the survival summit

So a month or two back, this nice guy gets in touch with me and says he is setting up "the survival summit" and he would like to interview me for it. I try to wrap my head around it. It sounds like something I have not done before. There will be an on-line conference complete with 25 presenters. Some of the content will be pre-recorded, but at the time of the conference I go back and answer questions. It sounds like a smart idea.

And I'll be paid. And it will be free to people. And I will somehow earn a commission on "sales". I think that when it is all done, the artifacts will be sold. Not sure.

So I did the interview stuff. I thought the guy did a good job. I felt the content was good.

After that, I think I've not followed up well on my end. Just juggling too much at once. So today I try to get caught up on this. I got the special link that says "paul" in it - and I give this out and people that follow it and sign up will somehow be tagged in a database that says "learned about us from paul". And if they buy stuff later, I get a kickback.

I follow the link myself and the first thing I notice is that it is like visiting a youtube page: instant sound (from a youtube video). So when you click on the link, be prepared for sound. I've embedded the video here:



Hey look! There's me!

Wow, that's a heavy video. I think if the other 24 guys see my stuff they will probably think "what a doofus!" Apparently I'm a survival expert. While I really like the idea that survival people groove on my stuff, when I look at this video I don't feel like a survival expert.

To get signed up, to see all of the stuff, follow the link below and provide your email address. This is my first time with these guys, so I'm not sure what might happen with your email address. Will they send you three or four emails? Or 40? They seem to be very concerned about privacy stuff - one of the things they mention in the video as the value of an online conference instead of a face-to-face conference. I signed up - it seemed pretty low key. No big deal. It does seem for the amount of stuff that you get for free, an email address is fair.

I looked through the schedule for the event and it seems like 80% of the stuff is folks interested in permaculture and homesteading would be interested in. It looks pretty good.


click here


Do any of you recognize the other experts? I see my buddy Steven Harris!

What do you all think?

I'm interested. Survival is the place where lefty homesteaders and righty preppers meet in the middle. I am all about bringing these world together so we can all...survive.

Thanks for the tip about instant sound, that is a real problem for me. If I am online, it's probably because I have a sleeping baby or child somewhere nearby. Instant sound on websites wakes babies.

Matu Collins wrote:I'm interested. Survival is the place where lefty homesteaders and righty preppers meet in the middle. I am all about bringing these world together so we can all...survive.

I know homesteaders that are on the right and left same for preppers...I had already signed up via someone else, sorry Paul. I recognized 5 names.

Erik Little wrote:I had already signed up via someone else, sorry Paul.

Yeah, I'm slow with that sort of thing.

paul wheaton wrote:

Erik Little wrote:I had already signed up via someone else, sorry Paul.

Yeah, I'm slow with that sort of thing.

No worries I will be buying the rest of your podcasts so you will get some money from me that way (maybe more than you would thru the summit)

Listening to your podcasts helps me get through the day as a Database Admin.

One of the things I find joy in now: no more SQL. I don't know why, but I just never liked SQL.

I'll have a kickstarter out soon that I hope is worth your wallet votes.

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In other news, I looked through the thing that was sent me for signing up. It sounds like it is all free if you do the conference in real time. And then they are gonna sell the archives later.

The whole thing strikes me as: this guy is a pro and knows what he is doing.

Sorry Paul I found this deliberatly scarey
What's a triggered collapse ??
Sounds to me like the authors of this believe that society will colapse and it will deliberate done by X ( insert bogey man of choice ). I accept I could be wrong but the clip put me off

David

History has shown that bad things happen to people. Katrina and Great Depression are a couple of examples, the trigger for what happened in New Orleans was the Hurricane. The Great Depression had the stock market crash. The trigger isn't necessarily a boogie man per se but an event as well.

Erik Little wrote:


I know homesteaders that are on the right and left same for preppers.

It's a generalization, for sure. My point is that there are these sort of general groups that are doing similar things and believing many of the same ideas . But some political things make then not even want to have anything to do with each other. This is on the righty prepper side, it seems. (There are, of course plenty of open minded people who cannot be categorized, I am making generalizations) Paul is a good choice to be included. Both sides see a coming apocalypse in some ways. The prepper paranoia is more politically based and the lefty paranoia is more climate change/nature based but the conclusions about next steps are blessedly similar- learn to grow food, raise children well, and build community, basically I am not making a value judgement about who is right, just describing the things I have observed as I see it.

Stuff happens I accept but if everyone had done all this stuff would it have changed either of the two events you describe ? Not so sure .


David

David Livingston wrote:Sorry Paul I found this deliberatly scarey

Yeah, it was a bit gut wrenching for me too. I think I am not the target audience (no pun intended). But I suspect it will be a big audience - and I very much like the opportunity to infect lots of brains. And I think there are a lot of people here at permies that are the target audience.

One thing has me a little worried. Why isn't Jack doing this?

Jack ?

Jack Spirko from The Survival Podcast.

Paul's been a guest many times. He's even going to include some of Jack's podcast on the upcoming Jump Drive

Too much fear mongering and guns. And I am a full on "Gun Guy". The tech, food, and gardening speakers look good.

Excellent chance to infect brains though.

Side Note:

I have been a gun guy for 20+ years. About three years ago I realized that the threat of a violent encounter was far, far less likely than the threat of being cold, hungry, or penniless. I also realized that community is they key "survival" in hard times. I was very receptive to the homesteading / permaculture message and I found thesurvivalpodcast.com . One of the first episodes I listened to was Jack at TSP interviewing Paul Wheaton. Then I listed to some more of Paul's work and became infected. I told my wife I am putting a Hugleculture mound in the front yard. She nixed that so i dug a 6x12 hole about 2 feet down, filled it with firewood, put the dirt on top and planted a garden. After that I was hooked.

