Need Apocalyptic Survival Advice. No Really. C5

Dillon Nichols wrote:

Jim Fry wrote:I'm more than a little surprised that you consider "four months" to be a significant period of time to "dig deep". My experience is that becoming ~well versed in something/becoming knowledgeable about/becoming some sort of authority~ takes far longer than one season of work/study. As permaculturalists we should all know that. It takes seasons. Years. Decades to learn anything well. And then it takes enormous amounts of good luck to have enough sense to turn all that "study" into something useful and meaningful.

I can recall reading C5's posts for a good few years now... pretty sure he started thinking a bit before that. (Maybe.)

The 4 months, as I read it, is time spent plugging away at this series of posts!

I've been reading rough drafts of Ross's Principles of Adaption posts for *checks PMs* exactly 3 months now. He asked me to be on his "Peer Review Board" 3.5 months ago. I've been reading his blog since he started it *checks his blog* which was almost  2 years ago. His stance on adaption hasn't really changed much in those years. In fact, it was his writing that largely influenced my thread The reality of homesteading has dissolved my "prepper"/homesteading fantasies...and that was written 10 months ago.

And, his Part One blog post that he linked to above, actually goes into detail into how long he's been ruminating about these things, and his background that lead him to his "Principles of Adaption."

That being said, I think most people who've been practicing permaculture/homesteading come by the principles of adaption on their own. They're not principles for "survival"--they're ways to live life using less resources and through hardships.

Anyway, that's my long-winded way of saying that, yeah, he's been thinking and working on these ideas for at least two years. Four months is just the writing/editing/explaining the principles.

. Life isn't a Hollywood movie. The world isn't going to end in some sort of C.I.G. apocalyspe.

I think we're all in agreement, there! Although, the recent catastrophic hurricane seasons, the constant apocalyptic wildfire season in the western Us/Canada,  the current extreme heatwave in Australia that killed 1/3rd of a species of bats in two days and massive animal deaths and melting roads, and the loss of 86% of Californias monarch butterflies which were already 97% less than 40 years ago,  and there's microplastics in our sea salt, and there's so much extreme weather in places that the people are starving and have become climate refuges...and there's too many of them for us to take in, and so we build a wall. These things really makes it feel like the apocalypse is now...it just doesn't look like a movie at all.

We're polluting the heck out of things. We can do better. We can clean it up. We should. We are. We just need some perspective. Some patience. The Will to do better. Life can be, and is, good. Clean up your space. Talk to your neighbors about theirs. Start a recycling center in your town. Do better. You'll be surprized how one day you are listening to the Earth Day Apocalyspe when you are 20 in 1970 and the next day you're 69. Time moves along pretty quick. We'll all be ok.

I'm 33. I grew up hearing adults talk about how they needed to save the world for my generation....and I look around and I see that they failed. Our climate is MESSED UP. Two years in a row we had 1+month of just smoke and we couldn't go outside. NEVER in my life before was there smoke for more than a day. Cities burned to the ground in California. There's plastic everywhere--even in our poop!-- and it's messing with our hormones and immune systems and who knows what else.

I was reading to my kids the children book "The Berenstain Bears Don't Pollute (Anymore)." It was my book as a child, and was written in 1991. There was talk of the consequences of deforestation, plastic pollution, oil in our waters, and air pollution. This was written almost 30 years ago...and we still haven't fixed those problems! And, man are they causing more and more problems.

I sit here thinking about what a failure we must be as a human race. For at least 30 years, we've known what these problems are, and how to solve them--and we've known them well enough that there were CHILDREN'S books about them....and we still haven't fixed it. Instead, the majority of people seem to plug their ears and hum a jolly (or depressing) tune, and do nothing.

I agree, we've got to do better. We need to talk to neighbors and recycle and use less and do the thing's in Paul's Better World Book...I'm not so sure we'll be okay, though. Becuase even with 30+ years of knowledge, and a whole generation reared on that knowledge, we STILL haven't stopped what we're doing.

Nicole Alderman wrote:Now is not a time for the other stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, or depression). It's a time to ACCEPT what's going on, and get to work in changing things before it really waaaaay too late. We gotta adapt. And, thankfully most permies are already doing that. I know I gotta step up and do more, though.

I'm not doing a lot, but I remember an old slogan from my parents' generation, attributed to a lot of people, but traceable in slightly different words with fairly good certainty to General Patton in World War II:

Lead, follow, or get out of my way!

To me this means, at a minimum, that preaching inaction is a non-starter.  I don't know if Sarah Palin could see Russia from her house but I can definitely see the apocalypse coming from mine.  All I have to do is look for the horned toads (nobody has seen any around here in forty years) and Monarch butterflies (getting fewer every year).  I'm not entirely sure what-all to do about that but I'm pretty sure I don't want to be on the team that argued for going slow and not worrying.

Thank you Dillon and Nicole. I figured I would take a breath and not say anything.

Yes, I have about 40 years of experience on this one subject alone. Than means I figured out our mess at age ten when my young mind first grasped how an exponential growth graph worked.

Writing this was one of the reasons I started my blog. It was a long term strategy.

The decision to go this started about 5 years ago, when I was one of the grown ups on a particular prepper board. We were the experienced guys that acted as a vanguard against fruitloops. One more militant had come in spewing crap. Another respectable longtimer said how sick he was this Prepping title and said we needed a new name.

I suggested the B.A.T.. or the Bureau of Apocalyptic Tourism. That would make us Batmen.

