be greedy. Our every kind act will only influence a better road ahead for us and for those who follow-after. If one doesn’t believe in providence then surviving a collapse like we are describing can be a living Hell, with one torturous day leading into the next, with existence as the final goal – that can make for a very sad life.

Again, today is training day for this moral faculty. A person should practice recognizing ownership of items, and appreciating the payment for services as a part of what one owns. Likewise, we should be careful to consider the motives of our judgment when it comes to sharing what we have at hand. Not every charity is a rip-off, so one should judge carefully. When looking for good opportunities to give charity, try not to be lazy about it by only giving to those who come begging. The world is full of needy people who would never ask for a hand-out, and maybe they have need of some item you posses more than they need your cash. Remember, some day you might be in need, and at such a time we can hope that providence smiles on you in the same measure you smiled at others.

Three: Don’t Neglect Justice
There is a verse where God commanded the Jewish people saying, “Justice, justice you shall follow, so that you may live and possess the land”. The idea is implied that if His people neglect keeping justice they can expect trouble measure for measure. In the context of that command God also told them to appoint “judges and officers in all your gates”. Regardless whether one lives their life by such words, it seems obvious that the principle is one that works very well when applied with care. Our great nation set a standard for such justice when the Constitution was penned, but it seems that in recent years we have neglected the proper care necessary to assure that justice is followed. In that respect I see several important reasons for this failure, and each is outlined subtly in the quotes I just made from the Bible.

First, we seem to have lost sight of what “justice” truly is. I prefer to read the Good Book in it’s original language, and there I find that when it says “justice, justice” we are actually translating a word which we usually translate to say “righteousness”. When we think of justice we should naturally think of what is “right”, what is proper, what is moral; but sadly today we tend to argue cases based on what is “legal”. To follow justice in terms of “righteousness” though, is about more than just legal concerns. Of course righteousness implies a religious connotation, and those without religion, or those who hold a minority view in regard to religion, might take offense; but in fact, the religious value of righteousness relates at a higher level than who is right or wrong about “God”, it rests at a level which admits that each man is accountable. In that light every individual must consider his actions in every respect. A secular man should be concerned about his place in the community, and should abide by its laws. A religious man should have the same concerns, and in addition concern himself with his standing before God almighty.

Secondly then, we must consider that those who wish to follow justice, will from time to time be required to exercise decisions in questionable matters. As we discussed regarding murder and theft, there are times when the line between right and wrong is difficult to discern. If righteousness effects individuals as they relate to the community and to God, then how much more so the judges and groups which will serve to assure that justice is followed in a righteousness manner? 

If society collapses then our current justice system may likely follow suit. The current system is pretty whacked already, but at least it’s a system. When collapse comes any remaining authorities may introduce martial law, and we can’t delve into the details here for how to deal with life in those confines, so let’s think smaller, focusing on the local level. When the SHTF a great many municipal funds will be weak or empty, forcing the shut-down or minimizing of police & fire departments (entire states are currently facing nearly this degree of trouble already). So the question at hand will become “How can we maintain justice”? On a local level, where individual communities have need to govern themselves in the absence of State or Federal help, people must be willing to agree together as a community regarding how justice will be served, who will administer the tough decisions, and in what way we should expect such servants of justice to labor. Jails and prisons, probationary officials, and a great many other servants of justice work behind the scenes now, but with no paycheck they may have to find other ways to eat. Without such systems local justice may not have the luxury of extended trials and lengthy appeal processes. Good people may be forced to do the best they can when deciding matters of legal consequence, and situations like that can separate the good guys from the BGs pretty quick!

Thirdly, the Biblical command to serve justice was to be measured “in your gates“, meaning that each community was to appoint its judges and establish justice for itself. Difficult cases could be taken to regional and national levels for consideration, but the day to day judgments were made per the needs and understanding of the local community, in the context of the underlying moral code God had given at Sinai. In TEOTWAWKI the 613 commands given at Sinai would be neither practical nor applicable to any gentile community, but the underlying principles of morality which are common to mankind should certainly enter our discussion.

