One web site that I can highly recommend is George Ure's Urban Survival http://www.urbansurvival.com/. I am a paid up subscriber to the private section of his blog http://www.peoplenomics.com/ and I can highly recommend this section as well. It is certainly well worth the $40 a year-mine of information and all that.
Well last week, he was talking about skill banking, so I thought that I'd put in my 2c worth here.
Skill banking is vital. It is vital not just for your own survival and for that of your friends and family, but for the survival of your community as a whole. The Twentieth Century was in many ways a marvellous time to live, but it was also a very sad time. One of the saddest things about the latter half of the 20th century was the phenomenal loss of specialised skill sets that happened and is still happening to this day. A lot of these skills were vital cogs of industry even as recently as 30-50 years ago, but now are all but lost. Take, for example, blacksmithing and the hot shoeing of horses. You cannot get a horse hot shod these days for any amount of money. Nobody does it. Likewise, the only blacksmiths you are ever likely to see are in heritage museums (if you are lucky). Who cares? We all will, if petroleum products ever become unavailable. A hot shod horse is many times less likely to throw a shoe because the shoe is burned into his hoof, giving a smoother fit. It doesn't hurt the horse BTW, as the only thing burnt is dead keratin. A horse in work on hard surfaces needs well fitting shoes. If it is not well shod it will go lame. If it throws (loses) a shoe, it cannot do any work on hard roads until the shoe is replaced. Before fossil fuels conquered the world, the world rode on the horse's back. If (when) there is a constriction to the supply of fossil fuels, who will cart the freight? Not the prime movers! A sixteen-horsepower engine will though! A team of sixteen shire horses can move a semi-trailer full of freight. But hang on... Sixteen times four is sixty-four shoes. What do you suppose the odds are of one of these sixty-four cold shod shoes coming loose on any one day in the four weeks between farrier visits?
This is why working draught horses were hot shod. You can get away with cold shoeing if you have only one or two horses in work, but not when that shoe is one in a team of sixty-four others.
Freight companies in that day often had a farrier blacksmith on staff and he was kept well busy. It is not as easy as it sounds to replace one horse in a well established working team!
This skill is all but lost, but not quite. There are a few farrier blacksmiths still out there, but they are a rare breed indeed. It is truly a skill worth banking.
What about spinning and weaving? This is a skill set I have personally banked. I can tell you, most spinner-weavers that I know are grey haired. They are very good and have spent a lifetime perfecting their art. This is a skill that will be vital to survival, especially in cold areas, but it just isn't getting passed on because it's not "sexy!"
Forget Sexy! Being alive is very sexy, as far as I'm concerned (especially given the alternative!)
I could add to that list...
Tanning
Cobbling (shoemaking)
Canning and preserving, salting and smoking meats
Cooking with fire
Knitting
Smelting (iron and copper especially, but tin also)
wheelwrighting
barrel making
general carpentry
horse breaking
humane animal slaughter and home butchery
dog training
glazier work
tinsmithing/coppersmithing/sheet plumbing (leadsmithing)
Brewing and distilling
This last one is not just for pleasure. Distilled alcohol is an effective antiseptic and a still can also be used to refine important essential oils such as eucalyptus, tea tree oil and others that are hugely important medicines. The operation of a still is a fine art but one that unfortunately has been legislated out of existence in many areas.
Fortunately, home brewing is in no danger of extinction, at least not here in Aussie! Few people seem to realise though that they will become as important for the cultivation of yeast for bread making as for alcohol production in a collapse situation!
No yeast, no bread!
Make up your own list and bank a skill now, while you can!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
The Forest (or Desert) is your Friend!
For many folks of my generation (Gen X and below), the Great Depression seems like a very, very long time ago indeed. I mean, it started in 1929, didn't it? If you were of an age to be aware of what was going on then, (over the age of 10 or thereabouts), you would be 90 years old or more by now and most of us will probably be pushing up daisies by then. Most of the children of Depression Era parents were Baby Boomers and they are approaching (or at) pension age already. Thus, most people of my age and generation are 2 generations removed from The Depression and its effects and consequences.
But Not Me...
My mother was born in 1935, during the depths of the Great Depression. Her parents were both WW1 veterans who met in Belgium during the Great Mop Up. They emigrated to Aussie as Soldier Settlers and were thus cheated out of about everything that they had. They were both from Fringe Ascendancy backgrounds and landed in this country with 200 acres of land that was never meant to produce, twenty cows that were beyond of their best days, a huge mortgage for said (overpriced) land and cows that would never be paid off and (most crushingly of all) no water (until it rained 5 months after they got there!)
