Fun! the power is being turned off.

[Wolfie]

homesteadingtoday.com/specialty-forums/survival-emergency-preparedness/455720-i-get-practice-what-will-like-without-utilities.html

[Esther]

So, do these people mean they aim to purposely start living without electricity at some point in the future, or do they believe society will break down to such a point where they won't be able to get electricity anymore? Which is this supposed to be practice for?

I still just don't get this homesteading movement. To me, it just seems like these people are slightly paranoid and/or making things way harder than they should be.

[Glass Cowcatcher]

I like the idea behind the movement. I think it promotes some very useful and practical skills. I hate how it tends to overlap with paranoid, conspiracy theorist types though.

[longskirtlotsakids]

We are increasing our population at an alarming rate coupled with the fact that we rely on a non renewable resources for the majoirty of our power.

I can't help but see any other way we will have to learn to get along eventually. Solar and wind will become more profitable, yes, but bottom line is we are all going to have to learn to do with less.

[deelaem]

There is a Self-Reliance expo in my area next weekend. Part of me would love to go because I'm sure they have some great info. But I know it's also going to be filled with tinfoil hat people and fundies, so I'm going to give it a miss. It's a shame, but I know me, I won't be able to keep my mouth shut.

[Wolfie]

I like the idea behind the movement. I think it promotes some very useful and practical skills. I hate how it tends to overlap with paranoid, conspiracy theorist types though.

My opinion too. A frustrating thing is that many of the paranoid types assume you're there because you think like they do. Um, no.

[Artemis]

I find some of the extreme preppers, such as the Paratus Familia lot, rather funny.

Mental vision:the end of the world approaches.

The missiles rain down

People die

Snug in their dugout the Paratus Familia exult in their own forethought.

Unfortunately, a split second later, a stray missile, its guidance system screwed, drops neatly on their shouse.

All that work, all that worry, all that frantic rotating of food and meticulous gun-cleaning wiped out in an instant.

Later, 'zombies' salvage enough for a decent life among the ashes of civilisation.

And in their frustrated afterlife, the preppers experience to the full the cosmic WTFuckery of TEOTWAWKI.

Don't get me wrong, I wish them no harm. I just think their sublimely unreal attitude to their own chances, and their conviction that they will survive and rule the world, amusing. After all no one know the hour when their soul is required of them, do they? Prepping can't prevent death.

[Witsec7]

There is a Self-Reliance expo in my area next weekend. Part of me would love to go because I'm sure they have some great info. But I know it's also going to be filled with tinfoil hat people and fundies, so I'm going to give it a miss. It's a shame, but I know me, I won't be able to keep my mouth shut.

Wear a long denim skirt and cover your head, be sure to walk behind your headship and you will fit right in. Be sure to bring the kleenex, biting your tongue that long often causes blood to drip out of the corners of ones mouth.

[Arete]

I have been without power and running water for days when Mother Nature decides to take the plumbing line out in my little corner. So I do think a lot of this stuff is useful- (how to flush a toilet, how to purify water you stored up in your bathtub, know where your batteries, your flashlight, and your solar radio are at all times etc). It's just a damn shame that a lot of the information is catalogued and distributed by the crazies.

As for the Apocalypse a lot of these nutters predict, all things being equal I would just as soon NOT survive the initial catastrophe.

[jaynie]

I have been without power and running water for days when Mother Nature decides to take the plumbing line out in my little corner. So I do think a lot of this stuff is useful- (how to flush a toilet, how to purify water you stored up in your bathtub, know where your batteries, your flashlight, and your solar radio are at all times etc). It's just a damn shame that a lot of the information is catalogued and distributed by the crazies.

As for the Apocalypse a lot of these nutters predict, all things being equal I would just as soon NOT survive the initial catastrophe.

Irritatingly, I can't find it, but this reminds me of something the comedian David Mitchell said about not wanting to survive the apocalypse because it would be some time before civilization rebuilt to the point where people could start pitching comedy panel shows again. Really, I'm not sure I'd want to go from a comfortable first world existence to a post-nuclear dystopia for probably the rest of my life.

I do find the tips and techniques interesting, but I could do without the doom-and-gloom. I do think if our living conditions deteriorate, it's likely to be reasonably gradual rather than overnight. But even if we woke up to nuclear apocalypse, these survivalists tend to neglect the fact that we are a social species and we thrive when we help each other. An unprepared band comprising doctors, farmers, scientists, teachers, laborers, artists, whatever, would likely stand a better chance of survival than a pack of overprepared nutters with a years supply of clean water and tinned food in the shed.

[Angri-la]

Irritatingly, I can't find it, but this reminds me of something the comedian David Mitchell said about not wanting to survive the apocalypse because it would be some time before civilization rebuilt to the point where people could start pitching comedy panel shows again. Really, I'm not sure I'd want to go from a comfortable first world existence to a post-nuclear dystopia for probably the rest of my life.

Personally, I cannot wait. I have been a Survivalist reader since the 80s, and I'd be the queen of a dystopian world. I have kind of been waiting for it my whole life, but not in a "let's soak wheatberries by the millions" way. It's my retirement plan, since my savings is not where it needs to be for me to retire, even in 35 or so years.

Of course, I do need to get a gun to keep the fundies away, because I will probably be the post-apocalyptic abortionist. I'll let you all know where my cave is...somehow.

[Glass Cowcatcher]

Personally, I cannot wait. I have been a Survivalist reader since the 80s, and I'd be the queen of a dystopian world. I have kind of been waiting for it my whole life, but not in a "let's soak wheatberries by the millions" way. It's my retirement plan, since my savings is not where it needs to be for me to retire, even in 35 or so years.

Of course, I do need to get a gun to keep the fundies away, because I will probably be the post-apocalyptic abortionist. I'll let you all know where my cave is...somehow.

Telegraph me, and we can hook up. :lol:

[Witsec7]

Personally, I cannot wait. I have been a Survivalist reader since the 80s, and I'd be the queen of a dystopian world. I have kind of been waiting for it my whole life, but not in a "let's soak wheatberries by the millions" way. It's my retirement plan, since my savings is not where it needs to be for me to retire, even in 35 or so years.

Of course, I do need to get a gun to keep the fundies away, because I will probably be the post-apocalyptic abortionist. I'll let you all know where my cave is...somehow.

99 W go south. Bring a pry bar and don't forget to loot any veterinary hospitals for antibiotics and opiates. 8-)

[Seven Severn]

This guy might be the only one who's not a right-wing nutter: http://leftwingsurvivalist.wordpress.com/

[bafleyanne]

One of the semi-local homeschool email lists around here was just advertising a set of "Survival Training Workshops". I wonder how scarily fundie it would be? The guy who runs one of them was whining today about how the next class will be the last unless they find a free meeting place, because he refuses to pay for one. :roll:

[Arete]

This guy might be the only one who's not a right-wing nutter: http://leftwingsurvivalist.wordpress.com/

Thank you for the link Seven Severn.