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Tech billionaires are building boltholes in New Zealand because they now fear social collapse or nuclear war
You’re all set — your bags were packed long ago, there’s a dozen solid gold coins stashed inside your belt and a pistol strapped round your waist.
There’s no need to say goodbye to the wife and children as they’re already waiting for you 6,000 miles away in New Zealand, having slipped off quietly at the first whiff of global catastrophe.
Now, they’re making themselves comfortable in that fortress home you’ve spent years preparing. They’ve got store-loads of food and enough guns and ammunition to start World War III – which might, anyway, have begun by the time you arrive.
New Zealand – thousands of miles away from North Korea, ISIS and all the social tensions in Europe and the United States – is seen as the ideal ‘safe’ place for billionaires
The high-powered motorbike you’ve never used is waiting outside to whisk you to the private airport where your plane sits waiting.
A helicopter-ride at the other end, pull up the drawbridge — yes, you have one — and you’re ready to wait, for years if necessary, for civilisation to return.
Never mind the warnings about stocking up on vegetables after awful weather has ravaged the Mediterranean farming belt. Some of America’s richest people are spending billions quietly preparing for a global Apocalypse.
The world of Doomsday survivalists or ‘Preppers’ — those preparing themselves for total social collapse — is usually associated with wild-eyed eco-beardies hiding in the woods.
Nuclear war is just one of the fears driving the billionaire ‘refugees’
But the existence of a very different group of Preppers was laid bare by a political row in New Zealand this week.
Attracted by a remote First World country that has the potential to be self-sufficient and is on no one’s list of nuclear targets, the super-rich kings of Silicon Valley and Wall Street are buying up vast tracts of its land — in anticipation of the day when they may need to live there.
The controversy has revealed the extraordinary precautions being taken by the mega- rich to ensure that WTSHTF — a crude survivalist acronym for ‘when the **** hits the fan’ — they and their loved ones will be safe and comfortable.
What the catastrophe will precisely be remains unclear, but possibilities include a devastating asteroid impact, giant earthquake, nuclear war, civil war, pandemic, zombie invasion and the Second Coming.
Tellingly, the geeks of Silicon Valley appear to be most worried that it will be a struggle between rich and poor in a world economy turned upside down by new technology — with them as the main targets.
The row in New Zealand involves scores of mega-rich Americans but has specifically centred on Peter Thiel, the billionaire founder of the internet payment system PayPal and an early investor in Facebook.
Thiel, a libertarian supporter of Donald Trump, paid $10million for a 477-acre lakeside estate in the country’s beautiful but isolated Southern Alps, which provided much of the staggering landscape in the Lord Of the Rings and Hobbit films.
Amid a public outcry over the invasion of U.S. internet and finance billionaires, the New Zealand government has released papers detailing the ‘exceptional circumstances’ under which the American tycoon was quietly given a New Zealand passport.
Peter Thiel (pictured, centre) is a big supporter of Donald Trump but he has an insurance plan if it all goes pear-shaped, having bought a 477-acre estate in New Zealand
It is difficult to understand how this complied with the rules, including one that insists foreigners must live there for three years beforehand.
Mr Thiel has gushed about his ‘great pride’ in his new citizenship and how he has ‘found no other country that aligns more with my view of the future’.
Perhaps what he really meant was exposed, after one of his Silicon Valley chums, the venture capitalist Sam Altman, revealed that, at the first sign of global disaster, he and Thiel would fly to New Zealand.
Other uber-rich Americans who have recently bought homes there include the billionaire hedge-fund pioneer Julian Robertson and the Hollywood film director James Cameron.
Local estate agents say their U.S. clients rarely intend to live in New Zealand, but cite reasons for their purchases such as the toxic presidential election and the spate of mass shootings in America.
In the first ten months of last year, foreigners — mainly Australians and Americans — bought nearly 1,400 square miles of land there, more than four times what they bought in the same period the previous year.
When they’re not buying up land abroad (Chile is also popular as it has low taxes, a good climate and good air links), rich survivalists like to swap tips on private Facebook groups or at regular dinners.
Popular subjects range from buying internet currencies such as Bitcoin, as protection against a central banking meltdown, to which foreign countries are most likely to hand them a passport and so the chance to relocate there in a crisis.
