So I saw this tweet from Murtaza Hussain of The Intercept:
If you turned the electricity off for a few months in any developed Western society 500 years of supposed philosophical progress about human rights and individualism would quickly evaporate like they never happened.
It reminded me of my post on January 25, 2022, “There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy, in which I tracked down the source of the phrase:
I thought it might be one of those phrases that really had no provable attribution, but nope, I found it in the digitized archives of Cosmopolitan maintained by various universities, in the March 1906 issue in an article titled, The Day of Discontent.I downloaded the full article into a pdf, so you can read the whole thing. You’re welcome. They were talking about troubles of the time, social discontent, part of which related to food but also the rise of socialism. It’s worth a read because so much parallels current problems.But, it appears the saying may not be original to the Cosmopolitan discussion. The phrase was used by Lewis in the New York Journal in 1896 (pdf.):
“the only barrier between us and anarchy is the last nine meals we’ve had. It may be taken as axiomatic that a starving man is never a good citizen.”
After applying the phrase to the relatively minor pandemic supply chain problems, I concluded:
Don’t worry. I’m not panicking. But I am Prepping For The Worst, I’d rather not have to fight people in the supermarket for the few boxes of porridge left on the shelves.We don’t know where the challenge will come from, there are unknown unknowns that could surprise us. But some of the causes won’t surprise us, we see them coming.There is a thin line in society, between food and anarchy, freedom and repression, liberty and tyranny, safety and street violence. It’s thinner than we want to admit, and it’s being pushed to its limits on purpose by ideologies that want to deconstruct our society. Tearing down society is a dangerous game.
That thin line is being obliterated in Europe, which put heavy reliance on Russian natural gas and “renewables,” leaving those countries vulnerable to a gas cut off, which Putin now is implementing as retaliation for Ukraine sanctions.
We have been covering the coming cold, dark winter in Europe, particularly Germany, in great detail.
Sounds bad, huh?
It might be worse. I saw this tweet thread by Finnish economist and professor Tuomas Malinen:
I am telling you people that the situation in #Europe is much worse than many understand. We are essentially on the brink of another banking crisis, a collapse of our industrial base and households, and thus on the brink of the collapse of our economies. Short thread. 1/4We are also totally at the mercy of the authorities, and we have very little knowledge what they have planned. Will they be able to stop the onset of the banking crisis, yet again? I don’t know, but I am doubtful. 2/In any case the speed of deterioration is massive now, and it’s only a matter of time, when markets catch up. I am betting that we still have few weeks (months at max.) before “mayhem” truly begins. Take precautionary measures. Stock:
1. Cash.2. Food.3. Water.4. Wood (if you have a stove).5. Other necessities.
No harm will come from preparation, if somehow miraculously we can avoid the onset of an outright economic collapse. You just have more cash (no meaningful interest in banks), food, water and wood. 4/4
It can happen there, and here. It’s not just energy independence, it’s also energy security and diversification.
The “Green New Deal” and similar net-zero initiatives, combined with increased reliance on an unreliable electric grid, are a national suicide pact.
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