======== Newsgroups: misc.survivalism Subject: Article: "How Bad will it Get?" part 1 From: Digman@ix.netcom.com (Digger) Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 05:28:43 GMT How bad will it get? When will it happen? Am I really prepared? I assume these are questions that "Self-reliant" people ask themselves all of the time, not to mention the ever popular "What role will the Government play in a crisis of that magnitude?" Almost assuredly it will be an adversarial role at best. Considering the recent attacks on Militias, Separatists and Religious groups by the FBI, ATF and other government terrorist agencies, convince me that "Komrade Klinton" and his underlings will expend every effort that they can to "shove" this country and it's people into their beloved socialistic "New World Order". There are as many theories as to how prepared one should be as there are possible scenarios concerning the "collapse". If you believe Kurt Saxon's theory about the National debt and it's interest (which is pretty compelling) we may indeed face some sort of economic crisis by the year 2000. We are already witnessing smaller banking institutions being absorbed by the largest ones. Hostile takeovers of businesses are commonplace. Individual free-enterprise is slowly being dismantled by large wealthy conglomerates. Small business is failing at an alarming rate. Truthfully, anti-trust issues are increasingly ignored by the Government. The enormous growth of the stock market could end up like a balloon being filled until it pops. The growing disdain with welfare abuse and subsequent welfare reform laws that have been passed lately and the recent anti-immigrant laws will all add "fuel to the fire". The Socialist-Elitist power base has continued a 'soft on crime' attitude for over 30 years now in an order to justify more and more restrictive and prohibitive laws. Continual disarming of law abiding citizens has led to increasing frustration of those citizens and all the while the elitists are armed to the teeth. More often than not, decent, hard-working, law abiding Americans are feeling increasingly powerless against crime, inflation, underhanded business tactics and Government intrusion into their lives. Government indifference in certain areas and over-legislation in others has led to a 'crisis of priorities' in this country. Everywhere you look, life is over-complicated. Thousands of "systems" are overtaxed or overburdened. Here in California we are facing the fifth year in a row of excess rainfall. Some areas receiving more than 200% of the normal yearly rainfall. The floods, levy breaks, road and land damage is definitely overtaxing our tax base. California is favorite landing-zone for new immigrants as well as illegal ones. All you ever see is construction on our forty year old road system to expand and accommodate the massive amount of automobiles which causes more back-ups and is almost always over-budget and over-deadline. California also has the distinction of being one of the largest welfare states in the nation. Our schools are for the most part, poor, and we are one of the most expensive states to reside in. California is suffering from an impending rupture of the belly, so to speak. Too many people, too many disasters, not enough money and not a clue in the world. If you multiply this by other highly populated states you may get a recipe for destruction. Considering that at least 30% of this country's populace is on some sort of "Social Entitlement" massive animosity and anger will ensue when those entitlements are cut or withdrawn. Our Government's overindulgence of lazy, ignorant people over the decades has begun to come back and haunt it. After all, this is the only nation in the world (as far as I know) that pays people to have babies and not earn a living and financially subsidizes immigrants. But, even ignorant people can become angry and fight being ruled more by emotion than by intelligence and logic. While I do not condone his actions, the Una bomber, may have been right when he stated that technology will ruin mankind. In this country we have become so dependent on gadgets, gimmicks and techno-advances the we may have forgotten how to be self-reliant. All this technology has made the average American apathetic to his environment. One of my favorite sayings is; "Boobus-Americanus....everything is fine as long as the lazy-boy vibrates and the cable TV works". His neighbor's house is being burglarized, but hey, there's a really good field-hockey match on ESPN2. Shut off his cable and he's ranting up a storm. All of those factors, including never-ending racial tensions, are currently in the works, and can contribute to a social collapse of some kind. Sadly, a revolt based on the Government's long standing abuses of the Constitution and Bill of Rights (which I think is an important issue) will be secondary to a general uprising of the poor and lower middle classes against the wealthy elitist power base in this nation. As more and more individual rights of Americans are compromised, the sheep will slowly awaken and stampede. The time frame for all of this is unsure. This could easily take another generation to complete the circle. I do, however, believe that by 2000 the situation will escalate. I have no real "hard" evidence other than a nagging feeling based on what I have seen over the last fifteen years. I could continue with other observations but I think you get the point. Recent reports have surfaced concerning Urban Battle Tactical Exercises being conducted by the U.S Military to undoubtedly prepare for possible civil unrest far worse than the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Questions about the "willingness" of Military personnel firing upon fellow citizens have been debated with mixed reviews. I believe the reasonable assumption will be that, yes, the Military will fire upon citizens when ordered to do so. When the "Poop hits the fan", as many of us believe, the Military, National Guard, Police and Sheriff's agencies will become the enemy to even decent law-abiding citizens. It is sad to think that you may have to end the life of a Police officer that is just "doing his job" but the reality of it is that if you were ordered to drop your weapon, even though you are simply trying to "Bug out", You may not be killed but you would certainly be detained, searched and have all of your weapons confiscated. You would then be sent on your way unarmed to face the wrath of the criminal vermin prowling the streets, which brings me to......... Militias. I believe that originally, our founding fathers envisioned Militias as citizens organized and trained to protect states from being overrun by a sudden tyrannical shift in the Government. Even though they are not a part of the actual Military of this nation, their goal is supposed to be the same. That is, to protect and defend the Constitution and ensure the continuation of domestic tranquility. The founding fathers set this up specifically so that "We the People...." would never have to suffer the abuses of an imperialistic, tyrannical Government such as the colonists endured in the early days of this country. Unfortunately, nowadays, any group that dawns a uniform and picks up a weapon seems to be calling themselves a "Militia". This is simply wrong and does nothing to promote the 'correct' stature of true citizen militias. Groups like the Montana Freemen, in my opinion, are nowhere near a true militia but more like self-serving militant malcontent revolutionaries waiting for a chance to "stick their collective foot in the door" and had no intention of defending and upholding our Constitution. In part 2, I'll discuss my observations on where I think the crisis will start and how I think one should be prepared to deal with it.