As I am past my prime, the apocalyptic future is simply a place I will  visit. The next generation wont be tourists though. They will be living there.

It took a few years for the right title to show up though... and it happened organically.  Others came up with the term independently. It was a natural flow of thought as people came to the same conclusions based on the same knowledge.

I was actually freaking out over the 4 months of writing, that others would get their first. Some of them did.

Well, I am writing and thinking burned out at the moment, so that is enough for now  

I just wanted to add my continued thanks to Ross for taking on the laying down of this concept in the way that he has:  Getting the prepping/survival thing back into the mindset of the sane and stable (and non-militant) who have rational ideas based on collective or experiential wisdom... (some call this permaculture😆). I read the excellent Part 1 of this explanation of the "Adapter" movement. Keep up the great work, Ross. Don't worry that others are also expressing this; see it, instead, as a sign that the time is right for this information.  I 5hink my favorite line was where you mention that most of the world is already following the adapter lifestyle and that they call this 'life'.  Very poignant on how far we in the so called civilized advanced cultures have fallen from the reality of wisdom based thinking, of observation and trouble shooting, and harm prevention as a lifestyle. I also loved the example of the extension ladder as a survival tool.  Great stuff, bud.

Thanks. The survival extension ladder and the tactical SHTF squash are running jokes.

I had to take out most of my crass humor  for this series so it was easier to share.

Just for you folks, I looked up a funny rambling rant I did that was one of the first times I used the title "Adapters Movement" in july 2017, from The ultimate cargo bike, real men push bikes, article. I used it before but that was just to warm people up to the idea. Here is what I wrote...



"As this swirling, progression into the water slide of our cultural collapse, picks up, fasten your seat belt, crash speed, I can see the millennials Adapting this as a minor solution to their miserable lot in life. There is that word again. Adaptation.

(Warning- Un Grammatically Correct rambling Rant ahead)

I am prognosticating that Survivalism will go the way of grandpappy buried in his fallout shelter, entombed with his gun collection and WWII Nazi paraphernalia, like a pharaoh. Aged Preppers, no longer able to purchase “preps”, will huddle, squatting in their foreclosed homes waiting to be evicted under blankets, basking in the warming glow of ancient computers watching memory files of Doomsday Preppers while complaining about girlie men and young people nowadays.  Collapseniks will be very retro, revisited as beat poetry in someone’s apartment bar where they keep a still cooking on the roof and turn the living room into a night time booze can, whilst sleeping on the couch during the day. And crazy Doomer Prophets like me, shamble through the streets in tattered second hand clothes form the 90s, ringing a bell, drooling a bit in my incoherent ramblings, “bring our your bikes!  Bring out your hoes!”, while still holding a sign that reads “The End is Nigh!!! FUCKERS!”... probably scrawled in my own blood and feces… where people, occasionally feeling sorry for me bring me a bowl of squash and cabbage soup... until one day my body is found in a ditch with a saintly glazed over stare… and a rigormortised middle finger presented to the sky.

The quickly aging Millennials will be teaching the principles of the new Adapter Movement to the younger generation, on the far edges of the long abandoned suburbs, where they wisely started in their mom’s basement before accidently reinventing the multigenerational home. These will be packed with relatives and a couple of homeless trophy wives they picked up turning tricks on the street, with their children in tow, for food. With their couple of disabled uncles, back from some failed oil war of occupation, sitting on the porch with rusty shotguns at night to guard the gardens and the pool they repurposed, not for swimming, but to collect rainwater from the roofs, pitifully saluting to the soldiers that patrol the streets behind heavy machine guns, while they are all slowly taking over the abandoned neighbours’ yards by planting permaculture perennials and fruit trees while discussing burning down a few of the abandoned houses in the neighbourhood to keep the ex-bank drones and real estate salesmen turned crack heads, out while improving lines of sight.

Taxes will be even higher now due to the triple tax. Failed, bankrupt government still trying to pay a small part of the interest on the loans obligations they can never pay off. Payolas, in vegetables to the local police so he doesn’t find an ancient bylaw infraction to put you in debtor’s prison for. And then there is the tax you pay to the local organized crime group, the only tax that benefits you and you are happy to pay because they are the only functioning government in the area to hear neighbours disputes. And organized crime does keep disorganized crime out of the neighbourhood while they soak up bullets in territorial wars. You luckily can scrape together enough bling and produce to pay this all off because of so many bodies living in the house to throw body heat while a couple of the kids work in the now mega cities to send home some savings from their couple of dollar a day jobs, having made a cozy dry home in an abandoned car after ripping out the seats and engines, occasionally riding home on one of these bike trucks with a load of useful scrap metal, antibiotics, and sacks of highly sought after animal grade wheat for granny to cook up nutritional breakfasts. These bike trucks replace the abandoned “alpha male” trucks which have been pulled up front of the house, conveniently to be turned into raised bed gardens so it is easier on granny’s back to keep gardening into her old age. The truck cabs rotated between greenhouses for starter plants in the spring, solar water heaters in the summer, solar dehydrators in the early harvest and dry firewood storage for the winter.  Except for a few Semi Autonomous  large Towns surrounded by the few,  viable, still functioning farms, worked by transient slave like climate refugees, the rural areas having been abandoned after the furry and feathered game was hunted to extinction. No longer able to afford transport or pesticide or tractor diesel or fertilizer or starter seed, Rural Refugees have walked to the nearest megacities hoping for any dollar a day job, leaving behind a nitrate and Roundup polluted wasteland haunted by homeless old survivalist patriots with bugout bags, turned cannibals and raiders. Occasionally, these Semi Autonomous Towns organize the entire population to spread out and beat the bushes to cull out these dangerous, self-made refugee survivalists turned threat to public safety.

