June 25, 2012
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Apocolypse
I’ve read many world ending novels the past two years. It’s easily my favorite genre and I wish there were more/better books out there. Reading them always make me wonder–if I was there, would I survive?
While many scenarios are improbably like a zombie apocolypse, there are quite a few that may be probable like an economic Armageddon where a country like the US, no longer believes in the value of fiat money overnight and hyper-inflation happens (google Weimar Republic hyperinflation). Or if some terrorist country decides to nuke us, either with many nukes and hitting many critical spots like major cities and some of our inactive volcanos, or if they use 2 or 3 and create a massive electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) over the country, causing us to lose usage of virtually every single electronic that runs on any kind of computer/microchip, even your car.
When situations happen like that, chaos happens and everyone will do what it takes to get food and non-perishables. Those who are lucky or somewhat prepared may survive for a little while, but those who are not prepared or depend on daily doses of medicine would probably die very soon.
Maybe nukes are a bit extreme, but an economic Armageddon may happen. What happens when we finally realize that this Ponzi scheme the government is doing is not working? They borrow from the Fed for virtually nothing since interest rates are next to zero, and they pay their debts with it. Where does the Fed get the money to loan to the government? They print it. So money is constantly being printed and pumped into the economy. I don’t know about you, but if you think about, cost for everyday items like toothpaste or shampoo have been going up in price, yet the government will tell you inflation is mostly flat. And if you’re saving money by having it in the bank, what are you getting back for it? Tenth of a percent? Maybe half a percent? But if inflation is working against you at 3-5%, you’re losing money. Ron Paul said it best–”Inflation is an invisible tax.”
Most people I know either don’t think about this or don’t think it’s going to happen. But what if it does? How have you prepared for this? Do you own anything important enough to trade with when fiat money is no longer accepted because it’s worth nothing? How are you going to get food when demand is so high, and supply will be so low? Will you continue going to work knowing that your paycheck now may not even buy you a bag of chips? And if no one goes to work anymore, who is going to run the gas stations or the power plants?
Many questions to think about. Most people would read this entry and stop reading halfway through. Others might read the whole thing and be amused. Some might read this and begin thinking about it and doing their own due diligence. Some of those may see what I’m saying and might go out and prepare. Those people will most likely survive.
Happy Monday?
Comments (12)
What are your top 3 world ending novels? I need a good book to read that won’t put me to sleep.
i second. curious as to what books you have been reading? i read the road and wanted to kill myself. this was not the type of “end of world” book i wanted to read. I wanted something with a little more hope, about survival, etc. I felt like the road was just devastation. no hope, no point in living. i also started reading world war Z and honestly could not get past a third of the book. it was TERRIBLE! terrible writing, no storyline. i guess I expected something like walking dead, just after it was all over.
do you watch shows? did you see the trailer for revolution? that looks pretty promising, except it’s difficult to take bella swan’s dad (from twilight) seriously as a bad ass in revolution.
There is no” real” way to prepare; you’ve gone about this in a very honest manner.
Truthfully speaking, not only do you have to consider what you have that is valuable, or what could be valuable to others, but you have to consider how you’d protect it. Location is important, as well. I live in an area where there’s a ton of space for crops if need be. Organizing people to work together would be a great service, but there’s also corporations & government. If they deemed you or your land worthwhile, it’s no longer yours. They’d have the manpower, the resources, and the heartlessness needed for cold-blooded survival. You’d have the military in a matter of days, guarding stores and gas stations. How would you move around? Could you stay in your current location? What about water? There’s a large chance it wouldn’t run anymore, as the power plants would be down…Not to mention the chaos that comes with dealing with young and wily people who have lost hope for everything. Ready for cannibalism?
You’d need gear; water filters, durable clothing, hunting tools, (If you’re even in an area where animals live; some live in metropolitan areas) weapons for protection, shelter for the winter and bad weather, salt for food preservation, a bunch of stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSZH0K-Qhuw
AND you’d have to be creative with what you did have. The biggest issue with survival, would be learning how to break the concepts and associations you had with items in your possession now, in order to re-use them in ways beneficial to your current situation. Because I’m from the South, and there is still subtle racism here, I was taught that this was called, “nigger-rigging”. Without race involved, it’s called, “ingenuity”. lol
I like topics like these; they allow me to actually deduce instead of simply following rules b/c they are known by the majority. I almost want to say there should be several posts about this from diff. popular bloggers. Namely, coolmonkey, and I’d actually love to hear what Mr. Jin would say.
@souxie - @sugarvirgo - I’ve read quite a few, but the following ones have spoken the most to me because they all have to deal with the catastrophic event and how different people dealt with the situation. To a certain extent, all of them have things I do not like, but they all provide you a setting where you can put yourself in it and then make mental notes on what you would do.
Favorite post-apocolyptic books in no particular order:The Stand – Stephen KingOne Second After – William R ForstchenAlas Babylon – Pat FrankSurvivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse (Economic armageddon. Must read even though the author has terrible character development and writes an unbelievable/impossible story) – James Wesley Rawles
-ray leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
@jigg - the stand is one of my all time favorite books! i actually purchased atlas babylon a while back but never got a chance to read it… maybe i’ll pick it up again!
@souxie - I hate that the [ENTER] key doesn’t work all the time in the comments section all the time. Sorry that my list is all bunched up!
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-ray leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
i’ve watched many movies like the day after tmw and 2012. i believe that if people are willing to help each other out than there will be more hope. things like this has already happened to places like japan and haiti and when the time comes people will learn to deal with it. but if everyone was like characters in the hunger games then good luck with that.
i live in the NW where i am away from the tsunami zone, and the city that i live in is not important enough to be the target of terrorist attacks. i think that an earthquake would occur in like the next 30 years according to this lecture i went to at a science museum…but until then i am gonna continue to save in the bank. i have thought about living a very fantastic life and accumulating debt if 2012 was gonna happen but if not i would be screwed…
Apocalypse.
I think the 1% will never allow money to be worthless. Otherwise, they are dead meat.
@coolmonkey – It’s really not within their power to stop it. You can’t entirely control the markets. History has demonstrated that every time you try, you fail, especially with nothing backing the currency.
-ray leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
I have dreamt many, many, many times of waking up in an ‘economic Armageddon’, and even in dreams it is so so scary. Funny you wrote about this because the Fiancé and I were talking about our possessions the other day, where if we found ourselves stranded in a land where cash is useless, we could sell my engagement ring and his watches in exchange for freedom, safe passage, food, shelter, whatever. The topic came up as my parents recounted how they escaped Vietnam after the war to his parents. It is crazy how in desperate times like that, owning land, a home, fancy cars etc does not mean shit to anyone.
Lol, ok all these coincidences are starting to creep me out. Shortly after I read your entry I stumbled upon this article on Time:
http://moneyland.time.com/2012/06/25/apocalypse-marketing-top-10-products-and-services-for-the-end-of-the-world/
Haha! Enjoy