Episode-1328- Listener Feedback for 4-7-14
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Today on the Survival Podcast I take your comments, questions and thoughts on, skills vs. strength, politics, date encryption, shifts in power, the educational system and more.
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Join Me Today As I Respond to Your Emails On
- Conflicted Monday – knowledge vs. strength
- Bees are now on the homestead
- Obamacare will be sold to you by Republicans as having been “fixed”
- To encrypt or not to encrypt – piss off the NSA or become a “target”
- Television execs can now read the writing on the wall, an interesting observation
- What student loans are actually used for, the depressing truth
- You are in the game, but are you a player or a gaming piece
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- Join the Members Brigade
- The Year 1328
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- 13Skills.com
- Join Our Forum
- Walking To Freedom
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- PermaEthos.com
- Bulk Ammo – (sponsor of the day)
- Back Yard Food Production – (sponsor of the day)
- Paladin Press – (MSB Discount Vendor of the Day)
- TSP Food Forest Project at Permaculture Global
- Republicans are Working Behind the Scenes on Obamacare
- NSA Views Encryption as Evidence of Suspicion (what the F is “evidence of suspicion”)
The Conflicted Monday Scenario
Do you think physical ability or knowledge will be more valuable to your group in a survival scenario? Who would you rather team up with? A 70-year old female who knows how to live off the grid but needs almost every form of phyical assistance, or a 28-year old man who only offers a strong back to your group?
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Jack, can you do a workshop in my backyard oh, about once a week or so? I could really use the rain…. LOL
Conflicted Monday
After being tempted to start with “well it depends….” I think this one works out pretty easily for me.
The wife and I are 30. Mr(s). 28 fits into our peer group nicely, represents another set of ready hands and… well we may not be 70 year old fonts of experiential knowledge but we ARE practitioners of modern survival. We’ve been amassing our own repertoire of skills for exactly these reasons and that makes it a bit less scary to wade in without “the expert”. Add in the possibility that your elderly encyclopedia is a potential weak link and even in ideal circumstances you would only have so much time (5? 10? years) to try and glean all of that knowledge and I only feel better making the choice of the younger comrade. When my 10 year timeline choices are a) 3 40ish team mates with 10 years of teamwork experience and hands on experience or b) 2 40ish team mates who have been learning from a mentor for 10 years who has just died taking most of their knowledge with them I will go with A every time.
Conflicted Monday
This one is an easy decision – though I understand that the answer will vary based on each person’s circumstances.
I’ll take the 70-year-old guru that needs physical help. Although even in my late thirties I’ve got major back issues and am limited physically accordingly, I can make do, plus with three teenagers, I’ve got plenty of labor help around. But where I’m lacking is the hands-on experience and the knowledge than can be imparted by the 70-year-old more than makes up for the extra work that might be involved in helping her around. When you have the actual experience of someone who’s done it before and knows the “tricks of the trade”, so to speak, there are aspects of that experience that cannot be gleaned from a book or website.
Bill
OH…. 100% the Knowledge, the 70 year old female. Knowledge is power, power is you eating, drinking, growing and surviving.
Steven Harris
CEO KnowledgePublications.com
p.s. I had this thing for knowledge for a long time 🙂
I’m with Steven on this one. Wisdom seems to have more value here.
It is just too bad that we can’t all have our own personal Steven Harris in our group. Although, with all that he does to share his knowledge, we could each have a ‘Steve-in-training’ 😉
Oh…i am so happy to hear so many take the 70 year old!! I am in my 60’s and was wondering if i was gonna be “thrown under the bus”!..and yes Knowledge is power. Cheers ya all!
I would go for knowledge. A strong person is nice ,but if we don’t know what we are doing then we are a bunch of people standing around. Like someone said knowledge is power. I would not want to in a sense reinvent the wheel. To use a gamer term she would be like a cheat code for survival.
I’ll take that action Jack, 6 pack of local beer? Only reason is that nobody can be right all the time, I’m betting that this time, you’ll be wrong just by the odds. Plus I have a hunch that Rand Paul will be the nominee, and I don’t think he’ll do that.