If history proves nothing else it bears record that mankind has a way of complicating things. We are prone to add tiny bits and pieces to beautifully simple ideas and processes until the beauty becomes lost in layers of details. Such has been the problem with politics and religion since the dawn of history. When the SHTF perhaps the details can melt-away and reveal the shining simplicity of moral virtue. It’s hard to imagine, but the very attempt by good and godly people to live together peacefully in a world gone to Hell, might be enough to rekindle the embers of the ancient virtues of simple morality. With the collapse of religious systems morality may be reduced to the lowest common denominator, but that is NOT to say morality is out the window, (as zombies and BGs might prefer), rather it brings those who wish to live in community to a CHOICE – are they willing to look their neighbor in the face and know that the simple moral codes they have in common are more important than the dogmas which separated them before the SHTF?

Of course “the Devil is in the details”, and men will always have disputes, but if a simple code of moral conduct is well-known and established, and each community upholds that code to the best of its abilities, then disputes can be settled without the need of bloated legal systems. The moral code I have been writing about up to this point is based in the seven Biblical commands given to Noah, and are known in Jewish tradition as “The Noahide laws”. Living such a code in TEOTWAWKI would not necessarily make a Christian less Christian, nor should it be offensive for a Hindu or Buddhist, because we are not talking about doctrine here, but about righteous behavior. Jewish people should not be troubled by gentiles living this code, since they allege these ideas were given originally to Noah, and were reiterated by Moses at Sinai, (in fact it could be argued from Genesis that all gentiles were aware of this code already, and lived it to varying degrees from Adam’s time).

Having already discussed how three of the seven Noahide laws could be applied, its easy to consider the rest of them in a similar context. If we can assume that the best situation for mankind is to live in community, and not entirely seclude his family during troubled times, then applying this code of conduct would allow most any individual or group to get along with outsiders who adhered to the same code. Different communities might vary somewhat on their application of certain details of this code, but the general practice of these standards could aid the interactions from one community to the next for commerce and trade, since knowing the boundaries for behavior is crucial in any cultural interaction. Murder and theft are obvious problems in most any culture, and the remaining four laws are captured within the concern for justice, given that we should hope not to offend our neighbors if we want to live peaceably.

Four: Don’t Be Immoral
Moving-on in this seven-part code, we can appreciate that “immorality” is often a dividing factor in today’s society, and could make for difficulties even within a single community, nevertheless when several communities try to interact. Again though, we should seek common ground in this issue, and as it relates to Noah, the common ground was in the command to “be fruitful and multiply“. There is really no moral truth required in realizing that the physical union of a man and woman can bring offspring, but how to formalize that sexual union is varied in many ways by cultures and religions.

Marriage is the most common way to formalize a couple’s decision to mate, but to truly appreciate marriage one has to step away from his own culture and appreciate that marriage as we know it has gone through some pretty radical transformations since Noah’s day. I have never walked through goats blood with another man in order to finalize a marriage contract for our children, but I suppose there were ancient Bedouins who would find it peculiar for me to hand-over my daughter to some man to watch them proceed with a marriage ceremony. Truth be told, even today our own cultural experience can easily blind us to the core value of what marriage is all about, so it isn’t hard to imagine how our views on marriage might need to adjust if the SHTF.

Life must go on, and that is not all about gardening and setting-up watch posts, someone must make babies, and raise children while we adjust to whatever chaos might strike, and any of my single-parent friends are quick to admit that that the task is much easier as a couple. If one can imagine a community banding together to help protect each others crops and livestock its not a stretch to consider they would likewise guard the local gene pool. Marriage might be able to shed some of it’s religious formalities if necessary, but its not likely that a man would tolerate an adulterer, or that every unwed daughter would be free to bed whoever catches her eye. In a world where food and other essentials might come at a high cost of labor and trade the idea of bringing more mouths to the table would be taken very seriously. With birth being tied directly to sex, the latter might become more of a privilege for the worthy, rather than a past-time for bored.

