tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post4433735192588088006..comments2024-03-12T18:37:16.548-04:00Comments on The Easiest Person to Fool: Autobiographical Notes, Part 5: Becoming a KollapsnikIrv Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08030800457536589003noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-30574060303157368722018-07-26T15:28:52.381-04:002018-07-26T15:28:52.381-04:00@ Mike
Good to hear from you Mike. Truth is way st...@ Mike<br />Good to hear from you Mike. Truth is way stranger than anything we could imagine in advance. It has certainly been the case in so far in this century and I trust that the future has a supply of curve balls ready to throw at us. It makes preparing quite a challenge.<br />I think the political chaos in the U.S. is all part of the ongoing collapse I'm talking about. It does seem that things are being torn apart quicker than we would have imagined them falling apart.<br />I have an American daughter-in-law who moved to Canada because of my son. Now she wouldn't consider going back and will be taking the test for her Canadian citizenship any day now. Not that Canada has all that much to crow about. In the recent provincial election here in Ontario we elected a guy that reminds everybody of Trump. Doug Ford--Rob Ford's brother. You may remember Rob as the colourful, drug addicted Mayor of Toronto who died of cancer a few years ago. Doug is cut from the same material, and has plan to tear Ontario apart.<br />Oh well, interesting times.Irv Millshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08030800457536589003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-53538055682397117732018-07-26T15:19:14.732-04:002018-07-26T15:19:14.732-04:00@ Don Hayward
A book tour or tours sounds like a g...@ Don Hayward<br />A book tour or tours sounds like a great idea. You might look up a guy by the name of Brian Dalton on Facebook. Comes from around Kingsbridge originally, was in Ripley for many years and now lives in Owen Sound. He is an artist and author. He had quite a bit of success with a book (The Padre's War) that was printed by the printing company I used to own, here in Kincardine.<br />I seem to have spent most of the summer so far watering gardens. The rains we've had recently have been a minor reprieve.<br />Anyway, we should get together again. I'll contact you soon via Facebook messaging. Would you like me to come to you? Seems like it is my turn.Irv Millshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08030800457536589003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-50083326000843963642018-07-26T15:12:00.729-04:002018-07-26T15:12:00.729-04:00@ Joe
Let me know if you find out whether the WOOF...@ Joe<br />Let me know if you find out whether the WOOFER organization insists on only certified organic farms.<br />You will occasionally hear me saying some fairly negative stuff abut organic farming, but what mainly bugs me is the irrational stuff in the rules you have to follow to be certified.<br />Anyway, I think you a way ahead of me on actual concrete preparations. I have to say I envy you.<br />The Ontario government was searching, as while back, for a way to improve the economic situation of small farmers. They concluded that the best thing to do was encourage the local food movement and they even made so money available. That got me some work when I was in the printing business, designing and printing flyers for farmers markets and so forth. So of the farmers involved thought it was a worthwhile effort.<br />BAU is going to have to get quite a bit more messed up before alternatives to it are economically viable. Anything we can do to strengthen rural communities should help.Irv Millshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08030800457536589003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-17158256613613112402018-07-24T21:20:28.540-04:002018-07-24T21:20:28.540-04:00I, like you Irv, am 64. I've been a "prep...I, like you Irv, am 64. I've been a "prepper" and believer in collapse ever since I read the original Limits To Growth in the early 1970s.<br /><br />It is amazing to look back, to the years 2002 to 2009, when I thought the collapse I was long anticipating was underway, and I got very serious about getting through it.<br /><br />If you asked me then what kind of world I might be living in in 2018, I would have said one dominated by social crisis. But I expected the social crisis to follow and be directly caused by economic and resource collapse and decline in living standards.<br /><br />Instead, since I live in the US, rather than in Canada, I am living through a social crisis as nightmarish as anything I ever expected ten or fifteen years ago.<br /><br />But it is not due to what I expected. Instead, it is due to about 40 percent of our electorate here enthusiastically embracing toxic nationalism, overt racism, and xenophobia and unwaveringly supporting the dictator they have managed to elect as "president", and his corrupt party, and the oligarchs that have taken control of our (no longer) democratic processes and institutions.<br /><br />Back then, I expected I would still care a lot about politics in 2018, but because I wanted to assure collapse would be managed by benevolent government.<br /><br />Instead, the government is now in the hands of such non-benevolent thugs that I don't even think about BAU vs. collapse anymore.<br /><br />...Even if BAU continues a little longer, it does not matter, because the authoritarians controlling the government now are dismantling everything that gave me a sense of security more rapidly than economic and resource collapse ever could.Mike Monetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00560680256261769651noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-43793912996371359692018-07-22T15:11:34.973-04:002018-07-22T15:11:34.973-04:00Irv,
