The recent scandal regarding high levels of lead in the drinking water of Flint, Michigan struck a chord in me.
One theme I've noticed in multiple posts is that as men walk away, society will collapse. This is quite evident in infrastructure: roads, bridges, sewage/water, power grid, communications.
While apathy toward society is a critical component of MGTOW, asceticism is not. Going ones own way does not mean giving up creature comforts. Additionally going ones own way is easier when one is less reliant on "the Matrix" for necessities than the typical yuppie: food, shelter, power, water, etc.
With this in mind, how many of you are survivalists? Do any of the suburban and urban dwellers see the benefit of having some survivalist capabilities such as ones own water filters, balcony gardens/community gardens, solar panels/small generator, ham radio, etc? Considering the downturn in the economy, investing in commodities, stocks, or even having reserves of cash don't seem to guarantee the financial security needed to pursue ones one passions.
[+][deleted] [recovered] (26 children) | Copy Link
Indeed. And it's one of the (IMHO entirely predictable) consequences of many "urban" environments becoming largely composed of "female led households" (whether parasitic-welfare types or not)... and with political leadership that (at a minimum) then panders to the very same.
Simply because it is a general FACT that women (like children, and these days many "perpetual adolescent" adult urban men) take things like "infrastructure" entirely for granted -- they don't comprehend how it came into being, how much actual WORK was involved (over multiple decades) in it's creation much less it's ongoing maintenance; they just believe that it somehow ("magically") exists (and primarily to serve them); worse they believe that it always has existed, and that it always will exist, and will continue to operate, and be "repaired" in some satisfactory manner without ANY effort or "work" (or even minimal sacrifice or trivial inconvenience*) required at all (least of all by them).
* EDIT: I kid you not when I state that I have seen MORE than one woman stand up at a town hall meeting to complain about "road repair" -- claiming that they think it should be required to ALL take place AT NIGHT! And more, they demanded that any/all roads being repaired (or even entirely redone) should be done in little stretches so that it can be made "drivable" again by the very next morning -- so that THEY (personally) would not be "inconvenienced" by having to drive some alternate route, or to plan for additional time to wait while a flagman waves them to drive slowly (oh the suffering!) through an active construction zone! Fortunately the majority of people in the room (and on the town board) were men... and such nonsense was allowed to be "aired" but ended with that. (Now had the town board been composed of mainly women... well heaven help us.)
Moreover they believe (because they've been habituated/taught to believe) that if it DOESN'T continue -- if it somehow "fails" -- well then all they have to do to see it corrected ASAP is to "whine" about it; and then "magically" some "man" (lesser creature that he is) will be around to fix it pronto.
--
Well, usually that doesn't happen when the people "in charge" are themselves just other women (nor when the "priorities" of any organization are set according to general "women's wishes").
What happens instead is that THOSE women then proceed to "whine" to someone higher up... but of course generally ONLY after some significant delay (while they are preoccupied with "other" matters, matters that the female brain considers "more important" -- the water supply is tainted with lead, and they'll STILL be focused on extending MORE government "child care" -- i.e. regardless of how foolish or trivial or irrelevant, or unaffordable their "priority" item may be) and said delay often allows the REAL problems to deteriorate even further, invariably causing a host of other problems as well. (IIRC in Detroit they ended up selling off a lot of the city street-lamps {poles and all} for "scrap metal" value -- to fund other "welfare" and "education" programs -- oblivious to the fact that the lack of street lighting was going to cause other massive problems; and that replacing said street lights was going to cost 100's of times what they got in scrap metal; basically meaning "not gonna happen".)
--
In fact it's long been something that I've posited, that men could EASILY put an END (once and for all) to the BULLSHIT that "men are irrelevant" (yada yada blah blah) -- by simply going on a LITERAL "strike" for just a day or two.
If ALL men (100% of them) in the county just DIDN'T go into work on the same day... everything would grind to a halt (& end up in the shitter): the electric power grid would go down (because despite the fact that a lot of it IS automated, it still has "tending" and "tweaking" which requires not only hands, but specific KNOWLEDGE and SKILL, and the few women that DO work in that industry, generally DON'T have that knowledge or skill, and wouldn't know where to turn {I've seen women, ostensibly "smart" and "certified" women in any number of technical positions, and when the unexpected happens, despite thorough documentation on how to resolve that EXACT problem... they go to pieces and fuck things up even further; I have yet to EVER encounter a woman who was able to resolve some MAJOR technical problem with sophisticated systems all on her own... there is ALWAYS one or more men who get stuck "fixing" the root problem, ALONG WITH rectifying the additional problems created by her incompetence}).
