was just reading an email from mountainguerrilla World Made By Hand by James Howard Kunstler This is the first in a series of novels by the author, set in upstate New York, some years in the future of what the author has described as “The Long Emergency,” in his nonfiction book of that title. In many ways, I am much of what Kunstler bemoans as the collapse of society (he views tattoos as a sign of resurgent barbarism….I’m strangely okay with that). On the other hand, I’m already doing a lot of what he believes is necessary to survive the Long Emergency, and maintain some kernel of culture in the process, so we might actually get along, despite his antipathy towards my tattoos. I love this series of books. I’ve read them a few times, and it’s a great series, and an interesting concept—that I tend to agree with—on how things are progressing….or regressing, to use the term that he would probably choose. I highly recommend it, along with his books “The Long Emergency” and Too Much Magic. Even if you don’t agree with his conclusions, they are well argued and documented. Besides, anyone who hate suburbia as vehemently as Kunstler does cannot be all bad, as far as I am concerned. and did a look up of said book... $1.99 for kindle... if ya care to look Amazon.com: the long emergency
I'm a tattooed Kunstler fan myself, and think he is right about "the long emergency", and I see it in action almost daily. Oh yeah, I am a barbarian, and damned proud of it too...
I read a World Made by Hand years ago. It was okay in my opinion. My Mom really enjoyed the series. His books are quite realistic. Some people prep and do not think beyond the first year or two. Getting back to the old ways is what would have to happen and many preppers in my opinion do not focus on learning the skills their grand-parents used in their everyday life.
I don't agree with the Kuntsters way of thinking. I read his stuff on TheBurningPlatform once in a while.
We traded hunting bison and growing corn for plastic ATM cards and often work for months without seeing any product from our labors except digital information, a bunch of ones and zeros that represent storage of credit points at the bank. Maybe that is an evolutionary response to biological imperative? I am watching a pair of house wrens and see them constantly carrying food to their fledglings in the nest they built in a hanging flower pot on my patio. The male constructed the nest initially without the help of his mate. He built 12 of them, each in a carefully selected spot and probably didn't have a clue why, it was biological imperative but maybe he thought he was commanded by God. Once his nests were completed, he knew there was an abundance of food available and he was an excellent hunter, he decided that a companion was in order so he, even though he hadn't seen another wren since flying back to near where he was hatched last year with a flock of like-minded wrens returning from migration, it was time to find a mate. God commanded this. He sang all night long for several nights until a lonely female listened and flew over to chat. They visited and he carried her to each of the nests he had constructed and was so proud of. She went from one nest to another and finally selected one of them as suitable for a bird of her stature and the deal was consumated, eggs were fertilized and she immediately began redecorating her nest with softer grasses, pine needles, and silk spider egg nests; men, what the hell do they know about nests. Surely he doesn't think I'm going to raise my brood on twigs? She'll lay one egg a day until she has four or five eggs to incubate. She sits on them and turns them and the male will bring her food until the young hatch. God commands this, it is biological imperative. The eggs will hatch soon, in the order they were laid. Once there are fledglings, mother doesn't have to stay home so much to keep the eggs warm so she joins papa, hunting bugs and feeding the hungry little babies. They work diligently together, catching bugs and feeding their young. At night, mom will join her babies in the nest to keep them warm and papa will sit on a carefully selected guard post and stand watch to warn them of any impending danger, such as a hungry snake or another invading carnivorous bird. He will fight, if needed to protect his family. This is God's commandment. Soon, the fuzzy little pin feathers on the fledglings turn to real feathers and number one son is ready to fly but mom and pop know it will have to wait another few days while junior, who is four days younger, has reached a stage of development that will enable him to fly as well because God has commanded that they all leave the nest on the same day. The young will leave the nest in the order they hatched, their first flight being awkward a little bit but flight, none the less. The youngest and final fledgling to leave the nest often requires a bit of encouragement from the proud parents, that is God's way. It is biological imperative.once all the young have made their Kitty-Hawk debut, the new flock will stay together a while to learn that bugs often crawl around free-roaming the territory that God had had given them and can be eaten at will rather than waiting to share what mom or pop brought to the nest that had to be shared with their sibling; free