by bochen280 » Sat 07 Jan 2012, 23:51:01
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'A')ustralian SAS Survival Manual.
Poor Man's James Bond.
Permaculture 3.
Fishing/ trapping/ hunting guides.
Anything on primitive housing/ boatbuilding/ transport tech.
Psychology/ behavioural diagnostics manuals.
Maps.
Folk medicine as particular to your bio-region.
Basic chemistry.
Applied recycling tech/ green energy solutions in micro application.
Water purification methodologies.
Ultimately though there is no alternative to real experience when it comes to learning anything important. I agree with PStarr; better to think how to get out of the trap you find yourself in, to somewhere you can have some breathing space from the oppressor and really find yourself. Circling around the darkest regions of collective reasoning impotently calling out "Woah! The End Is Nigh" etc. achieves little in the scheme of things besides damaging ones own mental health and calling ones self to the attention of authorities who are actually as paranoid as you and target specificly your type of rhetoric.
It all depends on the rate of collapse. On one hand, TPTB doesn't want the collapse to go uncontrolled chain reaction style otherwise it will be mad max and under those circumstances even full blown martial law ain't enough to keep the cattle in line... if that happens then all bets are off and its really every man for himself and TPTB will be panicing as much, probably more so, than we will, cause they have so much more to lose than us. On the other hand, however, TPTB doesn't want the collapse to happen too slowly because the total amount of aggregate resources consumed will be too high and eat into their reserves and not give them enough to go on post "the event". So I believe they have a targeted ideal rate of collapse. They are aiming probably for an orderly collapse, one that they remain in control of at all times and one that allows them to adjust the rate of collapse to extenuating circumstances.
TPTB is like an emergent intelligence, in that sense I am not implying there is necessarily a "conscious" ultra conspiracy going on, per se. TPTB is not any one person or even group of people, rather it is a transnational and even trans-personal stratification that emerges from the intricate complexities of social dynamics and the inherent nature of power hierarchies and the struggle for existence. TPTB can be compared to a meme of sorts that propagates better than other qualia patterns and rises to the top to control and manipulate, even cannibalize and sacrifice the lower stratum to suit its survival needs. Every self-identity entity merely wishes to exists and strive, but when push comes to shove TPTB is in a better position at displacing everything that it deems as a threat to it. Just like no single neuron in the human brain controls nor constituents the mind, no ant has the blueprints to built or construct a colony, likewise there is no "center" or location for TPTB. It is not a person, position, title or label in the traditional sense, but this categorical perception of there being this so-called "TPTB" is salient and does exists. One could say, it is a sort of ghost in the machine. TPTB is fluid, dynamic, changing... it is an echelon tier that naturally and inevitable emerges in every humanized society, especially one has discovered agriculture and progressed into the industrial and information age with the accumulation of wealth and knowledge. I think when TPTB is sufficiently cornered and aware of the invariably inevitable predicament that "it" faces, TPTB may be compelled to take courses of action that the rest of us wouldn't wish to fathom... in essence we all don't want to believe it could happen... and it is this element of surprise that precisely gives TPTB the edge it needs to do whatever it takes to survive when times get hard enough.