By contrast, I can assure you that if all WOMEN stayed home for a day -- or even a week or a month -- not only would disaster NOT strike across the country; but by and large a lot of shit would get done that is otherwise bogged down in female-led bureaucratic nonsense. (Oh to be sure there would be problems in hospitals & nursing homes, and schools would need to close -- but the former DOESN'T really affect the population at large {it's happened elsewhere and ironically enough the death rate goes DOWN when doctors/hospitals are closed or "on strike"} -- and the latter happens on a regular basis {schools close during holidays & every summer with little to no major noticeable effect}.) And what else would happen? Advertising firms would be bereft of secretaries and (some) "creative" types? zOMG! Yahoo would be without it's CEO (GASP!) And daytime TV shows would be bereft of their "talent" (whatever shall we do without "The View"... why society itself might collapse!)
--
LOL, this is one of the primary reasons why I think anyone WISE makes certain they live OUTSIDE of the urban/suburban areas.
--
At a minimum, you want to (need to) have PRIVATE systems for the basic things like water, sewer (septic), and heat. And while most exurban/rural homes even with private wells will still be "grid tied", it's not impossible (or really even all that difficult if you know the systems) to run the well-pump off of a car-battery or a portable generator driven inverter (it won't be as "care-free" as a grid powered one, but it will work in a pinch and provide "survival" water). Likewise with heat, a rural home (IMO) ought to have some "backup" method of heating the house -- a properly positioned fireplace and/or wood-burning "stove" -- again, probably won't be as convenient or "comfort" as a thermostatically controlled central heating system, but it'll still keep you (and the basic house plumbing) from freezing in the depths of winter.
Likewise with making certain you have at least a LITTLE bit of land -- enough for a garden, maybe some (planted well in advance) fruit trees and vines; along with various seeds & basic gardening tools -- and probably SOME rudimentary fishing, hunting, or trapping supplies & gear (you may not be bagging deer or elk, but if things get desperate enough, well there's probably rabbit, squirrel, opossum... even "trash pandas" have several pounds of decent meat on 'em; and if you live in the southeastern US, well I'm told that Armadillo tastes "like chicken", LOL).
--
The thing is you don't have to be some paranoid or even semi-paranoid TEOTWAWKI "survivalist" to contemplate that "shit happens" -- whether it's a "hurricane Sandy" or a "hurricane Katrina" or some other natural disaster (blizzard, ice storm, flooding, earthquakes, whatever) -- that things can get pretty "fucked up & desperate" and they can get that way really fast.
Moreover, typically the WORST places to be are IN the city, and the second worst is in the nearby suburbs -- especially if you live your life on a "day to day" basis, with virtually NOTHING stocked up in your home against a proverbial "rainy day".
I mean I remember just in the past week or two, there was some "meme-joke picture-sequence" on the front page of Reddit... something to the tune of a picture of a fully stocked grocery, and then the guy saying a "magic word" and all of the food disappearing from the grocery shelves; said magic word being "Snow" (or maybe it was "Blizzard")... and "poof" just like that, empty shelves (and anyone showing up at/after that point was going to be S.O.L. as far as food for the next few days).
Now it's not that the same thing can't/doesn't happen out in "rural" grocery stores... but generally speaking people who live out in the countryside TEND to have several days (if not a couple of weeks, even months) worth of food on hand in their cupboards & freezers; they might be drinking plain water (or reusing tea bags & coffee grounds), and eating cereal without milk for breakfast, or canned beans & spam for lunch & dinner for a good couple of days... but unlike the urban/suburban types, they're not likely to starve if they can't get to the store tomorrow, or the next day.
--
So IMO being "prepared" in any number of relative basic and simple ways, and for one or more of the many variations on the spectrum of "shit hits the fan" scenarios (temporary or permanent; society-wide OR even "personal" like just being "sick" for a week) doesn't require massive "anxiety" or paranoia... rather it's common sense.
[+][deleted] [recovered] (1 child) | Copy Link
Two hours is all it would take. Most people, both men and women, have no concept of how interconnected and interdependent the modern world is. Nor do they realize how fragile it is.
It is possible to bring the World to a grinding halt in just minutes. Just by removing a few of the right cogs at the right places and chaos would ensue.
Consider the Northeast US blackout in 2003 as an example. Millions of people in a large geographical area were without electricity for almost a day all due to what was basically one tiny part of the grid breaking down.
Now imagine that just the engineers tasked with fixing that problem had decided not to show up at work that day.
“For the want of a nail the shoe was lost, For the want of a shoe the horse was lost, For the want of a horse the rider was lost, For the want of a rider the battle was lost, For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost, And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail.”