What we roll our eyes at today, might cause heads to roll when the SHTF, so those who are morally practiced to restrain their lusts might have a serious advantage. Let’s face it, sex is not impossible outside the bonds of matrimony, and is often practiced for reasons other than procreation, so lets get practical with this idea as well, and apply it in a world gone to Hell scenario. Its not hard to fathom that some people who enjoy today’s permissive societal standards for sexual deviations would love to seize the moment if law enforcement gets toned-down or disbanded. This is all the more reason to live in community and to uphold justice, since the fathers and husbands of the world aren’t likely be peaceful if predators start stalking around. Who is the “bad guy” in the eyes of a community when a girl from a respectful family is deflowered or becomes pregnant? Is it only some wandering pervert who sneaked past the guards, or is the neighbor’s heavily-hormonal teenage son just as bad?

The girl isn’t married, she might not even be promised or engaged, so technically its not adultery, but that doesn’t make his advances a good moral choice. Is she old enough to safely bear children if pregnancy occurs? Is he able to help care for them, and do his part in the community? His inability to restrain his youthful urges might itself prove him a less than worthy mate, and the world around them is an unforgiving place for those with weaknesses. Even if she, in her pining love, consents to his advances, the responsibility for their decision could easily effect the entire community, especially if pregnancy and complications should arise.

The moral choice to engage in sex could carry very grave consequences, how much more grave would be the moral choices of those who would engage in relations which are more deviant? How should the community look upon those men who would let their lusts burn toward younger girls, or toward boys? Responsibility in the context of procreation isn’t even the question in such a scene, but only selfish, greedy lust. Perhaps some communities would be more morally permissive than others, but it is hard to believe those who fail to rein-in deviance would survive long, and they would be hard-pressed to expect much cooperation with neighboring communities.

Clearly any community which hopes to uphold justice would need to establish standards for sexual relations, and would be required to respond quickly and seriously when established moral lines are crossed. If the moral standards are not kept the entire community is as much at risk as if their homes were unguarded or their crops left untended, good people would suffer, the BG becomes hard to identify, since either those who were immoral should be punished, or those who permitted their treachery.

Five: Don’t Blaspheme
Western culture has primarily two moral foundations, based on two unique cultures: Greek, and Jewish. The ancient Greeks had reached the height of intellect in their time, concluding that morality means what is best for society; since their day though, history has proven that ethics steered by the needs of the time can foster incredible evil in social settings. Such moral ideals can be twisted to support Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, or any other regime where an elite few live greedily off the wealth generated by the masses. Jewish culture though, refused a moral standard which shifted with the ideas of men, and recognized that morality must come from beyond the human intellect, it must come from an Eternal Being Who rewards human accomplishment in keeping with His Divine standards. Such standards, though we might find societal benefits in them, are ultimately based solely on God’s design.

It is sometimes hard to picture a society rising from the ashes of collapse with the ideals and intentions of “God” at their core. It can conjure images of a wildly religious people who are prone toward mindless rituals, who are led sheep-like in a post apocalyptic world by wild-eyed shepherds. Yet the Noahide laws are quite the opposite of that picture, instead they encourage people to set-aside superstitious ideas and think for themselves about the day to day situations they are facing. This puts the rise from ashes squarely in the hands of the common folks of the community, the moral choices are not dictated by long lists of evils to avoid, but by farmers and shopkeepers with the best interest of their neighbors and community in mind.

Still, it is hard to see the idea of blasphemy as anything but religious, yet in reality this too is a moral choice. In our American Society we enjoy the luxury of a freedom to speak our minds, and think for ourselves, even if our words and actions might offend those around us. We naturally see the opposite of such freedom in the milk-toast world of some who passively permit any and all offenses against themselves with no retribution or remark. The luxury of free speech must of course be upheld, and a healthy society is a balanced one, but to what degree? If we buy our groceries at Wal-Mart then I can damn my neighbor to Hell when he offends me in some way, but when we live in community and barter or share what we can with one another, then it is imperative that we should be careful about meaningless offenses, either in taking them or in giving them out.

