You ever think about what the world is going to look like in five years, PolarNinja?
No healthcare personnel. No military. The entire political class gone. There will no longer be an oversupply of lawyers. Forget about public schools -- teachers got vaxxed in overwhelming numbers and 74% of college students got vaxxed so their replacements are toast.
The culture wars are over. 93% of Democrats got vaxxed vs half of Republicans. 90+ of LGBTQ got vaxxed. 90+% of Jews. 90+% of Asians.
My little community (100 houses) used to have a community corral (from the '40s through the '70s). Everyone had a goat or pig or cow. They literally provided the milk for all the community children through the late '70s until the stupid county made them shut it down. I figure we'll go back to that. About a third of the people in the village have chickens already.
We have a large park that is spring fed and planted with lots of fruit trees, plus everyone has fruit trees in their yards. There is endless free fruit here. You go into the post office and every day there's a bowl of free pears or cherries or figs or apples or apricots or whatever is in season. Lots of nut trees too, mostly almonds and pecans. A few walnuts.
We've got a lot of veterans and good old boys with names like Arlen and Vern, so I think we'll be safe. We've got our own water supply and the boys know how to maintain it. We've got a fix-it guy in town but he's in his 70s now so he won't actually do the work himself. He comes over and supervises you and teaches you how to fix whatever it is and you pay him whatever you think is fair.
Right now I live in a former mining community in Nevada. But my wife's extended family is in a copper-mining community in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Same kind of place. My wife also lived in St. Benedict, Pennsylvania, a former coal-mining community in Cambria County (southwestern PA). Same kind of place again.
It's ideal if the place is 30 minutes to an hour or so outside a major city and surrounded by farms or a lot of public land. When looking on a map, look for the smallest possible dots for the towns. They should be surrounded by lots of empty space or green. Nearby mountains are good, because they collect water for you.
After a while, you learn to spot these places anywhere.
This is a lovely little primer. I feel like itтАЩs harder to find in densely populated Europe, but then I stopped for a minute and realized even in tiny Holland we do have closeknit communities that beat the Covid propaganda. They managed to convince everyone in the municipality to basically never test. They had the best Covid numbers for ages! And now lowest vax rates. No doubt in my mind they will figure out the next crisis with aplomb. Not easy to integrate though, should we choose to move.
Napoleon, I swear, there are still places like that right now.
If you don't like the outlook for wherever you are, look for a mining community or former mining community. A small house on a good-sized piece of land will be dirt cheap. There will already be useful trees, like fruit and nut trees. There will already be a healthy vegetable garden dug. Usually there will be farms nearby, often within walking distance.
Everyone around you will know how to can vegetables and fruit for the winter. They will be able to teach you to fish and hunt. They'll have good mechanical skills.
Miners (coal miners, gypsum miners, copper miners -- any kind of miner) go through extended periods of layoffs when commodity prices drop. They are all resourceful, thrifty, and self-sufficient. The communities are tightly knit too.
You are like the one welcoming voice. Most people in Red areas just post "Don't come here" and esp "don't bring your West Coast politics." It's like, DUH, I'm leaving b/c my politics are IMPOSSIBLE in this Blue state. Thanks for the alternative outlook.
Yes, I think we'll rebuild. If the CDC vax numbers are accurate, we'll have 30-40 million like-minded adults and their children. There will be no money for bullet trains in California. Most of the interstate highway system will be toast. Landslides will bury half the roads in Colorado and all the roads in Big Sur and no one will clear them.
Food will be local again. No California broccoli in Michigan in the middle of winter. No kiwi fruits. No sushi in Wyoming. There will be boxes of carrots, onions, cabbages, turnips. You'll be able to get live chickens and weird cuts at the local butcher.
Schools will be small and local and back to the basics. Cities will look like Detroit in the early 2000s, when you could buy a city block full of houses for $10 and all the artists moved in and started urban farming on the vacant lots.
No big box stores. Some guy will be running a hardware store in all decent-sized communities. You will be able to buy a single washer.
The only real political power will be the local sheriff. He'll be elected and he'll be somebody like Andy of Mayberry. We may know the president's name, but he won't matter to anybody.
Folk medicine will return. Drug stores will have tonics for catarrh and croup. Because processed foods will be gone, people will live longer and be healthier.
Don't know how they keep cars running. Maybe we'll have simpler cars and whatever Mexican mechanics can keep going with baling wire.
I still watch that show and the Waltons. If you pay attention.. They give away secrets about the cures they used back then. Also Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. Glad to put a smile on your face!ЁЯШКЁЯЩП
IтАЩve also thought about the distribution of the shots and figured that conservatives were likely to be most тАЬhesitantтАЭ (read тАЬhells noтАЭ) on the shots. If the theory holds, we will rebuild better, and simpler. What I worry most about are the people who keep the lights on, the water running, and the trash collected.