[–]thrownaway_MGTOW0 points [recovered] | Copy Link
[–]FritzLn1 point2 points3 points (13 children) | Copy Link
[–]thrownaway_MGTOW1 point2 points3 points (9 children) | Copy Link
[–]thoriumpoweredwatch-1 points0 points1 point (8 children) | Copy Link
[–]LordPorker -1 points0 points1 point (0 children) | Copy Link
[+][deleted] [recovered] (6 children) | Copy Link
Indeed. Not to mention but that the vast majority of them are generally "paper pushers" and "form checkbox checkers" -- the vast expansion of bureaucracy and "regulations" (not the least burdensome of which are the massive amounts expended to be in compliance with things like EEOC documents, tracking & recording ridiculously trivial bullshit) and then having to hire people/build systems to handle all of that.
Massive amounts of money -- in both private firms AND via tax dollars -- have been expended on all of that: which in the end really amounts to little more than "makework". A firm with 200 people ends up having to hire a half-dozen or more people (nearly 100% women) to make certain their paperwork is "in compliance" with EEOC requirements that prove they're hiring women... it's sort of a self-fulfilling law; but those additional women ("working" in the office) add nothing in terms of "productivity" to the company; but of course they DO place an extra burden on the firm in the form of additional office space, desks chairs & computers, obviously payroll, significantly more in "employee health insurance" (females of all ages have "health care" expenses that on average are about double that of similarly aged males; and keep in mind that most of the expense around men is work-injury related, whereas the expense for women is usually a combination of "female" issues {so called sexual health} and/or mental health related).
Indeed... annually churning of hundreds of thousands of social workers, psychology majors, and worse.
Well, if you would be expecting it to be some "jaw drop"... sadly you'd be bereft; as I'd already long prior come to expect that kind of, well I don't know what else to call it but stupidity, ignorance, idiocy, or a type of "incompetence". I mean I'd seen a LOT worse in the prior decade. Technically what she was doing was a common enough thing -- companies scanning & "digitizing" documents out of their files -- but that technique was developed/intended for really OLD (paper copy only) documents, for which there was no "real" digital version (no word processor files, no database listings, etc). Even then though, there were "document feeding" scanners that you could buy, and/or services that you could either hire to come in and do "fast" scans, or else ship off boxes of documents to have them scanned.
The real point though is that all of the literature (brochures, manuals, etc) on Adobe's Acrobat made it abundantly clear that the system was designed to handle both "legacy" scanned images, as well as direct-conversion... you didn't have to be a "rocket scientist" to have comprehended that.
--
Moreover, on a pretty regular basis, I STILL see that kind of thing -- people who are ostensibly Trained & CERTIFIED "EXPERTS" on some common software package, but who don't actually comprehend very elementary operating functions (even when the function is staring them right in the face).
Like the CPA and "Quickbooks expert" I had to deal with a year ago (certified by Intuit as their BEST RATED & MOST RECOMMENDED TRAINER -- in one of the busiest region of my state no less) but who somehow DIDN'T comprehend how to "Memorize" customized reports (hint: it's that button labeled "Memorize" at the middle top of the report screen), or that she didn't know that Reports could be grouped and run a batches (a super-secret "feature" that would be the "Process Multiple Reports" menu option in the, yeah you guessed it, the "Reports" Menu -- I mean those sneaky bastards I tell you, HIDING a feature like that in plain view, and right UNDER the "Memorized Reports" option too!), and worse I sat and watched (cringing) while every time she made a trivial change to a report, column width or font or whatever, she printed another copy; entirely oblivious to the "preview" function (again, a super-secret feature... it would accessed via the "Preview" button underneath the stack of "Print", "Cancel" and "Help" buttons on the report print dialog).
Now she may (or may not) be an "expert" in tax law -- although somehow I rather doubt that -- but she rather obviously (and I only cited a few of her glaring "missing" skills) doesn't actually KNOW the package she's "certified" to train people on. Rather than getting "training" from this woman (at probably $100 to $150 an hour), people would be far better off buying and even just "skimming" through the pictures of some "Quickbooks for Complete Ignoramuses" book for $20 from Amazon (or else just fucking around with the program and going through the FREE tutorial and sample files that come with it).
[–]thoriumpoweredwatch-1 points0 points1 point (5 children) | Copy Link
[+][deleted] [recovered] (3 children) | Copy Link
Have you never read C. Northcoke Parkinson's classic essay where he defined his "Parkinson's Law"? that especially when it comes to bureuacrats, their "work" so to speak "expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."
Seriously, it's both humorous AND educational.
He elaborates on that "expansion" of work:
You should really go read the rest (especially the bit about the British Admiralty & the British Empire -- as it sort of disproves the idea that "improvements in technology" will EVER cause a reduction in bureaucrats).