I need to organise a "book tour" to...Irv,<br />I need to organise a "book tour" to try and place them in as many bookstores as I can. I'll contact condor first and would do that separately so we can have more coffee. I see other stores all the way to Collingwood, but it's more than a day's effort. We are getting substantial rain today so the farmers will be smiling but the fires up north are horrible. I used a forest fire as a plot mover in my follow up story The Seventh Path and the idea didn't come from the blue. We had several scares near High Falls when I was young.<br />In reference to some discussion above, while I do think there will be some generational blaming, I think the crisis will create more unity than division at the bottom of the social heap. The folks used to control and power will continue to want that and fight amongst themselves on issues of greed, unrelated to the daily quest for food and shelter.Don Haywardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10229684724312837788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-22623405052764802692018-07-20T20:21:04.795-04:002018-07-20T20:21:04.795-04:00@ Irv,
I have heard of WWOOFers and have even pic...@ Irv,<br /><br />I have heard of WWOOFers and have even picked up a few who were hitchhiking near a local farm where they work. I had thought that a WWOOFer farm had to be certified organic to participate but I might be wrong about that. I will check out their site. I don't have a certified farm, but I use organic methods almost entirely. I'm slowly going through some old 13-13-13 on bananas. I stockpiled it before Y2K (shows you my kind of thinking).<br /><br />I also have adult children. Both of them are engineers and they have good jobs in the big city. They know that they are welcome to come back to the farm where they grew up any time. I even offered them their own house if necessary. They know my worries about the future and they generally agree that things will go downhill eventually. In the meantime they are happy where they are. <br /><br />We have discussed the key events that will signal when it is time to leave. (1)If they lose their jobs and cannot find another one no matter what they do or (2)even if they do have a job, but civil disorder makes sticking around uncomfortable, they should get on a plane and come "home". The only problem is that they are in North America and my wife and I are in the tropical Pacific. There is some worry about making the journey if there is a sudden crisis that affects air transport.<br /><br />In the meantime, I try to find part time workers as paid help, but they are hard to find and keep. Everyone wants a full time position. Once they find one, off they go.Joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01251330546889158364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-72993069155090118762018-07-20T16:01:20.037-04:002018-07-20T16:01:20.037-04:00@ Joe, again.
Young folks, especially once they...@ Joe, again.<br />Young folks, especially once they've had a bit of practice, can indeed work circles around us old farts.<br />My main plan is offer a place for my three kids and their families to retreat to. In Kincardine the trend, for many years, has been for most young people to move away to large centres to seek work. When life there becomes untenable, if we can offer them a better situation, they may be eager to return.<br />At the moment, though, the economic situation is against this.<br />Have you heard of "WOOOFing"--World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms? The website is wooof.net, here is what they have to say for themselves:<br />"WWOOF is a worldwide movement linking volunteers with organic farmers and growers to promote cultural and educational experiences based on trust and non-monetary exchange, thereby helping to build a sustainable, global community."<br />I've heard of a number of people who've had good experiences with this.<br />All this discussion here in the comments is helpful with the thinking I'm, doing in preparation for my next series of posts which will deal with the question of what to do next.Irv Millshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08030800457536589003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-26483718203966589332018-07-20T15:52:11.890-04:002018-07-20T15:52:11.890-04:00@ Joe
Sounds like you've been doing well a pre...@ Joe<br />Sounds like you've been doing well a preparing for emergencies.<br />The thing is that most people don;t have the resources to just drop out of BAU and set up some sort of lifeboat community. That is awfully expensive to do as well as been difficult to organize.<br />The first stages of collapse are nicely underway in my opinion. Many people are aware that something is wrong, but are focusing on fine tuning the existing system when it is actually the cause of our problems. There are a few groups proposing alternatives that are more or less in the right direction but I have to say I am not thrilled enough with any to become involved. I tried with the Transition Town Thing, with disappointing results.<br />But over the next few year I think events will offer us some challenges that can best to faced by some sort of community effort and those who have cultivated a network of friends that are accustomed to doing things together will be well position to mount an effective response. It will help if some of them (like us) are collapse aware and somewhat prepared.<br />Some sort of community defense may well be needed, but the best defense is to offer a viable alternative for people to participate in, who would otherwise have to resort to violence. How easy that is may depend on your local culture. Remember I live in rural Ontario, Canada, so my viewpoint is somewhat different.Irv Millshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08030800457536589003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-15852918432230689782018-07-20T15:37:31.382-04:002018-07-20T15:37:31.382-04:00@ Don Hayward
