http://westernrifleshooters.blogspot.com/2011/04/hard-things-you-are-already-dead.html
Hard Things: You Are Already Dead
(click to enlarge; image courtesy of Alvie, based on snark in this post)
Caveat #1: This post is advanced ugliness; you will be well-served by having read in advance and thought through the implications of these previous posts, along with their associated comments:
20 Questions
20 More Questions
Feedback On 20 More Questions
Let's Win
Counterforce vs. Countervalue
If You Read One Article This Month
Caveat #2: I fully understand what Suarez means by being "the first man" in this essay, but what if the first man actually sets out to build a perpetual motion machine, or to breed unicorns?
Do you really want to be him?
Some observations for your thoughtful analysis:
1) You Are Already Dead: Face it - you are mortal. We don't have any viewer data here at WRSA on the average age of our readers, but anybody want to bet those regulars aren't closer to 50 than 30?
If, by that age, you haven't reconciled to your pending demise, stop reading now and get help with that simple issue.
Seriously.
Even for those who have accepted their biological short-fuse, consider what the Bad People and their allies such as Google are doing with the IP address information for visitors to sites such as WRSA, Sipsey Street, and other "irreconcilables".
If you were the Bad People, would you sort that IP info (along with its correlates from the hordes of other government and commercial databases) and classify each visitor into one of three buckets - high risk, medium risk, and low risk?
Wouldn't you then have contingency plans for each category, including special action for those deemed unacceptable risks?
Wouldn't that special action work something along the lines Sam outlines here?
Sorry, grey men amongst our visitors.
Maybe you'll be in the "low risk" category.
Maybe.
If I'm wrong on this or any other observation, please explain in detail why in the comments.
2) In Many Cases, Your Spouse, Family, Friends, and Neighbors Will Be Your Most Dangerous Enemies
The people closest to you know you the best.
Is their knowledge and exercise of OPSEC and COMSEC equal to their knowledge of your supplies, political ideation, associates, and other information?
Are all of them always happy with you and thus not susceptible to the always-human "I'll show him" blab-attack?
What about financial pressure from their primary income source?
Are you sure?
How?
3) There May Be No Shortage Of Leaders, But There Will Be A Profound Shortage of Good Leaders
Suffice it to say, how many people have you met along the trail who you would trust enough to follow in a kinetic environment?
How do you know?
Do you think you have time to improve that situation?
And if so, how?
4) If You Have One Friend You'd Call To Help You Feed The Pigs, You Are Lucky
How do you know?
Do you think you have time to improve that situation?
And if so, how?
5) Do You Think The Authorities In Your Area Have Any Objective Reason To Restrain Themselves When The Centre Does Not Hold?
Or is it more likely that they will go NOLA on you and yours?
Your mileage will vary.
Got a plan for both scenarios?
6) The Point Is Not The Spear, And The Spear Is Not The Point
This koan speaks to the interrelationship between combat arms, their supporting mechanisms, and the myriad of political controls and influences that impact the use of force in the modern battlespace.
If you have not yet meditated deeply on the concept, you should.
7) The Harder I Work, The Luckier I Get
How's that PT going?
And I don't care how crippled you are; you can feel better and be more capable if you begin to eat less and move more, even at this late date.
No slack.
The good news?
Eating less is coming soon, regardless of your plans or desires.
8) Failing To Plan Is Planning To Fail
Got range cards?
How about a checklist?
How about a list of lists?
How about a ten-week "worst case" plan?
9) You Are Not An Army Of One
You are a lonely, scared American deep within enemy lines with little to rely upon except your own wits and whatever you have manage to secrete at whichever of your alternate caches that didn't get snagged on the initial roll-up.
Think American remnant in the Philippines of 1942 and you'll be better oriented than those infected with much of the attrition warfare bunk that has been drilled via repetition into people's minds.
You are in the mess until you die, or you win.
There is no chain of command.
There are no rescue convoys.
There is no CSAR.
There ain't even any Dugout Doug and his photog crew.
Suck it up and deal.
You're still alive, right?
10) Come As You Are
All of the gear, skills, and reliable people you are likely to have comes down to what you have now.
Plan and execute to those capabilities, even as "now" changes and your fortunes increase or subside.
There are no reinforcements coming.
And even if they do arrive, how do you handle recognition codes?
Be a pity to get whacked with Blue-on-Blue fire, wouldn't it?
You do remember that you are a domestic terrorist, right?
11) Three Men Can Keep A Secret If Two Of Them Are Dead
If you want to better your odds, study successful criminal organizations - outlaw biker gangs, major cocaine and heroin organizations, ethnic smuggling tribes, bootleggers, and the like.
You'll find a number of common themes.
You'll want most of those themes as your own, odds are.
Conclusion: Better get used to thinking through issues on your own, because that's the situation you are in.
And it ain't gonna get better anytime soon.
But be of good cheer.
At least you're here, amongst friends.
How'd you like to be one of the "whah hoppened?" crowd as the Collapse accelerates?
Besides, those folks will be out of your way within the first six months.
Forward.
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