In the event of Apocalypse, pull handle

I see a lot of survivalist nut jobs on the boards I frequent, often going on about how they are stocking up on food and guns. They often ask, “What is your game plan?” as if to flaunt what they see as their stable position in and unstable world. What it really amounts to though is saying, “Nani Nani Boo Boo, I’m more prepared than you!”

My game plan?

Brush up on my skills. I would rather be a valuable person than a person with valuable things. You can stock up on supplies and weapons all you like, but if the modern world abruptly collapses into “The Road Warrior”, those things will just make you a target for someone more powerful. Eventually, you can’t pull the trigger fast enough or you run out of ammo. Then their followers will overrun you.

People can easily take away your stuff, but it is much more difficult for them to take away your skills. Someone who can contribute to their community (a doctor who can heal the wounded, maybe an engineer who can fix the machines) will be supported and protected by those people who need them.

The other problem with the survivalist fantasies that spur this hording is belief that the New Dark Age will come suddenly. What they are not counting on is that the descent will take decades, not months. Their supplies will simply be depleted before the end.

I found a pretty good article from a couple of years ago that talks about how wrong the survivalist mentality is.

Market Crash?

Is today the day where the Great American Ponzi Scheme collapses? I say no. One of the key aspects of a dark age is the breakdown of the commerce web. Today a few important strands are breaking as some big banks fail, but the web is still there…at least for a few more months. Currently, I still hold that the real crash will be in February of 09 when the much more tangible sector of the economy, retail, begins to fail after a dismal holiday season.

I can tell you this though, the crash is inevitable. The Elites know it. They are scrambling to gather their wealth before it happens so that when the New Dark Age descends they will be in a position to become the New Aristocracy. But, despite the enormous power they already wield, they cannot stop the crash (nor do they necessarily want to).

You’ll notice I mentioned the “Great American Ponzi Scheme”. “What is it?” you ask. The GAPS, is one of the primary mechanisms that the Elite has been using to transfer the collective wealth of the American middle class into the coffers of those who will become the New Aristocracy. It works like this:

1) First, the Elites convince the middle class to give up the concept of pensions and replace them with 401k plans.

2) At the same time, the Elites buy preferred stock in various institutions in which they have some control over the business decisions made.

3) Using their influence, they get those institutions to artificially inflate their value. For example, banks stuff their books with mortgages - they may not expect many to get paid back, but they still show as a full valued asset on their books.

4) They wait for the 401k plans to use middle class American’s retirement money to buy the regular (not the preferred) stock in those institutions. This is the important step where the wealth is transferred from the middle class to the Elites. Actual capital is used to buy stocks with only a virtual (imaginary) value.

5) Now the Elites can, at this point, sell their preferred stock and cash out. Or, they can just wait. They carry no (or at least a significantly lesser) risk. If the scheme fails, they own PREFERRED STOCK. That is, they will benefit from a bailout while the regular stock holders are shafted. Even if the institution is not bailed out, they are still the ones who get reimbursed during the liquidation of the institution, not the regular stock holders. Either way the capital has been transferred to them.

Now, you might be able to see why conservatives have pushed so often to privatize Social Security. Such an action would allow that money to buy stock in their companies, further transferring the remaining wealth of the middle class to them.

McCain Pulls Ahead In Georgia...the state, that is

According to the local ABC Affiliate WSB-TV, polls in my home state are showing that McCain has pulled ahead. Now, while I don't think either political party is capable of preventing the New Dark Age, I do believe that Republicans, both the Neocon and Paleocon factions, actually desire it to get here sooner. So naturally, I'm somewhat dissappointed by this news.

However, I'm not in the least bit surprised. The only reason Georgia ever sent Democrat delegates to the electoral college was because the residents here spent a century upset about the outcome of the Civil War (for those of you who may have forgotten gradeschool history, Abe Lincoln was a Republican).

India running out of coal

A dark age is triggered by what is known as a Malthusian Catastrophe. In the past this has always described a situation where there is more people than there is food to support them. But the theory works as well for any resource that we depend upon for survival. The Malthusian catastrophe that will trigger the New Dark Age won't be about food this time, it will be about fossil fuels. Once demand starts to exceed supply, modern society will start to crumble as the infrastructure which depends so much on fossil fuels to exist begins to fail.

Today in the Business Standard, there is an article about how India's coal reserves will run out by 2040.


Also an article at EnergyTechStocks.com, another blog, highlights just how expensive fuel still is. This of course is a possible indication of demand for oil exceeding the capacity of the oil industry, a situation known as "Peak Oil"

Weclome

Welcome to Collapsium. Today the shit is hitting the fan with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac being seized by the government. I figured it would be a great starting point for my new blog about the collapse of modern society and the beginning of the New Dark Age.

One of the most important aspects of the new Dark Age will be concentration of wealth (money, property, and resources) to an elite few. These people will be the new aristocracy, and, much like the dark ages of the early European medieval period, these elites will be free to run amok and abuse their power at will.

The emergence of this new aristocracy is contingent upon the transfer of wealth from the middle class to the elites. Today’s seizure of Fannie and Freddie is the new model for how this will occur (warfare being the older model). Basically, it goes like this:

1) Institutions that are deemed “too large to failure” that are run by elites will become involved in various forms of the ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes or bubble schemes to quickly run up a high virtual value.

2) When the scheme begins to fail, the government will seize the institution.

3) The government will then used wealth taken from the middle class (taxes) to prop up these institutions converting that virtual value from step 1 into actual value.

4) The elites in charge of these institutions then bail out with “golden parachutes”.

Today this is happening with Fannie and Freddie. If you check out this CNN article, one of the most important things to note is how the bail out is only for the holders of preferred stock, i.e. the elites.