#a source of food. i think we should use them because farmlands are being taken over by cities and developments left and right

[noone-and-nowhere]

hi ! do you think you could maybe explain what you mean when you said “non vegan leftists are not leftists at all” ?? i thought it was an interesting thought but i’m not sure i understand it completely

Of course!! I’m referring to the fact that leftists generally pride themselves on being anti capitalist, anti exploitation, pro environment, anti corporation, and so on. Anarchy in particular opposes any form of hierarchy, and yet, there are many anarchists who actively view themselves as better or more advanced than animals, and use these views as an excuse to exploit them.

More generally, all leftists are anti capitalism due to the amount of destruction and suffering it causes in the name of profit, but don’t recognize how animals are being exploited for food, clothes, and so on in order to enrich corporations. For instance, the dairy industry in the US is responsible for absolutely atrocious conditions on factory farms, but also lobby for subsidies and create ad campaigns to convince people of the health benefits of milk all in the name of profits.

I think the most glaring irony comes when the environment is taken into account. Agriculture is the largest polluter on the planet, and much of the worlds grain and farmland is dedicated to animal ag. Veganism is well known to be the diet with the smallest environmental impact. By not consuming animal products, you are not contributing to the demand for them, which is what drives the animal agricultural industry.

The most common argument against veganism is that we need larger structural changes in order to stop factory farming and animal exploitation at the source, rather than individual lifestyle changes, but there are a few issues with this line of thinking. 1) it acknowledges that fact that factory farming is wrong, but refuses to acknowledge how meat eaters are complicit in it, and 2) it doesn’t hold up with other lines of lefitist thought, making it a double standard. No one would ever say it’s okay for me to be racist because the real problem is structural racism, and me not being racist wouldn’t even begin to dent the problem of racism. Rather, we recognize that any act of racism, no matter how small, is wrong, and therefore don’t engage in them. The same should be true of violence against animals. I have a few more thoughts and some sources to share when I’m on desktop but those are my thoughts in a nutshell

[scattered-winter]

2, 15, 28

2: thoughts on veganism?

I personally think it's dumb af. like if you're a vegan I'm not gonna hate you or anything but like?!?!? I love meat and I love eggs and I love milk and that will never change

15: rank the methods of death: freezing, burning, drowning

in terms of least to most painful: freezing, drowning, burning

in terms of fastest to slowest: burning, drowning, freezing

in terms of what I like to write: drowning, freezing, burning

28: last meal on earth?

pasta. with delicious sauce. and garlic bread. and chocolate cake (specifically my great-grandma's recipe because it's sooo good ❤)

ask game

[zithjen]

Some Core Issues of this World

Before we dive into the execution of a revolution we should probably address why change is necessary and why it is so important that it happens soon.

The issue that has always bothered me personally the most is that of the exploitation of the worker. To think that the t-shirt I was wearing was sewn by a girl my age or younger, in a run-down factory, breathing in poisonous gases, continuously working her hands bloody (literally) because she has no real choice but to let companies exploit her, just to ensure that her family can afford the barest necessities of life. It is one of the most disgusting things I can think of. She doesn’t have the option of doing something with her life that fulfils her. She has to sell her labour at a wage that is no where near enough to provide for her loved ones. And to top this off employers could not care less for their employees’ safety and thus the working conditions are often insecure and endanger the workers. Phew, all the topics that come to my mind when thinking about this. Apart from endangering their workers, big companies and employers take away people’s means of living by for example pressuring them to sell their farmland which has been their main source of food and income for generations or buying up a vital fresh water source, bottling it up and selling the water these people used to get for free straight from nature for money which they simply do not have (not to mention the pollution created during the process if plastic bottle-making and then the shipping of the goods (I tip my hat to you if you also immediately thought of companies like Nestlé who are one of these monsters)). Or, which I might find even worse, such factories polluting their environment with chemicals either out of self-servitude or ignorance. Excuse me, I get carried away. Awful things that we let happen.

