Book group last night was great. We ended up finishing the chapter well before our allotted meeting time was up and decided since there are more than twelve chapters in the book, let’s just discuss it now. As I mentioned Monday, the chapter is about preparing for failure. The failure might be a short term one that leaves you without power for a day or two after a storm or it might be long term. At the moment, we are lucky enough in the US to pretty much only have to worry about failure caused by natural disasters like storms, earthquakes and forest fires. However, Sharon Astyk is talking about more than these kinds of failures.
Part of the chapter talks about climate change and peak oil and the failures that will most likely happen because of those. The chapter also talks about when an entire country collapses and actually outlines a number of key features those that study these things have observed as being common across time and culture. When reading this outline it became rather troubling to note that several of the elements are currently present in the United States.
One of the things the group talked about was how not being prepared was seen as normal. I brought up a friend who, a couple years ago, began learning some new skills and buying equipment that does not need electricity to run (solar lantern, a camp stove, etc). At first he told people he was getting ready in case the power grid failed or the government collapsed. People freaked out, told him he was being paranoid. So then he began telling people, if they asked, that he was preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse. And they thought that was great! As though zombies were something that might actually happen and it was right to be ready but peak oil or social collapse was unrealistic.
Another member of the group said she had been doing quite a lot over the last several years to prepare for failure and in the process was labeled by several friends as being a survivalist. People started calling her a crazy “prepper.” While it is good to be prepared, “prepper” has a pejorative meaning and is associated with the gun-toting anti-government, usually far right, individuals who also believe in conspiracy theories. If this is what we think being prepared means, it is no wonder that so many people don’t do it.
The thing about the transition group is that none of us need to be convinced that we need to prepare. All of us know climate change is real, all of us know that peak oil is on the horizon, all of us know that things can potentially get really bad. So the discussion pretty quickly turned to all the various ways we are working to prepare, with lots of ideas and suggestions floating around. We also got tips of the sort, “don’t make the same mistake I did.” Like the person who bought a twenty-pound container of dehydrated pineapple. Once the container is open, it all has to be used up within a pretty short timeframe. She has yet to open it because she has no idea what to do with all that pineapple once she does!
It was a really good discussion and Bookman and I walked out with our heads buzzing about things to investigate further and plans, plans, plans along with a loose timeline so we stop saying “one day we will …” and instead start getting it done now.
You know, its fascinating how most deny obvious facts, while accepting the impossibility. A power failure is much more natural and a relatively common phenomena but people go to lengthy to deny it…but Zombie apocalypse! For sure, the undead will walk in on the street anyday!!
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I always rather relied on that splendid survival skill perfected by Ostriches! The transition movement is splendid as it tries to face the future crisis ridden world without hysteria. I am glad the meeting was a success.
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Ha! Ian, I suspect you are in good company with that one 🙂 Transition is indeed splendid. Not only does it make me feel like I am becoming part of a community, but I am also feeling much better about being able to cope with all the uncertainties the future holds.
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cirtnecce, sometimes I suspect I work with a few of the undead 😉
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Hard to know what to expect when the possibility of natural and unnatural disasters can turn catastrophic in our interdependent world. Sounds like a good discussion!
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jenclair, yes, it is impossible to prepare for every contingency but there is a lot of overlap and having skills and knowledge and the ability to problem solve as well as being part of a community all doing the same thing I think will go a long way to being resilient.
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Which elements are present in the US? We already have to prepare for extended power failures, since our electricity companies have little or no redundancy of equipment or personnel.
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Jeanne, I don’t have the book in front of me at the moment but two of the big ones are cutting domestic programs to build up the military and creating a climate of fear and blame focused on “outsiders.” There were a few others I will have to get back to you on.
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Some people do take ‘preparation’ to ridiculous lengths. Like here whenever there is any forecast of snow, you can bet that the stores will be denuded of bread and milk even though we hardly ever get the kind of snowfall that brings things to a halt for any length of time plus most houses have freezers stuffed with food. but no they have to go and panic buy. earlier this year we experienced the ‘ iceberg lettuce’ shortage where because of unusually wet weather in spain supplies of lettuce and broccolli were affected and stores began to ration supplies. Each customer was limited to three lettuces – now I can’t imagine who really needs to buy three lettuces in one go but what did we find – suddenly everyone was queuing up to buy these tasteless items…..
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BookerTalk, there’s preparation and then there is panic buying. Was the broccoli rationed too? I find iceberg lettuce to be tasteless, who needs to buy three heads of it? Crazy! The broccoli though, that I would have trouble with!
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yep the broccoli was similarly rationed much to the delight of children who are forced to eat it because its good for them 🙂
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I would have eaten their broccoli for them 🙂
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I have never actually been part of a live book group. It sounds like a worthwhile experience.
The book that you are reading also sounds worthwhile.
The pineapple story is funny.
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Brian Joseph, this is different than the usual sort of fiction book group. I think because we are reading with a purpose we are m ore focused and discussions are more interesting. Not that other book groups I have been part of in the past haven;t been fun, but they have been very different. The pineapple story cracked me up too! We all started giving her suggestions for what to do with it 🙂
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I am one of the unprepared, although we do have a store of food that would last us and our neighbors through several weeks, I think. We don’t run out and buy things before a storm, but we had a days-long power outage a few summers ago and I was definitely not prepared for the inconvenience of that, and we did go out and buy a couple of things that would help us get through something like that again. So many novels I’ve read lately imagine these futures of deprivation and strife that I am still in denial and don’t want to read any nonfiction about the future!
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Laurie, food is the first step to preparation and you didn’t even have to work that hard at it! 🙂 Making Home is actually a great book and not about the future at all but the present and finding ways to live now in a sustainable and resilient way. It’s good stuff!
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Hmm–so much pineapple–you would think it would make more sense to have such a large amount but packaged in smaller more manageable containers? So you can just slowly use it? It sounds like a really interesting group and it is nice to be around like minded people, too. Is this a new group or have they read and discussed other books in the past?
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Danielle, the pineapple is hilarious. It wold be better to have it in smaller packages but she didn’t think about that when she bought it. She should have a luau or something! It is an interesting group. They do one book a year I think. last year I believe it was something on finance.
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I’m glad you had such a fruitful discussion! (Bad pun?) Anyway, I’m one of those in denial, and I think one reason I don’t do more is that our house is so small and packed with stuff already- where can I squeeze in supplies? Maybe I should just start with a small box and go from there. You’re right, there is definitely a negative connotation to the term “prepper.” Probably from that reality show.
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Laila, there’s a reality show? I had no idea! My house is small too but I don;t think preparation has to take up that much space with careful planning. A small box is a good place to start!
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It’s called Doomsday Preppers on National Geographic Channel. I don’t know if it still airs, but I’ve caught a couple of episodes accidentally and they really freaked me out!
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I might have to watch an episode or two just to see!
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