Yes, you've got it right, for su...@ Don Hayward<br />Yes, you've got it right, for sure. I have quite a few friends who don't want to talk about collapse every time I see them (like you and I do), but they are willing to be friends and are capable in a variety of fields. There will come a day, as collapse progresses, where there is a need for help in mounting a response to whatever challenge has come up and these folks will pitch in as needed.<br />We are lucky enough to live in small towns surrounded by surrounded by farming areas. To anyone listening in here I would advise getting to know some of the local farmers, perhaps starting with the folks at your local farmers market. Buy what they have to offer and be as generous as your financial circumstances allow. In addition to being producers of food, farmers are pretty handy in many other ways and have a lot of useful tools, supplies and equipment.<br />Summer has been hot and dry here in Kincardine and I seem to be spending a lot of time watering gardens and over the last while picking raspberries from the patch in our front yard, which is providing a bumper crop.<br />If we are taking turns at getting together, it's my turn to show up in your neck of the woods. Or perhaps you're still thinking about dropping off some books at Condor Books here in Kincardine...Irv Millshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08030800457536589003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-65575193444536770102018-07-20T15:07:15.434-04:002018-07-20T15:07:15.434-04:00One more thing. One of the difficulties in organiz...One more thing. One of the difficulties in organizing a community to survive collapse will be the integration of the older generation (that has the land assets) with the younger folks who will need to be the muscle to work the land. <br /><br />We older people may know how to grow food, but there is no way we can match the productivity of someone with much younger muscles. After a few weeks on a farm, even the doughiest young cubicle worker can develop muscular strength that would put us old folks to shame.<br /><br />Any idea how we can integrate a flood of unemployed young families from the city with retirees living on small rural acreages? Joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01251330546889158364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-89729966640700693892018-07-20T12:49:01.792-04:002018-07-20T12:49:01.792-04:00Great post and interesting comments.
I live in a...Great post and interesting comments. <br /><br />I live in a rural community with a fairly large number of collapse-aware families. Even so, group preparations have been minimal, except for the kinds of emergency preparation one would do even in BAU. <br /><br />We have a volunteer fire department, a FEMA certified Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), which is composed of community volunteers, and a Safety Committee, which gets together quarterly to talk about safety issues, mostly dealing with roads. I think these kinds of volunteer civic organizations help build the connections and mutual trust that will be critical to a community's response to hard times.<br /><br />If the initial stages of economic collapse are fairly slow, but large enough to really get people's attention, it may be possible to organize responses as fast as real survival problems develop. But if there is a really big initial event, a massive communication failure, a nuclear war, financial crisis or a pandemic, it's going to be hard to do any organizing, leaving us in a fairly Hobbesian situation of every family for itself.<br /><br />It seems such a shame that really obvious and beneficial steps to prepare a community seem so hard to do, but there it is. In the absence of intentional subsistence farming communities, I think communication will be the key. If people can talk to each other remotely, they can still manage to organize some form of response even <i>in extremis</i>. We are working on getting numerous HAM radios into our community via the CERT program.<br /><br />One of the things they will need to organize is community defense. The breakdown of public safety institutions will be part of collapse, but I understand the reluctance to even discuss the subject when even the basics, like food production and water supplies, are still yet to be dealt with adequately.<br /><br />I'm very much looking forward to your next series of posts. Joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01251330546889158364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-72929138461721248262018-07-19T22:10:26.754-04:002018-07-19T22:10:26.754-04:00Irv,
I agree about not pushing the collapse discus...Irv,<br />I agree about not pushing the collapse discussion on everyone. I find myself thinking that the third of my four rules of prepping is the most important, the list of those who aren't interested now but in a crisis will probably be active cooperators in the necessary community.<br />Enjoy summer and meet soon.<br />DonDon Haywardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10229684724312837788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-85960191384461526992018-07-19T15:45:58.603-04:002018-07-19T15:45:58.603-04:00@ Russ
