The following essay has been contributed by Steve Richards for your reading pleasure.

The article “Confronting Kleptocracy–Identifying The Looter Mentality” by Rawles was very interesting as have been the posts which followed. Please let me chime in my two cents for what it’s worth (which is about 2 cents worth).  🙂

First, I’d like to make these statements:

1) I believe in helping people… to a LIMIT. I do help the sick, wounded, elderly, homeless when I can and give to the Salvation Army. I also give to other charities – AFTER I look at how they handle the money I give them.

2) I WAS NOT born into this world to live up to ANYONE’S expectations. Whether that be my neighbor, and/or any state or federal governmental entity. I love my wife and children but don’t give a damn what anybody else says about me or what they think.

That’s a strong statement. It is NOT said out of meanness nor uncaring about my fellow man. It simply means that I take care of myself and my family first and, if I have something left over, I’ll contribute to others. But I am NOT obligated to.

Furthermore, I’m NOT obligated to listen to people bitch, whine, and moan because I do or don’t do something THEY want. I ONLY HAVE ONE LIFE and I am living for myself. However, to reiterate, I am trying to live unselfishly as I can. But know this. My neighbor didn’t put food on my plate. My neighbor didn’t contribute to my pension and 401K. I don’t expect my neighbor to work on my car, cut my grass or wash the windows of my house. And, I don’t expect my neighbor (or anybody else) to try to tell me how to do anything. Like survive for example.

Still, people are OPINIONATED and poke their nose in other’s business continually. And, this is ONE of the things wrong with our country today. We give information about ourselves to databases held by state and federal entities, the big 3 credit reporting agencies, our doctors, dentists, and just about everybody else. And, everybody is NOSEY! “What’s go’in on? What’s happ’n? Who’s doing what? When? Where? Why? How?” Again, I was NOT born into this world to live up to ANYONE’S expectations. I don’t give a damn what anybody or any government entity thinks about me and I refuse to play another man’s (or woman’s) game.

We have morality rules, laws (about everything by the way), and general social customs which we all adhere to. Me included. And, while I am a happy, productive, affable guy who tries to be helpful to others – at the same time I’m damn tired of people and government agencies trying to run my life. Aren’t you? You CAN think for yourself can’t you? As the song said: “He can’t even run his own life, I’ll be dammed if he’ll run mine!”

3) And, for those of you who read but don’t comprehend… let me say it again. I’m a kind, loving, affable guy who believes in helping my neighbors… up to a POINT. In fact, WE ARE the United States. And, the old saying, “United we stand, divided we fall” will be much more than a slogan to live by if the Shit Hits The Fan. For it is in unity that we will have a better chance of survival. However, if bad goes to worse MY PERSONAL SURVIVAL AND THAT OF MY FAMILY COMES FIRST. And, YOU should feel the same way.

4) I feel sorry for the people in Haiti and Chili. Heck, I feel sorry people in all the third-world toilets out there. In fact, I’m on my 6th passport and since I was 16, I’ve traveled the globe over 4 times. I exactly know first hand how most of the people on this planet live. And, MOST live in horrible conditions. Many don’t even have fresh water to drink on a daily basis and die from dysentery and other water-borne diseases.

I’ve been in countries where I saw women washing rice in the river down steam while upstream people were bathing, urinating, and taking a crap. I saw heads of dead pigs floating by and I won’t even mention the millions of flies, dead rats, and mosquitoes.

But none of this IS MY FAULT! I don’t feel guilty about it. I use to but not any more. When I was a teenager and into my 20’s.. when I was in a foreign country I’d give a dollar here and a dollar there to needy people begging. That is until I realized all it did was cause a crowd of people to follow me wherever I went and to try to take all of my money!

Once, in Indonesia, I and my friend were surrounded by so many people that under the hot equatorial sun I started to faint. My buddy had the presence of mind to literally pull me into a handicraft shop nearby and he almost fainted himself. We both regained our composure after about 20 minutes and a cold bottle of water and slipped out the back. It was then that I made up my mind I would NEVER give money to any beggar in a foreign country.