food for all, as much as you can catch. Mom and pop go their own ways then and pretty soon papa will be right back to building or repairing his nests to entice another mate and it starts all over again until God commands them to reassemble into a flock and head south for the winter. Man created writing as a means of communicating and sharing ideas, eventually the text message was created and given to them by God as a means of reproduction. Man started out following biological imperative too. He built multiple nests, shelter because he didn't have fur or feathers to keep him safe from the elements, built in srartegically placed positions to better enable defense from marauding animals or other humans that hadn't been quite as diligent. His time was divided between constructing these shelters and finding food. He was nomadic until finding a spot that would provide both shelter and an abundance of food over a period of time. Eventually, he began cultivating plants to suppliment the occasional mastadon that would fall to his sharpened stick. Once he learned to control fire, he could roam longer in search of food, God would command him to find a mate. He would sing all night to attract a mate, songs about how delicious the mastadon steak was when warmed and charred on his fire, a gift from God. Once a mate was located by the lure of food, shelter, and defense, he would breed her and bring her food while she bore his offspring. As do all woman, eventually she remodeled the cave into a mobile home with a satellite dish and HBO. He no longer spent so much time hunting or protecting, as he had learned to barter and had to take a job at the local spear factory, they would pay him in stone beads that he could trade for more construction materials for the kid's room and buy packaged hotdogs made from synthetic mastadon meat. The beads were hard to keep, tending to roll away into every crook and crevas so he flattened them into cards, the original ATM card except it was usually made from paper or metal, as stone beads didn't flatten well and wouldn't fit into his wallet. More people began using the beads and pretty soon, evolution created digital media and he didn't have to carry around cash any more, he could just use a single card and pay someone else to store his plunder until needed. Those that stored his plunder would loan it out to others with compounded interest. God gave us the smart phone. There got to be so many men sharing the same hunting grounds, that eventually evolution had to interdict because there were just too many men singing their praises to be heard by fertile females in search of food and a split-level ranch house with swimming pool and AC, so the electric guitar was invented to be heard really loudly. This worked well until everybody got stoned at woodstock and the birth-control pill was mass-marketed to allow sex to move from biological imperative towards recreation. Pornographers created numerous instructional videos and soon, viagra let even the old men, well past their child-rearing years, to keep getting laid and the era of free love was born but short lived. Men soon realized that if they just had sex with other men, it still felt pretty good and would not result into having to build a two-story McMansion with heated pool and four car garage and buy processed mastadon dogs to feed the hungry shrew at home with the brood, if they kept it in the closet. Soccer mom mobiles were created and God gave us the means to live in separate caves and send alimony and child-support instead of being a father, protector, provider. Soon men began marrying other men and women found out that other women could also provide both care and sex. People began trying to explain why they were ignoring biological imperative and God got angry and sent them to Hell, where everybody has to work for ones and zeros, electric guitars no longer attracted a mate that would reproduce, and everybody would argue and fight all the time just to defend their position,. Social media was created by God to bring people closer to full-fill their biological imperative but it eventually back-fired and was taken over by deviants. Wars were fought, not so much out of ideaology or survival, but rather as an economic stimulus for those that stayed the course and wanted a fortress with plenty of food and chips. The baby daddy was born when those that stayed the course of biological imperative and became prosperous, began sharing their wealth with those that just bred and fled. Biological imperative became secondary to hedonism and God was angry so evolution created disease to slow down the impending death of their species. God gave us text messaging in an attempt at bringing co-existence back on line following biological imperative .God gave us Spotify, Youtube, and Celine Deon in an attempt at reclaiming the urge to procreate. God placed the costs of medical treatment for disease and malady well beyond the reach of those that were predominately in the economic regions that would father multiple babies and just leave them for the state to provide for. Mothers no longer even have to feed their young at their breasts, bottles of milk from domesticated cows now take that chore, and the government sends out ones and zeros to them to trade for it and Nike shoes and crack cocaine.
