Sharecropping The Apocalypse: A Prepper is Cast Adrift

by Ron Foster

  The bigger cities that have all those unemployed refugees in them will most likely try and resort to civilian labor gangs similar to ones we had as Conservation Corps under the “New Deal Policy” during the depression. Hopefully that will further geographically dissipate people and spread economic stability further.

  Many FEMA trailer parks would get set up and Federal relocation camps would begin popping up in likely and unlikely places as a means to draw the evacuees closer to the city’s infrastructure and political and legal controls. When they evacuated New Orleans after hurricane Katrina folks were bused, flown, trained etc. all over the country and they got lodging, credit cards and cash to survive on for some time. The government most likely now after this latest disaster would begin issuing some kind of military script for goods and services as they reset the dollar and the rest of the world currencies followed suit.

  “Money! Now that’s a screwed up situation David groused to himself.

  David got paid from working off the internet. He had no internet to do his business on at the moment. He didn’t know why he didn’t have an internet signal even though he could power his computer with his SUNRNR Generator. His signal came from a satellite and had nothing to do with the grid as far as he was concerned. Not knowing the technology of it all made him wonder if somebody might of hacked communication or military satellites as a reason for his internet signals absence.

  As far as having a job went David figured that was the end of his and wondered if he even had any funds left from his last paycheck which should have been deposited in his bank account. Not that it mattered at the moment; there wasn’t anything much for him to buy and that was even if he could access a working bank to get cash. No for him and Julie and for some time to come they would be operating and trying to live without any funds as their long term reality.

  “This is going to suck!” David muttered, and Julie agreed.

  Oh David figured he could maybe find some kind of work in the city if reconstruction really did arrive someday in the distant bleak future. He had some marketable skills and academic degrees to compete with for employment, but mostly he figured it was a matter of outlasting and out surviving any of the other would be survivor applicants because at this time things were about to get pretty hairy around here.

  The town had agriculture around it and a few factories that actually produced something so chances were good that it would rate highly in a reconstruction plan. David looked at his mental map of the United States as hot zones (those places that had power) and dead zones (those places without) and tried to imagine what areas the government might like to first jump start. Louisiana refineries most assuredly, perhaps insure traffic on the waterways like the great Mississippi River, do something with our outdated rail system and start reconnecting the dots to move goods and services cross country. An enormous undertaking to imagine, let alone one to accomplish hastily and that idea was unfortunately going to creak along slowly with bureaucracy and incompetence leading the way. Plenty of labor around let’s see how they use it.

  “I might, just might see a light go on from the power company in about 6 months if I am damn lucky.” David optimistically estimated. But that was if they could get those pump stations for the water back on in the next few weeks. Folks are probably already dying from lack of clean water.” He mused.

  ” I can’t even imagine how it is in California right at the moment. They were undergoing the biggest drought they had had in a 100 years before the poo hit the fan and the farmers that produced half of the vegetable’s for the U.S. were struggling hard and causing the agriculture department concerns recently. David quickly reminded himself to keep one faucet turned on a little so he would know if or when they ever got the water turned back on.

  David was watching how they country was slowly dying along with the normal behavior of people. The thoughts of the populace already held numerous opinions, and also numerous ideas about how it was going to look if some crap like what had happened impacted America. They also held opinions on when societal collapse was going to start getting totally out of hand and in what stages it would occur.

  The big truth is that the sheeple or those masses of people who are non preppers, you know the non survivalist type folks prepping even a little bit. These people now had no other choices, no food and no means of getting any sustenance or fuel for their cars meant “get on the bus Gus” meant go to the FEMA camps. Non Preppers or non alarmists were not apt to see this type of event coming so I guess you might have to say these days that it is understandable that they saw their only hope as trying to get to an evacuation center at this point.

  The problem also being is that many real or practicing and storing stuff preppers are that they are blind to their actual long-term as well as situational short term needs. They also must get to the camps if they can, but they at least have some awareness and plans for this event. They have themselves personally thought about various expectations or warnings to heed or look out for and are thinking outside the box.

  Many preppers become too deeply involved,” too fixated” horse blindered or buried in discussions about Bug Out Bags (BOB), Bug Out Locations (BOL) or when the mutant ninja bikers are going to come for their stash post shit hit the fan (SHTF). The countless hours spent in these prepper communities also gets sidetracked on any number of finer points once the basics of 72 hour preparedness are covered.