Now, as for the reason why this is an issue that could and needs to be ended by a system change is that this exploitation is the absolute base on which capitalism is built. Capitalism relies on the means of production getting cheaper and cheaper and the market to continue expanding. And seeing as we as consumer ship expect less expensive products the money we do not want to pay needs to be taken from somewhere. I can guarantee you that CEO’s will not part with a single penny which means that labourers (this includes office workers as well nowadays, contrary to Karl Marx’ time where this particular class struggle was first properly studied and where Marx’ oppressed class, the Proletariat, was made up by all workers (meaning factory and manual labourers) of the world) will have to deal with worsening working conditions and even less pay.

Instead of having only a handful of people in a company call the shots, make most of the money and not care about the people doing the actual work, anarcho-syndicalists as well as communists suggest self organisation and the complete abolishment of hierarchies, as well as a reconnecting with the work we are doing. The people working in a factory deciding how, when, and what they want to do that is, however, just a small part of that change.

While we are on the topic of exploitation, something else that is grossly being exploited is our earth and her resources. I don’t know where or when people got the idea that the earth is a 24 hours unlimited all you can eat buffet but it isn’t. Get that idiocy out of your heads. On the bright side, not all people are completely unaware. So there have been multiple trends in recent years such as a ban of plastic bags in supermarket chains all over the world and the most recent trend of refusing plastic straws. While it is admirable that some people are doing something it is hardly enough. What needs to change is again the system. 100 companies are responsible for 70% of emissions and although I do not know the numbers for the responsibility of ocean pollution I’d wager our plastic sins, while despicable and under all costs needs to be reduced, if not stopped, are nowhere near as harmful as that of big companies. Now, more important than continuing to reduce the harmful ways in which we impact our planet as individuals, is that we pressure big companies to either do the same or make sure they disappear forever. Aside from harmful emissions and plastic, in order to make profit, companies destroy enormous amounts of forest (especially in South America) for mono cultures of plants such as soy and palm trees. I have to admit geography is not my area of expertise, however, if I’m not mistaken then the hummus layer (which is the layer with most nutrients) in the ground in the rain forests is rather thin and can only be used for a short amount of time before yield is close to non existent without massive fertilisation. As though removing a big chunk of our planet’s lungs, our oxygen provider, wasn’t bad enough, using such amounts of fertiliser is incredibly harmful. And eventually these big stretches of land will have to be abandoned and by then the ground is so exhausted of nutrients that the forest struggles to reclaim the land. I can not even express my disdain for such reckless and stupid actions. And again we have only scratched the surface of these atrocities. We have yet to address the massive loss of life and habitat during deforestation. But I’ll leave that to organisations such as WWF and Green Peace.

Another topic close to my heart is discrimination. This will take me some time to cover as we are talking about discrimination against different ethnicities, people in the LGBTQ community, women, and, tied to the discrimination against ethnicities, xenophobia, and I’ll scrape the topic of the absolute brainlessness of borders and keeping people out of a country.

As a foreigner who grew up in the central European country I quickly learnt how normal discrimination is. As a child I got harassed and called slurs due to my origins. I wasn’t alone in this. If you didn’t absolutely adapt to the predominant culture you would have a though life. While this can be rather traumatising it is nothing compared to what prejudices for example black people in Europe as well as the US have had to live with. Shot at, killed, unjustly taken into custody, wrongly imprisoned. To name a few. I can’t believe that I am explaining this because the only right thing, on which I will not argue with anyone, is to judge a person based not on their skin colour, clothes, physical appearance, piercings, tattoos, hair colour, headscarf, burka, or anything like that, but on their actions and their capacity to show kindness. Back to the topic at hand. While there may be a lot of minorities, such as black people who live in poverty, which in no way represents their laziness or inferiority, they are not given the same opportunities as other people because of their skin colour. Prejudice and decades of oppression has forced them into impossible situations, where for many survival is their biggest concern. Being denied access to education or having to “sit with the brown kids” at lunch is what keeps them imprisoned in a lower class. This struggle is exceptionally painful as black people freed themselves of slavery mere decades ago just to be continuously mistreated.