Okay I got a bit distracted there…and I was mixing timelines a bit. So sue me. Survivalists seem to miss these transitional states anyhow…

Perhaps I am fancifully self-imposing myself on history. If the next gen do take up the made up moniker “Adapter Movement” it would be nice if I got a shout out as the self-deluded old guy that came up with the name, documented for posterity by some other doomer chronicler, in the same way I tell people the first ever use of the term “Prepping” came from the Foxfire book series. With any luck, the New Adapters will create a mythos of “no survivalist or preppers allowed”. Trust me on this. If you don’t, expect them to shamble back and try to take over like a bad zombie movie. Imagine the creeping dead in boony caps, empty 1911s open carried, using AR-15s as crutches to make up for their eaten off leg they lost in a survivalist food fight, moaning, “OPSEC… Shit Hits the Fan… the constitution… illegal aliens… militia rights… YOUNG BRAAAINS!…”.

Anyway, I don’t think the new Millennial Adaptors are going to be very forgiving of the next round of Timothy McVeigh like terrorists blowing us up to bring us freedom. Nor of the next round of Christian Reconstructionists, finally seizing their opportunity to impose a Theonamy on unbelievers, Instituting the death penalty on all things heretical, disobedient and gay, “If not by the ballot box, then by the cartridge box”. I think the Millennials will be rather miffed at the right wing Death Squads, that slaughtered the friendly Muslim family next door, the Kumar buddy they smoked pot with in high school and worked with at the Kwiki Mart for minimum wage to keep up with the interest on the useless student loan dept. They might just be horrified at the assassination of the kindly, eccentric old lefty professor from school. They wont be all Patriotic about the Ethnic Cleansing to save us from “Terrorists”. And they might be discombobulated about the new, random, house and person searches in the Dictatorship that follows…in a Dumbassed paranoids, SELF FULFILLING PROPHESY. What exactly did you think was going to happen? A ticker tape parade to the sound of The Saints Come Marching Home, and bitches in mini skirts running up for a swooning kiss.

OOPS. There I go again…Well, if you wants the soup, first ya got to listen to da preaching…"


I loved that rant. Hopefully Nicole doesnt have to swoop in here in moderator mode. Its for historical purposes. LOL

Well... I could swoop into moderator role but I can't see why.  You should write a novel. I'd buy it tomorrow.  😆 Reminds me a bit of William Gibson's Periferal mixed with some Lenny Bruce  comedy/satire and throw in some rant from the last pages of a 90's addition of Wired mixed with the Permaculture Activist and the Anarchist Reader... and something a little more macabre... maybe something by Quentin Tarantino.   Bless you. And Thanks for the Evening's entertainment. The hockey game and the beer wasn't quite cutting it.

Just a warning.

When part II comes out on Friday, all the humor disappears and it gets real serious, really fast. I get into it hard and fast... like in a fight. When it's done, we can laugh again. I stared the afterthoughts post today. It ends with Cher singing... I was born is the wagon of a traveling show. Between now and then I will certainly raise some eyebrows.

Part II is now up

https://darkgreenmountainsurvivalresearchcentre.wordpress.com/2019/01/26/c5-defines-the-adapters-movement-in-four-parts-part-i-introduction/

Read part 2.   Really enjoyed the perspective and especially the referenced article on large scaled renewable energy amounting to fossil fuel, resource extraction, and both cultural and ecological destruction being fueled by the consumer culture and the idea of pushing forward a 'growth economy'.  I also liked that that referenced article and your's Ross call into question this culture/economy/lifestyle which unceasingly demands more from less resources without recognizing the obvious deficits/consequences therein rapidly accumulating like an avalanche.  Sooner or later (and in fact, an ongoing apocalyptic juggernaut of elitist imperialism that is not getting better but is further concentrated by the powerful few)... to quote comedian Russell Peters: "somebody gonna get hurt real bad."   Yep. Better to get out ASAP and figure a realistic small scale localized economy that has obvious ecological ties as well as easily seen and dealt with environmental impacts which can then be mitigated and or eliminated.

Thanks. Pearl just informed me that I accidentally linked to part 1 instead of 2. My bad. Here is the correct link

https://darkgreenmountainsurvivalresearchcentre.wordpress.com/2019/02/01/c5-defines-the-adapters-movement-in-four-parts-part-ii-acceptance/

This is an interesting thread, so many colorful people here on permies!

I've never been good at fitting in and never consciously been part of a movement. My point of view is from the outside-in rather than the inside-out.

What I see is that we are all Adapters to some extent as adaptability is built in. It is a latent trait. Without pressure C5 would be a different person, same for Farmgal. Adaptability is what got us into this mess. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. That's just what it is.

Mushroom mycelium will colonize an agar plate until the substrate is used up. The mycelium will then dry up and die. I used to think humans were the same but I've since revised my opinion. Humans don't feed on sterile potato juice. Humans feed on Life like ticks feed on a moose. What will assure survival is not adaptability as much as the flip from parasite to symbiont. Parasites also adapt.