Any post-fall community might have citizens with a vast array of religious values and theological ideas, and while healthy debate over such things is fine in the pubs and around dinner tables, a great deal of chaos can ensue if people take lightly the religion of his neighbors. Today an Atheist and a devout Catholic can share a property line and have no real need to engage one another in conversation, but in the world we prepare for they might desperately need one another’s help and camaraderie. Dare the one look down on the other for his faith, or for the lack of it? For the sake of common need both must strive to not offend in religious matters the same as they would not think of crossing sexual boundaries with his neighbor’s wife. If we can concern ourselves with offending our neighbors, then surely we can avoid offending God as well. If one has no belief in God then surely he can at least play nice for the sake of those around him who do hold such values.

Blasphemy then could be defined as an impious utterance or action concerning God, or the act of cursing or reviling God. If the members of a community are willing to think before they blow-away someone with an armload of veggies, and willing to curb his desires toward a neighbor’s hot-looking daughter, then surely we could also take serious moral consideration about religious values. The bad guy in this case might be some one so common as one with an off-color joke that threatens to divide good friends, here is a place to guard our tongues as well as our doors.

Six: Don’t Worship Idols
Granted we don’t find a lot of altars to strange deities in American culture today, and the temple prostitutes so common to pagan religion went out of style a long time ago, but that doesn’t mean we can ignore this subject if we hope to build a solid core for our fledging society. In the same way we avoid impiety for the sake of others, we should be able to limit our expression of religious tastes. We take for granted the many symbols of religions today, because in modern society these become little more than marketing tools, and at most they represent ideas and events of a particular religion. These are not usually a necessary part of the actual worship, and for the sake of conscience could be eliminated if push comes to shove. A bad guy here wouldn’t need to be a Satanic priest threatening to spill the blood of a child on his altar, he could be far more subtle. [JWR Adds: Modern Western societies have obviously developed many contemporary idols, including money and celebrities.]

Seven: Treat Animal Flesh Properly
I’ll grant this idea may have less application in our day, but if we consider it’s historical root we might be able to glean some appreciation from it. Like our mythical post-collapse world, Noah was rebuilding society after the catastrophic flood, and in the historic shadow of a world where immorality had truly run amok. He may well have been the worlds first “prepper”, having worked on his ark for one hundred and twenty years before it ever floated. Genesis related that Noah was the first human being permitted to eat meat, where Adam and Eve had been given the same command to be fruitful and multiply, and they had dominion over all the animals, they were granted a strictly vegetarian diet.  Noah though was told by God that animals were now on the menu (granted He says it more eloquently), but that they should not be eaten while they are still alive. This basically says that we shouldn’t remove a chunk of meat or a limb from some poor beast without first ending it’s life.

This is more important than we might realize at first glance. Remember how seriously we take the idea of ending a human life? That care is part of what makes-up our humanity, our moral base, but how far does that respect for life go? If conditions dictate that mankind needs to forage from the ground like an animal for a period of time to stay alive, is he reduced to the level of a beast? No, we should of course recognize the priority of man over the other living things thriving on our planet, but we should also appreciate that each life is brought before us by the grace of God. Today I can buy meat in a package and not even think about the long hours of hard work by crews of people who carefully kill and carve some unsuspecting bovine into my juicy T-bone, but when I’m hunting, and the life of some beast is in my hands, or farming and its time to put-up some bacon, it is important to appreciate the animal whose life will soon be supporting my own.