Unfortunately, discrimination is not limited to people of colour. Modern women’s rights movements, which have been going on for over 100 years also still struggle and have to fight for each scrap of equality. I will not delve too deep into the topic. I will say though. My body. My choice. You can fuck the hell off if you tell any woman who did not specifically ask for your opinion how she should live her life. This is regarding clothing choices, choices regarding children, or how many or few sexual partners she has. Aside from that, many people see equality between men and women as achieved when plain and simple it has not been. The pay gaps being the smallest issue. Women are denied jobs for which they would be the perfect candidate for the reason of being female. The annoying thing about this is that many are not aware of their own prejudices, which makes it that much harder to battle. Women are naturally assumed to be the stay-at-home parent and are pressured into the “right” gender role. This applies to both men and women of course and the issue of bigenderism will be another point of discussion in the future. DISCLAIMER: Just because you do not do one of these things that does not automatically make you a non-sexist. It just makes you not quite such a sexist. Treat women as equals and there you go. Now actively say or do something for equal rights for women and you’ll be a feminist. This includes all women; white, black, Muslim, Christian, trans, etc. (We will discuss feminism and the fears connected to it at a later point as well.)

Speaking of trans (great TRANSition). Acceptance towards the lgbtq community is lacking as well. Not only is there a lack of acceptance but people actively hinder lgbtq members from being happy and living their lives the way they want to. I will try to make this very clear: they are not harming you by loving who they love and fucking who they want as you are. Who do you think you are, attacking them when they do nothing to harm you. Instead of complaining or hating queer people you might want to judge people based on their morals, as I have said before. A gay guy that’s rude is just as much of an unlikable person as a straight guy. He is, however, not an unlikable person because he’s gay. Never. Let people do what they want as long as they don’t harm anyone. And no one has a right to harm them for being who they are. Not civilians, not police. We just passed pride month, which, apart from reminding us to love who we love, should remind us of those who have fought for the rights of lgbtq members. It should remind us of those who were crushed and prohibited from loving and those who were suppressed by their governments and their police. Hatred will not stand against love.

And it is in these times, I believe, that we need love for one another more than ever before. We have reached a certain standard of living in western society that we do not have to fear for our lives. Unfortunately, not all people are that lucky. People flee from their home countries, whether it’s because it’s at war, or they can’t provide for their families. For whatever reason they flee, they are looking for a better life for their families and themselves and they need to be given a chance. Of course the problems in their countries need to be solved, but until they are these people need a home. Instead of pretending that they are all evil you could get over yourself and get to know some of them. Yes, there may be a cultural difference but it might be interesting to get to know it, broaden your horizon. Everyone is a human as you are. Some where just more or less fortunate in where they were born and how their country has been or is being governed. They have worries enough. Be kind to them. There is no need to put them in concentration camps, build walls to keep them out, separate children from their families, or be scared of them altogether.

Speaking of concentration camps (aka ICE). Many anarchists will agree that we hold no love for the police. I only briefly mentioned police brutality in the paragraphs about discrimination. I did not even scratch the surface of the disgusting things they do. They have been given the power and the right, by their government, to use force when they deem it necessary. Keep in mind they choose when they want to use force. It is no coincident that there are more black people being shot than white people by police, or that more lgbtq members are beat up than cis men. There is an imbalance in the distribution of power. We are governed from the top down and it is all we can do not to submit and accept this injustice.

If you take anything from this, let it be that we are all human beings, who deserve to live our lives as we choose, without fear for survival. Assuming we are different from one another because we are born in different places marked only by an imaginary line, or the colour of our skin, sexuality, or gender (which is also an ide constructed by our society).

