Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

Frugalsod wrote: »

It appears Hollywood thinks that there is something about prepping.

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/dystopia-is-the-new-western-the-rover-doomsday-preppers-the-walking-dead-and-our-obsession-with-the-end/

That was interesting. I hadn't considered the likeness of the Western to the dystopian film, but I get it.

I could go bats**t crazy when I see pols and their paymasters blethering on about more airports or more runways etc etc etc. Or more malls, or more housing estates in the middle of nowhere.

Gross misallocation of limited resourses. Mass aviation is on the way out on our lifetimes. It will be around for the uber-elites but Jo(e) Prole off to the Costa del Sol for holibobs? Nope. Devoting resources to building more airports or expanding existing ones is lunacy. Perhaps look at fields for airships (know a woman who worked on them in WW2, she's 91 now). But mass transit via air isn't going to be happening for many decades more.

We've squandered a lot of the considerable natural endownments of these little islands, extensively looted much of the rest of the world, and the future isn't bright or orange. The future is slower and harder and muddier. The future is a lot like life for ordinary people 80-odd years ago.

We'll need to learn to live quieter and simpler lives as best we can. A lot of people don't want to hear that and won't hear it, until the future smacks them across the chops and demands their attention. Expect a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth - gonna be ugly.

thriftwizard

We'll need to learn to live quieter and simpler lives as best we can. A lot of people don't want to hear that and won't hear it, until the future smacks them across the chops and demands their attention. Expect a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth - gonna be ugly.

Can't help hoping that people might eventually see that quieter & simpler might just be more satisfying and more fun, at the end of the day. I'd much rather be lying on my reclaimed elderly sunbed watching the stars round the glowing embers of the fire pit & sinking a 99p L1DL's cider, like last night's aurora-watch with DD2, than out clubbing or "consuming" entertainment of some sort. We saw no more than a whisper of a flickering finger of grey-green light, but it didn't matter; we saw several shooting stars (including one which left a trail) a mysterious high, fast & silent aircraft, and lots of satellites, and chattered the evening away. Various other family members joined us for half an hour or so, and it was very simple, and pretty quiet, and one of those lovely things that will stick in both our memories for a very long time.

Possession

Going back a few pages here, but Fuddle I have definitely bought dried egg white in Mr T's, in the baking section. Not sure if you can get dried whole egg there too.

daz378

its wether the entertainment meeja(thanks GQ) is tapping in to a societal anxiety or are we being subtly prepared for a downturn in living standards.....chicken or the egg? got to love the american prepp/doomsday films/series not a hair out of place.Just finished a late and an early tomorrow.

happy prepping

Bathory

Hope no-one minds me adding a bit to this thread which I have followed for a long time.

I do think that a simpler life is the way to go forward, people need to calm down, the disconnection from nature is everywhere and sooner rather than later it has to stop. I've just turned 46:( but am well aware of how a lot of things use to be before all the comforts of modern living were around. I grew up in an old cottage in the 70's and 80's out in the middle of nowhere with no bathroom, no CH, one coal fire, one cold tap and virtually no electrical items apart from a tv. It was hard going but don't remember ever feeling hard done by for it and if it came to going back to that way of life I would know what to expect and adapt accordingly. I remember an old bloke shell-shocked from the war living in an old caravan in the middle of the woods nearby to us with much less than what we had - I don't know how he went on though as he never really spoke and avoided people.

I don't know if this has been mentioned before as its such a big thread but I can't help thinking that the next 'profit' once the oil etc has gone will be water. It's something we all need and is extremely precious but already greedy corporations are 'selling it back to us' in the form of plastic bottles. It has become a mass produced world where everything is either 'throw away and get a new one' or has 'planned obsolescence' built into it. It has turned into rampant consumerism which turns a lot of people never feeling satisfied. I'm not perfect, I use to be like this with buying certain things but it now feels good to get off that treadmill and think back to what the hell was I doing?

Anyway enough waffling on for now

Frugalsod

daz378 wrote: »

its wether the entertainment meeja(thanks GQ) is tapping in to a societal anxiety or are we being subtly prepared for a downturn in living standards.....chicken or the egg? got to love the american prepp/doomsday films/series not a hair out of place.Just finished a late and an early tomorrow.

happy prepping

I suspect that they are following the mood. Hollywood is not known to be far ahead of the crowd. Though I think that the prepping is more down to people actually thinking about what they see around them and not blindly following what they are told. There are literally thousands of great prepper sites on Youtube. There could be millions elsewhere but I mainly use Youtube for helping me identify solutions already discovered.