I reneged on my own promise though the very next year. While in the Philippines on a buying trip for an import business I owned I was accosted by the most pitiful set of beggars I’d ever seen. The 3 year old baby was blind, one of her legs was deformed and twisted completely around where her foot faced backwards. The mother holding this child was so skinny she had to move around in the rain to get wet and was wearing rags. I gave her $5 and then marched off. Almost immediately I was surrounded by a hoard of other beggars. There were at least 25 of them. Luckily I ran into a Police corner station nearby and the policeman came out and read the riot act to the beggars and they took off.

He then told me in no uncertain terms that these were PROFESSIONAL beggars and that the lady I had given the five dollars to was one of the top beggars in Makati-Manila! In fact, when the baby was born, her eyes were punched out on purpose, and her leg was broken and twisted around on purpose! Sickening isn’t it? But that day I mentally slapped myself and fully resolved never to give alms to the poor in any foreign country. And, this rule has stood me in good stead throughout the various countries I have traveled through.

Daily on TV commercials I see self-appointed ministers and pitchmen asking for money for the old Jews of Russia, children in the Philippines or other countries. When begging for children they always show pretty little girls with big eyes and dirty dresses living in shacks with bare feet. A dirty little boy (made for us to think he is her brother) will stand in the doorway behind with a sorrowful, dejected, begging look in his eyes. It’s true. There are MILLIONS of children like this all over the world. Children feeding off of the dumps in the Philippines, in India, Brazil, etc. I FEEL SORRY FOR THEM! Let me be clear… I FEEL SORRY FOR THEM and I WISH I COULD HELP THEM. But I can’t! I can’t help them.

Why? Why can’t I help them? Is it because I’m a mean, dirty son-of-a-bitch? A selfish person with no empathy for my fellow man? No. It’s not that at all. It’s because I CAN’T SAVE THE WORLD and neither can you!

Look at the facts. There are almost 7 billion people on this planet. That’s 7 with nine zero’s behind it (7,000,000,000). Stand on the beach. Pick up two large, handful’s of sand. Count the tiny grains of sand. They won’t even come close to equaling 7 billion grains. In fact, 7 billion grains of sand equals over 1,300 lbs! In other words, if you took a small Toyota pickup truck down to the beach and loaded it up, you’d have close to 7 billion grains of sand (see http://www.wolframalpha.com for mathematical computations).

There’s 1 billion 300 million people in China. Out of this population base their own government states that only 300 million are living decently (about the size of the US population). The other billion are in dire straights. There’s one billion, one hundred forty million people living in India. One of the most poverty stricken places on the planet. In fact, Bombay (now known as Mumbai) is one of the worst human toilets anyone could possibly visit! I NEVER want to go there again.

So you tell me… how can we help all of these people? Why is it our duty? Why should our taxpayer money go to help them when we have so many NEEDY AMERICANS here at home? Shouldn’t we (as a UNITED family under our Constitution), help ourselves first and foremost?

Especially since the end of World War II the United States has tried to help people around the world by giving all types of aid. Food, agricultural machinery and help in seeds and agricultural growing methods, money and much more. I could write a dozen pages on just the help the USA has given the world. But, is the world better off for it? And, what strings did our government or a multinational attach to this aid in recompense? What if we had let nature take its course and we had helped ourselves first?

You’re an animal. I’m an animal. We’re ALL animals (whether you believe it or not). And, whether you believe in Adam and Eve or Evolution or some Hopi or Navaho dream tail of how mankind was created… the fact is; we are all animals on this planet. So how does nature take care of the lower forms of animals when the population grows out of hand? Say it. Say it mentally right now. You know the answer very well don’t you.

When deer for example, become over abundant what happens? Cougar, coyote or wolves decimate their population thus increasing the cougar, coyote or wolf population for a time. But as the deer population stabilizes or falls, starvation takes hold and the cougar, coyote or wolf population falls back into equilibrium. Equilibrium through what? Starvation.