I should strive to make a clean kill, and to not be wasteful of the remains. In many ways the hunt or harvest of a living animal, and the labors of bringing it’s meat to my table, should be a constant reminder that none of us live on our own. We breathe in and out, but even the energy to do so must be maintained constantly, and I should be glad to have that which feeds my need. If my heart can grow too cold to the spilling of blood for the purpose of maintaining my life, then how long till I fail to appreciate the sweat of my family or neighbors who help me labor toward that goal? Life is a powerful thing, but we hold it loosely in our hands far more often than we realize. Our own life would start to wane as soon as we fail to lift the spoon to our mouths, and the life of a “bad guy” might be either strengthened or spilled by our simple judgment of his intentions, a motive which is rarely as clearly revealed as we think, and which we must take care to judge rightly even during these days or moral training before the SHTF.

Conclusion:
Those of us who see the end coming, rarely think of it as such literally. I for one think the “end” is simply a collapse of systems that haven’t worked and are designed precisely by greedy elitists to “not work” for the average Joe. To such folks we the people are no more that the analogous “copper tops” of The Matrix,  We are an energy source from which they draw the power for their machines. The energy is our labor, and the power is the capital (spelled “dollars” in America) we use in order to eke-out existence from day to day. That power turns the gears of a vast network of machines, but the joke is on those elites, because as long as they are dependent on us for energy they have no real life of their own, they are truly machines and must therefore constantly devise new ways to avoid our inevitable waking from the slumber they have synthetically produced for us. When the day comes we realize that we can live without the many and various venues of entertainment which lull our sleep, their number will be up. But when that day comes we must prove ourselves more than just bipedal animals, we must be moral beings, capable of building a world which is better than the one upon whose ashes we would build.

The Relational Dimension of Survival, by Gene B.

One of the more unsettling observations that I’ve increasingly noticed in the current talking circles of the internet catastrophe/ end-times web-sites is the lack of agreement on whether or not a manmade scenario or an earth caused event hits us first. The preparations for either are complex, the preparations for both at the same time may be so much so, as to leave holes in our efforts. It might be prudent therefore to consider the strength and synergism of developing a team of like minded individuals or families to fill in these holes that may be unseen in our preparations as well as spreading the cost of goods over more people.

Think about it for a moment. What are all the scenarios we have read about concerning man-made disasters; an EMP event, a city destroying nuclear event, an economic collapse requiring martial law, an economic collapse not requiring martial law, severe food shortages causing rioting, et cetera. Then think about potential terra disasters; the New Madrid fault earthquake, further seismic activity in the West, cosmic object collisions, and on and on. The inability to know which one or combination of these events that may take place necessitates a problem solving ability that may be beyond the individual’s skills and resources. We may need help.

The idea of having a team concept of surviving a disaster will cause one to think a lot about who to trust. For example, one day in the office I was relating a story to a fellow worker about a man that I knew was a prudent survivalist, my fellow worker off handedly stated that all of the man’s preparations would be for naught as he would just kill him and take his resources. I had no idea that my co-worker planned to be a thieving anarchist, but now I do and that is good information. This is information we need to have well in advance of hardship. Begin now to find a non-aggressive way to explore people’s way of thinking about such things, and while you’re at it, you may be able to help some to get ready themselves. The more you expand your territory of knowing who you can trust the less likely it is to fall prey to those who do harm. As you perform this exercise of personnel scouting you should also identify those who think that you’re crazy but are themselves harmless and might be a very helpful part of a survival team. Government employees, law enforcement, and people with specialty skills come to mind as well as friends and members of our family. Crazy is sort of a relative term.

There are a myriad of possibilities and types of team building paradigms that might encompass the various circumstances in which we in America may find ourselves. Each unit that is formed will have properties of the individuals and environmental factors that shape it into a logical and workable micro-society. These units could be built around common grounds of faith, community organizations, or simply a group of like-minded friends as well as many others. The small community that my parents live in has two or three meals a week that are sponsored by various groups for fund raising endeavors. These are well attended by young and old alike and become a nesting ground for like minded conversation and expansion of relationships. When you are looking for help, act a little helpless. You’ll get more sincere reactions and hence will discover more good information about people. You may have to spend a lot of time and put a lot of faith in members of your survival group, best to start with honesty and truthfulness.

