This article was originally published by Brandon Smith at Alt-Market.com
I have never lived through a national scale crisis and like most people, I hope I never have to. That said, with the growing instability present in the state of the world today it would be rather foolish to assume that the near future holds nothing but fairy dust, unicorns and gumdrops. Preparation is a necessity.
Many Americans cannot yet relate to the concept of full spectrum crisis, but most of us have at least experienced localized disasters. In order to understand what a national emergency might look like, one simply needs to examine the microcosm of localized disasters and then imagine the same exact problems but magnified 1,000 times.
From my personal experience with local crises, I can say that the worst threat comes not from the event itself, but the ways in which people choose to deal with the event. That is to say, for smart, courageous and prepared people with the right traits and skills, there is no such thing as a crisis. For stupid people who overestimate their abilities or who let fear dominate their thinking, any crisis becomes an insurmountable moment of utter terror.
The right people in the right place at the right time — no crisis. The wrong people in the right place at the right time — total destruction. Therefore, the key to surviving any crisis is to have the right people in place, and to be well away from the wrong people.
The question is, who are the right people? How do we identify them? And, how do we examine ourselves and determine if we are ready or unready? Here are some of the increasingly rare character traits and skills that make a crisis manageable for any community.
The Ability To Act Without Permission
This is one of the hardest character qualities to find in people in a moment of crisis. Remember back to any crisis moments you have personally experienced and ask yourself how many people around you actually tried to solve the problem immediately, and how may stood around waiting for someone else to take the lead?
During larger scale disasters this frequently manifests as widespread apathy. Thousands or even millions of people milling around for someone in “authority” to tell them what they should do rather than taking measures themselves. I am not a big believer in leadership by dictation. The moment you give one or very few people the power to dictate the actions of entire groups, your society is already doomed. However, I am a believer in leadership by example because I have seen it work.
Unfortunately, people who have the ability to lead by example are few and far between. Without people of this quality within your community, it is unlikely you will survive. Decisiveness wins the day.
The Ability To Teach
When I mention the ability to teach, I am not referring to people who we designate officially as “teachers” or people who call themselves teachers. Most teachers do not actually know how to teach anything.
I am thoroughly convinced that the ability to to teach, to transfer knowledge in a way that people can easily understand and replicate, is an inborn skill — a few people are gifted with it, most people are not. I have seen men and women with expert level knowledge in numerous fields of study who are bumbling buffoons when it comes to passing that knowledge on to others. This is because it is not enough to have mastered a skill set; you must also be able to read other people and figure out how they process information. You have to be highly intuitive to teach, and this is not something that can be learned, it is something that comes naturally.
Finding great teachers during terrible times is the best way for a community to strengthen rather than weaken. It is also the only way that a society can rebuild after a collapse.
The Ability To Think Outside Of The Box
Crisis scenarios sometimes require imaginative solutions in order for the threat to be removed. Thinking outside of the box means a person is unafraid to gamble, and also unafraid to enact measures which have no precedence in history. Thinking outside of the box is not guaranteed to work, but it is a desirable trait when predictable responses are likely to fail.
An outside-the-box thinker is a kind of inventor – he invents or engineers a mechanism that no one else could have conceived of because he does not see the crisis in front of him in linear terms; he does not see it as a situation he is trapped within. Rather, he sees the crisis as if outside the bubble looking from above. Many people have done this at least once in their lives; few people are able to do this on a regular basis.
The Ability To Stay Calm
It is truly amazing how few people are able to recognize they are in the midst of an emergency or disaster and remain calm and collected. Keep in mind, people who are apathetic during a crisis are not “remaining calm,” they simply are too ignorant to understand the gravity of the situation. Remaining calm requires you to see the danger and to act accordingly without panic.
Vetting people for such a character trait is pretty easy; just watch how they respond to smaller stress events. Do they run and hide every time literally or psychologically, or do they stand their ground and work out the problem? Do they let their emotions take full control, or do they manage them?
Reactionaries can make any crisis far worse by their mere presence. Get rid of them, or teach them how to manage stress if you can.
