Starting to get "it"

[NorthernRaider]

Am I finally starting to “Get it” it’s taken a long long time for it to sink in, and it’s taken the enlightening and informative style of writing by American author Glen Tate who wrote 299 Days for it finally get it to start being absorbed into my head.

In Glen’s book he points out time after time that very often no matter how well your intentions are and no matter how hard you try there are always more people you cannot help than those you can.

You can try to bring your point of view about being prepared for Societal Collapse or Natural Disaster or Civil Unrest but all too often your efforts fail and at times you can alienate and offend people by trying to change or discredit their views and only offends those you wanted to help.

It is good to try and help and advise people who WANT to learn more about self-reliance, survivalism, prepping and self-sufficiency, it also good to help others who WANT to be better placed to take ever more responsibility for their own lives, lifestyle choices and responsibilities.

But as Glen points out in his book you are wasting valuable time, effort and resources on trying to bring people who believe in the primacy of the STATE (government, authorities, welfare state, health system, military etc) to always be there for them when things go wrong and who have a sense of unearned entitlement.

Perhaps because all too often the state and the system IS the cause of the crisis that people are trying to survive.

Those honest folks whose beliefs in the supremacy of the welfare state and large all-encompassing government as described by Glen in reference to his own home state of Washington MUST be respected because they are often very deeply held, regarded and believed, just as they are equally passionately held by many in the UK.

Glen in his book gives multiple examples of how his efforts to try and help others by warning them of a forthcoming economic collapse in the US nearly always backfired in his face and caused him to hurt or upset those close to him, including his own wife. In time he found it far more practical and beneficial to simply focus on find others to work with who had ALREADY reached the same conclusions as himself, rather than try to change the mind set of those with other beliefs.

In his book rightly or wrongly depending on your point of view Glen frequently associates those with a total belief in big government and a welfare state were also those least likely to believe the state and system could never possibly fail them. (As the people of Tottenham UK found out in 2010 to their cost when the police were withdrawn leaving the community to fend for itself)

And it is from this he begins to realise that trying to change the political beliefs of other people was most definitely a waste of time, who knows perhaps THEY were right.

This is the point that I have been slow to pick up on, all too often I was a guilty as Glen’s lead character of trying to persuade people that belief in state / welfare/ big government / sense of entitlement is not conducive to prepping or society for them or me, often ending badly for everyone. That’s definitely not a good place to be.

So Glens approach is to seek out and cooperate with those astute enough to realise there is an Elephant in the kitchen and to be polite and respectful to those who wish to continue to live day to day expecting and believing the state will ALWAYS care for and protect them, but to give up on them and not involve them (including his wife in the book) in his plans, preps and efforts. IE Leave them to get on with their lives as they choose and focus on finding others who have already started severing links with the system and are willing to make financial, physical and personal sacrifices to prepare.

“They made their beds and now they can lay in them”
“Help ONLY those who want to help themselves”
“You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink”
“If you have the information those best placed to benefit from it will find it for themselves”
“To the state you are a number or statistic , to your prep group you are an individual”