The State of the World as we Know It?
Monday, April 26, 2010 at 11:14 There have always been the Chicken Little’s that say the sky is falling then there are the Ostriges that just stick their heads in the sand and go about life blissfully ignorant that the sky might fall. Which are you, have you have taken the “Red” pill1 or the “Blue” pill1 ?
Friends and family of mine are constantly hearing about choices to be made, supplies to be stored and plans to be made for the day that “Something” happens. What is the “Something”, well it might be a natural disaster such as tornado, hurricane, flood, earth quake, drought or any one of the many natural disasters that happen every day somewhere on the earth. It might be economic, political or something we haven’t even thought of yet. Back in the mid 90’s I was living in Texas when a ice storm hit knocking down trees, branches and most all of the power for a week or more in some areas. Normally people are looking for their local government or someone to pickup the limbs and trees to haul them off but in this situation where firewood was running out and it was cold outside people where holding others at gun point just to get a little wood to keep warm. That’s a pretty minor incident to cause people to go to these lengths. What do you think would happen if the electrical grid over overloaded and put the majority of the country in the dark for a week, a month or even longer? We have become so depended on our technology and services provided by our fellow man and the government that the slightest disruption in them can quickly put you in a “Survival” situation.
Let’s look at this scenario, the US has lost a majority of the electrical grid during a unusually hot summer and some freak chain of events started a cascading shutdown unexpectedly. When the grid goes down you can’t just go flip a breaker and everything is fixed, it takes time to bring it back up. With no electricity and daytime temperatures reaching 110F in some places that only see maybe the mid 90s normally. Water tanks in the cities and towns dried up within hours of the power going out so there is no water for drinking, bathing, flushing your toilets or for factories or restaurants to prepare food and wash the dishes. Business is ran by electricity so most all commerce shuts down, workers are told to stay home where there is no air conditioning, no water and quickly no food. With no electricity the grocery store’s fresh foods soon spoil in the heat and all you have is canned food but with no factories running to make more, no power to run diesel pumps so the trucks stop running or at least slow down considerably. I’m just scratching the surface here, how quickly will we spiral down the drain when the power fails. It’s not inconceivable to have a power outage lasting weeks or even months from this type of scenario. On the West and East coast over the past decade we have seen the precursors to this type of event happening already.
So what do you do? Go out and spend everything you have on a bunch of canned food, water and supplies? No, you need to be smart about your preparations, do you homework! I would suggest starting by reading these two books, both by James Wesley Rawles:
- Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse
- How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times
I also recommend Mr. Rawles’s web site www.survivalblog.com as a good source of information on how and what to do.
You tell me, what do you think might happen in the next months, years or decades to come. Watch the news and you can get some hints of what the undertones of society are. We are seeing the Tea Party protest, people are tired of the government constantly taxing us and taking rights away from us. The Constitution is being trampled on by our elected officials we asked to work in our behalf. People fear the government not the reverse as it was supposed to be. Conceal Carry Permit application numbers are exploding all over the US and people are demanding that their states relax firearm laws. What do you think the mood is in the US?
What about from the Biblical context?
Matthew 24 has the signs of the times when Jesus will return and many of them have been observed since the fall of man and are not explicitly telling us much. But what about Earthquakes, Oklahoma usually has about 50 per year, I read a report a few weeks ago saying we are on track to have around 90 this year. Even this may be a bit vague since I’m sure the earth will go in and out of active times when there are more or less earthquakes. You can read the chapter for yourself and see all the signs and you will find that they all pretty much exist now but have in other times also and will most certainly in the future. What I take from this is that we need to be ready at all times since you can’t actually know when he will return!
There are those that believe that there will be a great Rapture and the Christians will be taken up to be with Christ either Before the Tribulation, During the Tribulation or at the End. I know what I’ve been taught all my life but I’m still studying the word and haven’t yet settled on where I sit yet so it goes back to to being ready for all three. I believe I can with certainty tell you that if we get to stick around during the Tribulation it’s not going to be easy or pleasant so you better be ready.
Pros of Preparing for Tough Times:
- Might make things a bit easier for you and/or your family
- Even if no long term disaster happens, short term difficulties could be made easier
- Able to help others that didn’t prepare
- Leave the supplies for someone who is there if you are not
- Biblical support to prepare for what ever may come your way “The parable of 10 Virgins, of the Talents”
Cons or Preparing for Tough Times:
- Will need some storage space
- Will have to do some research so your time is required
- There will be a amount of money to be spent but doesn’t have to be huge or all at once
- Although you need to keep your preparations to yourself for security purposes you will likely catch a bit of ribbing from your close family.
You need to make your own decision for what you nedd to prepare for in the near and no so near future and weather you need to store up a few supplies. What ever decision you make, you and your family will have to live with it and if the bad times do come you will have to face them and explain why you didn’t make plans to take care of them.