The Ability To Direct Force Intelligently
Sometimes a crisis is not a natural event but a man-made event, and the only way to stop the crisis is to eliminate the man or men responsible. This requires self-defense, and self-defense requires force. Sadly, when most people do direct force to stop an attack rather than cowering in fear they tend to do it haphazardly and without intelligent direction. They simply lash out in anger, and sometimes the wrong people get hurt in the process.
This is kind of like using a shovel rather than a scalpel to scoop out a tumor.
The ability to direct force intelligently requires not only a propensity for acting without permission, but also in some cases remaining patient. When action is taken, it must be done with precision and insight. Finding a person who appreciates this methodology is like finding a four leaf clover nowadays.
The Ability To Psychologically Process Carnage
Disasters are usually messy and horrifying affairs leading to grisly and macabre scenes. The key is to be able to process the sight of such carnage without being mentally broken by it, while also maintaining one’s humanity. I call these people “quiet professionals.”
People who think that dealing with the pain and death of others requires you to act like a robot have missed the point entirely and are not safe and functional people to have present in a crisis.
Instead, it is vital that we continue to hold onto our empathy, but not let it disrupt our ability to take action to help those who are suffering. Anyone who simply shuts off all emotion is likely a sociopath, and while sociopaths do have a knack for functioning well in grisly jobs they also have a knack for putting other people at risk. Sociopaths are incapable of caring about others, while quiet professionals take responsibility for others despite the ugliness of the situation.
The Ability To Self-Sacrifice
This is not a quality that can be easily seen in other people. Situations that actually call for self-sacrifice usually occur only in the worst of times, and it is nearly impossible to know for certain how anyone, including ourselves, will act when that time comes.
To be clear, self-sacrifice by itself is not a noble quality. There are people out there that long for martyrdom, but they do so in the name of personal glory rather than in the name of saving others. Not only should self-sacrifice be enacted only when it is certain to save lives and no other options are available, it should also only be enacted without selfish aspirations of promoting one’s own legacy. Such an attitude invariably leads to disaster rather than redemption.
The Ability To Recognize When Others Are More Qualified To Accomplish A Task
It is vital that people have the ability to take initiative during a crisis and get things done. But, it is also vital for people to recognize when the person next to them is better qualified for a specific task.
“Leadership” — good leadership — is about deferring responsibilities in a practical way. If you cannot do this then you are not a leader, you are an annoyance or an obstacle. I have seen far too many people in leadership positions sabotage their own efforts by refusing to hand over responsibility to those better suited to certain tasks.
If you are a motivator, but not a teacher, then motivate your best teachers to teach rather than trying to take charge of both tasks and failing miserably. If you are not skilled in a particular area, then don’t try to micromanage people who are. Finding people who are “doers” is a fantastic thing, as long as they can refrain from overstepping their realm of ability and stepping on the toes of others.
The worst possible scenario I can imagine is to have a community in which leadership is not shared according to expertise to some extent. Identify micro-managers and mini-tyrants early, or suffer the fate of a completely dysfunctional community in the face of unprecedented challenges.
It is perhaps not coincidental that all of the above character qualities are growing rarer as our culture grows more and more unstable. The notion of preparedness for crisis revolves far too much around collecting supplies and menial skills and not enough around collecting people of excellent character. That is to say, true preparedness is about building up necessary supplies and talents, but it is also about organizing with uniquely qualified people. Ignoring the latter task is to set yourself up for inevitable failure.
If you would like to support the publishing of articles like the one you have just read, visit our donations page here. We greatly appreciate your patronage. You can contact Brandon Smith at: [email protected]
Mac, you have an awesome site. The back-to-back articles by Selco and Brandon Smith are terrific.
Thanks Mac.
As usual, Mac goes and gets the best for us. While Mac is a good writer in his own right, he also rubs shoulders with the best. Mr. Bruno is hard to top for stuff like this. How long has it been Mr. Burn? Almost ten years, I suspect.
May the shadow of NeitherCorp never leave us!
This article rocks. As you can see, Brandon does some really, REALLY deep thinking. The Sons of Light smile each time an article of his hits the Internet.