C5 Defines The Adapters Movement- Part III- Make Food First Again... Is now up   https://darkgreenmountainsurvivalresearchcentre.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/c5-defines-the-adapters-movement-in-four-parts-part-iii-make-food-first-again/

It's a bit earlier than intended... but I have no self control... and I wanted to getter dun so I can move on to other Adapter related stuff. Plus I felt pressured. Turns out Survival Acres has been writing again. I learned about this because... he just did his  first ever interview over at Radio Ecoshock. https://www.ecoshock.org/
I had reposted his works in my earliest writing of my blog.

In the article, he also used that we have to become Adapters now.

Sooo.... I back tracked his writing a bit. This Rant stands out.... as saying much of what I have been saying. I call it, The old, experienced Survivalist and Preppers REVOLT. http://survivalacres.com/blog/real-survivalism/

Either way, I think permies will enjoy this one. Rest up. I think people will struggle more with Part IV. Triage.

Ross, I really appreciate the links you post in your blog and here an permies. I always learn so much. Here's some of my favorite quotes from Venezuela’s collapse is a window into how the Oil Age will unravel

According to Professor Juan Carlos Sanchez, a co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), these trends will dramatically deteriorate under a business as usual scenario. Large areas of Venezuelan states which are already water scarce, such as Falcon, Sucre, Lara and Zulia, including the north of the Guajira peninsula, will undergo desertification. Land degradation and decreased rainfall would devastate production of corn, black beans and plantains across much of the country. Sanchez predicts that some regions of the country will receive 25 percent less water than today. And that means even less electricity. By mid-century, climate models indicate an overall 18 percent decrease in rainfall in the Caroni River basin that leads to the Guri Dam.

Right now the Venezuelan people find themselves locked into a vicious cycle of ill-conceived human systems collapsing into violent in-fighting, in the face of the earth system crisis erupting beneath them. It is not yet too late for the rest of the world to learn a lesson. We can either be dragged into a world after oil kicking and screaming, or we can roll up our sleeves and walk there in a manner of our own choosing. It really is up to us. Venezuela should function as a warning sign as to what can happen when we bury our heads in the (oil) sands.

the survival acres post you shared was great. I think the best part was:

How about teaching and promoting real-life skills instead? Here are a few:

Teach how to build, assemble and repair a bicycle from a bucket of parts and pieces, including gears, derailleurs, cables and fixing flats, teach diesel mechanics, tear-down, assembly and repair,
teach automotive repair to include engine rebuilding, replace a water pump, timing chain, fixing flats, repairing brakes or fixing suspension and how to solve spark, fuel and timing issues,
teach how to build a house with logs, timber or processed wood,
teach wiring a house, shop, shed or garage,
teach how to install a circuit panel and connect to the main power or a generator,
teach how to clean and solder electrical connections, strip wiring,
install and connect plumbing using different materials, teach how to cutout and install a sink,
build a drain field,
drive a tractor,
add and remove implements,
show how to plow a field,
install a rake,
move and remove dirt,
teach tractor operation and safety,
show how to dig a ditch,
install a septic system,
or roof a building (shingles, metal, or ceramic tile),
teach how to build a woodshed or bookshelf or storage rack,
build a workbench,
teach how to operate a drill, grinder, cut-off saw, table saw, hand tools, power tools,
and how to maintain a camper, R.V. or just a tent.
Show what is needed to pick a suitable building site,
build a fire-break,
how to cut and stack wood,
clear brush,
use a wood stove for cooking and heating,
how to prepare for winter, spring, summer, fall,
how to plant a garden, mitigate pests, prevent deer and rodent depredation,
how to rotate crops, can, dry and process harvests.
Teach how to cook with real food, food storage and home-grown crops,
teach how to drive or walk on ice and snow,
how to create home-based businesses for income,
how to build a greenhouse, root cellar, cistern, storage shed,
how to clear land,
how to use naturally available materials for construction, heating, defense, observation, location.
Teach how to dig a well, pump water, maintain your supply, fix what breaks, install irrigation, drip-feeds and water collection,
how to build and repair furniture,
gravel a road, install outdoor lighting,
fix a generator,
run a chainsaw,
fall a tree,
build a corral,
raise chickens, rabbits, ducks, turkeys, goats, and cows,
how to recycle and store glass, metal, cans, jars and lumber,
and many many more skills including networking,
community building and
knowing your neighbors.

The big reason, I think, that people like their "prepper toys," is because they don't require any direct work or learning. You use the work you did at your job to  buy supposed security and salvation in uncertain times. The above list (which I broke up because he had it in a giant paragraph for emphasis) is a lot of work and learning. But, that's just it. Life in the collapse is a lot of work and learning. Adapting is learning and working hard. Part of the reason I've gotten excited about Paul's PEP curriculum is that it's all about learning those above skills in bite-size chunks that are FREE.

Thanks Nicole. I hadn't intended to add bonus reads to this series, but news happened that was making my points for me and I did my best to slip them in to give people bonus material. Some of the material is hard for people to accept... so I wanted to help by showing a larger worldview and context... by well known and respected folks that are better writers than me  

I think there is a big deal situation that needs to happen in people's minds.  It's actually a minor shift, but it creates major consequences as it will completely reprogram how people go forward in their local world.  

The situation, as is mentioned at the end of Nicole's most recent post, is that we need to work and to learn, and I would add that we need to re-evaluate everything about our lives and stop relying on the mainstream culture to provide our ways and means.  We need to figure out how to maintain our own standard of living rather than relying on the third world slaves and or various degraded environments to do it for us.  To top this off, Ross is telling us we need to change and adapt BEFORE this just mentioned mainstream culture of convenient providence collapses.  Excellent.  