Some have planned for every eventuality. Steve Huffman, the 33-year-old co-founder of the internet discussion forum Reddit, which is valued at $600 million, is one of several Silicon Valley barons who has had laser surgery to correct poor eyesight.
If society collapses, he reasons perversely, getting hold of new spectacles might be a challenge. Ammunition could run out, too.
Steve Huffman (left), co-founder of Reddit, has had laser surgery because he does not want to rely on post-apocalyptic opticians, while Oracle founder Larry Ellison (right) is readying an escape hatch in Hawaii
Marvin Liao, a former senior executive at web giant Yahoo, has taken classes in archery and has amassed a small arsenal of other non-firearm weapons to protect his wife and daughter.
Survivalists have their own set of acronyms, including WROL (Without Rule Of Law) and LIA (Little Ice Age). (Some of them worry that the latter has just started).
They also have secret buzzphrases. ‘Saying you’re “buying a house in New Zealand” is kind of a wink, wink — say no more,’ Reid Hoffman, a venture capitalist told the New Yorker magazine.
‘Once you’ve done the Masonic handshake, they’ll be, like: “Oh, you know, I have a broker who sells old ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile] silos, and they’re nuclear-hardened, and they kind of look like they would be interesting to live in.” ’
These brothers in paranoia don’t necessarily agree on how to survive the approaching cataclysm. Antonio Garcia Martinez, a former Facebook product manager, bought five wooded acres on an island off America’s north Pacific coast.
For this refuge, he brought in solar panels, power generators and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
He chose the spot because it’s far from cities — but not completely remote, as ‘one guy alone’ couldn’t hope to stand up to a ‘roving mob’. One would need to set up a ‘local militia’ with others, he says. And when you have your hundred or so acres of land, what do you put there?
Post-apocalypse design for the money-no-object brigade tends to involve creating a home with a huge bomb-proof basement. The home must be self-contained, not only ‘off the grid’ (with its own power and water supplies), but with tanks for raising tilapia — a hardy, fast-growing fish — to eat, and facilities in which to grow vegetables hydroponically without soil.
Naturally, property developers are eagerly capitalising on such concerns. The Survival Condo Project, a former underground nuclear missile silo in Kansas, has been converted into a 15- storey luxury apartment complex with a pool, gym, classroom and a miniature hospital.
It also has ground-level security cameras, electric fences, an on-site armoury, a sniper post and even a prison cell in which to put unwanted visitors. Instead of windows, giant LED screens show live pictures of the prairie above.
Its creators, who’ve sold all 14 of the $3m homes and are developing a string of new sites, say it can sustain 70 people indefinitely. That is, as long as they can put up with living in what a visitor compared to a well-furnished submarine — silent and rather oppressive.
Project boss Larry Hall says he gets more phone inquiries every time North Korea tests a bomb.
His team promise to send a Pit-Bull VX armoured truck to collect a resident from within a 400-mile radius of the silo.
Others prefer to put their own plans in place. Reddit founder Huffman says he realised a motorbike would be a necessity after watching the disaster film Deep Impact, in which people try to flee a tsunami caused by a comet-strike, clogging the streets so cars are brought to a standstill.
All this panic among the super-rich begs an obvious question: what do they know that the rest of us don’t?
Certainly, preparing for the Apocalypse has been a multi-billion dollar business for many years.
Polls have shown around 22 per cent of Americans believe the world will ‘end’ in their lifetime. Many right-wingers were convinced that Barack Obama would start a civil war by trying to seize citizens’ guns.
Now, there’s the unpredictable Donald Trump to disturb their dreams. More than 13,000 Americans registered to buy a home in New Zealand — 17 times the usual rate — in the week after he was elected president.
There are TV shows about so-called preppers, a survivalist radio network and disaster readiness conventions. There are estate agents dedicated to the task, scouting out easily defendable properties, and even ‘Doomsday dating’ sites such as Survivalist Singles (motto: ‘You don’t have to face the future alone’).
But why are the country’s most privileged people, protected by immense wealth, quite so in fear?