“From my personal experience with local crises, I can say that the worst threat comes not from the event itself, but the ways in which people choose to deal with the event.”
No truer words have ever been written.
I’ll have to go back and read this one again, in depth, to get the full effect.
OK, I really dislike autocorrect. Ugh!
The danger which comes from the way people handle it, precisely, and my honest concern is that actions like that are most likely to come from communities similar to this. The Infowars preppers, the conspiratorial folks, the absolutists. I’m genuinely concerned that those who believe some of the more extreme aspects of the propaganda we are so inundated with, will be those most likely to succumb to the chaos, or facilitate it.
Adamant:
Most of us here are professionals who don’t believe in Aliens, warping reptiles, or that any of the self styled prophets can predict when or even if an economic crisis or a natural disaster or man made disaster will happen. But many of us here have experienced disaster and we’re grateful that we had some preps in place, or we were not well enough prepared and have learned a hard earned lesson. So think what you like. Some of us could care less.
Anon.
My comment is made in honest criticism of some, but clearly not all. It is easy to recognize the vast wealth of experience and knowledge to be gained from some here, so my comments are clearly not for them. Despite that you may not care for my opinion, I am only making an observation of trends that I have noticed. Cheers and good luck.
Agree w/ anon. as some sites are nut jobs, putting out aliens, giants, reptilian crap and predict this and that. Many folks quit reading those sites as they are geared to entertainment and who the H has time to waste? I believe many families will isolate during a serious shtf crisis, then after the “die off: they will come together with others in community to barter, set up businesses and go forward. Most everyone I know has been thru hurricanes and knows to be prepared, not a day ahead of the storm like morons do. Good idea now is to prune out useless friends and relatives who cannot think critically, ones you can’t trust, ditch all civic and vets org., 501c3 social churches, and hunker down with like minded folks and keep a low profile. Just don’t return calls or emails or get a phone blocker to block out certain numbers, which we did several years ago. Most people are stuck in stupid anyway and are like cattle/sheep.
In a large crisis, with body injuries, when triage comes in. Don’t be distracted at the loud blabbering idiot who has a cut leg, he is doing just fine. Look for the victims that are not making any noise or movement at all. Check for a pulse and breathing. ABC’s – Airway open, Breathing, Circulation… check for a pulse. Weak and slow = Danger. That’s who you help first. And remove the person from danger, like a burning car. Never approach a burning car from the back where the Gas Tank is located. I know one fire fighter who did and was burned severely when the tank exploded. Are you going to remember that? That’s the type of thing that can get you killed.
Remove the danger when you work. Not wearing safety glasses can take your eye out. What then when you can’t see to get help far out at your BOL. Err on the side of caution, and play what if’s. I saved a dozen of my 2.5 Gallon water jugs with a spicket. I cut off the tops near one end and can still use the container to quickly scoop up some water from my lake, to fight a fire if needed. How many of you have multiple fire extinguishers to fight a basic fire in your home, or smoke detectors and the batteries are fresh? I have 2 fire extinguishers, and need to get a few more. Look this up. 2.5 Gallon Buckeye Pressurized Water Extinguisher-Empty $93 Get one.
~WWTI…
The best like dollar store psychics predicting another “crash” every 2 weeks? Yea man what a bunch of superstars
Bla bla:
Don’t you have something better to do than to come here to show your contempt for the people here. I know I have better things to do than deal with people who have nothing to offer but put downs. So don’t expect me to dignify your existence with another acknowledgement. Have a good life. Life is short. Don’t waste it being a bully.
Boo hoo. People like you can’t stand anyone of dissenting opinion, you just like to preach to the crowd. nice to know I defended a nation of pussies
Blah
since you are far ahead, make a contribution to the conversation. Thanks.