This was in 1925, 4 years before the Great Depression began. When the Depression began, my Grandparents were ekeing out a living there and would continue to do so for another ten years. They finally walked off the land in 1939, when my mother was four years old. By this time, they were almost utterly destitute. They had 3 children, no home and although Pop had a job, the pay wasn't much and what he bought home from the pub was even less.
And yet, they survived.
Grandma had a vegetable garden and was a skilled mender. There was no electricity but then only the very rich had electricity. Pop had an engineering background and was never out of work, even in the middle of the Depression. As soon as the kids were old enough, they were set to work doing jobs to help out. Mum was a skilled fisher from a young age, so she often went down to the beach and came back with a feed for the family. She also chopped wood (so did her brothers) and helped to look after her younger siblings. In all, there were eventually 7 children and they were never truly hungry.
How did they do it?
They just made do. They realised that things don't have to cost money and that often, the things that didn't were better anyway.
My Mum grew up to be a hugely practical lady who knew how to grow veggies and keep chooks and butcher sheep and work hard and raise kids. She had seven children of her own and I was number seven. She grew up in the middle of the Depression and just had to make do. She was 42 when I was born, which meant that many of the other mums at kindergarten and Primary School were 20 years her junior-she was literally old enough to be their mother! She was the odd one out, but didn't let it bother her. She was who she was. She taught me what it is to survive and be happy in a harsh land. She taught me to be grateful for the rain in a land where it rained every three days or so. We were in a lush place at that time, but she never ever forgot the place where it is dry for seven months of the year, where to go out without a water bottle even for a short walk is folly in the extreme.
And because she survived, and because Grandma and Pop survived, because the Art of Survival has been handed down and cherished, I know that we as a family will be OK. This is more than just prepping, this is, as Benedict Allen said in his book Through Jaguar Eyes, "The knowledge that the Forest is your Friend".
"The Forest" is the place that speaks to you, the place that your ancestors came from and where their bones are buried. It is the place where you were born and grew up, where you learned how to live and how to be. When you are in Your Forest, you are who you are and it is here that you know how to survive.
Although I grew up in a fertile, high rainfall land, my family possessed the folklore of living in a dry place with low rainfall. Although we lived in a world where pretty much anything was obtainable, my family had the folklore of deprivation and getting by. My parents grew vegetables and clothes were handed down. Some clothes were homemade and others were sourced from op shops or friends with older kids who had grown out of them. There was no "Mum's Taxi". If we wanted to go somewhere, we walked or biked.
We became confident in "Our Forest", our World. We also had a cultural memory of a very different World, a Desert World, and thus was sown the seed of survival here, in the semi-arid Midwest of West Australia.
My mother and I both moved back here at about the same time, and she began to teach me, once again, how to make the Forest into my Friend. She taught me when to plant, when to expect the hot winds that would dry the world to a crisp within a week, transforming green paddocks into barren deserts. She knew what would grow here and what I would struggle with and what was simply not worth the effort. She knew what rivers held water and when, where the fish would likely be and how to catch them. She knew what weeds were edible and what weeds were toxic. She knew what would be likely to afflict my chickens and how to remedy it. She knew, in short, how to live in this "Forest" and had made this Forest her Friend.
I have heard it said a number of times within the Preposphere that if you live in a Desert city, you would be well advised to move. Of course, I cannot comment for everybody, since each individual and household has to make their own decision about this. What I can say though, is that if, like me, you have a vast family network in a Desert city with a multi-generational history of surviving and even prospering from living off the natural resources of your place, through depressions, wars and so on, your desert city may well be the best place for you. Perhaps all that is needed is not a dislocation but an acquaintance or re-acquaintance with the land that you have lived on your whole life, a knowledge that it is your Friend and will look after you. Once you begin this process, you will probably be surprised at what you already know and will find that the land speaks to you and tells you what you need to learn. This is true even if your Place, your Forest, is an Urban Apartment Jungle. You will know the back streets where the best dumpsters are, where the local gossips live and that woman who keeps chickens in her bathroom and sells the eggs!
In short, it is not so important where you live. What is important is your connection to place, family networks, history and knowing how to live and survive in situ. If your family has survived in place through something like the Great Depression, find out how they did it and aim to emulate it. If it worked once, it may very well work again. As you do this, you will come to a deep, unshakeable knowing of the Forest as your Friend and it is this knowledge that will ultimately put you in a frame of mind to not only survive, but prosper.
Well, that is all for today...
