Expectations Vs Reality

I’m a big fan of apocalypse books movies. James Welsey Rawles was my first real foray, followed closely by Forstchen and all the others. Now, my friends Mark Sibley and Blaine Pardoe have each honored me by writing me into their works of apocalyptic fiction. I never throught I’d be here.

As far as movies, I blame the CLASSICS – the Mad Max series and The Planet of the Apes. Those movies got me started on the path.

The other influences were the men in my life. My grandfathter, even though he didn’t know it, was a prepper. He grew up on a farm and was a steelworker who lived through the Depression. He fought agaisnt the Japanese in the Pacific. He and my grandmother kept a large garden and were always stocking away food, canning whatever excess they had, because they had lived it were never going hungry again. He taught me to produce food, whether it be from the soil tending a 2 acre garden, fishing from rivers and lakes, or hunting.

My Dad and my Uncle were the original 80s “survivalists”. They also stocked food and hunted/fished. They also built a stockpile of arms and ammunition. My father has drifted from it but Uncle Larry, a US Army Vietnam veteran, is still going strong. My Dad’s best friend was my Scoutmaster. Dick Nelson was a hard core, old school Marine Corps Vietnam Veteran. Dick was a Recon Marine who wore an ERDL pattern boonie with one side pinned up like a slouch hat every day. Dick was a small man, but I never saw another human disrepect him in his presence, because of his command presence. These were my role models.

Growing up like this, and being a fan of the genre, has led me and many others to develop an impression of what we think “The Collapse”, by whatever name you call it, would look like. Most expect some type of disastrous event, attack, or war to cause a cataclysm that brings society to it’s knees in one fell swoop. Even the Climate Change Cult ™ believe that a major shift from melting ice will bring a collapse.

The problem is, I’ve done a thing or two and visited a place or two where the collapse has ALREADY happened. It never goes down quite that way. Now, Haiti, to be fair, did have an earthquake and a hurricane, but if we’re being honest, her problems began long ago. It’s the nation on earth that the US Marines have been deployed to the most times. In our own homeland, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, but was she truly functioning on all cylinders before the event? No.

What I’m getting at is that too many in the preparedness community are waiting for some “big event” to happen, not realizing that the event is HAPPENING NOW, all around us. Lawlessness is increasing and law enforcement isn’t allowed to stop it. Uneven application of justice is leading to a lack of faith in the authorities all over the Western World. Foreign adversaries are probing US military bases and the US Marine Corps has publicly stated that they expect large-scale ground attacks on state-side bases in the near future.

Most aren’t even aware that last week there was yet another firearms attack on an electrical substation in Durham, NC that led to a power outage. Once again, 7.62×39 rouns were fired into a transformer, forcing the oil to leak out and the transformer to overheat. That this has happened AT LEAST 4 times since the famous Metcalf incident proves that it was a “proof of concept” attack.

“Street Takeover” incidents happen all over America every weekend. In these, large groups of armed people take over an intersection, conduct robberies, looting, and hold large street parties that are essentially riots. Law Enforcement is usually not even present, but a few time they tried to intervene and were driven off.

As I predicted, South African-style home invasions using cell phone jammers are now commonplace in Michigan and California. South African style planned power outages are a thing in California.

Friends, every day we drift a little bit farther down the road to a full collpase, but it’s not going to look like you thought. Businesses will still try to run, people will still try to get to work, and your normie friends will still say “it can never happen here”. But it IS happening here, and you need to rise to the occasion.

Up your situational awareness. Tools like Everbridge alerts, Knightsbridge, the Forward Observer service, the Council on Future Conflict, and my Locals community (tacticalwisdom.locals.com) can help you be more aware of these things. Start there.

Make sure you have plenty of batteries, solar panels & banks, and keep the cars fueled. Double check your water purification plans. Make sure you have at least a few weeks of portable, shelf-stable food. Update your security plans, whatever that looks like for you.

Meet with your crew or team. Make sure everyone is taking the moment we are in seriously.

We are about to enter an even more contentious election season featuring one side calling the other a dictator, and the other side calling the other incompetent. Quite frankly, no matter who wins, bad things will happen. Each side is beyond the point of just shrugging their shoulders at a loss and saying “well, we’ll get them next time”. We are at a boiling point. As the conventions (and sentencings) begin, violence will result.

I’m not saying it’s time to roll out in your technical wearing all your cool-guy battle-ratle gear, but it is time to up your threat conditions. Start being more deliberate in your planning and security posture.

This isn’t a right vs left thing, this is a PREPARED vs UNPREPARED thing. Heed the Tactical Wisdom:

The prudent see danger and take refuge,
    but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

Proverbs 22:3

This summer should be the summer of finalizing your preps and plans and getting trained. Attend a class by anyone to pick up additional skills.

I have some Community Security Operations classes coming up in Bigfork, MT (July 26-28), North Carolina (August 23-25), and Strang, OK (Sept 20-22). I also have several Fieldcraft classes in NC, TN, and MO coming up. Check the training page.

To support my work, buy my books, become a monthly supporter at tacticalwisdom.locals.com, buy things from my sponsors above, or make a donation below. Then tell your friends to do the same.