Venezuela is (and many places are) showing us what happens if we don't get our shit together.  The lesson that I get from Venezuela's situation is similar to that which I got from Cuba, only from an almost completely reverse position.  In Venezuela the lack of planning and foresight around the damage being done is clear by the resulting chaos and devastation that is and will continue to unfold without some serious directional shifts.  In Cuba, there was a politically driven blockade of major imports due to the fact that they were communists.  However, for a time this blockade was countered by their political ally The Soviet Union delivering supplies.  When the Russians stopped delivering petroleum products, the Cubans were forced to completely shift their culture.  The vast majority of food had to be grown close to the consuming population (primarily Havana), and grown organically (as there was suddenly no petro-chemical fertilizer).  Petrol burning vehicles had to be well maintained but also used much less, and used wisely.  Permaculture, at least in some regards, became the cultural standard.  

We have had the opportunity to take the lesson of Cuba, that the gravy train is bound to end, and that we need to devote our energy toward living either living without gravy, living with a lot less gravy, or producing the overwhelming majority of our gravy locally.  Instead of being forced to do it, as the Cuban's were, we have the opportunity to do it by choice.  The choice that the Cuban's had was: do or die.  With us, I think, culturally, we feel like we have time.  That feeling that we have a lot of time will likely be the ultimate undoing (the final death knell) of our convenience culture.  I'm not preaching doom, but... judging by the directions that the majority of consumer lives are taking, I'd say that some concentrated and localized chaos will likely ensue.  There were fistfights in lineups after 3 days without open grocery stores when an Ice Storm knocked out power midwinter in Eastern Canada in the early 90's.    

We have to work and learn.  I would suggest that we have to look at the core permaculture idea that observation is key.  The best way to observe the impact of our decisions/actions is to keep them local so they are obvious.  Having our garbage trucked away to another watershed, or buying produce from the central valley of California is not helping us observe the damage we are inflicting.  

Living with less allows us the opportunity to devote more of our energy toward food, and helping both our local human communities with food production and our local ecological and geographical ones gain in their ability to hold solar and Earthen energy (in terms of water, living matter, and depth of living soils).  The circle of our communities of interaction, as well as our ecological community, and our geographical community should be as small as possible so that we can witness the impact/feedback from our actions to make positive adjustments to our systems.  Example:  If we get our cheese by bicycle from a neighbor by bicycle (that we maintain ourselves), and stop to check on the culvert because the beavers keep damming it and we happen to appreciate the taste of beaver and not having flooded road (which, along with keeping a healthy beaver population, we also are keeping on eye on maintaining for the future), then we are tightening these circles of interaction.  We know and trust the methods of our cheese making neighbor, we grease our bike with beaver fat, and when we have the time we harvest cattails (at various times in the year) from the beaver pond and take the time to observe the how the pond systems change their local environment over time.   The tightening of these circles, and taking the time to make observations, will have ripple effects that create resilient systems, both economically, and ecologically as the future unfolds.

The Triage to come, however painful to contemplate, will be to separate our needs from distant resource streams and abandon certain places and communities of people to their own devices.  This will be necessary to build resilience in a local economy.  

The sooner we get on it, the better.            

Cuba is a really heartening example in a lot of ways.

The medical system is a good one. As understand it they basically threw people at the problem. Lots of modeatly trained workers with very modest resources. Cuban average lifespan was great, while the availability of fancy medical stuff was very poor by Western standards. I'd like to find some more in depth information on this, but it seems like catching things early compensated for not being able to fix major problems or things caught too late. (I bet there was also a flow of drugs from other countries via unofficial channels..)


The question is whether the political and social will exists in other countries and places to copy the good parts of their strategy.

Venezuela, Argentina, etc, are much less encouraging examples...

Ross Raven wrote:Thanks for playing the Adaptation Game.

My wife and I play that game all the time. We ask ourselves...

What do we do when we don't have ________ ?

...and then we do it before we don't have ________.

Greg Mamishian wrote:
My wife and I play that game all the time.

I do too. "I like this? Where does it come from and why and how do I either change my wants/needs or make it happen in my reality?"
Starts with "can I change my wants/needs" and that's an interesting one right there.
It makes for a very different point of view of the world.

Good series Ross!
Hope it's shaking some folks. Haven't hit anything that startles me yet But I have had a different point of view of the world for a very long time.

Pearl Sutton wrote:Where does it come from and why and how do I either change my wants/needs or make it happen in my reality?"
Starts with "can I change my wants/needs" and that's an interesting one right there.
It makes for a very different point of view of the world.

It certainly does, Pearl.

And sometimes the answer is:

"We can make do without ______."

Greg Mamishian wrote:

"We can make do without ______."

Sometimes the answer is "Why am I believing the social ideas that make me think this is a need?" Which is another fun thought. Says who, and why and what's- their agenda, and is it mine? Hint, my answer is often "no, it's not."

Thanks for sticking around folks. Your obsessive compulsiveness will now be rewarded with the final chapter.

C5 Defines The Adapters Movement- Part IV- https://darkgreenmountainsurvivalresearchcentre.wordpress.com/2019/02/13/c5-defines-the-adapters-movement-in-four-parts-part-iv-triage/


Almost done. I do wish to move on and put my thinker organ to other use. Now I just have to get it all put into one complete article so it is all in one place if people wish to store it or send it to others. It's been a short book. Not bad for a two finger typer. Well, it did get me through an overly long winter.

