You’ll Regret It if You Don’t
If, at this point, you are doing nothing to prepare for the future, the consequences will be disastrous. I am of the opinion that our future is one of either left- or right-wing authoritarianism. You should be preparing for both. When I say you should be preparing, a couple of things come to mind.
First, you should be doing everything you can to get out of debt, especially when it comes to your home and property. For most people, the biggest expense is their mortgage, and I’m sure everyone who has one knows how much easier it would be on their finances if they didn’t have that large monthly cost. Pay off the cars and the extravagances. If you don’t know what I mean by extravagances, you don’t have them. Those of you who do know exactly what I’m talking about, get your financial house in order.
Second, you need to prepare mentally. Go through the scenarios in your head. Are you going to actively rebel against authoritarianism? Will you publicly speak out against it? Or, do you prefer one over the other? 2020 caused a lot of people to spiral because they never thought that so many would fall for the COVID regime and blindly follow dictates. If 2020 only taught you one thing, it should be that anything is possible now. You should not be shocked when the next “sky is falling” scenario is unveiled. You should only hope that one or the other form authoritarianism is preferable to you.
Lastly, if you’re not prepared and you struggle, you will end up doing one of two things when it comes to your family: you will either have to explain how you weren’t prepared or you’ll lie to them. Explaining that you weren’t prepared isn’t the worst thing in the world because lessons can come out of it. But you’d rather not have to. Lying not only causes your family to lose trust in you but will also eat away at you (if you’re not a sociopath). You’ll have to chase that lie continually. You will lose all honor.
As I said above, I believe one of those two authoritarian outcomes is inevitable. I prefer one over the other and believe it’s inevitable, but I’m not deluded enough to believe the other couldn’t happen. I trust that many of you have already adopted the above preparations, but I fear most haven’t. You must start
now
Your short post is a good reminder of what we are facing in the short and long term. I am not going to say anything new here, but, we need to balance living our lives day to day and also preparing for a long term siege-type situation. In the past, people lived from harvest to harvest. This 'just in time' worldwide production system is an anomaly.....more like an aberration. Same thing with perpetual debt. (A bit of trivia: A man could not sign for a mortgage beyond 7 years prior to the Franklin Roosevelt Administration. The 30 year mortgage was his creation. Another reason to despise him and his moldering dried bones.) A piece of ground, separated from the the now unlivable cities by at least 30min by car, some open pollinated seeds in storage, debt-free and a pantry of food for a year or longer, and filled up and refreshed by daily prayer to our Creator is a nice place to be in.
That said, even though I have been preparing like that for years, I am also preparing my mind for becoming a martyr. I am older, but not weak, and I am getting ready for conflict. Having bought the Gen X lie of libertine pursuits when I was younger, I want to take some scalps before I go out.
I am less worried about the Authoritarianism than the instability that is going to happen in the transition to it. I have justified my firearms collecting habit on none of my family being responsible enough to buy their own in case we move into a period of instability. Today I can't imagine the 2024 election not causing instability regardless of outcome at this point. Am i mabye doing a bit of a post-hoc rationalization here? Probably. But now I can give my one person the AK/AR and someone else the SKS if things are looking iffy and a side arm to boot.