Well there blahblah, anyone who has done time in the military is well aware that “the outfit” you are with has certain “mottos”. One motto or rather, it’s more like an oath, is that when you return to civilian life you will in no way deface your ‘old’ unit by being a detriment to the area you live in. Not an asshole, a belligerent drunk or troublemaker in a trailerpark …etc. (That’s not it in so many words, but you get my drift). So, uh, where do get off talking to a bunch of civilians like that, and how do you know that you aren’t directing your dumbass statement at men and women who outrank(ed) you “and earned it.” I put in 21-years special forces. How much of YOUR life have YOU invested “protecting?” There are MANY, MANY here who have put in AT LEAST as many years, or the years they DID put in were “just as bad” as putting in a full 20, day-for-day. You are probably just a liar, and are invoking “stolen-valor.” If so, get lost or get smart and change your name.
I can relate this back to when I was a Fire Fighter Paramedic in my early 20’s. Seen a lot, how people live, inside their houses on every level and cultures. Those Leaders with hands on training can focus when need to, or look at the big picture and be able to adapt quickly and make smart decisions immediately. That all comes down to by being prepared, knowledgeable from training and lots of hands on experience. Go through your gear and make sure everything is there. And be in good physical condition to carry out tasks. Most 80% of the public are Stoopid F*cking Sheep and ONLY Know how to follow. Because they are low IQ, Low ambition, or those who choose to be stoopid like religious freaks. I saved lives, not some God in the sky. Praying never saved a single soul unless by coincidence or dumb luck. Its who is there johnny on the spot with the knowledge and training to sustain life. Stabilize the pt and haul ass to someone with more training. You are smart leader and know which way is North by pointing. Because you always keep yourself oriented. Don’t depend on mechanical gadgets to know what direction you are going . Parents, Play games and figure out what direction you are going in the car, by questioning your kids. Don’t let them zone out with some Headphone music. Continue to educate your kids every day. Do you even have a clue what they are listening to? Be aware on so many levels and be aware of your surroundings. Don’t stare at your cell phone when walking to the store. The thieves looks for dumbasses like you to rob, cause you are unprepared and clueless stoopid.
You can choose to be a leader and survive, or you can follow bad advice and die, like huddled sheep in a church basement. Life is full of choices, and the thousands of decisions good or bad you made over the decades, got you to where you are at today. Nobodys fault but your own, or glad to be a leader, and in charge with your life. Self-employed, off the grid, You own your own time and you do NOT punch some managers clock.
~WWTI…
NetRanger, same here. Brandon is one of my favorite writers. I always look forward to his articles.
That last one is a kicker for most. Humility isn’t a trait man finds desirable.
Character traits are very easy to find during a crisis. People’s character re readily apparent… Just not the good kind of character.
Agreed!
I don’t know who said this, but I’ve tried hard to live it:
“The measure of a man’s character, is how he treats someone who can do nothing for him”.
This means several political candidates have NO character/ integrity whatsoever.
Again, great article and spot on with my personal experience thus far in my life.
In a crisis you will change your opinion of a lot of the people that you know. Some of them you would have expected more of, but they let you down. Others that you didn’t think would rise to the occasion, surpass your wildest expectations. Keep an open mind.
Yea I have been waiting for decades to see the ones that did not let me down or disappoint our compassionate expectations.
The wife is more gullible than she should be, so i have tried to save her from further disappointment, by causing her to see how the majority of people think and react.
We have culled some and distanced ourselves, from most of the people that we have been trying to educate over the past ten years for what is coming upon the earth.
If people are not willing to be a part of the plans and solutions, they will someday become problems if you keep them in your circles.
We have had some that even made the critical error of saying…”I know where I am going when the grid goes down”. In translation, they are saying we are coming to take advantage of all your hard work and resources. We should have never let them know about our preps and retreat location.
Wrong, on the coming to Passin’s B.O.! They will not be welcome. We have had to cut ties with those people because too many elderly and innocent children, in our retreat locastion, will be depending upon us and our resources. When the SHTF, the outsiders, will remain outsiders and a lot of compassion and wisdom that was extended beforehand….. will be long gone.
Passin, when is the Big Spaceship going to arrive on that day to save you and your wife? You know, the true believers.. Taking your Bug Out Bag? Will it fit in the overhead luggage compartment? Don’t forget your Kool-Aid.