It is not a coincidence either that all the oppressed are not white, straight, old men who sit in positions of power and assure that these few named injustices continue. It is our duty to ensure that no innocent is harmed and every moment we fail to do just that, is one moment too much. We need to fight this. Now.

[marctugonon]

REFLECTION PAPER

Land Reform, Land Grabbing, and Land Conversion in Calabarzon have some serious threats to our environment and to our people. Though these land uses have a lot of negative effects on our agricultural lands, it can actually adequately meet our needs at the same time. Yes, it may be adequate for our needs, but that does not cover the fact that this project is leading more to the negative side and can do more harm than good. Not only this affects the people within the Calabarzon provinces, but the whole country itself. This issue can worsen our country’s ‘reputation’. This subject is crucial because it will affect so many lives especially to those who depend on agriculture as their occupation. This heavily matters to them in the view of the fact that this is only their source of income, if taken away from them, the gap between the rich and poor will progressively worsen; The rich get richer and the poor get poorer (Matthew Effect). Mass evictions of poor families are also included in the process. If one does not abide by the rule, force eviction will be applied, or worse, violence will be applied. This issue started commencing when the Philippine government started getting hesitant about which path can benefit the country’s manifold economic, social, political, and environmental problems. One thing that the past government officials wanted to implement was the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), a social justice government program that claims to help landless farmers and to those who cultivate the soil or farmworkers to give them ownership of agricultural lands. While on the other hand, the Ramos administration convinced that the Philippines can join the ranks of the Newly Industrialized Countries (NIC) by the year 2000. The Ramos regime focuses on transforming the Philippines into a newly industrialized country by the year 2000.