Jo, I worry about the lights too. I've lived in a coal mining community and a gypsum mining community, and neither of them trusted freezers (they often had power outages that would last a week).
They trusted canning. When they got a deer in the fall, they would make canned deer stew with the wild mushrooms they'd collected from their favorite mushroom spots. They had root cellars too that they actually used.
Cool. Too bad our parents didn't learn from their parents. All these simple way of life aspects of life. We could have been taught and passed down to our children.
My alma mater, Georgia Tech, gave a тАЬsocial courageтАЭ award to Dr. Fauci last year. The diversity and inclusion nonsense is strong even at defense companies now. My former employerтАЩs message board was filled with people saying they wouldnтАЩt return to work until their toddlers were vaccinated. These people had advanced degrees in science and engineering. So, no, many engineers arenтАЩt conservative or skeptical anymore.
It will take many! Alot of us awake are approaching 60. I remember Fauci and the Aids debocle. I remember that video of him on TV. Infection is the best protection. I pray there are enough of us!!
Ha ha I actually posted a comment on a time magazine story in February 2020 stating that kids were weirdly unaffected. I remarked that the virus was targeting old people so the kids could rebuild a better world. It was totally tongue in cheek and I had different politics back then, but itтАЩs funny to remember how I started out in this crisis and what has changed and what is the same. I was never afraid for the kids.
sometimes substack won't locate comments for me and it's a pain to find them myself. happened a lot on this post. but today I am back in business! Absolutely agree it is a denial of physical reality. We examined risk stratification in early 2020, decided we had nothing to fear and promptly proceeded to become infected with the alpha strain. Which affected the family pretty much exactly as we figured it would. I, with the highest percentage of body fat, had the worst time of it, but still beat it without any medical intervention whatsoever. After that we felt pretty invincible! We are in the Netherlands, so although we endured some ludicrous and ineffective regulations including multiple horrendous school closures, we fared much better than my American peers and I kept my kids out of masks almost entirely. Phew!
Your optimism is useful. It's easy for me to get stuck in doom and gloom, especially when it comes to people I care about, but in the end, I too have a big picture optimism. Humans will find a way out of this, even if all hell must first break loose. And if we don't, well the earth will go on despite it all.
You ever think about what the world is going to look like in five years, PolarNinja?
No healthcare personnel. No military. The entire political class gone. There will no longer be an oversupply of lawyers. Forget about public schools -- teachers got vaxxed in overwhelming numbers and 74% of college students got vaxxed so their replacements are toast.
The culture wars are over. 93% of Democrats got vaxxed vs half of Republicans. 90+ of LGBTQ got vaxxed. 90+% of Jews. 90+% of Asians.
The Good Great Reset
My little community (100 houses) used to have a community corral (from the '40s through the '70s). Everyone had a goat or pig or cow. They literally provided the milk for all the community children through the late '70s until the stupid county made them shut it down. I figure we'll go back to that. About a third of the people in the village have chickens already.
We have a large park that is spring fed and planted with lots of fruit trees, plus everyone has fruit trees in their yards. There is endless free fruit here. You go into the post office and every day there's a bowl of free pears or cherries or figs or apples or apricots or whatever is in season. Lots of nut trees too, mostly almonds and pecans. A few walnuts.
We've got a lot of veterans and good old boys with names like Arlen and Vern, so I think we'll be safe. We've got our own water supply and the boys know how to maintain it. We've got a fix-it guy in town but he's in his 70s now so he won't actually do the work himself. He comes over and supervises you and teaches you how to fix whatever it is and you pay him whatever you think is fair.
Wow I want to know where This walhalla is! Sounds cool.
Right now I live in a former mining community in Nevada. But my wife's extended family is in a copper-mining community in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Same kind of place. My wife also lived in St. Benedict, Pennsylvania, a former coal-mining community in Cambria County (southwestern PA). Same kind of place again.
It's ideal if the place is 30 minutes to an hour or so outside a major city and surrounded by farms or a lot of public land. When looking on a map, look for the smallest possible dots for the towns. They should be surrounded by lots of empty space or green. Nearby mountains are good, because they collect water for you.
After a while, you learn to spot these places anywhere.
This is a lovely little primer. I feel like itтАЩs harder to find in densely populated Europe, but then I stopped for a minute and realized even in tiny Holland we do have closeknit communities that beat the Covid propaganda. They managed to convince everyone in the municipality to basically never test. They had the best Covid numbers for ages! And now lowest vax rates. No doubt in my mind they will figure out the next crisis with aplomb. Not easy to integrate though, should we choose to move.
Napoleon, I swear, there are still places like that right now.
If you don't like the outlook for wherever you are, look for a mining community or former mining community. A small house on a good-sized piece of land will be dirt cheap. There will already be useful trees, like fruit and nut trees. There will already be a healthy vegetable garden dug. Usually there will be farms nearby, often within walking distance.
Everyone around you will know how to can vegetables and fruit for the winter. They will be able to teach you to fish and hunt. They'll have good mechanical skills.
