Introduction: The Descent into Chaos
It is extremely easy to come home after work, open the door, sit on the couch, and flip on the TV. In this life, your only worries are fixing the sink and who’s going to win tonight’s football game. Of course, you know that there are bad things happening in the world, but you’ve lived your entire life in relative comfort. None of these things can possibly happen to you.
That is actually the same mindset many Polish Jews had around World War II when the Nazis invaded. They were known for being a prosperous people, living comfortable lives. So, when the Nazis started carting them off to the ghettos, they thought, “There’s no way this is actually happening. It should get better soon.” This frame of mind that would cause the Jewish population to ignore the harsh, blatant reality is called the Normalcy Bias. Despite the obvious signs of impending and imminent danger, the Normalcy Bias kept many smart and wealthy Jews in their homes, right where the Nazis wanted them.
Some Jews saw the signs years before Hitler even began his bloody campaign. These Jews fled all over the world to neutral and allied zones, and they survived. They came to the reality that their lives and routines are fragile structures, requiring only slight political or economic winds to knock them to the ground.
As a thinking individual looks back on historical contexts, it is more commonplace to see violent regime changes, oppression, poverty, religious extremism, and genocide. The United States is actually an inconsistency in the history of the world. Never before has a country avoided such hardship and oppression, as freedom and prosperity have been its solid principles from the founding.
Based on Judeo-Christian values, the Constitution was crafted, solidifying the limits of government by consent of the people and empowered by God. With the breakup of power, no single man or party would be able to gain a foothold and oppress the population. As the wheels of the Republic would turn, those politicians would be kicked out of office and sent home. Because of our freedom, the individual was able to become wealthy without being dictatorial, creating a society of prosperity and governed harmony. Life was peaceful, as generation after generation lived and passed on behind our white-picket fences.
Now, our world has changed. Where once the U.S. was the economic powerhouse, we can now barely pay the interest on our own debt. Inflation and crashes threaten the retirements that we have been building for decades. Economists warn of a global depression, the likes of which the world has never experienced. This new millennium has carried the world into uncharted territory.
Regime changes seem to be occurring every day. In the Middle East, one country after another is falling into chaos. Some of the most powerful governments in the world are struggling to keep law and order on the streets, and protests occur every day.
With global economic uncertainty and the brewing political storms, one can only wonder when it is the U.S.’s turn. We have escaped such tribulations in the past, but can we avoid these problems much longer? Perhaps, the better question for the intelligent person would be, even though we might be able to weather this storm, why take the chance? Now is the time to prepare.
Possible Scenarios
Natural Disasters
Most of the U.S. is shielded from problems with weather and geology. But it is also important to note that roughly 250 years is a short timeline in terms of the climate and geological landscape. Many who study geology say that a few hundred years ago, there were many active volcanoes, regularly occurring earthquakes, and even weather anomalies that were a result.
A massive earthquake even threatens the San Andreas Fault. This particular fault line sits precariously near a large chunk of the U.S. population, threatening three major Californian cities: San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Some geologists have even theorized that the next great San Andreas earthquake will be one of the worst that the world has ever seen.
Recently a small earthquake occurred in central Virginia, rippling through the Eastern Coast. While this earthquake did not cause any extensive damage, it still shook places that have not quaked for centuries.
In addition to that, extreme weather has been more active in the past five years than in the last century. More and more powerful hurricanes seem to be decimating the coastlines. Even northern states like Vermont and Maine experienced the wrath of Irene.
This year, tornadoes ripped through the central U.S. and the Midwest. In less than a week, over 300 tornadoes broke out, causing the deaths of over 322 people and destroying billions of dollars in businesses and homes. It was the worst outbreak since 1974, and it was dubbed the Super Outbreak of 2011.
Some scientists have even attributed the change in weather to a possible flip in the earth’s poles. In the year 2010, several airports had to renumber their runways because the North Pole is shifting and weakening faster and faster. As the poles continue to drift, heralding the beginning of a “pole flip,” the weather will continue to become more extreme until the flip occurs. When the poles reach the zenith of the flip, Mother Nature will unleash, and the globe’s climate will be altered.
The government itself has been changing the weather since the Vietnam conflict. Pilots would actually use “cloud seeding” technology in order to develop storms. These storms were responsible for washing out bridges along the Ho Chi Min Trail, stopping the guerillas in their tracks.
Also, the government has the capability of using a weapon called HAARP (High-frequency Auroral Alaskan Research Project). This device uses ELF radio waves that have the capability doing several things. It can bounce these radio waves off the ionosphere and onto a known fault line, causing earthquakes. Also, this same device can actually create a storm system or cause a drought by heating up certain parts of the atmosphere. Last, it has the capability of ripping a hole in the ionosphere, causing unfiltered solar radiation to blast the earth.
Whether or not these capabilities are in use by governments, one cannot deny how deadly dangerous regimes can be.
Governments and Economics
Governments are the leading cause of unnatural death in the last century alone. Under Stalin, some have estimated numbers as high as 66 million people were killed. Under Hitler, (who won Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year” in 1938) over 20 million people were killed. Under Mao of Communist China, 44 million people were killed. The Second World War caused over 60 million people to lose their lives. These numbers only include iconic demons of the past, and did not include the atrocities in other parts of East Asia and Central Africa, as well as European civil wars and World War One. With just those numbers alone, various governments in the last century killed off over 190 million people, which is almost two-thirds of the current U.S. population.
Knowing this, economics has a major role in why wars are started. Historically speaking, every time the U.S. has a “recession,” a major war will follow. Every time the U.S. has a “depression” a world war will follow. The world has never seen what a global depression will do, and the ramifications could be horrific.
It is for this reason that it is essential to the survival for smart people to come to grips with reality, and not take U.S. peace, prosperity, and freedom for granted. I did not write about these horrific scenarios and historical perspectives for the sole purpose of depressing or scaring the reader. The reason why I wrote them is to alert the reader to the reality that our lives and routines are easily disturbed and require only a slight political or economic wind to completely destroy them.
This is why it is important for good, moral, and responsible citizens to be prepared. In being prepared, you will need to know how to live in the wilderness (as this is often a place to which oppressed peoples take refuge). This includes having essential survival skills, having the right gear, thinking critically about your preparations, and having several timelines, plans, and scenarios considered well before that fateful day may arrive. It is always best to consider the worst-case scenario first and plan for it in advance. You will need to know how to use guns, knives, and basic martial arts. You will need to prepare access to clean water, food, shelter, clothing, and medical supplies. If you leave your home, where will you go, and how will you get there?
There are only a few people in society that are smart enough to sense the change in the winds and react in time. Will you be one of them?
©2012 Off the Grid News