  Certain preppers spend all their time in these forums and other discussions arguing about, what knife, what pack, 9mm versus 45 calibers etc. to have when SHTF comes around and gamut of other stuff. They spend their energy oftentimes talking about God knows what else other than concentrating on bugging in or becoming more self reliant. The subjects all have their finer points in addressing prepper related information, I am just saying it is too distracting to go down the wrong rabbit hole chasing obscure information you don’t need right now unless you have done a serious risk and preparedness survey of your “bug in” situation. A lot of survivalist types are planning for what they think one day will happen when the lights go out and they find themselves surrounded by darkness all around while waiting on all hell to break loose in the dawn. Doesn’t usually happen like this, a disaster unravels and gets compounded at different rates. Many disasters are precluded by a warning; you prepare for the disasters without warnings the same way. Many people haven’t thought about an on off switch situation.

  They haven’t even considered or thought about this type of lights out scenario affecting them. This a rare occurrence, but one that has precedence and it only happens when governments make huge mistakes or nature finally gets back at us and shows her deadly fury and devastation. It can also happen as a political act of repression or warning. Think about Russia threatening to turn off gas and lines in the dead of winter to influence the politics in one of the spin off states obstructing its wishes. Russia also intentionally starved millions in the Ukraine and other areas to fulfill one of its pogroms.

  I believe preppers should be thinking about the government and corporations just turning on and off the lights slowly and purposefully and you should feel that most of the time you can pretty much see it coming.

  Nowadays, just like it was before the cyber-attack, you see that people are slowly accepting the various miseries of their daily lives and they are thinking that it is normal for them to do without some things and that they have to improvise or are forced to work harder for what they used to have with less effort.

  The human psyche can get used to a lot of depravation around them if they have enough time to make the adjustment. But remember this and remember it well, “When people lose everything, they lose it” so consider that a immediate loss can send many into deep depression, fear, anger, jealousy and a host of other emotions.

  The government and corporations seem to like to use this take away this and take away that until you feel like sometimes they are just leaving you enough air to breathe in order to keep you alive and paying taxes. Smaller pac
kaging, smaller servings, more fine print, lower quality, increasing taxes, higher cost of living etc. Stores won’t be offering you green stamps any time soon to get your business and kitchen towels are not attached to sacks of flour anymore. Dish night at the old local movie theater or a free glass in your laundry detergent is an ancient hard to grasp notion in marketing that most have never heard of from bygone times. The days of getting a bit more for a dollar have been replaced with a continuous assault of a bit less, every year a little less.

  What I am getting at here my fellow preppers is that for many of us economic challenges makes it feel like the poo was already hitting the fan long before this cyber attack was unleashed. Far too many of us were dealing with our own personal, financial.employment you name it problems that are now even more greatly magnified by this event.

  The disaster of not being able to pay for their daily food has already previously hit quietly to your friends and neighbors with job losses and bankruptcies. A national disaster has already insidiously hit the Constitution which impacted all of us with losses of rights and freedoms under the so called Patriot Act along with destructive presidential emergency powers and executive orders that were passed.

  All these restrictions, all these economic woes, all the manufacturing shipped overseas, the militarization of our police etc. are only going to get worse and those calamities are slowly gaining in momentum. Most people are not going to realize any of this until martial law, societal break down and fascism blows up in their face. Many of us prep now for such events, most don’t. Prepping for a job loss doesn’t usually include buying high priced battle rifle scopes and such.

  Consider what is the state of your own local infrastructure? How about your individual feeling of safety with increasing criminal activity and elements in your area? Are you finding it hard to cope with Gas prices, food and utility prices? How many folks still have decent jobs and if not what are their chances of getting one?

  How does this current slow collapse look to you? It is happening you know. Are you going to grab your bug out bag and head for the hills? No of course not, so why fixate on that aspect of survival now? What preppers are most likely lamenting about at this very moment is not having a piece of dirt and some shelter to call their own with some off grid sturdy cooking and heating resources they can rely on.

  David’s solution was

  SilverFire Hunter Natural Draft Chimney Gasifier Stove

  The Silver Fire Hunter maybe the most important emergency or disaster stove to own, use coupon code Prepper1

  Preppers are infatuated with the exciting aspect of bugging out. Face it, it just sounds exciting and romantic. If you want to lose that notion quickly, just try it for a few days. The idea of grabbing a pack and heading to the woods sounds adventurous and somehow glamorous to the unaware or beguiled. Be able to do it, but prepare for everything you can in order not to have to. After that, lighten the load in your rucksack and just start with a soldiers basic, poncho, sleeping bag, shelter, mess kit, canteen and socks. Get the silver impregnated socks that are part wool for summer and winter. They also do underwear this way but at the moment it’s hard to find silver impregnated cotton drawers from the military.

  6

  EXIT STAGE RIGHT

  “What type of advice do you think you can offer me regarding those FEMA relocation camps, David? I remember that you said you had worked around some and studied a couple of those trailer parks that were put up by the government after Katrina and other Hurricanes displaced people. I really hate to bother you today but my Grandpa said for me to come ask you about them and he also said if it wasn’t too much of an imposition, that he wanted you to come over to the house and talk to him. His breathing is bad as you know and he doesn’t want to risk the exertion of walking over here and having to walk back up that hill.” Will said as cordially as he could.