Consider this: Look around you and think of the many inventions you have in your home coming out of Mexico, Chili, Haiti, or Romania. I’ll bet you can’t name five on your left hand that was invented, manufactured, brought to market and advertised by one of these countries. And, scores more of other countries.

Look around you at the things you take for granted. The light bulb and the generator which changed the world was invented here in the USA. Paint on the wall, your computer, the Internet, the electric watch, the air conditioner, combine harvester, the Colt revolver, vulcanized rubber, rotary printing press, how about the lowly safety pin or the potato chip you snack on?

Can you survive without rolled toilet paper? How about the Mason jar for canning or even the can opener? Need a tape measure or paper bag to carry your measured “stuff” in? Like those jeans you wear or the dissolvable pill you take whose prescription was written with the fountain pen also invented in the USA? From powered flight to the dishwashing machine to the first skyscraper which uses an AC electric motor to pull the cables through the pulleys of an Otis elevator (he invented the elevator brake) to its top.. all were invented in the USA. Don’t forget the GPS system you’ll need when you run for the hills and the survival gear also invented here and the cell phone you’ll need to call for help. I could go on for pages listing the things invented here in America but you get the idea.

Our ORIGNIAL form of government (not the out-of-control crap we have today) and our FREEDOM to survive and innovate in a CAPITALISTIC society where COMPETITION causes innovation are a few of the prime reasons we have changed the world and especially OUR lives for the better. For I wouldn’t trade ANY of the inventions I’ve named above for a hole-in-the-wall or third world toilet existence. Would you?

Go ahead. Name the inventions coming out of the Philippines or Haiti. Where’s that wonderful innovation which came from Latvia or Bulgaria or Albania which changed your life? When was the last time a third-world toilet helped the USA when we had an earthquake or a hurricane?

So here’s the point. When you look around you, you’ll notice that at least 90% of what you see was invented here in the USA. And, we HAVE contributed one HELLUVA lot to the upgrading of the world. Not only by our discoveries and inventions but by our exported agricultural methods and even innovative drugs. More than any other country in the HISTORY of mankind, we, here in the USA, have done more for the total betterment of mankind than any other since the first stylus was pressed into a clay tablet to record history. So I don’t feel ashamed if I can’t help the world. We ALL have to stand on our own two feet for Mother Nature will take care of us if we don’t!

Therefore, I’m willing to help my fellow American but up to a point. I’m not obligated if I’m starving. And, like any other animal in the forest or jungle, I’ll do whatever it takes to survive. Just as a wolf or lion will do. And, deep in your heart you will do the same when push comes to shove. It’s a law of nature. The law of survival of the fittest. For it is a truism that cannot be denied that ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE. And, that means strong mentally as well as physically. That means strength from having one’s survival food and medicine safely stored away for YOU and YOUR FAMILY and having a weapon to protect YOU and YOUR FAMILY if NECESSARY.

When push comes to shove, Wolves and Lions and other topmost animals in the animal kingdom will fight among themselves for a meal. Similarly, humans will do the same when things really get bad.

Yes, I WILL help my neighbor to a point. I will work with him or her to rebuild and to protect each other. But, when it comes to everyone for themselves.. if it ever gets that far… I’m sorry, but if I catch him or her trying to steal some of my survival food or anything else, that means society and the law have broken completely down and anarchy reins. In that case I WILL shoot him! Similarly, in the same situation, if I’m in dire straights and am invading his property to steal his food or other supplies, I EXPECT to get shot! For in this last case it is Mother Nature taking over in her rawest form and again, ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE.

Do you truly expect it will get this bad? I seriously doubt it. I live in Southern California. So I expect maybe in Watts and East L.A. and in other low-class and gang areas it will be bad. Up in Oakland and parts of San Francisco. Oak Cliff in Dallas or Sterling Heights in Detroit are a few examples. People who live in already crime prone areas can expect to be attacked first. Businesses can and will be ransacked. We’ve seen this before so I’m not in any way a prophet. Fools will also burn businesses in their own neighborhoods including vehicles and even destroy water pump stations and electrical stations.

