The countdown has begun to New Year on February 3. One of the fun parts of living in Asia is that you get about 4 or 5 new year's celebrations throughout the year. On rare occastions, you can even get two Muslim new years in one calendar year.
Beginning on Feb. 3 (Imlec or Sin Tjia), unmarried youths will run around for two weeks, clasping their hands together and saying (loudly), "Gong Xi Fat Cai!" Then they hold out their hands and expect 'angpao,' or a small cash gift from the elders.
We end the day (here) with the deliciously greusome headline from CNN: Giffords Heads To Texas. The headline writer over there should either be fired or given a raise, depending on your disposition.
Having just finished George's daily column over at UrbanSurvival.com, our thoughts turn to 'revolution,' and what's ahead for this New Year. Seems some of his readers are taking him to task for showing all the myriad ways we are being screwed by the PTB/PTW, but he stops short of promoting open revolution against the usurpers.
It's a rather simplistic and hot-headed view to promote open revolution. One need only to read up on Washington's time at Valley Forge to get an idea of how much fun it is. And there's always the chance you'll lose, to be forever know in history as the bad guys.
Any kind of warfare is deeply destructive. It destroys both sides. Men at war aren;t tending to matters of home and hearth. There's supply chains to worry about, and many other basic problems with the open revolution idea. Cast your eyes upon Greece, Tunisia, and soon other European countries. Even small clashes destroy businesses, homes and property, and it's not limited to the combatants; it hits every level of society.
Revolution is a dangerous hobby by any measure. The potential enemy controls the purse strings, has public perception on their side, aided and abetted by a lapdog press, and has a rather eyep-popping arscenal of weaponry. Honestly, to go head-to-head with that kind of enemy is more or less suicide.
At this point, it's time to read Sun Tsu's 'The Art of War.' In the face of overwhelming odds, it's time to use the 'passive-aggressive' maneuver. In stead of a direct clash that you will surely lose, both in physical and psychological terms, one needs to find the weaknesses of the enemy and start pushing on them repeatly.
We have only to survey history to see how these things turn out. Those who steal the power don't give it up without a big fight. Power is a drug. It is highly addictive because those who have it have anything they want. If you want to take away their power, you take away all of their addictions and decrease them to the level of the commoner. How would you react?
Even non-violent confrontation is not without pain. Ghandi and King are prime examples. One spends a lot of time cooling the heals in jail, if not being outright tortured.
In the extant situation, there are still many weapons at the disposal of the commoner that do not involve the shedding of blood on either side (though no guarantees THEY wouldn't take some). The biggest and most glaring weakness on the part of the enemy is the economy.
THEY have spent years trying to convince the rubes that there is only one game in town. Where black markets have sprung up, they were controlled to give THEM control over that, as well. THEY have spent considerable time and effort to convince the masses that investment is only done through the rigged markets, where, like Vegas, the house always wins.
The easiest and most effective way to fight back is so simple as to be almost laughable. Withdraw all funds from the stock markets and banks. Problem solved. It's that easy. At the very minimum, stop contributing to retirement accounts and write off what's in them, since you'll never actually see that money, trust us.
Instead, take that money, put it into real assets like land, gold, food, etc. Start amassing things that really pay off, things that exist in the real and physical world. Shun paper like it's going out of style, which it is.
Stop using ATMs, credit cards and any other electronic form of payment. If you can't pay cash, you don't need it. Keep one card for emergencies, of course, but pay it off and let it sit in the closet. Get some farm land and put a couple of cows on it. You might get a tax break that way, and you have a cheap weekend get-away, as well as a great investment for the future (which is sooner than you think). You can always butcher the cows later for a six-month supply of protein on the hoof.
Invest in skills, hobbies and tools that can be turned to income in the event of bad economic times (like the ones that are coming). Learning to build with wood and having a good selection of hand-tools that don't require electricity seems like a very valuable investment. Weekend smithing sounds like fun, would be quite valuable if horses become the norm again, and you'd be one of the few with the skill, making you one of the highest paid folks around.
Having a supply of non-hybridized seed and knowing things like French intensive gardening could give you ample food supplies out of a back yard. Learn canning while you're at it, so you can sock away the bounty.
Other things, like candle-making, shodding, sewing...all those skills we gave up for machines a few generations back, might end up saving the lives of you and yours. And no need to do all of them. Just pick one and get really good at it.
Spending money on things like solar power, composting and the like, seems to me to have a far greater return than a 401(k). And no one can take away what you know, and would have a hell of a time taking away things in your yard. But a stack of paper stored somewhere you have no idea where, or worse, a stream of 1s and 0s? Even safe deposit boxes ain't. THEY can lock the doors and shoot anyone who tries to get in. And remember, the bank keeps the second key. Why not jack out a hole in your foundation and drop in a safe? Sounds a helluva lot safer and more accessable to me.
What all of this does is makes you independent. Figure out where THEY have control over your life, and take steps to cut that link. THEY control the electricity you use, so make your own. THEY control the food supply lines, so grow your own. THEY control the water you drink, so find another source.
Just this week, the city water supply stopped for 24 hours. No notice, no reason, just stopped with no idea when it would come back. When it started flowing again, it was brown with dirt. Fortunately, we have about 300 gallons stored all over the house in barrels, but even that would eventually get used up.
However, there is a well directly under the dining room floor. It's bee unused for a while, but still works. On payday, we're paying the $100 to hook it back up to the house supply. With a flip of a valve, we can have the city supply or the house supply. We're also putting a manual pump option into the line.
The roof of the house is about 2/3 translucent corrugated panels, so our garden is on the third floor, safe and sound.
The upside to all this is that it removes THEIR power over you. You have voluntarily handed it over for years, now it's time to take it back. Set up co-ops, and trade and barter whenever you can. It wouldn't be long before T?HEY are panicked, because you no longer need THEM.
Is it easy? No, but it's more productive than destroying everything to make a point, and likely getting killed in the process. When THEY see what you're doing, THEY will act, but at that point, you have the moral and legal right to defend yourself. Just mobbing up and destroying stuff does not put Right on your side.
THEY are managing perceptions, and so must you. You must make sure that others looking in will be forced to conclude that you have the moral high-ground.
In fact, that gives us an idea to launch a global 'off the grid' day, in which everyone prepares to spend 24 hours without using any of THEIR services. I can't imagine a more effective and non-violent statement than to show THEM we don't need 'em.
We'll have to noodle that one. Might make a helluva pursuit.
So with that, we'll leave you with an Indonesian lullaby. We can't type the tune, but the words are fun enough. Kinds along the lines of babies crashing out of trees due to broken limbs. We always wondered why the baby was up a tree in the first place.
Mina bobo,
Mina bobo,
Kalo tidak bobo,
Gigit nyemuk.
There there sleep
There there sleep
If you don't sleep
The mosquito will bite.
If you have any ideas about "Global Off-The-Grid Day," we're happy to hear them! Viral campaigns can be so much fun!
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