I think the Walking Dead show is a close to grid down disaster scenario SHTF WROL we can get to. The Walkers, aka: Free Shit Army will be the unprepared 80% with no leadership skills and inability to organize. I think the Agitators out there will be quickly taken out, with out a whim.
One great aspect I see for being a Prepper is the low stress you will feel in a disaster, because you don’t have to think about food or how to cook it, or sleeping, or disposal of bathroom waste, or needing extra gas, or protecting yourself and family with guns and weapons and everybody knows how to use them load them and shoot them with proficiency. You got the tools, and the shovel, and the area picked out already for body waste. Or dug before the ground froze this winter. Try digging into frozen ground to dispose of poop with a family of 5.
Try digging graves in the winter to bury the dead. Or you are a rich Prepper, and have your own end loader with tire chains.
~WWTI…
Observer, Fantastic observation. Remember folks, you don’t know what you don’t know until you know.
Good article
Be “Lieutenant Dan”. As the caption above illustrates, you lead from in front…not from the rear. There was a reason Douglas MacArthur was know as “Dugout Doug”.
Don’t be that guy.
Excellent article.
1: Can I act without permission? Yes.
2. Can I teach? It depends on the subject, but yes and I am not a “professional” teacher either.
3. Can I think outside the box? Yes.
4. Can I stay calm? Probably, due to a combination of martial arts training and having worked in an inner-city ER. Nothing like the effects of the Friday night Knife-and-Gun Club to teach reality.
5. Do I have the ability to direct force intelligently? No. Not my area of expertise.
6. Do I have the capacity to process change? Yes. I accept that change is an inherent part of life.
7. Do I have the ability to self sacrifice? Probably not.
8. Do I have the ability to recognize when others are more qualified to accomplish a task? Yes.
All good questions.
Phil, On #7 – Don’t you think it depends on who the sacrifice is for?
NR: yes.
NR and Philo, #7 definitely depends for me. I can’t see self-sacrificing for someone or something useless.
I generally practice a rule of not self evaluating. I will generally take into consideration evaluations of myself by those I trust as level headed, sensible people. In my experience, not many people are self aware enough to accurately point out their own flaws.
I would suggest though, one other trait. Resourcefulness. I tend to believe that this will be the most valuable trait in people in a SHTF situation. Cheers and good luck.
A: wow. People think I am critical but I am most critical with regard to myself. “Know thyself” was the maxim of ancient philosophers and I have practiced self-evaluation for decades. It isn’t always pleasant but I think it is necessary. I also agree that honest feedback is important, even critical. Unfortunately I have met few people willing to engage in this type of truth. Most folks are offended.
About resourcefulness and the ability improvise: yes.
@ Philo…Having owned junk for cars most of my life, I can Okie Rig almost anything. For instance, when the solenoid took a dump on my Kubota tractor, the dealer wanted 700$, ebay wanted 350$ for a chink one, and I drilled a hole in the back of it and used a phillips screwdriver to push in the bendix and start it….until I got lazy and found another one for 200$ a year later.
Thats how I roll, make something work. I like it…
A reasoned, respectable response. I have also learned there are generally exceptions to the rules. I tend to often be overly critical, which is why I try to refrain. I find myself dwelling on things that I could have or should have done better, so I focus a little more on letting things go. I take very seriously though the criticisms from those I respect and care about. Though, from most, I find that indeed level of truth is unwanted, and very rarely honestly given.
A: thank you. Like the rest of life, it is a matter of balance. Honest and direct people are rare and thus valuable.
I am adopting this as my motto: “trust but verify.” Love it.
“Hard To Find In A Crisis”
The traits described are hard to find period as those with them are generally walked over by those with the following, self serving, sneaky, lying, manipulative. Those rising in a crisis would most likely be the unknown in everyday life.
Good article-I do all of the above fairly well, as I have said many times on here. It is not me I am worried about when SHTF, it is everyone else…
In my world, everyone stands there and gawks or says “it’s not my job” when something out of the regular schedule needs done at my workplace, but I don’t give it a thought and jump to action. I report to the supervisor what I do each day while the others don’t. This guarantees a job for me when I am laid off for the season and rehired again. These are the people who will perish if there is a shtf crisis when they depend on everyone else to do the work for them.