Robert Burns wrote an apology to a mouse after plowing up a very nice mouse den. I watched some birds and figured out that God and biological imperative just may be the same entity.
I've read most of Kuntslers books and I enjoyed them. I know that "The World Made By Hand" series is four season/parts series of books but I wish he would add books or short stories about the people and happenings in Union Grove, Washington County, New York. I would like to know what happens in 5, 10 or 20 years down the road...and if he doesn't do it someone else will.
Agree, about Kuntsler's books. Liked that he writes about the people rather than the disaster. Keeps my interest and shines a light on an area of prepping we tend to ignore in a lot the disaster prep stories. Our chance of long term, 5 years or so, is almost totally dependent on the community we live in at that point. The rice, beans, Mountain House, is all gone and we are now dependent on what we can raise or barter for. Would be much nicer to go to a safe location and barter and have good neighbors rather than be still in defensive positions behind the wall and in strong points. Might be nice to have a nurse or doctor to set broken bones and deliver babies, etc. Making soup out of the things going bad in my refrig and the things I need to rotate in my storage. Note, handiest things I am using are the potato peeler, converts soft potato's, wilted carrots, summer squash with a touch of mold, into things that can be sliced and put in the stew pot. Tomatoes from the greenhouse that are small or have a small bad spot go good too. I don't know what I would do without paprika, comes in large cans and stores well. While a knife is easy to make and peels well, you waste about 4 times as much of the thing you are peeling and a peeler is hard to make. If the world goes as Kuntsler hopes, a few things like peelers, being able to grow paprika peppers and dry them, and a few other trade items might make your life a lot easier. See the sewing awls for leather at yard sales for 50 cents, to a man that needs to patch up his shoes or use them for a pattern for a new pair, it would be worth a lot more than that, You can tan leather, might not look good, but it would work, but if you are making a bridle for that horse you now are riding, the bit and buckles will be worth a lot. See old bridles at yard sales, leather in bad shape, for 50 cents. Even if they can't be saved with Murphy's oil soap, the metal is good. Kuntsler gets you thinking about things like that. A thousand dollars would buy a decent AR 15 for the SHTF, but there will probably be a hundred guns at that barter day with no ammo. The guy raising horses now has horses for sale, but no bridles, saddles, harnesses, collars, shoes, horse shoe nails, carts,etc to go with them. The same amount spent on trade goods picked up at yard sales etc, might be priceless. While it might seem counter productive, what will have value if power goes off, or we have an economic collapse, while it is hard to figure, could make your life much more comfortable.. A few dollars worth of a heritage sugar beet, corn, sorghum, cabbage, different types of turnips,seeds may be very well worth having. While I have used some of the things, most will either be given to other preppers or in my kid's yard sale after I am gone. On the other hand, the car insurance that I am paying $1500 for thiss year and the house insurance , about the same amount, will be gone if I don't use them, and I haven't in the last 40 years. Simple saddles and modified ones for packing gear, if we do have to go back to horses, the things we will have to make. McClellan saddle - Wikipedia Pack saddle - Wikipedia And of course a horse can move a lot more in a cart than on his back and a 2 wheel cart does not require a fifth wheel to allow the front wheels to turn. In the south during the early days of the depression some old Fords were modified to horse power, crude but worked. A man can move a lot more with a cart or game cart. 75 hears ago every farm had 2 wheel carts for moving milk cans, feed, fire wood, and such. High wheels to roll easy over rough ground and suspended bed to make it easy to load and better balance. Most pulled, it is much easier to pull over an obstruction than push the wheels over them.
I liked how Kuntsler's books differ from almost all other SHTF fiction in that it doesn't have everyone carrying weapons ready to fight cannibal hordes or your neighbor over a can of beans. There are some bad people in the books that need killing, but violence or the threat of violence isn't the overriding theme, also there is little in the way of technology remaining, it seemed to have broken down quickly.