  “I will be happy to come over and talk to him Will in an about an hour or so if that’s alright. I have a couple of chores I am involved in I need to finish first if that would be alright. Will, Are you planning on trying to get to one of them places maybe? Have you thought it through?” David replied scrutinizing the young man.

  “Well David, me and the family got together and talked it over some and we come to a conclusion. We concluded that we need to consider for ourselves a backup destination to go to if where we are planning on going doesn’t work out as expected. We could encounter a glitch or two, it just depends. You see David we have got us some kin folk that live about a hundred miles from here as the crow flies and they raise maybe 15 head of cattle a year, sometimes a few goats or a hog or two occasionally. They actually live the farm life and have been doing it for generations so it sounds like our best bet to try and see if they will take on as boarders. We haven’t been real close at all to them for a long time, but they are kinfolk and Grandpa thinks that they will take us all in if we just show up on their doorstep with our hats in our hands and a growling belly. Grandpa grew up around there and his stepbrother Mani and he used to be kind of close. When I was real young I can remember my Uncle Mani taking me and his boy fishing on the properties pond, but I haven’t probably talked to the boy twice since then and pretty much only to answer the phone to Mani. Thing is David, Mani`s daughter got cancer years ago and they had themselves some serious financial hard times to cope with. All the kinfolks and family helped Mani out to some extent on those outrageous medical bills, but because he and Grandpa were a bit tighter back then my Uncle seemed to depend upon Grandpa financially a lot more than the others.

  Mani hadn’t found that St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital the girl finally ended up at that time; you know the one that never charges parents a penny? None of us knew of that option then and the other bills caused family rifts. Grandpa didn’t have much money and him and Mani sort of got into it over Grandpa saying it looked like the child was going to die soon no matter what they did and he needed to keep his cash money for his own family. They didn’t talk for a week or so after that and depending on who is telling you the story, Grandpa signed away his interest in the family farm because Great Grandma said everyone should sell off a little acreage from what Great Grandpa had allotted in his will to try and get Mani out of debt. They made Mani executor to take over the real-estate sale and everyone gave him power of attorney and that’s where things seemed to go sideways and different versions of the story change...

  Great Grandma Elberta died within about three months of that document and since Mani had everybody’s power of attorney he sort of did what he wanted to regarding the estate. Needless to say he and Grandpa didn’t agree about his actions and to make a long story short they only speak on holidays and once in a great while to yell at each other about money.” Will said evidently feeling the cold air while he was standing with his ungloved hands shoved in the pockets of a thin light weight dark blue, almost black mechanics jacket.

  “That’s a hell of a story, my condolences to you. Money can come between the best of brothers they say. You’re sort of between a rock and a hard place I guess Will. I can see why you all have some reservations about going to a camp or to your Uncles. I would suggest to you strongly though that if you can any way work it out with your Uncle, I would suggest that. Work on strategies for staying with your Uncle and try avoiding the relocation assembly areas if possible. As for the camps, well I don’t know what conditions are like now. I can tell you about the type of parks evacuee centers and conditions of the ones I am familiar with. Some of them still exist in one form or another or have been repurposed. They are not that bad but you should avoid them if you can. No telling who you going to be living next door to and where the camp will be located often times. You are always subject to transfer, relocation or further processing. One big thing to know about them places is that from county to county and from state to state you can’t compare them to each other. It’s a too many chiefs and too many tribes of Indians to deal with thing. Think of it as, who is in charge of whom and which tribe
has the majority influence under whose authority. Each official or administrator running those places has various levels of experience and various mandates to follow or superiors to answer to and they create different camp rules or types of accommodations for the so called guests or refugees to bed down at.

  I am going to give you a paper I wrote in college for Sociology, the Theory of mass Disasters later on if you want, its about 20 pages of how I suggested to fix what was wrong with a particular model of a type of camp that a lot of people don’t realize was both an experiment as well as a policy makers influence on the future of disaster reconstruction efforts. This camp I am referencing was in Florida and it was particularly chosen as a field of academic as well as federal agency targeted studies for many reasons. My reasoning for examining it in great depth was mostly based upon my need of graduate credits. It was also part of my Masters Displaced Persons certificate so that I could get the level of degree I needed to advocate for more holistic methods versus the prevailing judicial way of addressing the needs of displaced people.

  In the United States or for that matter the World, field experience, opinions and wisdom does not seem to matter in policy reform unless you can evidence a higher degree of learning to be allowed a voice in their august decision and lawmaking forums. You have to evidence your expertise by citing other peers that are already recognized as having some expertise whether or not you agree with them.