GreyQueen

thriftwizard wrote: »

Can't help hoping that people might eventually see that quieter & simpler might just be more satisfying and more fun, at the end of the day. I'd much rather be lying on my reclaimed elderly sunbed watching the stars round the glowing embers of the fire pit & sinking a 99p L1DL's cider, like last night's aurora-watch with DD2, than out clubbing or "consuming" entertainment of some sort. We saw no more than a whisper of a flickering finger of grey-green light, but it didn't matter; we saw several shooting stars (including one which left a trail) a mysterious high, fast & silent aircraft, and lots of satellites, and chattered the evening away. Various other family members joined us for half an hour or so, and it was very simple, and pretty quiet, and one of those lovely things that will stick in both our memories for a very long time.

Sounds lovely.

I'm ahead of the crowd in that I really like simplicity and don't require much by way of entertainment, so wouldn't be upset if the entire entertainment industry disappeared up its own arris. But I encounter a lot of peeps who are accustomed to a hyper-stimulated world of console gaming, loud music, heavily-caffeinated stimulus drinks, clubbing and lots of rah-rah-rah. Life is a search for the next thrill, and a temperament is formed with no ability to entertain itself, requiring constant inputs. I wonder how people formed this way will cope?

Bathory, yes, and welcome to posting. I've been racking my brains about which statesman was saying that the next war would be fought over water.........have a vague recollection it may have been Anwar Sadat back in the sixties, but can't find the quote. Or I may be barking up the wrong tree.

But I think it's right. All wars are ultimately about resources and always have been. The resource may be geographic; to control that excellent harbour/ strait/ pass. They may be to get hold of good farmland and fisheries. The ancient world warred to take slaves, among other things, slave labour being the equivalent of oil to run economies.

But water is the ultimate resource. Without that, nothing else happens, and water wars will be where the future is. Which is one of the reasons that I consider it a huge crime against the nation that our water supplies were sold into the hands of private companies. Only lunatics - or well-remunerated corporate hooors - allow something so essential to become the plaything of business.

Next stop; charging for the air we breathe.

PS. I too was drinking Lidl cider last night, to celebrate the final clearance of the Feral Meadow up on the allotment. But it's 95p in my store - I win! I win!

[Deleted User]

We have just been to a local boot fair and I've just found my useful bargain of the year!!! for £3 I've just got a WW2 Kelly Lamp which is a tiny oil lamp with a weighted bottom so it can't be knocked over and a tiny glass shade that is in full working order, complete with wick. I couldn't believe my luck as they are considerably more expensive on Fleabay and this one is in very good condition, just a little surface rust on the metal wick holder, wow, I'm so happy. I also picked up a 1970s 'Mince Cookbook' for 50p which is chockablock full of nice simple recipes and ideas to stretch mince with soya to make it go further, good eh?

moneyistooshorttomention

I have read that the next wars will be about water and have a vague idea I might have come across a book on that theme somewhere.

I gather the "water wars" have already started in fact. This being courtesy of rivers that go through various countries in the world (think Africa might be one case in point?? Vague idea its the Nile I am thinking of...) and every country en route wants to take enough from that river to suit themselves personally and there isn't enough for everyone to take as much as they want.

I have an American friend living in California and she is well aware of the articles I have read about whether things will continue to be as "viable" to live there as at present and feeling nervous about it.

Think there is some phrase about "law of the commons" or something that applies here, to the effect of people often not valuing a resource that is held in common and reckoning they can take as much as they please...which is possibly fine if they are the only one doing so, but if everyone else is thinking the same way or some despot comes along and grabs the lot just for themselves then....

I read a folky little example recently of free-riding. The tale being that a king back in days of yore decreed that everyone should put a jug of milk into a large common pot and this milk would then be distributed to the poor. Everyone duly put in a jug-worth and the pot was examined and found to be full of water, rather than milk. The reason being because every single person had thought "I will put in a jug of water instead and a tiny amount of dilution to the milk won't be noticed". It wouldn't have noticed...if they hadn't all been doing that too...everyone hoping to get out of their little personal obligation at everyone else's expense.

1Tonsil

Well, after a fun filled evening at the karaoke last night we suddenly had a SHTF situation here! We had been vaguely aware of very distant lightning all night but ignored it.

I drove along the coast road home and the sky was full of lightning, both sheet and fork lightning. It was still distant but struck the minute we arrived home in the car. This was like nothing we had ever seen before. For about four hours the lightning was absolutely amazing. There was no break between the strikes. The thunder sounded like the earth was groaning...not normal thunder. Then we got torrential rain as well.

Strangely I still had my wifi and friends contacted me. I ran my netbook on the battery not the electric. Two of them asked if I thought the world was ending and another asked if I thought the aliens were invading as it was so surreal a storm. I assured them I didnt think so and that I had read a forecast they are going to be all next week as well for us.:eek:

There are some amazing videos on facebook but I am not sure if I can share them with you. Have to go, have another big storm kicking off and I want to film it :T