I thought I'd make a Too-Long-Didn't-Read of all the Adaption Principles. I think the details and explanations and reasonings that Ross went into, as really valuable, and it might help people to see everything in one list. Ross, feel free to tell me if I got anything wrong. I just kind of reworded things in my own words from my perspective--things may have gotten lost in "translation"!

(Note: Ross has Minor and Major principles. The major ones are "Action" principles. I made the major/action principles ones have a larger font to make them easier to distinguish.)

ACCEPTANCE

The world is going to hell in a handbasket. Living in denial or any of the other stages of grief won't help. It's time to accept what's going on, and adapt. Or, as the 16 year old Greta Thunberg says ,

"Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people, to give them hope. But I don't want your hope. I don't want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is."

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Move to a place where there is a good community. And, also that is a place that won't be underwater, being burnt by forest fires, or in a inhabitable super-hot desert.


SELF SUFFICIENCY IS A MYTH

We can't do it on our own. We need community for support. Not just of physical necessities like trading for eggs or welding skills or to defend against "zombies," but for mental support, too. And because it's good to be in a community and have friends.


ADAPTING WILL NOT CURE YOUR EXISTENTIAL ANGST

It's very tempting as a survivalists/prepper to get lost in the fantasy of it all. That life will be better once all the technology and crazy amounts of people are gone. Life will be better and we'll feel fulfilled (unlike in our current rat-race jobs). But, that's just not how it works. Fix your mental/spiritual angst now, because hard times are HARD, and you'll want yourself put together for them.


MAKE FOOD FIRST AGAIN

More than bullets or bunkers, we need to know how to grow our beans and broccoli and beef. Yes, I intentionally made that an alliteration. I am sorry--It was just too tempting!


GROW IT AND THEY WILL COME

Start growing food. start building your homestead. Don't hide what you do, and slowly--hopefully--people will join you.


OPENNESS AND ACCOUNTABILITY

People don't trust sneaky people who are hiding things. People also don't learn from them. So, don't hide your preps--share and teach them!


BUILD SOCIAL CAPITAL

We need other people. Make friends.


TRIAGE

Like in medical triage, put most of your effort on those who's your efforts will make a difference. Triage divides people into three catagories

Those who are likely to live, regardless of what care they receive;

Those who are unlikely to live, regardless of what care they receive;

Those for whom immediate care might make a positive difference in outcome.

DON’T BE A DICK

Though it is tempting to get so stuck on the logic of triage, that doesn't mean you should be a jerk. Be nice. Be human. Have manners. Help make the world a better place.


DON’T BLAME ANYONE BUT YOURSELF FOR NOT ADAPTING

Blaming others doesn't really help anything. Kind of like not-forgiving or staying angry just makes miserable, blaming others just makes you miserable. Don't just stuck being angry at the bad people, focus on making the world and your life a better place.


COLLAPSE NOW AND AVOID THE RUSH

Get used to living without. Get used to it NOW. Get used to working hard, and build the skill necessary. And use those skills. There's huge learning curves to building community, growing food, making things, etc. Learn them now, while you can. It's not going to be easier when things get even worse.

Go Greta go!!! It kind of relates to a new word (for me) about millenials. Slactivism. Dug into it a bit after first learning of the word. Didn't like what I saw. THIS girl is on the right track. Peaceful useful action. Now. Not pushing silly buttons & making snarky comments in between endless texts & games of candy crush.

Excellent post Nicole. Sums up the situation extremely well. Might be good for the millennial thread too. Fascinating stuff.

Slactivism! I have not heard the term until now, but it makes sense, especially for my generation. Perhaps because so many of us were herded and guided from one activity to another, it took us longer to realize what real activism looks like. And then social media came, and we didn't know how to psycologically deal with it. I'm thinking most of the generations didn't either (based on how many of my "boomer+" facebook friends love to Like and Share those 1 Like=1 Share posts.).

Those feel-good clicks are so tempting and EASY. 1 Like = 1 Prayer, and all that. I see a lot of the older generation really thriving on sharing facebook posts, thinking that it'll actually help someone. This could be because, all through their life, doing something about something, actually DID something....and now we have social media, where you do something, and it doesn't actually DO anything. It's hard, because doing something online (making a comment, sharing a story, even "liking" a post), makes you feel like you DID something. You saw a problem, your brain screams for you to DO SOMETHING about it...and then you click a button, and it tells your brain that you did something about it, and you have closure and can move on....even though you didn't make any real difference in the world.

And, then, it was actually encouraged to do that sort of button-pushing activism, too. I think it took everyone a while--just like with subprime mortgages and the tech crash--to realize that just clicking things does not create value.

I remember when I was in college, one of my professors actually directed us to websites where we could click on links. Supposedly, every time we clicked a link, so many acres of rainforest would be saved because advertisers would pay to buy rainforest if we viewed their ads. I wonder if that webpage still exists, 15 years later, or did they realize that those clicks aren't really worth anything...

....

....Oh my goodness, they DO still exist. https://www.care2.com/click-to-donate/rainforest/thank-you I supposedly just saved 3.7 sqft of rainforest. Pretty sure my clicks had a lot more value back in 2004, LOL!

---------------------------

Anyway,

I'm really excited by the climate-change strikes happening in Europe by students. I hope the movement comes to the US, too. I hope this younger generation will feel empowered enough to make decisions and take action. I hope that the younger generation is realizing sooner than us older people, that those clicks really don't do much of anything.