For it is believed that at least 50 per cent of Silicon Valley billionaires have taken out so-called ‘apocalypse insurance’ by finding a refuge at home or abroad. Reluctant to admit the truth, they often describe it as a holiday home, so it’s difficult to know whether or not Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg bought a 750-acre estate in Hawaii ‘just in case’.
Similarly, his fellow tech billionaire Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, who has not only bought 98 per cent of Hawaii’s sixth largest island, Lanai, but — handily — its own airline.
Of course there is the possibility that these fretting tech wizards’ prescience is justified. For many have made their fortunes out of predicting mankind’s dependence on digital gadgets and so we should respect their Doomsday hunches. Survivalists say the first signs of crisis often appear on internet chat forums, as they reportedly did before the 2008 financial crash.
Yishan Wong, another Silicon Valley multi-millionaire who has had eye surgery in readiness for a world without opticians, argues that techie types see risk in a clear-headed way. An apocalypse may be a remote possibility but, if you have money to burn, it’s ‘logical’ to take out insurance, he says.
A less flattering theory is that they’re simply bored nerds who long for adventure and fantasise about a future in which they’ll be a woman-magnet cross between apocalyptic hero Mad Max and environmentally friendly chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
Romanian riot police detain a man after clashes erupted during a protest in Bucharest this week. But many fears the world is going to Hell in a handcart
A New York architect told me he was hired by a senior partner at the bank Goldman Sachs to build a post-Apocalypse house far outside the city. His client wanted it to be a rallying point for local people, gathering — of course — to fall into line under his leadership.
Certainly, Reddit founder Mr Huffman claims he’s ‘a pretty good leader’ who ‘will probably be in charge, or at least not a slave’ if civilisation falls to pieces.
For these great Silicon Valley egalitarians fear that if society collapses, vengeful mobs will look for the super-rich. And, in particular, for the tech wizards whose robots and artificial intelligence systems are taking humans’ jobs.
A critic might ask why, if they’re so alarmed by a battle between rich and poor, they don’t stop wasting their billions on stockpiling armouries and islands and spend it helping the less fortunate?
But then what sort of red-blooded tech king wants to sign a cheque to charity when they could splash out on helicopters, Ducati motorbikes and an assault rifle for every family member?
It’s easy to laugh at the obscenely rich finding grotesque new ways to waste their money. But it’s undeniably disconcerting when it’s the lords of our digital age.
After all, everyone in Silicon Valley claims they want to save the world, not run away from it.
33 Comments on "Tech billionaires are building boltholes in New Zealand because they now fear social collapse or nuclear war"
curlyq3 on Sun, 5th Feb 2017 1:15 pm
These “Billionaires” and their family and friends will most likely immediately be murdered by their employees who are likely the “real survivalists” in these elaborate bunker hideout schemes.
curlyq3
Kenz300 on Sun, 5th Feb 2017 2:04 pm
Wind and solar power will be more reliable than depending on the grid.
Midnight Oil on Sun, 5th Feb 2017 2:24 pm
New Zealand? Think they are safe there?
Forgetaboutit! The Island won’t support that level of population and it is ill equipped to fend off invaders from neighboring island States.But if they choose to place a stake there, good bye to bad rubbish.
paulo1 on Sun, 5th Feb 2017 2:29 pm
They wouldn’t last long where I live. These people are a joke. Locals will take their money for services provided…for awhile. Then, they’ll just take what they want when they feel like it.
Just because they have money does not mean they will ever be anything other than an outsider. They might as well stay home for all the good it will do them to relocate.
You can’t buy your way into community. And without community, you-are-toast. Even the Nazis who fled to sanctaury/refuge tried to hide out and blend in for awhile. Nowadays, there is simply too much information out there about these people. They can run, but they cannot hide.
onlooker on Sun, 5th Feb 2017 2:54 pm
Absolutely, money will be even more worthless than toilet paper. At least toilet paper is good for something. Plus I think more than a little resentment will be directed towards them.
penury on Sun, 5th Feb 2017 3:17 pm
I really wish them well. I hope the angst continues until we get all of these people in the same place. It will make it easier to control their movements if we know where they all are.
energy investor on Sun, 5th Feb 2017 3:26 pm
Midnight Oil,
You seem remarkably well informed about New Zealand…not.
You may care to do some research…well perhaps some day.
We do have police, we do have an army and if the rest of the world folded its tent we could quadruple the population and still feed everyone.