While this dilemma is occurring, the Calabarzon Project somehow managed itself to become a hurdle that has stood in the government’s way. The Calabarzon project covers 5 big provinces of the Southern Tagalog Region which some of the most productive rice lands in The Philippines is located and where some of the lands are controlled by the 1998 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL). CARL focuses on bettering our country’s infrastructure investment and turn some regions into an engine of growth for Philippine industrialization. As time went by, the government realized some flaws under CARL which have caused it to change slowly by giving DAR the opportunity to decide whenever or the land not to be converted, not the landlords. Though a big part of agricultural land still exists in our country, it’s still possible for us to face some major problems in the future such as difficulty to produce the amount of food needed to feed the growing human population. Major health problems may also occur due to this project. More infrastructures mean less oxygen present in that area. Since trees, which require a large amount of soil, land, and space, are being taken down, people are now more prone to a lot of health issues. Plants are very important for maintaining oxygen in the atmosphere. Loss of animal habitats is also a major problem that we may face during the process. This can cause species mass extinction, which we are already facing. This is very crucial since most people are not on a plant-based diet and depend more on livestock. In addition to this, pollution would be more noticeable. Infrastructures have great significance in pollution since they use dangerous substances that are harmful to us, humans, and our environment. If CARL will be implemented, our risk of having and surviving natural calamities and phenomenons will definitely aggravate. Nature can help lessen the probability of having floods and tsunamis since trees absorb and store rainwater. Overcrowding in particular areas in the region/city is also concerning because people contribute to pollution almost 90% most of the time. Take New York City as an example, a beautiful city where skyscrapers, amazing amenities, and rats running everywhere in the city are present. Their pollution is one of the worst, making them rank in most polluted cities in the nation. Overcrowding in New York City heavily contributed to their pollution; Land pollution and air pollution. Beautiful infrastructures deceive people into thinking their chance of finding a job will increase, but the truth is, they’re all corrupt and some are just using you for money. This leads us to the next problem, Economic Failure. Since agriculture plays an important role in our country’s economy, loss of agricultural lands will greatly affect our economy. Many working Filipino’s, 40% specifically, classify agriculture as their occupation and contribute about 20% of the country’s GDP and is gradually decreasing. If they’re neglected, the country’s economy will continue to suffer. This project also participates in a problem the earth is facing, depleting of the ozone layer. Ozone layer depletion is caused by human activities; Manufacturing of chemicals, consumption of dangerous gases, and many more. Buildings use numerous materials that are very dangerous to our environment, it is possible that they’re also contributing to the depletion of the ozone layer. Ozone is very important because it protects the Earth’s surface from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation. If the ozone will continuously getting destroyed, humans would be more prone to health problems, such as skin cancers, cataracts, and immune deficiency disorders. The CARL project in the Calabarzon region will continue to be a problem for many landowners, farmworkers, the government, and the country itself because it has so many negative effects on the economy and citizens. Examples of why this will continue being a problem are families are being forced away from their land. This act is considered as trespassing on someone’s private property. It is their private property and no one else has the right to touch it and force the family living in that area to move and demolish their place for industrial growth purposes. Secondly, farmers were being forced to switch crops, even though most of them did not have the facilities to keep up with that lifestyle. In addition to that, atmospheric pollution is also getting worse caused by a lot of coal dust particles. If not monitored, our environment will continue to deteriorate and soon will struggle to give the people the healthy and clean air and oxygen they need. Furthermore, About 100,000 rural families will lose their farmlands to schemes connected with the Calabarzon Project. The Matthew effect is very much applied in this situation because the people in the province who rely on agriculture will struggle more to support their family’s needs. While on the other hand, the government and the rich get richer because they get to construct infrastructures and build businesses that could benefit them. It is very selfish of them to do such thing and that just shows how absurd, incompetent, and egotistical the government and some business owners are towards its people. Lastly, the country may possibly face scarcity of land when the project would be implemented. It would be hard for the government as well for the farmworkers to find for another land where they could grow crops and supplies to satisfy the people’s needs and wants. Overall, I am very disappointed about this issue because they could’ve thought of a better idea where they will not touch or ruin someone’s life in order for them to satisfy their wants. Moreover, I think it is very unnecessary to implement this project right now because we are facing a pandemic where everyone is panicking and lives are at risk and millions of people are dying. Many Filipinos are also struggling mentally, physically, and emotionally, and I think the government should focus more on its people’s situation and needs. But this does not mean people should stop voicing out their opinions and speaking up on this matter because, at the end of the day, this is still a crucial issue that our country is facing and people should also be educated about this to show nationalism. If this was thought of thoroughly, this could have been a great and beneficial project. They should’ve thought of better things to implement. Plans that could have helped the future, which is now, and plans that could have helped develop our country into a better nation. Instead, the government should implement a law where they offer sustainable homes to the homeless and give proper education to those who are underprivileged. They could also find ways on how to lessen natural calamities and phenomena's damages on our lands and infrastructures. 

[thecoroutfitters]

Prepping has always been about the worst-case scenario. Maybe that’s because those really scary disasters motivate us more or maybe it’s just that in preparing for a true “the end of the world as we know it” (aka TEOTWAWKI) event make us ready for anything else we might encounter.

Regardless of the reason, there are enough of these major catastrophes in the world’s history to show us that they really can happen.

While most people who have lived on the face of this earth haven’t had to deal with anything more than a regional natural disaster, some have had to deal with much worse. To the people of Europe who survived World War II, that was a life-changing event. The same can be said for those who lived through the Great Depression or the Black Plague.

Real disasters happen. What skills would help you survive?

When I was growing up, the biggest risk we faced was that of thermonuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis, in 1962, was probably the closest we came to total annihilation back then. I was as glad as anyone when the Berlin Wall came down and the Cold War ended.

But we are now in another cold war and it is looking much more like it’s going to turn into a hot war that that one ever did. Should that happen, or even worse, turn out to be an EMP attack, we could easily find ourselves living in a post-apocalyptic world; a world in which we’re going to have to do everything without the benefit of electric power.

Here’s Why We Can Never Win Against North Korea!

  In such a case, people will be scrambling to learn the necessary skills to survive. But even more than that, they’ll have to learn how to do the things necessary to rebuild society. We are too accustomed to our technology and our comforts to just give up on them. People will be wanting things the way they are used to, or at least as close to that as they can get them.