I know when I was younger, there was activism, too. We had school strikes over issues (I remember one occurring in Jr High...but like most Jr. Highers, I had no real understanding of the issue). And, as a young adult, we went on trips to build homes in other countries, and my church handed out blankets to homeless and tutored low income children and donated supplies to students. But, without being in an organization like a small church, it's a lot harder to feel involved and motivated to DO something.

My church at the time was almost entirely comprised of millenials. We had been a young adult ministry that became a church. We were motivated to HELP. To DO. This was also, however, before social media was so huge. Myspace was kind of lame, and facebook was in it's infancy. And we were a small community, and we were motivated to work together to accomplish things and help people. It was amazing. We had community, we had purpose, we had drive and passion. We were getting things done. Of course, the lead pastor then decided that we young people weren't enough, and that the church needed older people, and he pretty much fired the millenial worship pastor and hired his own Boomer worship pastor. Which, is kind of a theme for millenials, perhaps. Many boomers were helicopter parents...and so millenials didn't get used to making decisions...and when they started making them, they were told it was all "wrong." Which, is probably a common theme over many generations. I'm pretty sure those boomers were told all their activism as young adults was "wrong," and the generations before them throughout time.

And, wow, I've written a novel and it's past midnight. I better stop before I start writing a trilogy!

Well, Nicole, I think you softened that a bit too much.. but I get it. Target audience... and I do have a tendency to scare the shit out of people. Honesty has a tendency to do that. Truth be uncomfortable. That is the prophets job. Prophets get crucified and burned a lot.

I actually have high hopes for young Evangelicals going, What the fuck! in the same way that Elder preppers have been saying, What the fuck?. This wasn't the original intent.

I was a bit worried with the "Dont Blame anyone but Yourself" principal because it could be taken over by those that wanted to Spin Doctor, it.

As a cartoon version of GenXer (we brought you Grunge, post Punk, Goth, Clerks, etc....) leave the fucking Millennials alone. They are doing the absolute minimum engagement. That seems reasonable to me. How much work were you expecting from SLAVES. I aint a great Protestant Work Addiction guy for this reason. People only work hard WHEN they believe their work means anything. Millennials watched their parents lose homes and families due to dept and BAU.

Trying to rune things is what, as Nicole pointed out, grumpy old folks did, to keep those young jesus type people well controlled. I still think of "Millenials" as Gen Y.

It's Gen Z or Gen Zero or Gen Fucked that will be the ones deciding on whether the human race goes out or not.

If Boomers are complaining about why Millennials don't want to pay their pensions and buy their houses and stocks.... and debts.... and ruined planet....

....Oh, look.... a shiny bit of plastic..... How about that local sports team... do you think they will get that shiny trophy thing this year ?

Ross Raven wrote:Well, Nicole, I think you softened that a bit too much.. but I get it. Target audience... and I do have a tendency to scare the shit out of people. Honesty has a tendency to do that. Truth be uncomfortable. That is the prophets job. Prophets get crucified and burned a lot.

Ha! Just say I was going a little too far on the "Don't Be a Dick" minor principle. You know, manners and being nice and all

And, yeah, prophets DO tend to get crucified and burnt a lot. For so many, many years, I though prophets were people who literally *saw* the future. Then I realized, that, in reality, most prophets were primarily going around saying, "DUDES, if you keep doing this, all the horrible natural consequences are going to happen. Stop doing what you're doing!" Few people like prophets, because they tell people what the effects of their choices will be. People don't like to hear how wrong they are, and how they're messing things up.

As a cartoon version of GenXer (we brought you Grunge, post Punk, Goth, Clerks, etc....) leave the fucking Millennials alone. They are doing the absolute minimum engagement. That seems reasonable to me. How much work were you expecting from SLAVES. I aint a great Protestant Work Addiction guy for this reason. People only work hard WHEN they believe their work means anything. Millennials watched their parents lose homes and families due to dept and BAU.  

This is very much also my husband, too. He grew up poor, often hungry, often kicked out of apartments, creditors always calling, power turned off, etc. When we do our required yearly check-in with our financial adviser, he just says, "What does it matter? I'm going to be slaving away for years one way or another." Very little hope. Because, why have it? I, on the other hand, grew up lower-middle class, but stable (same house, same parents, always food, always everything we needed, but not much of what we wanted, tight budget etc), so I'm a bit more...idealistic and realistic...and hopeful than him. I think I can make some difference in just how hard my life will be. I think many millenials are stuck at the same stage of grief as my husband: depression.  

We make a good pair, though. When horrible things surprise us, he knows how to keep going--I get lost in the chaos. But, he can't plan ahead, and I can. Teamwork is important!

It's Gen Z or Gen Zero or Gen Fucked that will be the ones deciding on whether the human race goes out or not.

This was a thread about millenial permies. I gave my sympathy. My parents told me the ax would fall on my generation, but we think we have beaten the game. We have a very cynical ruling class that can play shell games and determine news cycles, and now we are in the driver's seat. I think the primary point of the article is correct, it would require deep and uncomfortable changes. Maybe we will die before the worst.

How did you go bankrupt?' Bill asked. 'Two ways,' Mike said. 'Gradually and then suddenly. - The Sun Also Rises

But to your quote, the millenials don't have that likelihood and they know it. They are maybe making choices that reflect that world view. This was already obvious when I lived in Europe, demographically they don't believe there is a future and are voting with their reproductive organs. The same is happening in the US. The future belongs to those who show up. It makes me want to trade in put options on McMansions, honestly (I have to figure out how to make a nice residual income on this to make Paul jealous).