Rand will likely run, he won’t even get close to the nomination, game on.
why do you say that? Not moderate enough?
The last republican nominee that got the nomination on the first attempt was Bush Jr. Rand doesn’t have that backing. He will be slaughtered by the media. The GOP actually hates him almost as much as his father as well. What was said about Paul Ryan will be like a game of Candy Land compared to what will be done to Rand simply due to the Paul name.
Sure the republican radio types like Rand and all, why, he is okay with blowing up people unlike his father, so they will say some good things. In the end they will even turn on him and tell us again how this is “the most important election in history” and we have to win and Rand would be great but he just can’t win.
The republicans will either have someone that comes from nowhere like Clinton did in 92 or some retread that we have seen before.
Yep, the GOP hates Rand, yep the media does too. Yes the radio types will turn on him, but none of that will matter. Similar things happened to Regan and he didn’t have the internet.
Everything the media, GOP, and the radio talk hosts throw at him will backfire and make him look even better. They will only succeed in making themselves look like asses.
The only way Republicans win in 2016 is with Rand on the ticket.
I think the GOP understands that and even though they hate him they will not trow too much mud at him, so they can clean him up for their nice shinny VP candidate. But it will backfire, because Rand has an ace in the hole in the form of libertarian minded stealth delegates that have been planted in the RNC.
Rand will get the nomination, and then he will be elected president.
There are only 2 things that would stop that. One would be a major scandal that where he is caught doing something stupid. (not likely) The second would be a repeat of the Bobby Kennedy bid for president. God forbid.
“The second would be a repeat of the Bobby Kennedy bid for president. God forbid.”
I told my wife the same thing about a week ago. The two maffia families would do anything to keep Rand out and I’m 100% sure of that!
Ill lay you 10 to 1 right now that Rand is NOT the nominee in 2016, name your bet.
How about this.
If Rand gets the nomination, you give me a spot in one of your spring 2017 workshops and I’ll bring a 6 pack of Michigan beer for you.
If he doesn’t I’ll pay for the workshop and bring you a 6 pack of MI beer.
Either way you get a 6 pack of beer.
Done!
Side bet, if he gets it and wins, NOTHING CHANGES or things simply get worse. All the promises of a new day of liberty are BULLSHIT, the state continues to grow, the debt continues to grow, etc.
You know that’s not really fair, How about to sweeten the deal a little, I’ll do a demonstration for the workshop on safe tree felling or something like that. Or maybe buiding something like a chicken tractor or other small item.
Win or loose.
Yeah, can’t do the side bet. I am not at all sure that you are wrong on that one.
I’m not betting he will win because I have some wishful libertarian dream about him being president and saving us from all evil.
I just think he has played the whole game really well and the chances are good for his winning.
Also, education cost is inflated because public education is terrible. Grades are inflated because of the self esteem programs, so the first year college student isn’t really at a college level. This raises cost because a portion of “college” is really making up for crap schooling. “The desire to raise children’s self esteem has led to some serious grade inflation. …found that 48 percent of high school students received an A average in 2004, as compared to 18 percent in 1968.” -Self Compassion, Kristen Neff She also explains how the push for self esteem has increased narcissism. Narcissists have a hard time dealing with reality. So I’m guessing the economic impact of having a bunch of narcissists, people who don’t accept truth, in the market is going to cause a bit of a problem.
“…all this fantasy might feel good, but unfortunately reality always wins. The mortgage meltdown, and the resulting financial crisis are just one demonstration of how inflated desires eventually crash to earth.” -Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the age of Entitlement, Keith Cambell
Anyways, good episode. “Get in the game!” Will do.
saw an example in the paper today..
local college gets students to agree to a large fee increase to ‘improve the quality of their education’ (supposedly by buying new lab equipment and such).
then gives 40% of the money to their sports team.
of course.. no one has seen any new lab equipment.
winning!
Conflicted Monday:
My answer would depend on the make up of the group. It seems like you would have some info on the rest of the group. The goal would be whomever improves the balance of brains to brawn. If I had zero knowledge of the group I would take the muscle because I am more of a brain than a brawn.