Miners (coal miners, gypsum miners, copper miners -- any kind of miner) go through extended periods of layoffs when commodity prices drop. They are all resourceful, thrifty, and self-sufficient. The communities are tightly knit too.
You are like the one welcoming voice. Most people in Red areas just post "Don't come here" and esp "don't bring your West Coast politics." It's like, DUH, I'm leaving b/c my politics are IMPOSSIBLE in this Blue state. Thanks for the alternative outlook.
You can fit in anywhere if you can make a good casserole for potluck night, Michele.
Well, my chili IS amazing....
Yes, I think we'll rebuild. If the CDC vax numbers are accurate, we'll have 30-40 million like-minded adults and their children. There will be no money for bullet trains in California. Most of the interstate highway system will be toast. Landslides will bury half the roads in Colorado and all the roads in Big Sur and no one will clear them.
Food will be local again. No California broccoli in Michigan in the middle of winter. No kiwi fruits. No sushi in Wyoming. There will be boxes of carrots, onions, cabbages, turnips. You'll be able to get live chickens and weird cuts at the local butcher.
Schools will be small and local and back to the basics. Cities will look like Detroit in the early 2000s, when you could buy a city block full of houses for $10 and all the artists moved in and started urban farming on the vacant lots.
No big box stores. Some guy will be running a hardware store in all decent-sized communities. You will be able to buy a single washer.
The only real political power will be the local sheriff. He'll be elected and he'll be somebody like Andy of Mayberry. We may know the president's name, but he won't matter to anybody.
Folk medicine will return. Drug stores will have tonics for catarrh and croup. Because processed foods will be gone, people will live longer and be healthier.
Don't know how they keep cars running. Maybe we'll have simpler cars and whatever Mexican mechanics can keep going with baling wire.
Church socials will become popular again.
Sounds like Little House On The Praire! I like it! One can hope!!
You made me laugh! Ma, Pa & the organic farm on the empty golf course!
I still watch that show and the Waltons. If you pay attention.. They give away secrets about the cures they used back then. Also Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. Glad to put a smile on your face!ЁЯШКЁЯЩП
Very similar to ' The Omish'!
IтАЩve also thought about the distribution of the shots and figured that conservatives were likely to be most тАЬhesitantтАЭ (read тАЬhells noтАЭ) on the shots. If the theory holds, we will rebuild better, and simpler. What I worry most about are the people who keep the lights on, the water running, and the trash collected.
Jo, I worry about the lights too. I've lived in a coal mining community and a gypsum mining community, and neither of them trusted freezers (they often had power outages that would last a week).
They trusted canning. When they got a deer in the fall, they would make canned deer stew with the wild mushrooms they'd collected from their favorite mushroom spots. They had root cellars too that they actually used.
Cool. Too bad our parents didn't learn from their parents. All these simple way of life aspects of life. We could have been taught and passed down to our children.
Yeah, everybody got too busy, too many hours at work.
Yes.
My alma mater, Georgia Tech, gave a тАЬsocial courageтАЭ award to Dr. Fauci last year. The diversity and inclusion nonsense is strong even at defense companies now. My former employerтАЩs message board was filled with people saying they wouldnтАЩt return to work until their toddlers were vaccinated. These people had advanced degrees in science and engineering. So, no, many engineers arenтАЩt conservative or skeptical anymore.
Yes. My son is one of them.ЁЯШК
It will take many! Alot of us awake are approaching 60. I remember Fauci and the Aids debocle. I remember that video of him on TV. Infection is the best protection. I pray there are enough of us!!
Hmm. Dystopian novel where all adults died due to vax and resistance wars... Kids have to figure it out. Kind of a worldwide Lord of the Flies.
Ha ha I actually posted a comment on a time magazine story in February 2020 stating that kids were weirdly unaffected. I remarked that the virus was targeting old people so the kids could rebuild a better world. It was totally tongue in cheek and I had different politics back then, but itтАЩs funny to remember how I started out in this crisis and what has changed and what is the same. I was never afraid for the kids.
sometimes substack won't locate comments for me and it's a pain to find them myself. happened a lot on this post. but today I am back in business! Absolutely agree it is a denial of physical reality. We examined risk stratification in early 2020, decided we had nothing to fear and promptly proceeded to become infected with the alpha strain. Which affected the family pretty much exactly as we figured it would. I, with the highest percentage of body fat, had the worst time of it, but still beat it without any medical intervention whatsoever. After that we felt pretty invincible! We are in the Netherlands, so although we endured some ludicrous and ineffective regulations including multiple horrendous school closures, we fared much better than my American peers and I kept my kids out of masks almost entirely. Phew!
Your optimism is useful. It's easy for me to get stuck in doom and gloom, especially when it comes to people I care about, but in the end, I too have a big picture optimism. Humans will find a way out of this, even if all hell must first break loose. And if we don't, well the earth will go on despite it all.