by kpeavey » Sat 30 Jun 2007, 09:32:59
I read the posts, respond to some, ignore others, I read, I think, I learn.
I find the entire website is less about current events and planning for the future and more about Hope. In a crisis situation full of danger, confusion, fear and the unknown, humans have often resorted to Hope as the tool which keeps them going against all odds.
I for one have nothing to live for and an iron will to survive. As things go south each of us will face his own worst nightmare. Loss of job, money, home, loved ones being swept up in the tide of war, victimization through crime, events or legislation, changing our living situation from one of comfort and plenty to one of despair. Hope offers strength, perseverance, and ability to move forward. Without hope, all is lost. All our material goods can be swept away in a day, our lives can be turned upside down overnight. We can wake up tomorrow in a different world. It is Hope that will see us through.
I think many of us are involved in this website because we have Hope. What amount of guns and soup can replace hope? Hope is a quality that can be shared. It costs nothing, requires no fuel, and comes in limitless supply. Hope can spring from nothing and grow to cover the world. It is the single most important preparation that will carry you the furthest, fastest, longest.
Hope is vague, but I see it everywhere. It is amorphous and esoteric, but in these threads it is bountiful. It is a readily emulated, rapidly propagated, highly versatile tool, and I think a great many people on this site possess it. Out worst enemy in the future will be despair. As great and deep despair can be, it takes only a flicker of hope to come out of it.
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--for ever."
-George Orwell, 1984
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twenty centuries of stony sleep were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, and what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
-George Yeats