Urban vs. Rural and Staying Alive

I don’t really have much to say on guns today. Instead, I want to speak a little more about my post from last Friday. So you don’t have to click it (unless you really want to), I mentioned that many of the old ways are dying. If there ever was a TEOTWAKI we would need those old ways.

I appreciate the comments and advice especially about books and websites. Still, I regret I didn’t learn certain things while growing up. There are some skills that are best passed on and not learned out of a book. Our society has stopped valuing certain rural-seeming skills.

Instead there’s an urban ethos that’s centered on letting the government help. We see it in self-defense. You know, guns are bad (I knew I could get guns in here somewhere) and the don't act wait for the cops mentality. For true urbanites, meat comes only in plastic wrap or vegetarianism is the one true faith.

I work with a person who’s a true urbanite and I wonder what he would do if things collapsed in Boston. It could happen. Look at Katrina. The people in New Orleans couldn’t get help for three days—exactly the length of time that FEMA then and now says you’re on your own. If a hurricane ever hit Boston, my co-worker would be on his own. How would he feed and protect himself? He couldn’t and neither could his neighbors. No cat, rat or dog would be safe there.

My employer has adopted the urban ethos. I can’t have a gun not even in my car. I’d love to keep a shotgun or carbine in the trunk just in case I ever needed to make my forty-mile commute through Mad Max world. But, I can’t do that. Instead my employer has decided that we should shelter in place in case TEOTWAKI hits. We now have little bags, vinyl lunch boxes really, that have a few “juice” boxes of water, a dense block of food, a flashlight and some bandaids. Better than nothing I guess.

Katrina should have showed people that civilization is a thin veneer that can rub off quickly. Instead, too many people want the government to do more next time IT happens. They forget that government can’t do it. It’s up to us to remember the old ways. To remember that self-reliance is good and not look to the government to solve our problems. To remember that true self-defense with a firearm is a force for good.