80% of our electricity is from renewable sources.
We have a multicultural society and since about 1980 we have had a programme of grievance settlement with the original inhabitants, the NZ Maori, whose tribal fortunes have been swelled by settlements and astute business on their part…and who are generally doing a lot to support their members.
Aside from an annual ritual shit-throwing ceremony at a place called Waitangi (serendipitously being held today) the inter-marriage process means that almost all folks have some Maori blood in our families, and we respect each other.
There is a bit of public concern at the number of folks like Peter Thiel coming to set up house here….but we are a nation of immigrants as Maori had only been here for about 600 years before the white man arrived.
So NZ is a logical choice, but beware, we too have immigration controls and all the issues of an OECD society.
kiwichick on Sun, 5th Feb 2017 3:34 pm
@ midnight oil…..what level of population won’t New Zealand be able to support?
https://www.populationmatters.org/documents/overshoot_index.pdf
Keith McClary on Sun, 5th Feb 2017 5:32 pm
As I read this I am listening to the Super Bowl fans cheering madly to “Home of the brave”.
DerHundistlos on Sun, 5th Feb 2017 7:14 pm
There is no discussion about the coming ecological doomsday. It’s never the event that’s being planned, but a Black Swan. Once we have decimated the Earth’s life support system, it matters not where you live. It can happen at any time- tomorrow, next week, who knows. What we do know is that we are systematically destroying the intricate chain of life. Once enough links in the chain are broken, the system implodes as it did on Easter Island. The signs are everywhere- native pollinators, bats, amphibians. etc.
kiwichick on Sun, 5th Feb 2017 7:19 pm
+1 Der hundistlos
Midnight Oil on Sun, 5th Feb 2017 7:19 pm
New Zealand sheep population will be just fine after the two legged furless creatures die off of diseases and a a crop failure or two…
They may keep a few around to shear their wool.
kiwichick on Sun, 5th Feb 2017 11:56 pm
@ midnight oil……and why would NZ be more liable to diseases or crop failures than any where else…..especially when there is hundreds of kilometres of ocean between NZ and the nearest other land?
kiwichick on Sun, 5th Feb 2017 11:59 pm
@ energy investor….thanks…..good post
Davy on Mon, 6th Feb 2017 6:35 am
My grandparents went to NZ in the 90’s and said it was the most impressive place they have been. My grandfather was one of the original rich post WWII types that grew out of the great depression. He was rich when rich was cool. Today it is disgusting. He has seen the world and before it was ruined by the American dream. NZ would be on my bucket list but I have stopped most of my travel except what I am forced into it because of family. I like the fact that of all the Anglosphere, NZ is the finest example of nice people that are not stuck on themselves and hate everyone else. “Retard” and “fuck” is not their primary adjective. NZ, NZ, NZ, for world leadership is my opinion. I admire you guys. I wish in a different world I could live there.
I am here in one of the Ozarks of Missouri one of the poorest parts of the developed world most people fly over and drive through. It is a wonderful place of forests and fields but very difficult to make a living. Many of the people are grotesque inbreds fed Walmart slop for 2 generations now. Yet, there are many a small farm that raise animals on grass. Many still live the old ways. People get along and help each other. No stupid libitards protest here. This solid God fear-in Trump territory and why most of you would hate it here. I like it here because there are very few people. We have good water that still bubbles up from the ground clean and pure. The air is still clean.
Climate change is likely going to end this. NUK war may also end it. Unfortunately we have many military targets in Missouri. The list is long of what can destroy this small region. I don’t care. This is home and I will die here. I am not going to run like a coward to a faraway land that is supposedly a refuge. That is not how I work. My kids are here and I will spend my last remaining days providing for them. Family is what matters in the end ask any primitive what they think about family. I am going to die with a refuge or not. I will not necessarily die with honor and dignity because of a refuge. If you chose a refuge and run and hide good for you but quit your bitching and moaning about me. I know what is going on I don’t need the anti-American BS as breakfast every morning telling me I am screwed. The reality is your day is coming too and may it be with an American boot in your ass.
Midnight Oil on Mon, 6th Feb 2017 7:22 am
Kiwi..you ask too many whys?