Pistol
Great answer! I didn’t see yours till after I posted mine. Sounds like you and I think alike!
Conflicted Monday:
Since both can’t be the answer I would say neither. They balance each other out and taking either one without the other would throw the group off. Someone would have to pick up the slack that is already in the group. All of this of course assumes that the group was already in balance and functional.
If the group is weak in one of those areas then of course you would choose the person who fills that weak spot.
I like this game.
My favorite quote from today’s episode: “You only threaten people when you already have control, when you’re scared you’re going to lose it. That is your government today.”
Nailed it!
Jack;
I have to say todays conflicted card is not as easy as I at first thought it would be. Let me explain … on one hand it would be very and easy for me to say the 70 year old. When it comes to wisdom, there is something to be said about that, but at the same time what if you “networked” around to two or even three groups and were able to loan out your “grunt” part of the time in exchange for much needed knowledge? If you were able to this, having some one so young would serve a purpose. Of course the reverse is true for a time; if you have some one with wisdom you could get a “grunt” or two or three for a time to help you and your group out.
“Dinosaur in a Haystack” by Stephen Jay Gould is collection of articles concerning questions of paleontology and evolution, snails and celestial mechanics. One of the articles in this book has the same title as the book itself and debunks the idea that we should see a lot of dead dinosaur bones around the time of the asteroid impact on Earth that killed off the dinosaurs.
Dr. Gould makes a statistical argument that in fact we should see FEWER dinosaur bones as one approaches the “drop dead” date. It is difficult to do his argument justice here, but if you’d like to read the article, Jack, I have the book on my shelf and I’ll be glad to loan it to you.
In any case, I wanted Gould to be wrong but he convinced me he was right using logic and statistics. The asteroid killed off the dinosaurs.
Let’s look at it this way, using a silly example:
Let’s say a thousand years from now, future archeologists will be digging through the layers of debris left over from “The Big One” that fell in South America and wiped out half of civilization in the year 2525. Occasionally in the 2013 and 2014 layer they notice the remnants of underground bunkers used by some people calling themselves the “Doomsday Preppers”. It is not certain if these “Preppers” actually used these bunkers for shelter or if they simply built them as a form of ancient worship…. a temple to their creator that they called “Disk Cover E Dawt Calm”.
These future archeologists can only find such bunkers if the were located at the bottom of a hill that collapsed and covered them over in a mud slide. Since this happened only once every 30 years or so, very few bunkers are found intact and none have been found even close to the 2525 boundary.
Statistically, what does this mean? Does it mean that the Doomsdayers died out before 2525?
Maybe. But it could ALSO mean that we just haven’t found all the %^&& bunkers yet.
The probability of finding a bunker built AFTER the 2525 boundary would be zero. And even though we have records showing that many such bunkers were built before 2400, the likelihood of finding one of these bunkers AFTER 2400 is statistically very small because they almost never survived intact unless they were sealed in mud first.
Why is it so statistically improbable to find a bunker near the 2525 kill boundary? Because when we were digging around to find the other bunkers, we weren’t looking for a specific year. We just found one, and dated it by the age of the Madonna posters on the walls.
It’s like being in a crowd of 100 people. How likely it is that you will find someone in 100 people who share your same birthday month and day? It is reasonably likely. But how likely is it that the same person would be born in THE SAME YEAR, MONTH AND DAY? Much less likely. As you get more specific, your probability of finding a match goes way down.
So… finding dinosaur bones of no specific year is reasonably probable. You find a bone, any bone, and then figure out what year it come from. Looking for dinosaur bones of a SPECIFIC YEAR is like looking for a needle in a haystack… and that was what Dr. Gould’s point was. It was like looking for a “Dinosaur in a Haystack”. If he could find just a few T-Rex bones reasonably close to the drop dead date… that would be statistical proof that they existed right up to that date and did not die off gradually. And he eventually found a set of such bones.
I hope that was clear.
You have to think about it for a while.