See, technology may eliminate the actual "paper", but it doesn't (and won't) eliminate the "pushing/shuffling" bureaucracy, in fact it will probably just makes things take LONGER. (Rather than taking a quick "red pen" to mark up corrections to a couple of sheets of paper, any and all "revisions" now need to be done via Acrobat or MS Word, so that the changes can be "tracked" etc. -- but doing annotation via software, among other things requires that you be sitting at a computer {or tablet}, which of course means having IT support additional devices {i.e. extra workers}, and the annotation is rather awkward in part because there are so many "options"... do you highlight the passage in yellow? maybe, especially if there are several people reviewing it, you need to use some other color? perhaps you should use that "red box" tool instead, or the one with the arrow, and then type some comment in the box; etc etc etc)
Then there's the fact that, given the EASE of modern word processing (versus old manual typewriters, where each revision required re-typing the whole thing), well there's a tendency to do MULTIPLE iterations of revisions instead of one; and of course the documents get LONGER (and more complicated); add in fonts and other formatting (worse yet, images, backgrounds, tints, tables, and so on...)
Point being that something which would have just been a quickly typed "memo" back in circa 1960 (boss thinks about what needs to be noted/said, calls secretary in spends 5 minutes dictating, she goes off and types it up in about 10 minutes, he gives it a quick 5 minute review makes a couple of changes/corrections, she retypes a revised copy in another 10 minutes and its done; total work time 30 minutes). Possibly she mimeographed or photocopied it, but just as likely it simply got pinned up to a cork bulletin board in the break-room or next to the time-clock.
But NOW the thing is going to be a fancified "color" document, multiple fonts, stock photos, background tint or pattern, and of course with company/department logo (which means reviewed by the "design standards dept" as well as "legal" or "HR" {to approve the stock photo of "employees" as suitably diverse, etc}) -- damned thing probably takes at least 10 or 20 hours of total employee time before it's finally "approved". Then it needs a digital version to be put up on the department's intranet server, as well as color copies stuck in their "inboxes" and so on. And of course it's probably about some banal 'employee morale' thing like "Hawaiian shirt day" or some "Run/walk for cancer/United-Way" event.
[–]thoriumpoweredwatch0 points1 point2 points (2 children) | Copy Link
[–]thrownaway_MGTOW0 points1 point2 points (0 children) | Copy Link
[–]thrownaway_MGTOW0 points1 point2 points (0 children) | Copy Link
[–]thrownaway_MGTOW0 points [recovered] | Copy Link
[–]oldredder-1 points0 points1 point (2 children) | Copy Link
[–]Trekbiker 0 points1 point2 points (1 child) | Copy Link
[–]oldredder0 points1 point2 points (0 children) | Copy Link
[–]good_man_gone 0 points1 point2 points (6 children) | Copy Link
[+][deleted] [recovered] (4 children) | Copy Link
I'm in between major "writing" projects... so it's like saying to a politician (or a woman) that "you really like to talk." It's fairly effortless (and ironically in the comment format of Reddit, absent the need for footnotes or concerns about formatting, following some locked down outline, etc) rather "relaxing".
;-)
[–]good_man_gone -1 points0 points1 point (3 children) | Copy Link
[+][deleted] [recovered] (2 children) | Copy Link
LOL, didn't I just say I was "in between" (i.e. not working on) any major "writing" projects.
I think a "book" would definitely qualify as a major "writing" project.
[–]good_man_gone -1 points0 points1 point (1 child) | Copy Link
[–]thrownaway_MGTOW0 points [recovered] | Copy Link
[–]Hiromant-1 points0 points1 point (0 children) | Copy Link
[–]OLD-TRUCK-1 points0 points1 point (0 children) | Copy Link
[–]ChipOffMyShoulder -1 points0 points1 point (1 child) | Copy Link
[–]thrownaway_MGTOW0 points [recovered] | Copy Link
[–]good_man_gone 1 point2 points3 points (6 children) | Copy Link
[+][deleted] [recovered] (4 children) | Copy Link
Though I have a high-tech office job these days, I grew up in the country in Texas. I often think if things went really south, I would pack my truck with my guns and outdoor gear and head for the mountains. I could probably survive there indefinitely.
[–]good_man_gone 1 point2 points3 points (2 children) | Copy Link
[–]OLD-TRUCK0 points1 point2 points (0 children) | Copy Link
[–]SuperGRB1 point [recovered] | Copy Link
[–]TwoTonJoe0 points [recovered] | Copy Link
[–]oldredder-1 points0 points1 point (0 children) | Copy Link
[–]oldredder-1 points0 points1 point (0 children) | Copy Link
[–]lutv -1 points0 points1 point (0 children) | Copy Link