Until next time, probably tomorrow,
Be Ready for Whatever May Come.
Ciao Beni!
But Not Me...
My mother was born in 1935, during the depths of the Great Depression. Her parents were both WW1 veterans who met in Belgium during the Great Mop Up. They emigrated to Aussie as Soldier Settlers and were thus cheated out of about everything that they had. They were both from Fringe Ascendancy backgrounds and landed in this country with 200 acres of land that was never meant to produce, twenty cows that were beyond of their best days, a huge mortgage for said (overpriced) land and cows that would never be paid off and (most crushingly of all) no water (until it rained 5 months after they got there!)
This was in 1925, 4 years before the Great Depression began. When the Depression began, my Grandparents were ekeing out a living there and would continue to do so for another ten years. They finally walked off the land in 1939, when my mother was four years old. By this time, they were almost utterly destitute. They had 3 children, no home and although Pop had a job, the pay wasn't much and what he bought home from the pub was even less.
And yet, they survived.
Grandma had a vegetable garden and was a skilled mender. There was no electricity but then only the very rich had electricity. Pop had an engineering background and was never out of work, even in the middle of the Depression. As soon as the kids were old enough, they were set to work doing jobs to help out. Mum was a skilled fisher from a young age, so she often went down to the beach and came back with a feed for the family. She also chopped wood (so did her brothers) and helped to look after her younger siblings. In all, there were eventually 7 children and they were never truly hungry.
How did they do it?
They just made do. They realised that things don't have to cost money and that often, the things that didn't were better anyway.
My Mum grew up to be a hugely practical lady who knew how to grow veggies and keep chooks and butcher sheep and work hard and raise kids. She had seven children of her own and I was number seven. She grew up in the middle of the Depression and just had to make do. She was 42 when I was born, which meant that many of the other mums at kindergarten and Primary School were 20 years her junior-she was literally old enough to be their mother! She was the odd one out, but didn't let it bother her. She was who she was. She taught me what it is to survive and be happy in a harsh land. She taught me to be grateful for the rain in a land where it rained every three days or so. We were in a lush place at that time, but she never ever forgot the place where it is dry for seven months of the year, where to go out without a water bottle even for a short walk is folly in the extreme.
And because she survived, and because Grandma and Pop survived, because the Art of Survival has been handed down and cherished, I know that we as a family will be OK. This is more than just prepping, this is, as Benedict Allen said in his book Through Jaguar Eyes, "The knowledge that the Forest is your Friend".
"The Forest" is the place that speaks to you, the place that your ancestors came from and where their bones are buried. It is the place where you were born and grew up, where you learned how to live and how to be. When you are in Your Forest, you are who you are and it is here that you know how to survive.
Although I grew up in a fertile, high rainfall land, my family possessed the folklore of living in a dry place with low rainfall. Although we lived in a world where pretty much anything was obtainable, my family had the folklore of deprivation and getting by. My parents grew vegetables and clothes were handed down. Some clothes were homemade and others were sourced from op shops or friends with older kids who had grown out of them. There was no "Mum's Taxi". If we wanted to go somewhere, we walked or biked.
We became confident in "Our Forest", our World. We also had a cultural memory of a very different World, a Desert World, and thus was sown the seed of survival here, in the semi-arid Midwest of West Australia.
My mother and I both moved back here at about the same time, and she began to teach me, once again, how to make the Forest into my Friend. She taught me when to plant, when to expect the hot winds that would dry the world to a crisp within a week, transforming green paddocks into barren deserts. She knew what would grow here and what I would struggle with and what was simply not worth the effort. She knew what rivers held water and when, where the fish would likely be and how to catch them. She knew what weeds were edible and what weeds were toxic. She knew what would be likely to afflict my chickens and how to remedy it. She knew, in short, how to live in this "Forest" and had made this Forest her Friend.
I have heard it said a number of times within the Preposphere that if you live in a Desert city, you would be well advised to move. Of course, I cannot comment for everybody, since each individual and household has to make their own decision about this. What I can say though, is that if, like me, you have a vast family network in a Desert city with a multi-generational history of surviving and even prospering from living off the natural resources of your place, through depressions, wars and so on, your desert city may well be the best place for you. Perhaps all that is needed is not a dislocation but an acquaintance or re-acquaintance with the land that you have lived on your whole life, a knowledge that it is your Friend and will look after you. Once you begin this process, you will probably be surprised at what you already know and will find that the land speaks to you and tells you what you need to learn. This is true even if your Place, your Forest, is an Urban Apartment Jungle. You will know the back streets where the best dumpsters are, where the local gossips live and that woman who keeps chickens in her bathroom and sells the eggs!