The way people treat each other today. I say only the skilled and strong survive. Tough shit? Then Chew Harder.
Learning plenty from all of you.
“ALIVE”
This is the title of a Hollywood Movie actually worth seeing. An Olympic Team of Young Men and their families are downed in the Snow on a remote mountain range. This true account of Survival, demonstrates beautifully and elegantly, the human spirit; it’s strengths and it’s frailties. You take the journey with them, and you are changed. I was. I am grateful to the members of the flight and the men and women who brought this film to reality.
The book was much better. I think it was a different title “Survive”.
No good deed goes unpunished. Im pretty much service to self. Ive prepped for me & mine. And others need to do the same for them & thiers. My give a durn for most others has been broken for a long time. The majority are deep in debt, part of the parasite government or free shit army. Unhealthy land wales who will not be of any use anyway. Its not my job. My job is to provide for me & mine.
Old Guy
People going to find out how cheap your life can be.
I could care less about what others think. And I don’t care what they do as long as it doesn’t adversely effect me.
Old Guy, I agree totally. I spent all last week at the BOL in GA on a ‘training exercise’ with the family for what’s coming. They’re the ONLY ones I’ll do something for. Everyone else needs to do for themselves. If they don’t, that’s not my problem. The land whales wouldn’t make it past the first day of SHTF.
I don’t post for the self reliant who have know how and have prepped. I post to let the needy and helpless know they are going to perish. Its that simple if you are not able to take care of you & yours no one else is going to be your enabler. They will have plenty to do without carrying your dead weight. There could be two people on a island with nothing but rocks. And before long one person would have all the rocks on their side of the island.
Old Guy
Way to Go!
They better get their shit together! I have done enough for others in my lifetime and I’m not going to take it anymore.
Yep. Fuck with the old guys and see what happens.
As you will not waste time and effort on the worthless/helpless now, don’t waste your time posting to warn them either. They don’t read sites like this, and would only ignore your warnings anyway.
Your correct. In the title of this forum. Its says When shit hits the fan Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
i agree why expose myself by feeding others that are dead weight and will report you to the authorites any way the second you feed one of these dead beats your on the hook
Yes, I am see me not doing well in this type of scenario.. I may jam my magazine and not get to put the damn thing in, not to mention jamming shot gun shells in my A1.. i need to sharpen up Mt skills a bit.. I got down the martial arts fine tuned.. but I have to admit skills are not easy to find..
What Sling said. Rough sh..t..your either phucked or your not..after reading what Hodges just posted I think I may be low on Ammo and need more. I feel really bad for h:e invading armies when they enter Texas..or by the way don’t let me capture any or you soldiers in my city…I have never seem a town like mine that sells knives off the shelves.. it’s insane is the words of one. Cop standing right next to me in Academy..their is a lot of carving and cutting coming up, was his comment..
Aka,
HCKS..
I am sure guys are laughing your asses off just reading my post..
HCKS, no laughter from me but you’re right about the cutting and carving. Not to mention the shooting.
You want ammo. If it is like around here you’ll only find it online. High-caliber pistols are sold out …just .380’s left and some really ‘shit’ long rifles …notta for ammo. Notta for powder and notta for reloaders. Where’s the damned ammo?
Luckygunner, Natchez shooters supply, midway, bulk ammo, etc
Not really hcks. They were funny once but like the joke that gets told hundreds of times it’s just tedious now, but you may be on to inventing a new way to cure insomnia but repeating them all the time.
Agree that it’s a good article. Some things most of us have well considered already.
While I wish I had some reliable team members, there are none worth considering. A few who are are thousands of miles from here.
None have prepped, and one of those said something similar to what Passin’ stated above. “We’re coming to your place”…only because we have means of self defense. They know nothing of our other preps.
And they won’t find out about them, either.
We are remote enough that even friends who’ve been here would have an impossible trek to get here on foot, if car transportation is down.
