Driving into work today I watched the folks on the sidewalks and roadsides as usual. Little kids, junior high schoolers and high schoolers all walking to school, waiting at crosswalks, and making their way into a brand new day. But they were all muted. All suffocated. All greyed out. They had no faces.
The tiny children being masked makes me the most angry, but it's a tragedy for youth all across the board. Where is the future for these young people? Where is the future for me? For anyone? The short answer is that there really isn't one, anymore.
How to Plan for a Non-Existent Future
How do you plan for “the future” when there is no future?
Serious question.
There sure as hell ain’t one, in the traditional sense, for those paying attention. Now this isn’t meant to be pessimistic, but it's just a realistic observation.
Look around.
The only futures we have now are the ones we take and defend for ourselves. Vaccine certificates for travel (and likely more) are on the way, individuals across the globe are hotly polarized and divided regarding a questionable virus that seems to take whatever shape politicians and so-called health experts wish it to. People are being mocked for communicating that they cannot breathe well in a mask, or concern about the lack of long-term testing regarding "coronavirus" vaccines.
Even if we do stand for our own, brighter, non-lunatic futures, failure is still likely. But it seems to me the battle to defend human dignity is worth it, regardless of the risk or outcome. It's never a failure in the most important sense of the word, to stand up to bullies.
The world is now, more than ever and more en masse than ever, openly adversarial to people who value peace, consent, and bodily autonomy.
DIY Future
Who knows what a non-traditional, self-made future will look like. By "self-made" I just mean a future that is not constructed according to traditional or socially normative expectations.
While legions of humans — most likely the vast majority – around the globe get injected, accept new heavy-surveillance-based certification systems for travel, finance, and other social necessities, a few of us are going to be left behind, wish to peacefully opt for alternate paths. At least, things are shaping up that way now.
But maybe being left behind and left out of a lunatic cult is a good thing. We'd be so lucky. The most probable outcome is that not only will we be left behind, but we will also be violated, hunted, mocked, ridiculed, and many of us destroyed. Actually, this has already begun.
The conclusion I am forced to draw, then, is that I must do the best I can to prepare myself and my family for an uncertain, non-traditional and self-made future that I must also defend from aggressors. What follows is a couple of ways I am currently doing so. Maybe it will be of some help to you. And maybe your commentary could be of some help to me.
Crypto, Weapons, and Friends
Cryptocurrencies - Cryptocurrencies are important for a variety of reasons, but honestly, for those without much money right now, they can present a good way to play the markets and get more money to be able to purchase assets or supplies.
My personal view of crypto is that it is a permissionless tool to bring economic freedom to all individuals, everywhere. It has the capability to easily supplant violence-backed, fiat money.
Unfortunately those that share this core conviction are yet in the minority. Most folks in crypto just want to make a killing to cash out to fiat. As I mentioned, that is of course useful. I'm not knocking it, and hope more liberty-minded folks will make some money so they can help themselves and others.
But I also think it is important to remember that cryptocurrencies are a groundbreaking technology that can be used by new societies and civilizations to establish sound monetary bases even outside the accepted, vaccinated, surveilled and hyper-inflated-digital-fiat paradigm on the way.
It's unlikely, maybe. But not impossible. And I have personally seen the utility of the technology, especially via using, trading, and basically living on Bitcoin Cash. Experiences I've been lucky to have.
Weapons and Supplies - Anywhere you are, no matter the laws, or culture, or difficulty, there is always a way to have or make tools useful for self-defense.
Knives, crossbows, guns, pipes, hammers, bats. Start practicing awareness of what tools for defense are at your disposal, and be willing to think outside of the box. I'm new to this, but since the virus of the crown psychological operation began, I've been more and more intensely focused on this area.
It's also good to have a basic "bug-out bag" at the ready, with basic supplies, some food, a little cash, water purification tool, crypto paper wallets, etc, etc. I was just talking to a friend today about the sheer anxiety this non-future, future presents. We don't know if we'll have companions, or be alone. If we'll have internet, or be totally disconnected. Or the situation will be much more gradual.
As she said, we don't know if we'll need to use bricks we've made for houses, or for throwing. Maybe both.
Regardless, when it comes down to brass tacks, we're the sane remnant, and are thus going to be hated and likely attacked eventually.
A Network of Trusted Friends - This is perhaps the most critical thing of all. And the most difficult. Finding people you trust, get along with, and who understand, accept and live the logical and moral tenets of Voluntaryism is no easy task. it takes heartache, heartbreak, criticism and loneliness. But once you find a few gems who truly have your back (and so, so, so much better if they live nearby) you no longer have to depend only on your limited skills and supplies. Trade becomes an option. Group self-defense becomes an option. Family, emotional and spiritual support become options, too.
And personally, even if my stand to defend my human dignity is met by overwhelming violence, I'd much rather die fighting alongside someone I love and respect, than alone, I think.
No Future, Only Now
I'll drive home tonight from my little office here in small-town Japan, and see the same non-faces. But now it will be dark outside. There won't be children in the streets. The day will have ended, and I just wonder what all those little hearts and souls are thinking. What they are feeling.
Did they have fun at school?
Do they think back to just a year ago when they could still see their friends' smiling faces and touch and hug them without being chastised by an adult? How long until their spirits are destroyed and their innocent hearts starved to death from lack of human touch, expression, and connection? For which they've all the more disgustingly been programmed to blame themselves. I shouldn't have broken the rules and hugged Sakura, maybe that's why there's been another cluster here at school.
The adults will be shopping with dead, tired, or scared and sad eyes in the convenience store. I'll walk in feeling like a disease. Knowing I am not.
Only time will tell the true devastation that is coming to society. The destruction of entire economies is not limited to the physical world. The human spirit cannot pay too much more, either, until the only choice is to shut down completely, or snap back in disobedience, rage, and anger. To disobey. To build a new future that does not accept the current sick paradigm as even debatable.
A return of common sense. Logic. Human dignity. Love.
My friend says we cannot know what shape the future will take. We didn't know before, either, but now the situation has much, much higher stakes. It is no longer about success, or relative failure in one's career, family life, and other pursuits endeavored for joy, expansion, and learning. Now it is about survival itself. A reality many less fortunate have already been living in, in impoverished and war-torn areas.
Now that destruction is coming toward us. Toward everyone.
What are you doing now, about it?
As for me, I'm preparing for the absolute worst as best I can, but I am also doing the most important thing: staying flexible.
-GWS
My long-form articles on HIVE are posted here, and @ read.cash exclusively. Thank you for reading.
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One can't even plan for the worst. For example, if there is another round of lockdowns, do you bug out or barricade yourself in? Invest in diverse solutions. Learn useful skills. stock up on long-term supplies, but also have an evacuation plan.
There are predictions for a worse-than-usual forest fire season. I suggest people plan for evacuation, and consider what they will do if they have 5 minutes, 5 hours, or 5 days to get going. Perhaps that mindset needs to expand to even more. But you also can't stop living. It's a mess.
I just tried to upvote this but I guess I cannot because it has paid out?
Anyway, yes man. Good and useful advice and thoughts. Thank you.