The Global Depression - We Are Not Ready

[Ninurta]

Oh yeah, since bugging out and not being a Refugee were mentioned, good time to repost this.....

A long article which I will only post a few paragraphs. Well worth the read. Also, watch the video on the same subject which will give you "things to consider".

The Fallacy of Bugging Out – Are You Prepared to Be a Refugee?



https://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-prepa...-a-refugee

This cherished myth is a deceptive and dangerous notion that has little place in reality.  I’ve long held a stance [i]against [/i]this notion because in nearly all cases and all situations, this is a very bad idea with oftentimes fatal consequences.  Bugging out is [i]embracing [/i]the refugee lifestyle – a very bad idea.  Refugees throughout history have fared very badly, suffered extreme hardship and deprivation, with many not surviving the experience. There is a far better alternative to this.
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Sound advice. Anyone "heading for the hills" better not head for THESE hills. We are already here. We've been here for generations. We've had experience of Outlanders coming in here and trying to "rearrange" us. It never turned out well for them. We've had generations of working together and helping one another. We are "pre-organized" due to that. Our networks are already in place, and have been for generations. We've also had generations of warfare - fighting against one another, as well as fighting against invaders - first the Indians, then later the Carpetbaggers. We already know the land... and the places we can choke invaders off and decimate them. it won't be pretty for anyone insisting on heading for these hills.

We're not going to let outsiders waltz in and rape our resources. We have barely enough here to keep ou own people alive, much les an influx of Outlanders who don't know how to even use, much less conserve, those resources.

It's just not gonna happen the way they think it would.

So, not only are they going to turn on each other in their own camps, they are going to suffer assaults from outside, by the locals. random, terrible, decimating attacks. Buzzards gotta eat, too, same as the worms.

And let's talk about those camps for a minute. "Unsanitary" is the lest of their worries. Have you ever lived in a tent, without any outside supply sources, for any length of time? Can't build a fire inside a tent, or you burn it down. Fires outside send most of their heat out into the wide world, and damned little of it into your own hide. How are those camps gonna fare when temperatures get way below freezing and stay there  a while?

But folks shouldn't worry about that too much - those camps ain't gonna be here. Not for long, anyhow. To cite a real-world example, during covid, a large knot of Outlanders from New York and New Jersy thought it would be a good idea to "bug out", to "head for the hills" They set their sights on a group of tourist cabins at Poplar gap in the county I was living in at the time,and figured they could "rough it" there in order to escape their cities and the politicians THEY voted for.

Did not work out well for them.

The county Sheriff's department met them at a road block at the county line and told them "Nope. Not here." Turned them right around at the county line, wouldn't even let them enter the county to turn around. Told them they didn't have to go home, but they sure as hell weren't gonna stay here. It was really a kindness to them - not a one of them would have left the county alive had they been allowed in.

So, yeah, in addition to the fine points mentioned in the video and the article, they are failing to account for locals who may not allow the sun to shine kindly on interlopers. They made their own beds in the cities, and they can damned well lie in them when the world collapses One thing they are NOT gonna do is think they can enjoy the comfort of city living and if it all goes to shit just traipse out and lord it over the poor benighted hill folk and take all OUR resources, too.

They'll never leave here alive if they try. If they're not already jacked-in to the local hill-folk network, it's too damned late to try now... and will be WAY too damned late if they wait for "bug out" time.

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[Ninurta]

In the end it will not be "preps" that allow people to survive but skills, knowledge and adaptability.  The old proverb about giving a man a fish vs. teaching a man to fish hasn't stuck around so long just because it sounds nice. People who can grow food, raise livestock, hunt, fish, trap, build, fabricate and those who have herbal and medical skills will do well. Those who know how to can, cook, sew, quilt, crochet and knit in addition will do even better. All are arts lost to most of the younger generations. I worry for the young people that never had to wash used tinfoil for their grannies, hoe the garden, gather fresh eggs, pick poke out of the swamp or hang out hand scrubbed laundry on a clothesline.

I think a lot of it is just knowing how to "make do", and folks can do that almost anywhere.

When my son was little, I'd take him out into the woods and explain to him what he could and couldn't eat out of them, where the comforts and dangers of the woods could be found.

Once, I needed a bit of rope, and didn't have any. My son was about 11 or 12 at the time. So I went out and stripped some bark from a tree that had pretty fibrous bark, and sat on the porch twisting up a length of rope out of it. He wandered over and watched me for a while, and asked what I was doing. "Twisting up a little rope" I said. He goggle-eyed for a minute, and then started laughing. "You can't make rope out of bark! It won't be limber enough, and it'll break!"

So I just grinned a little and kept on twisting up the rope. He scoffed and said it wouldn't hold nothing, so without a word I tied one end of it off to a roof rafter on the porch and then grabbed it and hung all my weight off of it. He stopped scoffing then.

For the record, twisting up rope or twine out of anything isn't hard. You make it at least two plies to make it stronger and facilitate adding in more fiber when you run short to make it longer, and you twist each ply in one direction - let's say clockwise - and them "roll" it around the other ply in the opposite direction - let's says counter-clockwise. What that does is cause it to twist tighter together when it tries to untwist itself. I twist up my bowstrings the same way.

So I taught him what I could, but I wasn't able to teach him everything I'd picked up over time. Still, he took that base and ran with it, learning new things for himself. He's quite the deerslayer now. He has a small forge of his own, where he can pound out stuff he needs. He makes his own knives, and has built at least two rifles I know of, although not really from scratch... but built them all the same. He's learned to identify plants that I never knew what it was. For example, these "blueberry" bushed that volunteered for me last spring - it was him who told me what they were. I had no idea.

He's got 40 or 50 acres, and runs a garden every year. I put him on to how to make "masa" flour out of corn, so I expect he'll be doing that pretty soon, too. I gave him some of my tobacco seed, and he grows his own tobacco as well. I think he'll do ok if it all crashes. He's already integrated himself into the "hillbilly network" where he lives, too.

You're right - knowledge is power. I gave him what I could of it, but the more important thing I think is that I excited his curiosity to learn on his own, so that when I'm not around to advise, he won't fall short of information.

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[Ninurta]

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When Preppers speak of "bugging out", they don't mean "bugging out" as in "wigging out", they mean it as in "getting the hell out of Dodge".

The problem is, "getting out of Dodge" will separate them from their entire support base, and drop them into an alien environment where they have really never had any experience. Weekend camping trips are NOT "experience" for actually living off the land and out in the wilds, but none of them seem to realize that. Nor do they factor in all the other clueless folks who'll be out there without any idea of what they are doing, or the desperation that will set in when they realize they haven't any idea what they're doing.

I do have a "bug out bag" packed and ready, sitting next to the door for a quick grab on my way out, but it doesn't have the usual kit in it. it's mostly medical supplies for injuries, and a couple MRE's for use while getting my bearings. I don't plan to use it as a life-line for extended emergencies while "heading for the hills" - I'm already in the hills. My idea is just to be able to set up a few hundred yards from my house for a day or two while I make plans for either re-taking the house or burning it down with the interlopers inside (and shooting any who try to escape the flames) if I can't find a way to re-take it.

I don't suffer invaders gladly. If I can't have my own house, they won't have it, either. Not for long, anyhow.

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