With that in mind, it only makes sense to learn the necessary skills for living in a world without electricity. This doesn’t just mean surviving for ourselves, but helping others to survive as well; something that is normally outside of our plans as preppers.

I realize that most of us live and operate under the philosophy of taking care of ourselves, our families and our survival team. If all we’re concerned about is survival, that makes sense. But if we want our children to have a better life than that, enjoying some of the benefits we have today, we’re going to have to do more than just survive. We’re going to have to be ready to rebuild our world and as much of the technology that drives it as we can.

That job will probably fall to us, rather than to others, simply because we are the ones who are going to survive. So, we not only should be learning survival skills, but others which will help us to make things work.

Native American Doctor

Medicine is going to be one of the biggest problems in a post-apocalyptic world. While most people would die of starvation, many will also die for lack of medicine.

Today’s pharmaceutical industry depends on supplies that come from all over. Without transportation, they won’t have the materials they need to make the medicines that modern society depends on. Even if they could, without transportation those medicines wouldn’t get to you and me.

When the medicines that are locally stocked in hospitals and pharmacies are used up, there will be no more. The only medicines that will exist will be those that nature provides. The doctors of the American Indians knew those medicines and some still use them. If you can find one of them, and learn their craft, you’ll have one of the most useful skills that exist.

Even if you can’t find a Native American doctor, you could still learn about their medicine. There is a growing movement of people who believe in herbal medicine, which is based to a large part of the same roots as those Native American doctors’ medicine.

While you probably wouldn’t learn everything that a Native American Doctor could teach you, you’ll end up a whole lot better off, with a whole lot more information, than what you have now.

Chemist/Pharmacist

Pharmacists are actually trained for much more than just counting out pills, they are highly trained chemists. More than doctors, they know how different medicines interact and how they react once in our bodies.

Some pharmacists even know how to make medicines. That’s what you’re looking for: a pharmacist who can show you how to make your own penicillin, ether and chloroform will be giving you information that can save lives.

In addition to medical chemistry, there are probably other things you can learn from these people, such as how to make biofuel and other useful chemical substances.

Midwife

Everyone knows what the “world’s oldest profession” is; but I’ve never heard agreement on what the second and third oldest are.

Personally, I think that the midwife has to be pretty high on that list, as the “oldest” would necessitate midwifery. So even if something like farming or shepherding would beat it out (Able was a shepherd and Cain a farmer), midwives have been around for a long, long time.

As long as babies are being born, there will be a need for midwives. This will be especially true in times when there aren’t enough doctors to help women through childbirth. In a post-apocalyptic world, there’s a much greater possibility of women using midwives, than doctors.

Amish Farmer

Modern farming has become industrialized, with massive corporate farms and lots of expensive equipment. Even smaller farms depend heavily on equipment, with the tractor long ago having replaced the horse or oxen.

But the Amish never made that transition. Today’s Amish farmers largely do things the way their ancestors did them, still using horses as the main source of power on the farm. This gives them an incredible advantage over the rest of us, who don’t have the slightest idea of how to do things without gas engines and electric power.

Should we find ourselves on the receiving end of an EMP, the Amish will be less affected by it than any other group of people in our country. That’s basically because they don’t depend on electricity or the modern electronics that the rest of us use.

Their communities will thrive, while the rest of the country is dying. Spending time with one of these farmers and learning the methods and tools they use, would prepare you to be able to feed your family and many more, once the brown stuff hits the rotary air movement device.

Rancher

Ranching and farming aren’t the same thing. Throughout the time of the Old West, these two groups of people fought for the use of the land. That’s because the best farmland was also the best land for raising cattle, or should I say the best ranchland was often the best land for farming.

Of all the animals that mankind has domesticated through the years, cattle give us the most meat per animal.