Along with the planning and detail of getting ready for some future cataclysmic event there should also be some thought on a worst case scenario of living for an extended period without law. If indeed the civil authority is overwhelmed or non-existent because of the severity of the disaster there will be a lawless state of affairs. Preparing yourself and your team for such a time will prove to be as necessary and useful as any other skills for the safety and longevity of the group. I don’t believe it will be as simple as friend or foe, with us or against us, shoot or don’t shoot. The structures of a civil society could be taken back hundreds of years. How we choose to live when there is no law should be the number one factor in our selection of team members or our nurturing of those that end up in our group. Living without the law will be a turning point event in everyone’s life. Deep-seated beliefs and conditioned responses will rule unless an alternative way of thinking is agreed upon. One can imagine the life and death decisions that may have to be made to protect and prolong the group’s survival.

We have heard our Presidents speak of this nation as a country where the rule of law is supreme. This may not be as comforting as you may think. If the law breaks down, then what takes its place as supreme? If I want to kill you but I don’t because of my fear of going to jail, then the threat of jail is the only safety net of society. Many of the disasters that we are hearing about will remove this safety net. We only have to look at ourselves and imagine how our response to a hostile threat might change if we knew there was no threat of jail. Would we become more lethal? These are indeed issues that need to be aired out in our group of survivalist. Will our group trust in violence alone to survive? I would hope not. There is an alternative way of life that does not need the rule of law to operate.
 
Jesus said that to love the Lord your God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourselves would fulfill (or put an end to) the law. If this statement is true, and I believe it is, then the world that we can build around us would no longer be held up by the rather frail institution of jail. The threat of jail would no longer be a factor in my choice to not kill you; my choice would be based on the relational concept of neighbors. In other words, the change in the temperament of the world around me would have no bearing on my choices as my choices are not based on whether or not I will go to jail for my actions, my choices are based upon what is best for my neighbors. How the members in our group may feel about such things and how far down that road of self-sacrifice that some or none or all are on, is a question that should be well vetted at some point in the building process. Are all the members committed to giving strangers every chance possible to be neighborly, withholding judgment and violence until it is absolutely obvious that the strangers are deadly and only intend harm? Are all members in agreement as to the amount of resources that are available to be shared with others before there is a risk to the survival of the group itself? Thinking outside the box of self-reliance and conditioning oneself to doing whatever would be best for others in my experience actually helps to make questions like these less complex.

So far I have mostly discussed the importance of a common view of beliefs and goals and reactions among the group’s members. In closing I would like to touch upon the actual bonds within the group itself and how the members organize themselves into a workable unit. I have spent thirty-plus years managing small teams of men and women in various work environments. This experience has taught me that without a doubt the military or corporate model is not the correct way to build a team of people. Jesus used the paradigms of family and friends when He trained and managed the team of men and woman that were to end up changing the world. Think about a family for a minute. Brothers and sisters sitting around a supper table, each with their own gifts, strengths, and weakness. In a survival situation, none of the members would be rejected, strengths and gifts would be utilized and weaknesses would be made up by others or simply overlooked. Communication could be open and direct without fear of offenses and personality conflicts. Paul told Timothy;”Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger  men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters with all purity.” Thinking of others in your group as family members may be a stretch for some, but it will deepen bonds and commitments to one another’s safety and well being. Putting others ahead of ourselves should be our method of operation. It is easier to do this with family and friends than with bosses and leaders.

I took the opportunity once to ask a Missouri state legislator what type of emergency plan they had to distribute food and resources in the event of cataclysmic proportions. He said that as far as he knew they had none. I repeated the question because I thought he had misunderstood me. Again he said none. Let us make haste to prepare to protect those things that are counted as unimportant to those we have mistakenly put in charge.