In short, it is not so important where you live. What is important is your connection to place, family networks, history and knowing how to live and survive in situ. If your family has survived in place through something like the Great Depression, find out how they did it and aim to emulate it. If it worked once, it may very well work again. As you do this, you will come to a deep, unshakeable knowing of the Forest as your Friend and it is this knowledge that will ultimately put you in a frame of mind to not only survive, but prosper.
Well, that is all for today...
Until next time, probably tomorrow,
Be Ready for Whatever May Come.
Ciao Beni!
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
What was it that I was saying yesterday that we might have five or six years before complete anarchistic collapse? That what economic breakdown doesn't destroy, angry locals will?
WHOA! Lundunum is in BIG TROUBLE!!!
NOW!!!
I was listening to the radio news after posting yesterday and Oh My God, Britain is in Serious, Serious Strife!
The rioting is spreading to it seeems like every city in England, well, Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Liverpool, Manchester...
Who was it that once said that "People with full bellies don't riot"?
This is true. When a rioter was asked by a BBC reporter why he was rioting, he said, "'Cos I ain't got no money!"
Big surprise there...NOT!!!
There are not enough police to deal with this one. The middle class (or what is left thereof) need to stop acting so surprised and realise that they are being groomed to accept totalitarian rule. The problem is NOT that there are too few police. A hundred thousand police would not be able to quell the sentiments that have led to this serious unrest. The problem here is not inadequate policing. London has such a vast network of security cameras that you can't even scratch your butt without half of the cops in town knowing about it and laughing at you! Orwell would be proud! No, the problem here is one of debasement of currency leading to the export of jobs and the importation of foreign workers prepared to do all the menial tasks like cleaning toilets and sweeping streets for a fraction of what local working class folk are asking. The result of this is empty bellies (and pockets) that in every other city in every era of history has always led to rioting amongst the plebs.
"An' Where's All Them Cockneys Takin' All That Stuff? Well Luv, Ain't You Ever 'eard of "Brookie Street?"
They wants to fill their pockets up, they do!"
I'm not condoning these actions. What I am doing is trying to get people to see what the source of the problem is, instead of reacting from raw emotion because emotionally driven decisions are usually wrong.
What are needed here are not pat answers. Suppose the Bobbies went in with rubber bullets, tear gas, real bullets even. These riots were initially sparked by an instance of police brutality. Do you really think that more brutality will solve it? Of course not. The East End would become an English Ballymurphy or Govan-a no-go area for all except English locals. Pakistanis, Turks, Greeks etc would have to find somewhere else to live, just as all non-Catholics during the Troubles were compelled to leave the 'Murph and just like Glasgow has for years been divided along lines of religious affiliation and gang loyalty.
What you would spark if you insisted on police access to all areas would be a second English Civil War-the Poor versus the Rest.
God help us if that ever happened.
What is the answer then?
Honestly, I don't know. I don't know if there is anything at all that can be done. I think that all that folks can do is hope and pray and try to just stay out of harm's way.
Till next time,
Probably Tomorow,
All the Best to One and All!
WHOA! Lundunum is in BIG TROUBLE!!!
NOW!!!
I was listening to the radio news after posting yesterday and Oh My God, Britain is in Serious, Serious Strife!
The rioting is spreading to it seeems like every city in England, well, Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Liverpool, Manchester...
Who was it that once said that "People with full bellies don't riot"?
This is true. When a rioter was asked by a BBC reporter why he was rioting, he said, "'Cos I ain't got no money!"
Big surprise there...NOT!!!
There are not enough police to deal with this one. The middle class (or what is left thereof) need to stop acting so surprised and realise that they are being groomed to accept totalitarian rule. The problem is NOT that there are too few police. A hundred thousand police would not be able to quell the sentiments that have led to this serious unrest. The problem here is not inadequate policing. London has such a vast network of security cameras that you can't even scratch your butt without half of the cops in town knowing about it and laughing at you! Orwell would be proud! No, the problem here is one of debasement of currency leading to the export of jobs and the importation of foreign workers prepared to do all the menial tasks like cleaning toilets and sweeping streets for a fraction of what local working class folk are asking. The result of this is empty bellies (and pockets) that in every other city in every era of history has always led to rioting amongst the plebs.
"An' Where's All Them Cockneys Takin' All That Stuff? Well Luv, Ain't You Ever 'eard of "Brookie Street?"
They wants to fill their pockets up, they do!"