So while I metaphorically beat my sword into a plow; I never really gave up the sword. That would be just stupid in this day and age. But I did start to realize food, shelter, heat and community are far more important that I previously thought.



Side bar to side note:

If anyone wants a sobering look at what level of SHTF and Apocalypse is possible in a 20th century western civilization city listen to Selco's SHTF School. Its worth every penny. it will dispel any myths about what is possible and "it will never happen here". You will immediately buy and AR15 and plant a food forest after finishing it. And you can get a first hand look at what SHTF really is without the fear mongering marketing hype.


In conclusion Paul should do it because there has to many gun guys ready for the message / infection.

 SHTF and Apocalypse

The metaphor that this acronym refers to is a great one to describe exponential shenanigans.the pile of S gets quietly and stinkily bigger and bigger, when suddenly it HTF. Splash!

I have only seen one article from a SHTF website though, and it impressed me with its very low level of journalism and high level of hyperbole. "The tentacles of tyranny" and all that. Good poetry, shoddy information gathering.

Do you have photos of your buried hugel Mark? I love your enthusiasm and ingenuity.

as someone who dips into many of these different "types" simply to weigh up the cultural vibes - so as to not choose sides, but understand perspectives - I think it's a great idea for Paul to be mingling in an area that might need some balancing out. . .

kind of like a dandelion taproot, hmm? breaking up the polarised mono-cultural thoughts, reminding those responding to *fear* to also get busy with the outside world, food preserving, tending the soils, remembering to secure good water catchments, the whole gig.

I don't hold much with getting entrenched in "sides" - it's good to infiltrate when your message is positive! plus, I kind of enjoy the thought of all the fear generated being transformed by getting out on the land, watching nature take its course, nurturing critters, bees, and the like. . .

quite subversive, eh *wink* go go Paul!

Interesting... I don't know how much prepping and permaculture have in common. Permaculture is not something anyone can start in a day and have results soon enough to stop starvation... even with a full years supply of food. The most secure food is food that does not look like food, as in does not look like a garden. Only mature permaculture works that way. One of the other things that is different with permaculture is an attitude that goes beyond "survival" and into abundance. Thriving, not getting by. Prepping by setting up a life style outside of the grid rather than living on the grid with a get away solution.

The grid as used above means reliance on big money. The local grid of the community (as mentioned above) is worth while.

I just think it's awesome that Paul and I will be participating in the same event.

BTW, Paul - I've worked with these guys for quite a while. For "survivalist" types, they're very, very cool. And they're total permaculture nuts, so I'm not surprised they called you.

Permaculture is about long-term survival. Yeah, it's not a short-term fix... but it's a practice and a philosophy that will change the world and add resiliency to an increasingly fragile system. Can't wait to hear your presentation.

Cj Verde wrote:One thing has me a little worried. Why isn't Jack doing this?

I recall a somewhat recent Jack Spirko Survival Podcast episode where he said he is mostly done with third-party events because he has had his presentations used in ways he disapproved. He also cited some general time constraints as reasons. I'm guessing that's why he is not involved.

Now that you mention it, I recall that too.

Well I thought I would support the empire by signing up so I turned off the computer sound and used the link Paul gave . Signed up and then I looked at the facebook page ....................... wish had not signed up Very political stuff, Obama is a Muslim ,Tea party causes etc I wont be going any further with this .
David

I did a quick count of the presentations, and by my judgement there were seven dedicated mostly to protecting yourself from bad guys, twenty dedicated mostly to other stuff (energy, growing food, emergency medicine, etc.) and three that were mixed bags.

David Livingston wrote:Well I thought I would support the empire by signing up so I turned off the computer sound and used the link Paul gave . Signed up and then I looked at the facebook page ....................... wish had not signed up Very political stuff, Obama is a Muslim ,Tea party causes etc I wont be going any further with this .
David

Do you have a link to the Facebook page? I did a Google search but the first page of results didn't have anything.

I got to the facebook page via the sign up page
I didnt keep a copy of the link

David

Cj Verde wrote:One thing has me a little worried. Why isn't Jack doing this?

In case you hadn't heard here is Jack's response to the Survival Summit and I believe he talks about it in a podcast as well:

webpage

David Livingston wrote:Stuff happens I accept but if everyone had done all this stuff would it have changed either of the two events you describe ? Not so sure .


David

The more people that are self-sufficient and interdependent the better off we all are.

Darn, I wish I read that Jack Spirko article before giving these people my email address

Matu Collins wrote:Darn, I wish I read that Jack Spirko article before giving these people my email address

Me too but I can put their email in my spam folder after the event

Spirko isn't the end-all.

There's plenty of good stuff coming at the Summit, which is free, and if anyone decides they hate being on the great big evil list, they can unsubscribe.

I've worked with these folks and they love permaculture. Heck, they're less pushy than Lawton's site... and I signed up for that one too.

Can't do it. Watched some of the video on their sign up page, some of the info will be useful (Paul and others) but I don't see cooperation featured. And how about the power of not buying into the fear and mental isolation?

Jerry McIntire wrote:Can't do it. Watched some of the video on their sign up page, some of the info will be useful (Paul and others) but I don't see cooperation featured. And how about the power of not buying into the fear and mental isolation?

A good portion of Majory Wildcraft's presentation today was about community.

Chet really seemed to want to know more about Paul's food production, and I think Paul got the message out very well. Kudo's to Paul to keep Permaculture approach about, "Duh, it just makes sense." , I thought Paul' message to know what plants do and embrace polyculture concepts. To me this session sent a message about growing you own plants and animals, eating, enjoying, caring and sharing both the knowledge and harvest gives hope of a social shift regardless of survival scares.