JWR Adds: In the hour-long audio CD that accompanies the Rawles Gets Your Ready Family Preparedness Course I discuss some of the dynamics of survival groups–most notably some strategies for motivating relatives who keep their heads thrust into the sand. Keep in mind that everyone has their own particular interests and “hot buttons”. For many, your emphasis should be on encouraging food storage. Even if they cannot see the necessity to have lots of food on hand for extended emergencies, they will usually recognize the cost saving advantages of buying in bulk quantities. Others can often be attracted to preparedness as an adjunct to an existing hobby like gardening, amateur radio, shooting, caring for pets, or raising livestock. Not everyone will respond, but do your best. Every member of your extended family that you can encourage to get prepared represents one less individual that will come begging on your doorstep on TEOTWAWKI+1. So it is is in your best interest to see them get squared away.

Avalanche Lily’s Bedside Book Pile

Here are the current top-most items on my perpetual bedside pile:

  • I just finished the novel What So Proudly We Hailed by South Carolina author James Howard. It is in the “Cozy Catastrophe” genre, and has a victorious Christian message. I love reading books that are prophetically and scripturally sound. This is the second book, which I’ve read recently, in which the author selects Islam as the religion out of which the Anti-Christ and his prophet arise. This book was both fast-paced and thought provoking. It is a bit scant on the “nuts and bolts” of surviving a disaster, but it definitely addresses the “mindset” aspect. In a nutshell, the first chapter begins with an actual dream the author had in 2006: A limited dirty bomb nuclear attack on the United States causes the grid to go down. The author presents his envisioning of what one Christian family could do, with what they already have, to survive a grid-down disaster. The family decides to take a “vacation” on their coastal cruiser off the Coast of South Carolina within 24 hours of the attacks. The father listens to a radio which tells of the Islamic religion in the USA taking advantage of the situation and helping folks while indoctrinating them with Islam and controlling their freedom. Meanwhile overseas, the Twelfth Imam reveals himself and his prophet and unites the Islamic countries worldwide into one Islamic coalition. The story explains how the family deals with this while meeting non-Christian folks who are threats to them, and meeting Christian folks who help them survive/remain free and independent.
  • The novel The World Ends in Hickory Hollow by Ardath Mayhar was another recent read. It is even more strongly in the Cozy Catastrophe genre. It was a very enjoyable read. The family in the story had moved back to their roots of homestead living in central Texas before the grid went down from a limited nuclear war. Because this family often loses electricity for days at a time, they think very little of this power outage until they enter their local town on the day of their weekly mail collection and shopping trip and discover the new reality. There were many scenarios in this book that gave me much to think about what may happen in a grid down situation: who to care for and what to do with orphans, acquiring sturdy housing, foodstuffs, discerning who to allow in to the community, defense training, training up the younger generation, dealing with self-appointed lawmen, et cetera. The local bad women made all-too believably wicked villains.
  • A homeschooling guide that we often refer to is the Rainbow Resource Center catalog. It is the size of metropolitan phone book. It is an excellent catalog for acquiring anything and everything on nearly any homeschool subject. For folks new to homeschooling or contemplating it, the catalog is also is a great book that gives an overview of the many types of homeschool philosophies and programs and curriculums available. In a sense, it could be considered a modern Codex Calixtinus for homeschoolers.
  • I’m right in the middle of reading the new book Crashing the Dollar: How to Survive a Global Currency Crisis by Craig Smith. It is a well-researched book that spells out the current monetary and credit market policies, and their inevitable conclusion. It is a very, very scary scenario that is being continued at an accelerated pace by BHO and his buddies in D.C. I’d say that this is a good book to give to your relatives that don’t understand the need to hedge their investments with precious metals.

Letter Re: In Praise of Productive Dumpster Diving

JW,R:  
Ever since I was a young’n, it has been hard for me to pass a dumpster or trash heap without investigating it.  I quickly learned that folks throw out a lot of good stuff, thinking it is worthless (someone said “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”); e.g. I’ve found appliances which only need a new electrical plug!  Nowadays, the same habit has greatly enhanced my prepping inventory, and best of all, it’s free, leaving more of my tight budget to buy store-bought items.  If you collect more things than you can use, the extras can be bartered, sold, or given/lent.  