I'm not condoning these actions. What I am doing is trying to get people to see what the source of the problem is, instead of reacting from raw emotion because emotionally driven decisions are usually wrong.
What are needed here are not pat answers. Suppose the Bobbies went in with rubber bullets, tear gas, real bullets even. These riots were initially sparked by an instance of police brutality. Do you really think that more brutality will solve it? Of course not. The East End would become an English Ballymurphy or Govan-a no-go area for all except English locals. Pakistanis, Turks, Greeks etc would have to find somewhere else to live, just as all non-Catholics during the Troubles were compelled to leave the 'Murph and just like Glasgow has for years been divided along lines of religious affiliation and gang loyalty.
What you would spark if you insisted on police access to all areas would be a second English Civil War-the Poor versus the Rest.
God help us if that ever happened.
What is the answer then?
Honestly, I don't know. I don't know if there is anything at all that can be done. I think that all that folks can do is hope and pray and try to just stay out of harm's way.
Till next time,
Probably Tomorow,
All the Best to One and All!
Monday, August 8, 2011
Market Collapse and the Fall of Empire
I was having a cup of coffee last night at my favorite cafe in town and the waiter, a good friend of mine (I have been going to this same cafe for many years) said to me, "Wow! You told me in 2008 what was going to be happening today!" (with regards to the world economic situation and the recent market falls). I replied, "Yes, but watch out, this is only the beginning!"
This is true. What we are looking at here is a full on collapse of empire, such as has not been seen since the Fall of Rome. To get a picture, consider this...
If you were a Roman living on the fringes of the Empire in say, Lundunum (London) during the first century, life was fairly pleasant. The roads were good, and while the weather was generally rotten, your house was centrally heated and had inside toilets, bathtubs, nice gardens, elegant decor and hot and cold running water. You would have had at least one chariot to run around in and a cushy government job with a regular salarium (salary). Life was fairly peaceful and the local indigenous population were not too bothersome. Your technology was superior and you were just damn smarter than they were. Also, they relied on you for defense against the ravaging hordes of Saxon longboats. As long as the ships with their loads of salt, gold, silver and tin kept coming and going, all was well.
Britain at that time was not a Roman province, but a client state with good economic ties to the Empire.
However, all was not well with the Empire in far off Rome. The rot actually began with Julius Caesar, the first Dictator. This was the end of the Graeco-Roman democracy and the beginning of the Era of the Dictators. Caesar was of course only the first and by no means the worst. Augustus was OK, just a bit fixated on censuses. Tiberius wasn't too bad either, he actually showed a great deal of tolerance for new religious beliefs like Christianity, although he had a lot of them locked up and executed, too (including the judgement against Christ Himself, through his minion Pontius Pilate, although it is probable or even likely that Tiberius knew nothing of these events until after the fact). It was Caligula who had the dangerous combination of an inferiority complex, insanity and a lot of power, a bigoted view of the world and a lust for blood. After him came Claudius, a ruthless tyrant, and after him, Nero. Nero was a mummy's boy, actually. He became Caesar during his adolescence and was a bright ray of hope. He, unlike his two predecessors, had a brain or two in his head and was a gifted speaker. However, he was also a puppet. The real power of Rome was held not by him, but by his mother whom he loved dearly and feared equally so. He built a palace for his horse but to his own people and to the people of his empire he was ruthless in his bloodlust. The dungeons were full of prisoners, including Romans, who had displeased the emperor and were now destined for a gory and often public death. He was weak but was dangerous in his weakness. After the assassination of his mother, his mind fractured and it was ultimately he who"fiddled while Rome burned".
By the time Nero committed suicide in AD 68, Rome had descended into a state of civil war. Vespian ruled for ten years after him, then Titus, but the glory of Rome was forever gone.
But what was life like in Britain during this era of Mad Emperors?
Caligula invaded Britain, a friendly client state, in AD 40 but the invasion was farciacal with his troops collecting sea shells as tribute. The local indigenous Brits were not amused, however.
If you were that Roman in Lundunum, life would have been uncomfortable and possibly even dangerous for a while, but life went on-for a time. In fact, Roman power was seemingly strengthened, even as Rome itself was rotting at the core. Claudius invaded in AD 43 and the invasions and wars went on for some time, decades, actually, under subsequent emperors. Roman power was eventually consolidated in the south of Britain and "Pax Romana" would continue in Britain for about another 150-200 years, but eventually the Empire utterly collapsed and around the turn of the 5th century, the British Romans were instructed by Caesar Honorius to "defend their own selves". At this time, Rome was so short of money it did could not pay for its own legionaries to return to Rome! By the time the 6th Century arrived, commerce had collapsed, coinage had stopped circulating, towns were evacuated and the few Romans still in Britain were living (or hiding) in abandoned hill forts. The Saxons filled the power vacuum left by the Romans and they were even more barbarous than their predecessors. Lundunum was utterly desolated and was not rebuilt as a city until the 8th century.