Then, a few days later, when they realize they don’t have the electricity to run that big-screen LCD TV they stole and their gas stations are out of fuel and their burned out supermarket doesn’t have anything left… then they come for YOU!

And that’s when you and your neighbors have to pull together. That’s when you all should have a workable plan of resistance. For 90% of us cannot run to the hills! We live in comfortable neighborhoods with a front and back lawn and a barbecue in the back. We live in apartments. We live in high-rise condominiums or townhouses.

Let’s say the shit does hit the fan. Tomorrow. Who is going to invade us? Canadians coming over the border at midnight with butcher knives in their hands? A few million Chinese or Russkies coming in on hundreds of ships (which we’d see via our satellites before they even got out of their ports)? And, where are you going to run to? What hills? Ninety percent of us couldn’t live in the hills even if we wanted to. Hell, we couldn’t even get out of town on the clogged highways and wouldn’t have enough fuel to go very far in any case.

Suppose a total break down of society happened in the dead of winter? What? You’re going to live in a 12’ tent on the side of a hill in the snow trying to rub two wet branches together to make fire? How about runn’n up to Canada or invading Mexico yourself? What’s up there or down there to help and protect you? Have you got friends and family in Canada? Can you speak Spanish and do you know how to live in an over populated 3rd world toilet? What? You’re going to drive into Mexico and just take it over with your AK? You’d better like the desert too.

So what are you going to do? Run around in your camouflage dungarees with a camouflaged gun and pickup painted in camouflage chewing tobacco from your camouflaged tin showing off all your stupid tattoo’s and cursing till the sky darkens to a storm? Get real!! I’m originally from Texas and I’m just as rough ‘n tough as the next guy out there. And, if I see a fool like this (or some black or Hispanic gang member) trying to invade my home… I’d shoot ya were you stand! In a California minute (which is a tenth of a second more laid-back than a New York minute). 🙂

But that’s NOT going to happen. There would be many stages before total anarchy. Gerald Celente is correct in stating one should be prepared to tear up that front lawn and become self-sufficient in one’s own foodstuff’s. Furthermore, work with your neighbors to not only grow products to get by on until law and order is restored; but work with them to maintain a water supply, electricity, hauling out your own trash or burning it in a vacant lot so as not to provoke disease.

Toilets don’t work? Build latrine’s with an outhouse over them and keep things sanitary as did your great grandfather and grandmother in days past. Set up your own [temporary] security methodology to protect yourselves day and night from invaders. That DOES include shooting to kill if necessary – for if a marauding group or gang tries to invade your housing area you may have no other choice. Of course you would then be part of the burial committee wouldn’t you? Ummm, how many vacant lots do you have around your condo or townhouse? Home Depot has already been stripped so did you think of stocking up on a pick and shovel before the SHTF?

I’ll tell you this true, short story. Back in the 60’s my father had a contract which took me and the rest of the family to the island of Guam. The people of Guam are U.S. citizens but still like to maintain part of their old island culture. That includes some specialty recipes indigenous to the island. One of the recipes includes breadfruit. A wonderful tasting, healthy fruit my mother use to bake in the oven once in a while.

Guam is about 30 miles long by 4 to 10 miles wide at the waist. There was a “Cross Island Road” we use to travel on when going from one side to the other. In the dense jungle just off this road was a huge breadfruit tree about 50 to 60 feet in height. My mother would send me over this road once in a while and ask me to stop and pull some breadfruit off of the tree for her. As a teenager I loved doing this because I enjoyed this huge tree very much. The smell of the breadfruit and its cool shade. By the mid-60’s we left Guam to return to Texas and I always missed that tree.