Another way of putting that is that cattle give us the most meat for effort expended. That makes them the perfect sort of animal to raise for meat, assuming you’ve got enough land to raise them.

Snake-Eater

In the military, all “special action groups” are collectively known as “snake eaters.” It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about the Navy’s SEALs, the Army’s Special Forces or any other group, they all fall into the same general category.

Snake eaters are the best of the best. In the Army, Special Forces is not only the group that is called upon for unconventional warfare (guerrilla warfare), but they are the ones who are sent to other countries, in order to train their militaries. In fact, Special Forces got their start that way, first as the Jedburgh Teams in World War II and then as advisors in Greece and elsewhere.

Many people think of these snake eaters as expert survivalists. But that depends largely upon the environment you are talking of. They aren’t experts in the sense that you and I are trying to be, but rather in surviving any combat action. Their superior training makes them the best soldiers to have on your side, should things become violent.

Spending time with any snake eaters, learning their combat skills, will greatly increase your chances of not falling prey to the two-legged predators that will be out in force after a disaster strikes.

Hunting Guide

Hunting may not be the most efficient way of finding food after a collapse, but it may still be a very necessary part of our survival. But what most people consider hunting today is sitting in a deer blind, waiting for deer to start munching on the seed corn they put out.

While this may be an efficient way of hunting, it’s highly dependent on having the right equipment and the right place. I don’t think that’s something that any of us can count on in a post-apocalyptic world. Rather, we’re going to have to go hunting the old-fashioned way, tracking animals, learning their habits and then laying wait for one alongside a trail.

Skills like that aren’t something you can learn from just any hunter, as they probably don’t know them either. Rather, you’re going to need someone who started hunting before people used corn and deer blinds to hunt.

That’s why I recommend a hunting guide, rather than just any hunter. They’re more likely to know the skills you’ll need.

Blacksmith

If you’ve ever read any of my other post-apocalyptic articles, you know that I believe strongly in the profession of blacksmithing.

Before the dawn of the industrial age, the blacksmith made just about anything that could be made out of metal. From armor and weapons to shoeing farmer’s horses, the blacksmith was the man to see.

There are few blacksmiths in the world today; mostly because modern industry has replaced them. But when industry is taken away, then what? Who will be able to make the tools and other things that we need? It will have to be blacksmiths, or someone with very similar skills.

My father learned how to be a blacksmith, once he retired; apprenticing with a lifelong blacksmith who was a true artist of the trade. Unfortunately, I only learned a little of it from him, and don’t have a forge and anvil to practice on. If I could find one around where I live, I’d love to spend some time in his shop, learning what I could.

Mr. Fix-It

You probably know someone who can fix just about anything; a Mr. Fix-It (or perhaps a Mrs. Fix-It). These are some of the world’s most useful people and will probably be the true leaders of rebuilding society after a major disaster.

What makes these people so special is that they aren’t limited to just one trade, like many people are. Rather, they’re comfortable with any number of trades and even with fixing things that don’t fall within any particular trade. Whatever you need designed, built or repaired, they can find a way to do it; often a rather imaginative way.

I consider myself to be one of these people. Earlier in my career, I was a manufacturing engineer. Rather than just working in one engineering discipline, this forced me to do both mechanical and electrical engineering. I also took the time to learn how to be a machinist, mechanic and made many of my own prototypes.

On the side, I had a small construction company, along with a buddy of mine. So I’ve learned how to do a wide variety of things; becoming what we used to call, a jack of all trades.

Today I build a lot of my own survival gear. You can find countless examples of my work around my house. My garage hasn’t had a car in it since I painted one of them. Rather than being a garage, it’s actually my workshop. I figure that will serve me well in a post-apocalyptic world.

The Old Survivalist

Survivalism has changed since I got started in my youth. Back then we weren’t so focused on equipment, as methods. There just wasn’t that much equipment available; at least not compared to what we have available to us today.

So, you had to know how to do things yourself, rather than depending on having some sort of gadget to do it for you.