nice to hear form you, Russ. I'm 64 yea...@ Russ<br />nice to hear form you, Russ. I'm 64 years old, just to be clear.<br />Sound like you done more than I have--I'm impressed.Irv Millshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08030800457536589003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-40729406444823719032018-07-19T08:10:40.028-04:002018-07-19T08:10:40.028-04:00Irv - read your bio and certainly agree with you. ...Irv - read your bio and certainly agree with you. Wife and I are about 25 yrs older than you and have gone thru the same transition. I read similar books, insulated the home, added a solar water heating system, solar voltaic panels galore, etc., and we don't understand why the rest of the community doesn't follow suit or even care. Spent the last 3 days baking bread and stocking the freezer for the future. Good luck. Russ DayAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-53963151225621421842018-07-18T15:38:43.674-04:002018-07-18T15:38:43.674-04:00@ Helen Loughrey
You're welcome, and thank you...@ Helen Loughrey<br />You're welcome, and thank you for the kind words.<br />I wouldn't consider storing years of provisions. A few months, maybe a year, at most. That's mainly because we eat what we store, rotating things through our system (such as it is) and if the rotation takes too long, things get stale. Exception would be things like "hard" grains--wheat, rye, corn, white rice. But even a few weeks of supplies will be very helpful in the bumpy, off and on sort of collapse situation I foresee.<br />"Infestation"--I like that. It seems where ever I hear Transition being discussed I hear of the same sort of thing. I wonder if Hopkins is aware of this problem...Irv Millshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08030800457536589003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-86091265310665639262018-07-18T15:29:43.642-04:002018-07-18T15:29:43.642-04:00@ Bev
Thanks, Bev. You might be interested in what...@ Bev<br />Thanks, Bev. You might be interested in what I was saying to Don in the previous comment. He lives in the next town south of Kincardine along Lake Huron and is the author of <a href="http://www.ecologydufferin.net/aftld/index.htm" rel="nofollow">several books</a>. I met him through Mike Stasse's blog, "Damn the Matrix".<br />Having a good network is valuable even if most of them aren't collapse aware. People who you are close enough to that you can ask for help when you need it. It's possible that as collapse progresses, such networks can turn into the kind of communities we need.<br />Irv Millshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08030800457536589003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-84337682571772515582018-07-18T15:20:22.480-04:002018-07-18T15:20:22.480-04:00@ Don Hayward
Indeed "After the Last Day"...@ Don Hayward<br />Indeed "After the Last Day" touches on a great deal that people should be discussing these days. After my experience with the Transition Town, I concluded that I should be a lot pickier about who I got into such discussion with, though. We did a lot of advertising and held public meeting that were quite well attended. But many of those we attracted had a pretty shaky grasp on reality--the sort you wouldn't want to be involved with in a serious collapse situation.<br />Since then I've come around to the idea that in the small towns where we live it is good enough to have a large network of acquaintances, not necessarily really close friends, and to be known as a reliable sort of person. Pushing too hard on the collapse connection can actually interfere with that for the majority who aren't receptive. Not good to be known as a crackpot. A few will be receptive and more as the situation changes. Bet you can guess where I got these ideas...<br />And yes, we should get together again, sometime soon. Irv Millshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08030800457536589003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-31918394217809143862018-07-18T10:52:57.115-04:002018-07-18T10:52:57.115-04:00Similar journeys! Wow!
Thanks for this blogpost!
I...Similar journeys! Wow!<br />Thanks for this blogpost!<br />I gave up on Transition for the same infestation reason.<br />Moving away (for my husband’s job prospects) dissuaded me from owning/mortgaging a house again. Renting dissuades me from making permanent improvements and from storing years worth of provisions. I think joining the local community garden and learning skill sets I could barter and practice camping is about all I can really do now at age 56.<br />Helen Loughrey in Southport CT Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-30119774640494613702018-07-18T04:08:43.299-04:002018-07-18T04:08:43.299-04:00Excellent as usual Irv and mirrors my own experien...Excellent as usual Irv and mirrors my own experience, except for the Transition Towns experience. I also bought Rob Hopkins' book, but couldn't find anyone interested, and trying to get people to understand the phenomenon of energy decline was just too hard. I'm now doing my own thing, on my own, hoping all the while that the crash won't be too severe, or that I'll be pushing up daisies well before it does. Bevnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2848841213670110129.post-79223626748867283452018-07-17T20:40:12.552-04:002018-07-17T20:40:12.552-04:00Irv, we have somewhat similar experiences with the...Irv, we have somewhat similar experiences with the process of passing from ignorance to attempted organisation to where we are now. Your Transition Town experience parallels my experience with PURE, an attempt at a renewable energy co-op in Dufferin.<br />A lot of what you mention here is what I was throwing out for consideration in my novel, After the Last Day. The path will not be straight, smooth or easy, but like you, I think a community is the key and the only hope for survivors to succeed. We need to get together again soon.Don Haywardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10229684724312837788noreply@blogger.com