Years later, I returned to Guam where I owned several businesses. I would travel the Cross Island Road once in a while and stop at that old breadfruit tree and let my young boys climb on it to get some breadfruit. It was old but strong. It had survived Super Typhoon Karen on November 11, 1963 which had gusts to 207 mph, and Super Typhoon Pamela in May of 1976 which had had gusts to 180 mph. And, who knows how many typhoons it had survived over all of its years.

One evening, close to sunset, I watched the sky turn a lovely hue of pink and multicolored shades red as I traveled down the Cross Island Road. Stopping at the breadfruit tree location I got out and scratched my head. It was gone! I couldn’t believe it! My first thought was of who the dirty son-of-a-bitch was who had cut it down. I vowed to myself I’d track him down and give him a good beating for harming such a stately old tree which always had 50 or more breadfruits on it.

I slowly walked into the jungle toward where the tree had been. Slashing my way with a machete against the ubiquitous Tangan Tangan brush which grows everywhere; I came upon the spot where the tree had stood. To my astonishment the tree was still there. But it was felled and lay in a big heap with its breadfruit dead and reeking of a foul, sour-sweet smell. “What killed it?” I wondered as I slowly stepped through the branches to get to the main trunk. I was amazed to see it was termites! Yes, termites had eaten its heart out and in its weakened condition it finally fell. It had looked fine just a few days ago. It was regal in its splendor and its thick, green leaves shown with health. But here it was. Dead. Its heart ripped out.

This is what is happening to America. The land of the free is no longer free. The home of the brave have turned into fat, whining slobs who suck at the tit of the government (the taxpayer) begging for every hand-out under the sun. Socialized everything. University kids protesting with bullhorns that they want free education. A guaranteed job after graduation. Free housing and even free food! Obama, Pelosi, Reid pushing a health care bill which will further destroy our already broken budget. Our national debt not measured in a few measly billions but in the TRILLIONS!

Fellow Americans, we have become too soft! We’ve become too satisfied with our garbage disposals, dishwashers and big screen TV’s. We sit on our butts watching semi-illiterate, multi-millionaire sports figures and only take our eyes off the tube long enough to grab another slice of pizza or pick up another can of beer.

We were started as a REPUBLIC with one person, one vote but we now let the Electoral Collage determine our President and instead of MAJORITY rule.. we let every minority group that wants their way whine until they get it! We watch as the big international corporations (who DO NOT pledge allegiance to any country) close down our factories and ship our manufacturing (and jobs) to China and other countries. We stuff another French fry into our mouths as hear about the latest outrageous law being passed and say to ourselves: “Oh! That’s just the way it is. What can I do?”

Socialists, Communists and Fascists are all vying for the heart of the country while we order our next big burger at the drive-through in our heavily financed SUV. We love our goodies. Our TV’s, fancy cars and trucks, expensive computers, RV’s, boats, and vacations all financed with a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) taken out against our McMansion as most of us were too ignorant to understand that home values would not rise forever. Surprise, surprise! Which turns to dread then horror as we realize too late that our ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage) reset the end of the 3rd year and our mortgage/interest payments now doubled or even tripled.

Foreclosures, short sales, bankruptcies, repossessed vehicles, boats and RV’s. Dreams crushed. Unemployed or working lowly service jobs. Hands out for food stamps, unemployment, HUD housing and other government support simply because we were too GREEDY to save and buy our “stuff” with real, earned money. Too lazy or ignorant to “Just Say No!” to the greedy banksters on Wall St. who pumped the system with these “Liars Loans” and so-called “products” to rape us with.

Blame them? Yes. Blame yourself? Yes. What? Are you an idiot? Can’t you read? Didn’t you learn basic math in high school? Oh! I see! You were taught that “New Math” so a plus is a minus and a minus a plus to you. Okay! Blame it on “the system”… as usual.

You of course have no responsibility whatsoever to think for yourself. To understand the mortgage documents before you sign them. To ask what an ARM is or get knowledge about any other banking “product” which was sold to you. No… that’s right. I forgot! Your parents didn’t teach you any values and as a teenager you became a Hippie. Smoked dope. Listened to Jim Morrison and Jimmy Hendrix and let the Beatles woo you with Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Oh! You’re from the next generation? Yes, you’ve got an excuse too. Your parents were Hippies, didn’t give a crap, let you do what you wanted so you didn’t study either and listened to Metallica, Guns 4 Roses, etc., and sat on your butts playing your Nintendo’s and Playstations.