If that time comes I will not answer the phone (if they’re working) and I will plead with my wife not to, either. Better to not answer than tell someone “no”.
There have been some good articles come up here at SHTF plan. Decent discussion. Yet I do not know how long the political arena can remain in the spotlight. Like everything is being funneled down to the major players and moves in the game.
To use my time wisely I am doing lots of small tasks. Sharpening and oiling tools, knives axes and whatever has an edge. Amazing how the time of day passes. And the small add up. Get the little jobs done now so they do not interfere with the big stuff later.
We have an idiot for a president and what we have for our next choice is not going well.
Vote for Hillary. It’s the Doomsday Vote.
Sometimes a crisis is not a natural event but a man-made event, and the only way to stop the crisis is to eliminate the man or men responsible. This requires self-defense, and self-defense requires force. Sadly, when most people do direct force to stop an attack rather than cowering in fear they tend to do it haphazardly and without intelligent direction. They simply lash out in anger, and sometimes the wrong people get hurt in the process.
*Cough* George W. Bush…
Slingshot, if anyone’s noticed, I haven’t been on here as much in the past 6 weeks because of other things popping up. Even when I was at the BOL last week I didn’t come on here much. I’ve been doing other things like you just mentioned and more. Damn right it’s best to have all your ducks lined up now. If you wait until after the balloon has gone up, you’ve screwed up royally. this election will be a doomsday election regardless.
EVERY ONE OF THESE TRAITS WAS TAUGHT TO ME AS AN ARMY NCO
Where are the LEADERS ?
Not the snot nose dippy doos no thinking kiss ass kind that only go along to get along type that can not make a decision .
Seems fair enough to think that if anyone KNEW that they were a ‘natural-born-leader’, then the last thing they’d do is preach that to people prior to being needed, as in a crisis-like situation. This is because they’d be trounced by the “know it alls” and such, and so they choose to remain silent.
Now, AFTER SHTF has “set in” and the majority have nothing, those same people who would have given you nothing but “sh*t” are now going to be quite willing to follow your advice, and eat your food. The leaders are biding their time. They are also NOT going to put a sign on their head that says “arrest me” because it gets out they are forming a “posse commitatus” (or whatever that is), or that they are forming an anti-muslim or actually, THIS government would nail them for being terrorists-in-training …so naturally, to avoid the enemy, you do nothing for the enemy to destroy you with. (Not until you’ve no choice but to engage them, and then you hit like hell and “never give up”…things won’t ever be the same. Probably not even close, or not what we’re used to having at this time (or more like a couple years back or when things weren’t quite so ‘on edge’). Right now, people are either “primed and ready” or “totally unaware that anything at all may be amiss” and “oh, that’s overseas. It will never affect The USA …you know it so you don’t have to wait for it).
I can understand why some readers get upset when someone like me post a truthful statement that in essence states your on your own. I simply DTA Don’t Trust Anyone. You think you have a trustworthy person. Tell them a secret. And tell no one else. And see how long before the secret is revealed. There was a medieval Knight going off to war. So he gave the keys to his wife & daughters chasity belt to a really loyal faithful trusted servant. Before the Knight had gone but a few miles the servant came running. Out of breath he gasped you gave me the wrong set of keys none of them fit?
American troops in Europe at the end of WWII noted an interesting thing. The Germans set to work to help themselves The French and English sat and waited for the govt to do it for them. During the Easter Rebellion in Ireland the rebels took over the post office Buildin6g which was on fire. Shells exploded against its walls, Machine gun fire swept the streets Open war. It was dole day so people lined up to get their dole regardless of reality. It had always been there and they could not process the change. The people to avoid in a crisis are the ones who do not look like you and who do not talk like you because you will be the first to go in6 a thinning out process
So,you believe in possibility of reptilians and the greys you are a nut job?The greys by the way are slaves/were created by reptilians,they actually despite some weird”probing”are our allies,just suffering genetic breakdowns/hence,trying to get some dna correction by using some human dna.
Cultural diversity to the nith degree,laugh all you want!
In real life, though, the “leader guy” should be drawn without any friends.