Alex
As I have chronic fatigue and oodles of knowledge, I am somewhat in the 70-year-old’s shoes. (Minus the experience, unfortunately.) Therefore I’d love some physical help to get the job done. In fact I’ve hired that out. Labor like that is pretty cheap. For a long-term survival situation, the challenge though becomes to ensure they stay loyal. An older woman wouldn’t have anywhere to go but a young buck could take off — or even worse, join the enemy and use their knowledge of your retreat against you.
Conflicted – I would have to take the 70 yr old experience. As a newer person to prepping, I am lacking the knowledge aspect. The ability to learn by osmosis from a mentor like that would be priceless and likely the difference between surviving and not. At the very least, its the difference between struggling to get by and really getting dialed in and getting ahead in a bad situation.
Super glad we got the bees in for you Jack. Jason is a great mentor and will get you going for sure. Thanks for letting us set you up and get you going.
Much love brother and thank you.
I will be 100% honest here.
As a single 37 year old male a young good looking 28 year old dude with a strong back sounds like a potential barrier to me finding my “Eve” to repopulate the earth with.
I don’t wanna end up being single the rest of my life.
I will take the 70 year old lady.
Awesome answer -:)
Best Answer, though I must say that at 70, her chances of helping you repopulate the earth seem minimal 🙂
Conflicted:
I think I will go with the 70 yo lady just because I can still do the work and I have a lot to learn on living off the grid. I mean after some effort I can get us set up with her being on some kind of wheelchair to assist in her movement. The base camp/home would also be designed to deal with her mobility issues. I can probably find some way to leverage labor later as I go with simple machines, but there is probably no internet at this point for me to consult with on how to cure my plant from some disease I’ve never encountered.
a lot of chuckles in this episode..
something I’ve been noticing about the status quo lately.. is that they only have one solution to every problem.. MORE!
I first started noticing it when my local government proposed to curb local governmental corruption by.. ADDING more government (‘oversight’ in the governmental vernacular).
But of course its everywhere. MORE currency for corrupt institutions wasting money. MORE teachers. MORE police officers. MORE pesticides. MORE herbicides. MORE jobs. MORE GDP. MORE debt. MORE consumption. MORE laws.. you name your problem, and we can solve it.. with MORE.
The joke of course is that if your taking an action that is negative, doing more of the same doesn’t reverse its effects.
Its like wanting to lose weight, so you double your daily consumption of soda from one six pack to two six packs.
Losing Strategy x 2 Winning Strategy
i forget about what disappears when you post..
politicians/status quos formula for success:
Losing Strategy x 10 = Winning Strategy
Of course.. this is nonsense.
there’s a forum post for more thought on choosing team members (maybe where conflicted got the idea?)
http://thesurvivalpodcast.com/forum/index.php?topic=33160.0
=)
I would take the 70 year old. the 70 yr old’s knowlegde could benifit everyone. Strenght is more common that people that have the knowlegde to live off grid.
Conflicted Monday:
I choose the 70 year old woman. The aforementioned Steve Harris is correct, knowledge is power. I am in my 40’s, and I have other physically adept people who might be in my group. We need the knowledge. Plus, I doubt she would eat as much as the 30 year old guy…lol. She also would realize she needs us as much as we need her, so I think the balance would be set.
On candidates, I will support the candidate who is so bat shit stupid, their very first executive order would be so idiotic it will tip the scales, and our soft collapse will begin. I’m in the camp of “Im hungover, I need to vomit, and trying to prolong it really sucks….insert finger, feel better.”
I just love conflicted Mondays. A started forwarding the scenarios to my bug out friends and we discuss via E mail. All of us agree on the 70 year old woman. Like Steve Harris says knowledge is power. Once you lose knowledge, wisdom and experience it takes a lifetime to get that back. Strong backs and weak minds are a dime a dozen.
‘Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.’ – Jim Rohn
ok…lets face it, at 70 with “health ” issues she has potential to enhance the group knowledge and won’t be a long term burden . Chances are her ability to thrive may be limited…so i say grab the experience while you can before it is lost forever. Another point is , the knowledge and experience can be used to spring board new ideas and concepts, so the potential to build on this is very valuable. This is an advantage as long as you have enough strong individuals to carry the load of physical work.