Let’s see, Climate change, no more magic pellets or petro poweror other inputs from the industrialized global world to make the system work.
Also, once people food calories are limited and weaken their immune system falters leading to disease outbreak. Hospital care and medical care will be very limited.
The sheep will be fine, though, since the two legged furless beast has killed off most of their predators. Maybe they will involve to realize “Two leg BAD, FOUR leg GOOD”.
LOL
Any more hypothetical inquiries? Be careful
You may not like the response
Cthulthu on Mon, 6th Feb 2017 10:06 am
Dave sez:
” I like the fact that of all the Anglosphere, NZ is the finest example of nice people that are not stuck on themselves and hate everyone else. “Retard” and “fuck” is not their primary adjective. NZ, NZ, NZ, for world leadership is my opinion.”
Then he sez:
“No stupid libitards protest here.”
I’m guessing Davy doesn’t have much self awareness.
But keep the hate up Davy – let it eat your heart out.
Now go and have a nice day.
Davy on Mon, 6th Feb 2017 10:19 am
Thanks buddy I will. Glad we had this chat.
Hubert on Mon, 6th Feb 2017 11:52 am
Money’s not going to mean anything when they run out of food and water.
IanC on Mon, 6th Feb 2017 3:01 pm
The original article in The New Yorker is much better. I’d highly recommend it, then go sharpen your pitchfork. Twats…sheesh.
energy investor on Mon, 6th Feb 2017 4:43 pm
@kc, you’re welcome. I always enjoy your views.
@Midnight oil, Of course no-one knows what aspects of a crash may affect which countries and whether a financial collapse is followed by a sudden inability to produce sufficient energy as in the worst peak oil scenarios. The productivity of our agricultural sector would be severely limited under oil starvation. So international trade links could wither and die I suppose.
But we are extremely fortunate that we are in a fantastic climate in the Southern hemisphere’s Westerly wind belt. We have good air, good water, and most houses have some land for gardening.
My own house is on 690m3 of fertile land but most is in lawn (I am lazy and so don’t garden much) and that could easily be changed. I have two orange trees, two mandarin trees, three olives, one lemon, one grapefruit and one feijoa tree. I have a herb garden. So I could easily scale up to grow stuff for food by sacrificing lawn.
But my personal emergency “bug out plan” relates to possibly buying a 10 acre property with a (short to medium term) cash crop. But it would be mainly justified as something to leave my children and grandchildren as a means to earn a living off the land because I turn 70 within a month (and remember I am lazy). So I monitor farm prices and have two alternative crops (that would not be troubled by an end to export markets) that I monitor.
When fewer people have jobs I expect more of our people would likely revert to tending their gardens and providing farm labour.
Most of our electricity is hydro power. But we have wind, solar and quite a bit of geothermal energy.
We do have an industrial scale reliance on sheep and dairy, but we also produce many other crops…and we could expect all to be scaled back and less productive. I suppose we are also fortunate that we do have an analogue for what could lie in our futures…
In my earlier comment I spoke of the indigenous Maori families. They already went through a similar situation to what could occur in the the next crash when in 1930 they were essentially left by our government to their own devices. They simply reverted to being hunter-gatherers and grew their own food, sometimes from native plants that were ideally adapted to our climate and soils prior to the arrival of Europeans.
Life would certainly change and that would vary, depending on the kind of collapse that happened. Even so, as kiwi chick points out, we are a long way from the folks that could want to hurt or dominate us with guns and bombs.
We certainly get lots of tourists and many return to settle here. We get about 1+% of our population in net immigrants each year and that puts pressure on infrastructure. So our government is starting to become more selective in its policies.
Nothing is perfect, but I hope that provides a bit of perspective to earlier comments.
DerHundistlos on Mon, 6th Feb 2017 9:15 pm
Funny how people rationalize the future. Energy Investor envisions a return to a happy pastoral, hunter/gather society. Proof is what may have happened to a 1930s group of indigenous people. A small group’s experience in 1930 has no relevance to 2017. The present population of New Zealand is 4.590.000. The earliest population statistic I can find shows a 1951 population of 1.925.000. ASSUMING the scenario as outlined by Energy plays out, does anyone reasonably believe a hunter/gather New Zealand will support a population of 4.6 million without destroying the environment? Fanciful thinking.