Anyway, I look at the situation like recovery. The first step is admitting you have a problem, etc. This may not speak to you if the object is not to remove your personal malaise/existential crisis, but I guess I don't see the point in biological existence without a purpose. Of course, the higher power issue looms large.

Good response

And if you are wondering,    Depression would be a reasonable response.

Part of the five steps is finding your place to be able go, Holy crap, it's that bad. What should I do now? It sucks but I will get on to the next steps.

Nicole Alderman wrote:The world is going to hell in a handbasket.

Our solution to this situation is to live outside the handbasket.

The world is anything but uniform. Paradise and Hell are all swirled around together but without ever combining and everyone gets to choose the one in which they live.

If you are still here, I think you deserve some updates. First off, the article presented as 1 instead of 4 is now up. This is for people that wish to send it or store it

https://darkgreenmountainsurvivalresearchcentre.wordpress.com/2019/02/19/acceptance-and-triage-the-adapters-movement/

Its also being presented as a featured article at The Doomstead Diner. They are at part II

The nice surprise is that, as of today, they are starting Adapters Series over at The Canadian Preppers Network. I was contacted by De Nob (part of that. Build Social Capital principal)

He wrote a pre article warm up  that can be read here   http://canadianpreppersnetwork.com/and-now-for-something-completely-new/#more-2927

Let me quote, "It’s getting ridiculous in prepperland recently. I’ve almost completely given up on the endless garbage being spewed by prepper blogs, Youtube channels and Facebook pages. ... Honestly, we’re ready for a reset. Time to go back and start again. The term prepper may have already suffered a fatal blow. How many of us complain about the opinions of the general public about preppers being crazy? Well we are all as much to blame as the reality television show that we all love to blame. It’s our fault for supporting those Facebook groups, YouTube channels, and blogs about the water turning the frogs gay! ..
Has it all been a waste of time? Have we lost all hope? Maybe not. There is a new idea coming to light. A new movement that just might go down the right path."

Also, Survival Acres, the person that wrote, The Fallacy of Bugging Out series, has come back online. I found this out because he was interviewed over at Radio Ecoshock. (in it, he called himself an Adapter) This was one of his recent articles

http://survivalacres.com/blog/real-survivalism/     quote- "I know that this advice is counter to the what the movement has become. But it did not used to be this way. Real survivalists continue to reject the direction and bad information being promoted. ...
Like for starters, everyone needs to abandon the modern prepper meme nonsense. Just quit. Walk away and don’t look back. Give up all the bad advice, conspiracies, fear-mongering, propaganda and endless layers of utterly useless bullshit that is being used to gain audiences and followers and sell products....
This is why I declare the survivalist movement dead. It doesn’t actually exist anymore. In its place are hucksters who give out bad advice and try to sell you useless objects that you don’t need."

Soooo.... basically, It's the old and experienced preppers and survivalist that are beginning to stand up and say, It's time to shake this tree and see who falls out. Heck. Lets just cut down the tree.


I turned to MrsC5 last night and said, "Look honey. I've started a Rebellion". I think she replied, "That's nice, honey".



Only 2 more tasks to accomplish. I'm part way through an "Adapters, Afterthoughts" article, where I can finally get back to my usual playful and obnoxious writing style.
Then I will try to get the full article presented here at Permies, as its own thread.  (I've always had problems loading youtube here... and cant get enough photos posted to load it all together. I'll have to talk to Nicole as to how to pull this off)


And then I can get back to actual Adapting, and teaching about that, instead of talking about Adapters as a concept.

I'm sure looking forward to winter being over. Things to do. All thinking and no doing makes C5 a dull boy.
 

I'm thinking that all you probably need to do to make the images and videos to work (called "embedd") is to use the little image and youtube "tags."


So, instead of posting an image like https://darkgreenmountainsurvivalresearchcentre.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/a-sign-2.jpg

..........      It needs to look like [img]https://darkgreenmountainsurvivalresearchcentre.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/a-sign-2.jpg?w=768[/img]

The [img] bracket thingies ("tags") tell the software that you just posted an image, and to make it look like one.



To make the videos work, you need the youtube bracket-thingies ("tags")

So, instead of posting a video like https://youtu.be/5kPD4LtA1vo

..... it needs to look like [youtube]https://youtu.be/5kPD4LtA1vo[/youtube]

PHASE 5 - what might it look like?

First, great thread and comments. I have been through the first 4 phases in a linear fashion pretty much as described.

I still remember living in suburbia with beans and rice in pails under my bed (prepper). For a few years now, I've been on acreage (homesteader), counties away from any midsized cities working on building a food forest (permie) and hugel mounds.

So why do I feel that my progression is not done? Why will there likely be a phase 5?

I think that risk assessment and risk mitigation are the drivers of our phased evolution.

If one were to stop monitoring the changing risk patterns of the world, one might be content to stay in their current phase.

I have four still young children. So my risk assess/mitigate instinct is still strong.

It is clear to me now that staying put, even in a food forest, is not sufficient preparation against certain evolving and increasingly likely threats.

Wow, that last sentence sounds paranoid, but there it is. Still true. Read the stories of the holodomore. They were what we want to be when we grow up. And they were starved and imprisoned by hostile forces with badges.

I think adapters is a good label but gypsy may end up being more descriptive. Expats. Vagabond travelers migrating in small bands staying just ahead of the crashing waves. Walking the rails together and adapting.

Glad to be in such good company here on these forums with so many intent on sharing lessons learned while adding beauty and productivity to the world.