So what does the collapse of "The New Rome" bode for us as a client state, Geraldton being the analog to ancient Lundunum? For a time, life may be uncomfortable, but liveable. I would say that is where we are now. Geraldton, like Lundunum of old, is a significant international trade port, but not the Capital. In Roman Britain, this role was filled by Colchester and in our case, it is Perth.
Eventually, the fiat money of Ancient Rome went Banca Rupta and for a time there was a return to a gold and silver standard. There was, however, not enough gold and silver out there to support this system, even if the State engaged in wars to loot and pillage the resources of their "clients". It all just didn't pay off. Constant wars destroyed the treasuries of Rome and upset locals from the far flung reaches of empire destroyed what economic collapse didn't. Throw in a few massive natural and man made disasters (eruption of Vesuvius, The Great Fire of Rome, Eruption of Taupo in the 5th Century) and you have the Collapse of an Empire. I think that the resonances with the (post)modern world ought to be as clear as crystal ringing.
Except...
This time, everything is compressed. Instead of the process taking hundreds of years, now it is taking merely decades, and I would say that we are at the tail end of that process now. I have been studying the New World Order and its collapse for twenty years and the acceleration I have seen in the process since 2007 is positively scary. We are now just a few short years (I'd give it five or six at the most) from being in a complete and utter state of anarchistic collapse, similar to that of the days of Honorius. Do I want this to happen? Well, not really, but it doesn't matter if I want it to happen or not. It's not going to change anything, is it? I didn't cause ths problem and I sure as hell can't fix it.
I was asked at the cafe last night by my waiter friend what I thought about the recent steep decline in the World's stock markets. My reply was, "Well, this is the beginning, but you ain't seen nothing yet!" I think that just about sums it up, for sure. So buckle your seatbelts, kiddies, we are in for a hell of a ride! Make all the preps you can and plan to survive but remember that the folks who survived the Collapse of Roman Britain were not the guys hiding out in their hill fort bunkers!
I think that there is a lesson here for us all!
Till next time, probably tomorrow,
Keep your chin up, and
Never, Ever, Ever Give Up! (Sir Winston Churchill)
This is true. What we are looking at here is a full on collapse of empire, such as has not been seen since the Fall of Rome. To get a picture, consider this...
If you were a Roman living on the fringes of the Empire in say, Lundunum (London) during the first century, life was fairly pleasant. The roads were good, and while the weather was generally rotten, your house was centrally heated and had inside toilets, bathtubs, nice gardens, elegant decor and hot and cold running water. You would have had at least one chariot to run around in and a cushy government job with a regular salarium (salary). Life was fairly peaceful and the local indigenous population were not too bothersome. Your technology was superior and you were just damn smarter than they were. Also, they relied on you for defense against the ravaging hordes of Saxon longboats. As long as the ships with their loads of salt, gold, silver and tin kept coming and going, all was well.
Britain at that time was not a Roman province, but a client state with good economic ties to the Empire.
However, all was not well with the Empire in far off Rome. The rot actually began with Julius Caesar, the first Dictator. This was the end of the Graeco-Roman democracy and the beginning of the Era of the Dictators. Caesar was of course only the first and by no means the worst. Augustus was OK, just a bit fixated on censuses. Tiberius wasn't too bad either, he actually showed a great deal of tolerance for new religious beliefs like Christianity, although he had a lot of them locked up and executed, too (including the judgement against Christ Himself, through his minion Pontius Pilate, although it is probable or even likely that Tiberius knew nothing of these events until after the fact). It was Caligula who had the dangerous combination of an inferiority complex, insanity and a lot of power, a bigoted view of the world and a lust for blood. After him came Claudius, a ruthless tyrant, and after him, Nero. Nero was a mummy's boy, actually. He became Caesar during his adolescence and was a bright ray of hope. He, unlike his two predecessors, had a brain or two in his head and was a gifted speaker. However, he was also a puppet. The real power of Rome was held not by him, but by his mother whom he loved dearly and feared equally so. He built a palace for his horse but to his own people and to the people of his empire he was ruthless in his bloodlust. The dungeons were full of prisoners, including Romans, who had displeased the emperor and were now destined for a gory and often public death. He was weak but was dangerous in his weakness. After the assassination of his mother, his mind fractured and it was ultimately he who"fiddled while Rome burned".