I’ll start with some common-sense cautions: 

1) Avoid climbing on or in dumpsters.  No sense getting injured, even before the SHTF.  Or, you can get trapped inside a high-walled one.  If you have to, carry two ladders with you.  Also, it’s common to meet up with nasty critters inside. 

2)  Unless you’re starving, stay away from food garbage dumpsters.  Although, I must admit, I’ve gotten perfectly good food items from behind grocery stores which were discarded on the sell-by date. 

3)  Watch for nails and other “sharps”.  Wear gloves. 

4) To be safe (legal), seek permission beforehand.  In my experience, checking with the site guys always resulted in a friendly “sure, go ahead!” 

5)  Do not touch the charity bins, such as those owned by Goodwill.  

I’ve personally gotten my best finds from construction sites.  Obviously, there’s mostly wood, but hey, I’m a woodchuck anyway, and have made many projects out of scrap lumber.  Also a good source for kindling.  I’ve found plenty of other goodies, though:  tools which only needed a new handle (often you can find a tool with the handle bad and another one with the steel part bad, and swap the parts).  The best thing I’ve been getting lately by far is scrap copper, as #2 (not shiny) is fetching $2.80/lb. 

You’d be surprised at the number of short lengths crews throw out.  Plastic buckets are very common, as are pallets (both have multiple uses)   Some of the best troves can be found when a company is going out of business (nowadays, imagine that!).  It just isn’t worth their time to try and sell a lot of their office and shop stuff.  Good furniture, filing cabinets, pads of paper,  buckets of nuts and bolts, cleaning supplies, etc.  

Obviously, you’re going  to have to do a bit of investigating in order to find the best dumpsters.  Once you do, you can visit the same ones every few days or so and get more of the same stuff you previously found.   The biggest drawback a lot of you will have is the attitude of “wouldn’t stoop so low”, or “that is just too embarrassing”.  Well, over the years I’ve come to realize just how right my late mother was when she always told me “pride goeth before the fall”.  Maybe not a direct quote, but now I understand it. – Bullet Bob

Economics and Investing:

Surprise, surprise: Fed aid in financial crisis went beyond U.S. banks to industry, foreign firms

B.B. sent this from the Des Moines Register: Why farmland is skyrocketing. (I’ve been telling folks to invest in productive farm land, for many years. I told you so!)

How muni bond bust could do big damage

Foreclosure mess could threaten banks, report. (A tip of the hat to Kelly D. for the link.)

Elitists Leading On An Odyssey Of Economic Ruin. (An excerpt from Bob Chapman’s weekly International Forecaster) Our thanks to frequent link contributor John R.

I told you so: Spot silver hit $30 per ounce on Monday, and meanwhile gold briefly touched $1,420.

Items from The Economatrix:

“Shock and Awe” in Precious Metals  

Strange Events At The Comex … Gold and Silver Continue to Advance  

Bernanke Warns on Long-Term Joblessness

Job Growth Weak for November in Setback for Economy  

Confronting the Devils of the Financial and Sovereign Debt Crisis 

Odds ‘n Sods:

SurvivalBloggers will consider this well-trodden ground, but since it is a concise summary, so it might be a good link to forward to Pollyanna relatives: How To Prepare For The Coming Financial Apocalypse.

   o o o

V.L. flagged this: Hoarding more than just a little clutter. Unfortunately everyday preppers may get ensnared in new regulations designed to stop compulsive hoarders.

   o o o

OMG That’s OTT Department: SureFire “Quad-Stack” AR Rifle Magazines. The word “impractical” doesn’t begin to describe this product. Prone shooting? Forget it!

   o o o

Ghost Towns: Ciudad Juarez Residents Flee New Homes to Escape Drug War Violence