That Escapism thingy

“Sitting on the bed and I’m lying wide awake, Demons in my head and its more than I can take, Think I’m on a roll, but I thinks it kinda weak, still All I know is I gotta getaway from me,,,,,,”(Offspring)

(and how I first heard the lyrics,,,, Krazy in the head and I’m lying wide awake, screamers in my head and its more than I can take, Think I wanna run but I think its kinda weak, Still all I know is I gotta getaway from me,,,, That should explain what follows,,,,,)

As a kid growing up, I was always fascinated by things ‘old Skool’. most of my book purchases, borrows from library, etc, tended to be survival, old ways ‘tech’, indian lore, what have you. The entertaining reads were stuff like “Postman” or “One day in the life of Ivan Donesovich”,,, Really apocalyptic pron shit,,,, (yeah, ‘On the Beach’ was one of,,,,)

And I think there is a part of my soul that was born to the wrong time period: it shouldn’t have been born (or was carried forward, kicking and screaming, scrabbling at the walls with broken fingernails and bloody tips,,,,) into this modern world where 90% have no clue how to start a fire,,,, where 80% or more have no clue that MEAT doesn’t come on a styrofoam plate wrapped in cellophane. These things are NEW to the world in reletive terms,,,(Less than a few generations I mean,,,)

(and the kayaky twist, its a short one, I swear) And thats part of why I learned to build Skin on Frame boats,,,, Yes, I used modern tools (drills and such) and materials(two part polyurethanes, synthetic sinew and high tech ‘skin’ in ballistic nylon.) but the methods,,,, much similar to what the esquimaux, Inuit, Aleutians did/do for thier boats. and I never used a measuring tape on any of them,,, just my body (anthropomorphic measurements)

Looking at the world at large today, the fact that The Chinese, (read SunTzu please,,, They won’t be using military to take us down if that is their intent,,, They’re gonna let us do the dirty work first,,,,) and other Countries that want to ‘bring down the giant’ don’t need to do much more than shut our Grid down. The beastial howling would commence in less than 36 hours, and the dying would begin in earnest in 72.

Gonna happen? Hell, no one knows,,, Especially not our Leadershits Pretend that seriously think their dumbasses have this shit under control,,,

BUT, how ready are YOU for grid down? Not EMP, but a total cyber attack that blows out every transformer in the US and shuts down the Grid for MONTHS/YEARS? We have so much tied into the NET,,,, NO power=No net=No shipping= people start to starve. And those ‘Law enforcement’?,,, How many do you think it would take to control the mobs that would start when people realize, there is no one coming to save THEM,,,, Typical levels of LEO:civvy is around 1:10000. less in some ares, more in others, but do you think that one LEO can handle the other 10000? seriously? Hell NO,,, that LEO is gonna see the cards on the table, and grab his shit and head home to do what HE CAN DO: Defend his ground.

But we aren’t going to get there, are we? They are going to kick off WW3 and that opens up entirely different parts of Pandoras box, but the end results of shit starts falling apart is still in play. We are far too interdependent on the world these days. Back in WW2, we were pretty much THE manufacturer of the world, now, that shit is scattered all over. Let me grab three items off my camping gear shelf,,, First one: my Drytop (on top since I need to replace the neck gasket) Sold through a company in Canada, made in Vietnam. Second: Trangia camp stove Sold by Norwegian company, made in Mexico. Bottle of IsoButylpropane for camp stoves,,, the can is made in Mexico, but the unit was filled in Argentina with distribution by Coleman of America,,,,

Are you confused yet? how the hell is it that a can of cooking gas, made in one place filled in another and shipped to US can be so cheap? (the price tag says $3) On this note, Stalin had it right “Quantity has a quality all its own.” I am quite certain he was thinking something else, but,,,,

(if you have not, please read “The Rational Optimist” There IS a plus to Globalism, as in We eat better than King Louis XIV, it seems counter-intuitive, but it DOES work,,,,) (Note, I am NOT endorsing the Globalists ideas,,, just the fact that interconnected global markets mean lives DO improve,,, Now if we can just get the Governments to step down and stop fucking the machine up,,,,)

And on that note,,, I was shopping yesterday on my way home from the lake,,, looked at the Fresh Frozen seafood lane,,,, Salmon from Chile!!! Trout from Argentina!!! Why those places and not here, seeing how both are available on these shores? COST. Our currency is so diluted as to be worthless and to make ends meet HERE, Fisheries raise costs to stay afloat (sorry for the bad pun) and in the end, can’t sell their products because wages didn’t rise in direct relation. (they never do,,,) No one can afford the stuff. So places like Chile or Argentina, are able to flood our markets with cheaper products (and questionable quality IMO) because people DO want to eat like the SunKing his-self,,,,

And then you find out that some producers are ‘cheating’, like adding 20% high fructose corn syrup to Honey,,,, can’t really see the difference but you can test for it, even at home. Why would they do that? HFC’s are stoopid cheap because it has been so heavily government subsidized,,, they can buy a container of 500 gallons of HFCS for a tiny fraction of the cost of honey, mix the two and suddenly “MORE HONEY” same cost, more profit,,,, Yeah, there is some greed factor, factored in, but there is also the rising costs of production and labor, and a steadily falling dollar,,,, (it ain’t shrinking, its FAILING,,,,)

and back to that old skool thing,,, How many know WHERE to find said honey? or how to get it without becoming a casualty?

I know that there are a lot of people out there practicing ‘old skool’ tech stuff. hand forging iron, etc etc, but I also know, not many of those people are near cities,,, and for good reason,,, they are very spread out around the perimeters of society, and probably much thinner than I believe (because I get more feeds from tha sort of video, I get a skewed view of what could be reality,,, I try to balance it,,,_) I know here bouts, I am the ODD because of my knowledge base,,, I would imagine those people feel similar.

There are days where that sllent part of my soul, the one that is always on, looking for the exits and resources to be utilized, the wild child that wants to go back to the caves and bang the rocks together some more,,, well, that part of my soul is why “Wanna getaway from ME”,, only it’s not me I want to get away from,,, I’ve grown rather fond of ME, but I would like to step out, drop the phone off a tall bridge, and keep walking/paddling/whatever. and I laugh because even ‘losing the phone’, my ‘kit’ would sport many things that the modern world created/improved, from the boat I paddle, the paddle I use, to the coverings on my feet and the waterproof clothing,,,,, The OTC’s in my kit to deal with the oucies later that day,,,, Walk away from it all and drag half of it with you, and not see the irony of it.

I am not going to worry about the world,,, it’s gonna do what it’s gonna do and my opinion is not even a dry popcorn fart in the wind when it comes down to it. The planet? I worry even less about because I know she’ll bounce back no matter what stoopid shit we pull, up to and including self=annilihation,,, I see all the time where ‘man’ has moved in and started ‘developing’ and walked away incomplete, and mamanature moved back in and took back over and you struggle to figure out what the original intent was. (just look at how much dirt is on top of most archeological digs,,, Mama nature did that!)

No, what I worry about are ‘the widgets on two legs with no critical thinking skills’. or I guess you could call them Zombies of a sort,,, Or the Two legged Ferals,,, You’ll know them by thier actions,,,never their thinking. And those are why ‘I wanna getaway’ and take my ass with me(and my brain of course,,,) But yeah, ‘think its kinda weak’ keeps me put.

And here is the song that kicked off my thinks today,,,,