What this means is that those old survivalists were often trained much better than we are today, simply because they had to be. So they’re a fountain of useful information, if you can find them and get them talking.

Fortunately, most are willing to share what they know; so the real problem is finding them.

  This article has been written by Bill White for Survivopedia.

from Survivopedia Don't forget to visit the store and pick up some gear at The COR Outfitters. How prepared are you for emergencies? #SurvivalFirestarter #SurvivalBugOutBackpack #PrepperSurvivalPack #SHTFGear #SHTFBag

[bannatynes]

Every little bit counts

There is a growing push back on the idea of environment posturing. The idea that your efforts to make any change in the manner in which we recycle or tackle how we impact our environment is ultimately futile. The thinking is that in relation to larger negative contributors, your efforts are largely in vain. It has become fashionable to berate people for the apparent contradiction in how they choose to affect positive environmental change. The example often used, is that someone always has a friend that travels to the other side of town, in their VW diesel emitting double cab, to pick up their bespoke biodegradable packaged pouch of organic fruit. To muddy the waters further, it has also become fashionable to posture while uncomfortably sipping on a soggy straw.  All the while spitting out pieces of flaked paper that is hellbent on gaging you by the throat. As usual, it is one of those times where intention matters  Condemning it as a form of virtue signaling ironically becomes a form of selfsame virtue signaling. It’s an endless recursive loop. On the surface of this it seems paradoxical. But is it?

 There are many examples of these types of arguments. In farming free range pigs, I often get accused of them being less efficient in terms of both feed conversion and financially. They apparently use land less efficiently too. Because of this they must be less efficient and more damaging to the environment. Well, not so quick. The external costs, which I will admit are incredibly difficult to calculate accurately in terms of money, differ considerably in each system. There has to be some cost that the animals itself is bearing by being confined. I would add to that the cost of boredom and the inability to do things that would come naturally to a pig, things like rooting or wallowing. At very least these should be seen as an opportunity cost. I am aware that not everyone will agree.

 The fact that the indoor environment is artificial is not in itself a problem. Have a look at how they raise pigs at the Rodale Institute. In an exclusively indoor system however there is definitely a cost to keeping pigs healthy, the drug cost being the obvious, but in addition to that, the cleaning and environmental manipulation costs need to be pointed out. Keeping pigs warm on cold concrete is a cost. Keeping the same pigs cool in a hot shed, equally so. These are all seasonally and area specific.

 There are other considerations too like removing pig waste. It would only be fair to take the land and water used for such disposal into account. The toxicity of this would be determined by its size and also its ability to biodegrade or bio-digest such waste. There is a benefit to using this waste as a form of crop food or energy source, but the ability to process it needs to be taken into account, this should include storage, transport and all equipment. When evaluating external costs, is it fair to attribute health related illness due to poor nutrition, to the manner in which we farm? It’s starting to become insurmountably complicated to weigh up the different options. That is if you are still keen to play that game.

 One of the more interesting and contentious aspects to how these different approaches are evaluated, is what time period should be used? Do we look at the short term degradation of farmland as proof that it does not work or do we take into account the time it takes if that land were left barren to recover? How do we apportion the costs to the idle land recovery time?

 Another aspect of time, is also future technological advances. We are now fully down the path of complicated. It is here that I want to tie it back to your friend and his VW. My argument is that the inefficiency of going to the other side of town today, is more than compensated for in future. By supporting people who are willing to try and forge a solution to a problem they feel strongly about is your recognition of the problem. It is also an endorsement of their proposed solution. Market forces will always be used to tally up the score at the end of the day. That is how we progress. You see, in a year or two the guy on the other side of town is either larger and more efficient due to your support. Or he has gone bust. Market forces are an unforgiving and cruel mistress. They are also crucial to advancing that which we truly want. As apposed to that which we say we want.

I have yet to meet someone who would not prefer free range meat. I am also always surprised when I see it at a braai, mostly because it is so uncommon.