ASG: Never miss out on the opportunities of a good crisis!
Engaged Media LLC
'Jun 18, 2020 04:24
The articulation is most accurately credit to Niccolò Machiavelli, the famous Italian Renaissance rationalist, and creator whom none of us needed to learn around in high school. He's often referred to as the "father" of modern political philosophy. But Mike, the editor of American Survival Guide, will spare you from any lessons on him here.
In calm and quiet times, the products and industries he was involved with were welcome suppliers for a variety of outdoor pastimes. However, when disaster struck—9/11, for example—his business, employers, and he were often called warmongers and capitalist opportunists. They accused of exploiting the crisis because they were selling the survivalgear that they now needed, not just wanted.
While he never suffered any real harm, when the next disaster came their way, he stopped talking about his occupation and business connections with people he thought could go off the deep end. He began to think about this in the sense of the new COVID-19 pandemic, where many are using epithets.
Yet this time he's got a different take on it. They preppers spend perhaps 90 to 95 percent of our time on the planning and preparation side of the equation of responding to emergencies and disasters and only a small amount of time dealing with those things for which they are working for preparation. Therefore, it is essential not to have the opportunity to execute those plans and "exercise" our already running muscles during this epidemic. They may be running practice drills and simulating disaster weekends in the woods, but the current situation gives them a full picture of what they expected to experience while planning.
Unlike, if you spend some days or a week in the boonies during the pandemic, there's no "tap-out" option. The impact it has on the food chain, the legal system, mass media, and the influence of government officials at all levels are significant. And, it is exceptionally challenging to get fact-based, actionable information.
Many of the issues they have — and to some degree, everyone is different — have come into play in the last few months. Job losses, food shortages, emotional stress, sporadic anarchic outbursts, and even low-grade civilian "uprisings" have all popped up on our radar in a sometimes disconcerting and confusing mash-up on news outlets, and social media feeds.
Frustrated, he recently reached the point where he utterly dumped all the news outlets that he had been following. Since they're unfortunately insufficient, even in the best of times, it just became too much work to run through his "truth interpreter" to make his time and energy worth it. Within a day of cutting the proverbial "cords," it was like a refreshing breeze that had wafted over him with a bacon aroma!
He's not tuned it out; he's just more selective of what he's exposing me to. He has also learned to watch what is going on at the front edge of the pandemic developments waves and gage when similar waves would sweep across his area. It's been helpful to be able to anticipate trouble so that he can fine-tune his plans and check on and help others who might use the support.
So, while you're
wearing thin on this whole pandemic thing, don't miss the opportunity to learn
from it. For the vast majority of us, this will be the paramount prepping
lesson and validation of our lifetime. Don't waste the chances this
crisis affords you. Take notes, improve your plans, and ensure to pass your
learnings down to the next generation.