Meanwhile, because we weren’t truly interested in government (“I’m too busy” was the usual refrain), we let the banksters and the multinational’s pay off our Congressmen and groom our Presidents to do their bidding and now over 80% of our manufacturing jobs have been lost. The bastards in power are only interested in more power and pile law upon law destroying our Constitution and freedoms as we sit back with our beer and pizza watching the Dallas Cowboys, a Lakers game or a Seinfeld rerun.

We whine about buying Chinese “crap,” but most of it is NOT crap and is engineered here in the USA and manufactured at one of the multinationals manufacturing plants relocated to China. I’ve been there. I’ve seen it! We use to call ‘em Gooks and Slopes and Chinks and all other types of derogatory terms but now we twist and squirm while one of these guys makes $2 per day making that foreign TV you just bought. Hell, even the Japanese have assembly plants for their electronics in Northern China!

I like Gerald Celente. I subscribe to his Trends Journals & Forecasts. He, as others say: “Buy American!” Yeah, right! Say it again! Buy American for Americans! But it’s not going to happen. It’s too late to save most of our good manufacturing jobs. Their gone! Shipped to China, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore, Mexico, and many other countries. And, they aren’t coming back! Where can you buy a “Made In America” brand TV or DVD or CD player? Look at the guts of your Dell or HP computer. Made in China and other Asian countries. Where was that monitor made you are looking at?

Look around you. What’s made in America? The chair you’re sitting in? Nope. I’ll bet you its even made in China. I think the paint on my walls is made in the USA. Maybe the sheetrock too and the timber came from Oregon. Copper water piping and electrical wiring? Naw… made in China. Just about everything INCLUDING the stainless steel kitchen sink is made in China or elsewhere.

You know, I’m not the only one, but I’ve been a hell raiser for MY COUNTRY all my life. Trying to get people motivated to get off their butts. But it seems I’ve been nothing but a voice crying in the wilderness so to speak. People talk ‘n talk n’ talk ‘n talk but NO ACTION! I like this set of lyrics from the Pink Floyd song “Time.”

“And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun”

And that’s the POINT! More than 10 years have got behind us since this outsourcing began. More than 10 years have gotten behind us since we let our government run roughshod over us. More than 10 years have gotten behind us while we have sat on our butts and complained. We’ve moaned, and groaned and jumped up and down scream’n and beat’n the walls but we HAVE NOT COME TOGETHER as a group and strong voice to straighten out this country. When are YOU going to get off your butt and do it? When are you going to stand up and be counted? When are you going to organize or gather into an organization to take this country back from an overpowering government and the elite banksters and multinationals who have raped you? I’m not talking about some militia with skinheads or Nazi’s and some stupid agenda either.

Oh! I see. You’re just going to listen to Glenn Beck, Celente, Schiff and others with that beer in your hand and continue to whine till the shit does hit the fan. Then you’ll do something! Yep! You’re rough ‘n tough and ya wear your diapers hung low eh? You’ll pull out your AK ‘n go “pop a cap” in some mofo…

Time is ticking away. Our country is falling away. What are YOU going to do other than whine and post on ‘blogs? How many times did call your Congressman last year and this year? How many times did you snail-mail and email his or her offices? Are you going to vote them out the next election? Or, are just going to take the same old easy way out. Vote for the incumbent whether Democrat or Republican. Ever thought about joining another party out there and strengthening it? When does all the hot air stop and get replaced with positive action?

There would be no need for all this tough talk about survival and killing some invader of our larder if we all worked together to take this country back to its roots. What did Jefferson say about taking back government? You know and I know. Lets get involved before its too late!

This essay has been contributed by Steve Richards for your reading pleasure.