By the time Nero committed suicide in AD 68, Rome had descended into a state of civil war. Vespian ruled for ten years after him, then Titus, but the glory of Rome was forever gone.
But what was life like in Britain during this era of Mad Emperors?
Caligula invaded Britain, a friendly client state, in AD 40 but the invasion was farciacal with his troops collecting sea shells as tribute. The local indigenous Brits were not amused, however.
If you were that Roman in Lundunum, life would have been uncomfortable and possibly even dangerous for a while, but life went on-for a time. In fact, Roman power was seemingly strengthened, even as Rome itself was rotting at the core. Claudius invaded in AD 43 and the invasions and wars went on for some time, decades, actually, under subsequent emperors. Roman power was eventually consolidated in the south of Britain and "Pax Romana" would continue in Britain for about another 150-200 years, but eventually the Empire utterly collapsed and around the turn of the 5th century, the British Romans were instructed by Caesar Honorius to "defend their own selves". At this time, Rome was so short of money it did could not pay for its own legionaries to return to Rome! By the time the 6th Century arrived, commerce had collapsed, coinage had stopped circulating, towns were evacuated and the few Romans still in Britain were living (or hiding) in abandoned hill forts. The Saxons filled the power vacuum left by the Romans and they were even more barbarous than their predecessors. Lundunum was utterly desolated and was not rebuilt as a city until the 8th century.
So what does the collapse of "The New Rome" bode for us as a client state, Geraldton being the analog to ancient Lundunum? For a time, life may be uncomfortable, but liveable. I would say that is where we are now. Geraldton, like Lundunum of old, is a significant international trade port, but not the Capital. In Roman Britain, this role was filled by Colchester and in our case, it is Perth.
Eventually, the fiat money of Ancient Rome went Banca Rupta and for a time there was a return to a gold and silver standard. There was, however, not enough gold and silver out there to support this system, even if the State engaged in wars to loot and pillage the resources of their "clients". It all just didn't pay off. Constant wars destroyed the treasuries of Rome and upset locals from the far flung reaches of empire destroyed what economic collapse didn't. Throw in a few massive natural and man made disasters (eruption of Vesuvius, The Great Fire of Rome, Eruption of Taupo in the 5th Century) and you have the Collapse of an Empire. I think that the resonances with the (post)modern world ought to be as clear as crystal ringing.
Except...
This time, everything is compressed. Instead of the process taking hundreds of years, now it is taking merely decades, and I would say that we are at the tail end of that process now. I have been studying the New World Order and its collapse for twenty years and the acceleration I have seen in the process since 2007 is positively scary. We are now just a few short years (I'd give it five or six at the most) from being in a complete and utter state of anarchistic collapse, similar to that of the days of Honorius. Do I want this to happen? Well, not really, but it doesn't matter if I want it to happen or not. It's not going to change anything, is it? I didn't cause ths problem and I sure as hell can't fix it.
I was asked at the cafe last night by my waiter friend what I thought about the recent steep decline in the World's stock markets. My reply was, "Well, this is the beginning, but you ain't seen nothing yet!" I think that just about sums it up, for sure. So buckle your seatbelts, kiddies, we are in for a hell of a ride! Make all the preps you can and plan to survive but remember that the folks who survived the Collapse of Roman Britain were not the guys hiding out in their hill fort bunkers!
I think that there is a lesson here for us all!
Till next time, probably tomorrow,
Keep your chin up, and
Never, Ever, Ever Give Up! (Sir Winston Churchill)
Resurrection of the Flying Unicorn!
Wow! Has it been four years since I posted to the Flying Unicorn???
Actually, I had completely forgotten about my little blog. Life took over and all that.
Actually, what happened was I began researching economics, and that is what took over.
What has happened in the last four years? It is kind of a long story. The Australian Government changed their laws regarding social security payments, basically forcing single parents off the pension when their youngest child turned six. At the time my youngest child was four and I realised that in just two years my income stream would be cut off which meant that I would have to find another source of income. I began researching and in the process of my reading I came across Robert Prechter and the Elliot Wave Theory. I realised that the world was in dire trouble economically. I had a 100% leveraged mortgage that I was not paying off and that I was going to be in big trouble financially unless I sold my home and released the capital appreciation and paid off the mortgage and bought a house outright. All of which I did.