GregT on Mon, 6th Feb 2017 11:38 pm
@kiwichick,
Thanks, Interesting link:
https://www.populationmatters.org/documents/overshoot_index.pdf
Canada ranks 186 out of 187 countries on the overshoot index? Not surprising. That being said, I spent a month in NZ 3 years back. I’d move there in a heartbeat. Reminded me of Canada back in the 60s. For those who have the means, New Zealand is a no brainer.
Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Tue, 7th Feb 2017 12:00 am
Davy, you’re a fucking retard
GregT on Tue, 7th Feb 2017 12:11 am
THALB,
How old are you anyways? Moved out of mommy and daddy’s basement yet? Or are you still in grade school?
Midnight Oil on Tue, 7th Feb 2017 2:26 am
Over at FW site a chap indeed settled in NZ and thought the same ..great place to settle for post BAU…
The comments here featured that ingrained thinking that there will be semi BAU afterward.
Shortonoil and others have made it clear that BAU light ain’t gonna happen folks.
This chaps has found in New Zealand
And for those smugly settled in their rural doomsteads believing the country folk are superior — lose the delusion.
I am in a rural area — we’ve got maybe a dozen homes all with a few hectares of land — so no crowding — and although generally there are no conflicts there is bad blood at times…
All but our place has gravity fed water from a spring up the hill — and some of the neighbours have been at each other because some use too much to irrigate — leaving nothing for those at the end of the line….
Profanities have been screamed over fences because someone’s goats have gotten into an orchard and destroyed avocado trees….
The tensions are simmering ….
The flame will be turned up to high when the grocery stores close — and then people will really have good reason to have a go at each other…
I can hear it now — you have a big garden — we have nothing — it is only fair that you share!!!
You can’t share because you don’t have enough — bullshit — and the gloves will come off — with no police to step in …. the thieving starts…. the high powered rifles come out of the cabinets….
And the madness begins….
Resource scarcity always brings out the worst in humans — this time will be no different — in fact it will be worse — because there are way too many people — and there will be very little food ….
In the cities… and in the countryside….
The issue is usually resource-related — water — crops — however there have been flareups over use of shared roads including upkeep (resources again) or driving too quickly… there have been problems with people refusing to cut trees that are blocking sun or views….
Simple things can easily turn into wars… fortunately there are repercussions of actually going to war —- as in police, courts and jail…. post BAU the veneer of civilization will be stripped off….
Again – imagine when less simple things are involved — like starvation.
Please, by ALL means move to New Zealand!!!
LOL
Davy on Tue, 7th Feb 2017 4:42 am
Nobody should find complete peace of mind in a doomstead. If you buy homeowners insurance does that mean it will prevent a home from burning down? Nope. Doomstead insurance works a different way. It kicks in when life support of the status quo declines or is gone altogether. It does not make you whole again like homeowners insurance. It offers life extension or less pain before death. It is not meant to be long term but it can assist the longer term. Homeowners insurance keeps you connected and doom insurance is there when the connection is gone. It can offer you a whole new life if you follow its path.
The only longer term doom insurance is a reasonably largish community of likeminded people focused on sustainability and resilience post status quo. If you search the world these groups are almost nonexistent. Most rich preppers are a joke. The reason they are a joke is they don’t live doom. They buy it like a summer home then go back to their plutocratic life. A doomstead is a way of life and it will provide, provided, life allows it. There are no guarantees and part of prep is mentally acknowledging that reality. The “how long” is up to fate. The second part of this is post crisis if you are in the right location spontaneous sustainability will likely happen in the right places. This is why location should be the top of the prep list even if you don’t prep.
When I read people speculate on post status quo it is generally apocalyptic. This is just not the case. It can be the case but the possibilities are all over the place. We may go into a financial downturn of demand destruction that is tough and painful but last a generation. It could be a slow die off and it might include whole regions suffering apocalyptic situations with others in relatively painful stability. This could be about hyperthermia and the slow death of the status quo punctuated by severe events only to stabilize in longer term process of decline then again punctuated by horror. This might be a stair step down Jacobs’s ladder back to human savagery. We have significant resources to cannibalize the status quo down for some years. Humans are very much in tune to survival. Not all and they will be the ones consumed by a collapsing civilization in something similar to attrition in war. Yes we are going to be gone eventually but this could be a process. It also might happen rapidly and completely. We just don’t know because there are too many variables. There are too many directions. This is simple but most people complicate it by defaulting to apocalypse.