I kept reading, invested in CFDs for a while and got burnt big time doing that. I bought an apartment just before the GFC which lost $100,000 worth of value in 12 months. I discovered Clif High and the Webbots, Gerald Celente and George Ure at UrbanSurvival.com
And thus my education continued...
I got to thinking that I really must start blogging again, but didn't know where to begin. I began talking to my friends and family about the coming collapse and earth changes...at first they thought that I was crazy. That is, until stuff started happening, like the GOM oil spill, the shutdown of the Gulf Stream, the Icelandic eruptions. I felt as if I had hit the motherlode of future viewing and both myself and my loved ones were benefitting hugely. I began investing in gold and silver and today I have a business helping other people to do so. If you want to buy gold or silver proof coins or other collector's coins, I can certainly help you. I also sell gold and silver bullion bars on a "by order" basis.
I am still by no means rich, but I am secure. I have a food forest that provides most or all of my fruit and vege needs as well as eggs, milk and some meat. I own my own home outright and have an independent electrical supply. I have a massive non-grid water supply. In short, when the coming collapse happens, I'll probably survive.
Today, I was on the net and saw my "Flying Unicorn" blog advertised on Facebook.
Oh my God, the memories came flooding back!
I have decided to re-activate the blog, albeit with a slightly different emphasis. I am still interested in all things Pagan and Woo-woo, but now it is integrated with a bigger world view.
If anyone in the Geraldton, West Australia area wants help establishing themselves to survive the coming collapse, I am able to offer a consulting service on a wide range of topics from sustainable land management practises, off grid living and general survival strategies in a suburban context. Please note however that I am not a registered financial planner so I cannot provide investment advice. I am still doing my art and if you want to buy prints, tee shirts, coffee mugs etc, they can be purchased at www.zazzle.com/guineith
Of course, I can still also do tarot readings and birth charts.
Well, I'd better go now, but I'll be back!
Probably Tomorrow!
Until then, Blessed Be, Beloveds!
Guineith
Actually, I had completely forgotten about my little blog. Life took over and all that.
Actually, what happened was I began researching economics, and that is what took over.
What has happened in the last four years? It is kind of a long story. The Australian Government changed their laws regarding social security payments, basically forcing single parents off the pension when their youngest child turned six. At the time my youngest child was four and I realised that in just two years my income stream would be cut off which meant that I would have to find another source of income. I began researching and in the process of my reading I came across Robert Prechter and the Elliot Wave Theory. I realised that the world was in dire trouble economically. I had a 100% leveraged mortgage that I was not paying off and that I was going to be in big trouble financially unless I sold my home and released the capital appreciation and paid off the mortgage and bought a house outright. All of which I did.
I kept reading, invested in CFDs for a while and got burnt big time doing that. I bought an apartment just before the GFC which lost $100,000 worth of value in 12 months. I discovered Clif High and the Webbots, Gerald Celente and George Ure at UrbanSurvival.com
And thus my education continued...
I got to thinking that I really must start blogging again, but didn't know where to begin. I began talking to my friends and family about the coming collapse and earth changes...at first they thought that I was crazy. That is, until stuff started happening, like the GOM oil spill, the shutdown of the Gulf Stream, the Icelandic eruptions. I felt as if I had hit the motherlode of future viewing and both myself and my loved ones were benefitting hugely. I began investing in gold and silver and today I have a business helping other people to do so. If you want to buy gold or silver proof coins or other collector's coins, I can certainly help you. I also sell gold and silver bullion bars on a "by order" basis.
I am still by no means rich, but I am secure. I have a food forest that provides most or all of my fruit and vege needs as well as eggs, milk and some meat. I own my own home outright and have an independent electrical supply. I have a massive non-grid water supply. In short, when the coming collapse happens, I'll probably survive.
Today, I was on the net and saw my "Flying Unicorn" blog advertised on Facebook.
Oh my God, the memories came flooding back!
I have decided to re-activate the blog, albeit with a slightly different emphasis. I am still interested in all things Pagan and Woo-woo, but now it is integrated with a bigger world view.
If anyone in the Geraldton, West Australia area wants help establishing themselves to survive the coming collapse, I am able to offer a consulting service on a wide range of topics from sustainable land management practises, off grid living and general survival strategies in a suburban context. Please note however that I am not a registered financial planner so I cannot provide investment advice. I am still doing my art and if you want to buy prints, tee shirts, coffee mugs etc, they can be purchased at www.zazzle.com/guineith
Of course, I can still also do tarot readings and birth charts.
Well, I'd better go now, but I'll be back!
Probably Tomorrow!
Until then, Blessed Be, Beloveds!
Guineith
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