In the meantime there are people making preparations as smart people do. For those who can’t make physical preparations you can make mental preparations. Many of you should prepare for death and hardship. Mentally preparing might be the difference between surviving a little longer or having a nervous breakdown and your kids starve. Talk about this with someone because that is the first step to community. The insanity of modern life is complete. We are habituated and conditioned to the light switch working and gas at the pumps. Even in Syria in places that are torn apart where nothing works they know it works in Europe.
My point of prep is mental and physical. The act of prepping itself is mental. If you can handle the surreal of being in the status quo to leave it then you can benefit. Not everyone can live this kind of life because it is mentally challenging. There will be times when once prepped you ask yourself, as the world continues in the status quo for years, WTF, I am all dressed up with nowhere to go. Yet, you solve this problem with prep also being a way of life. It is a good way of life to leave the status quo of insanity. The status quo is about legalized rape and pillage of nature. Nature is our mother.
Another side of prepping for those not able to leave the status quo is buying some safety for a short period in a prep-lite. You can buy long shelf life food. You can have some cash and gold. You can have some guns. It helps and can’t hurt. I chose a way of life and I left a way of life as best I could. Get a grip because we are check into the status quo at birth and you can never leave. That is until it leaves you. You will always be at risk no matter how good your preps are. If it is a way of life that gives you satisfaction then you can’t lose.
Midnight Oil on Tue, 7th Feb 2017 6:59 am
You can prepare? Make sure it includes a bullets proof vest…and hopefully that bullet that is aimed at you isn’t at your head!
Agree, the possibilities are endless…on element we ALL need to recognize is Lady Luck.
Took a course in small business and remember a list for success that was in the textbook and at the bottom was LUCK….the instructor made a point of mentioning it. Had a client that opened a Duncan Donuts in Norfolk VA with a retirement payout…Navy service base people main customers…. The Gulf War invasion took a get deal of his customers away and he was forced to close it.
The Ancient Greek/Romans paid special attention to Fortuna and built temples extensively throughout the lands they settled.
The “Wheel of Fortune” ain’t just a TV game show! Good Luck
Davy on Tue, 7th Feb 2017 7:37 am
Agreed, but don’t forget sometimes bad luck is serendipity.
Midnight Oil on Tue, 7th Feb 2017 8:01 am
And sometimes it is a black swan…without rhyme or reason. Lady Luck is fickled and you never know what the spin of the wheel will turn on you.
Davy on Tue, 7th Feb 2017 10:08 am
Yea, MO, after 50 plus years I seen both. Man is life strange and sometimes even special.
DerHundistlos on Tue, 7th Feb 2017 1:05 pm
After watching the series, “The Walking Dead” I learned that zombies are a distant secondary problem. The real madness and killing is done by the human survivors who prey upon each other.
Davy, while I admire your present sustainable lifestyle, in the event of a breakdown in order, do you honestly believe the 3 million residents of the St. Louis metropolitan area will voluntarily starve to death? Hell no. These folks will break out the guns and ammo. and disseminate into the countryside. One direction will be to the southwest via I-44 to your area. While you may be well armed, so will be the others, particularly after the national guard and army reserve posts are looted for tanks, LAW rockets, and all sorts of other goodies. More so now than at any other time, the armaments inventories are flowing over. Having served in the US Army Reserve in Washington, MO, I know that the munitions inventories are immense. Than there is Fort Lost in the Woods aka Fort Leonard Wood located not far from where you reside. I visited a couple of years ago and I could not believe the not hundreds but thousands of M1 tanks stockpiled in one row after the other…
Davy on Tue, 7th Feb 2017 1:51 pm
Der Hund, did you read my comment above. In case of a diaspora of desperates yes then potentially it could be horrible here on the farm. Yet, this is but one of thousands of scenarios. IMA, many people will remain in the big cities regardless of circumstances. Not everyone will hit the road. Many may die in place. Why do you guys always want to default to apocalypse?