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Episode-1269- You Are Your Only Solution

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Like It Or Not, You Are Your Own Answer!

Like It Or Not, You Are Your Own Answer!

Day in and day out I get emails from listeners that mean well, but frankly most don’t get it.  They are emails about passing a law for this or that, as if that would really fix anything.  Franky I am at a point where the only laws that need be passed would be a law undoing an existing law.  Government and restrictions on liberty are the problems, hence stop looking for solutions from the people causing the problem.

Some sound good, such as, people that want to amend the constitution to say, “Congress shall make now law that “all laws made by Congress applying to citizens of the United States apply equally to members of Congress themselves”.  Sure that sounds good but you are saying, please let us ask the wolf and the fox to pass a law that says they can’t raid the hen house.  How likely is that to work?

It doesn’t help that this myth is attributed to Warren Buffet who first never said it and secondly shouldn’t be trusted any more then Barack Obama or George Bush, in other words not at all.  The government has created every single major problem it is currently trying to supposedly solve.  Let me be blunt you are NEVER EVER NEVER, going to see a world where our government becomes “good” or “smaller” or “less corrupt” unless it simply fails and even that is no guarantee of anything.  Sorry to tell you folks but you are your ONLY solution to any and all real problems that you and your family will face.

Join Me Today As We Discuss…

  • Stop worrying about the next disaster and see the one you are in right now
  • Stop being so pissed off about “rounding errors”
  • Why government not only won’t but can’t and never will fix our problems
  • Why you would not government to fix things even if it could
  • The lesson of your destitute, drunken, dope addicted “Uncle Sam”
  • What you must do to thrive in coming years
    • You are your own answer
    • You have to learn from boxers and MMA fighters, train before a fight!
    • But what about community, it isn’t just me is it
    • Take responsibility for your food
    • Take responsibility for your health
    • Take responsibility for your education
    • Take responsibility for your own waste
    • Take responsibility for your own energy
    • Do shit and never apologize for doing good shit!
    • Act because you want to, not due to fear

Resources for today’s show…

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK (866-658-4465) and you might hear yourself on the air.

Also remember we have an expert council you can address your calls to. If you do this you should email me right after your call at jack at thesurvivalpodcast.com with expert council call in the subject line. In the body of your email tell me that you just called in a question for the council and what number you called in from. I will then give the call priority when I screen calls.

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Comments

Episode-1269- You Are Your Only Solution — 82 Comments

  2. “You are your own answer.” This is something that I’ve said for some time in response to the “I’m only one person, what can I do?” question many people ask. We have forgotten the power of individual choice. Instead of attempting to legislate morality, opt out of the system or company that is broken or corrupt. Make it (or them) irrelevant, unnecessary and unwanted in your life. Once you are successful, be willing to show others how you’ve done it. That is how we as individuals can (and are) changing things for the better!

    • Couldn’t agree more. In a lot of ways its the “entrepreneur” spirit. I know a guy who opened a franchise steam cleaning carpets. He couldn’t be more happier. He works for himself, he gets to control the entire business and its quite amazing. Instead of having somebody else carve his path for him, he’s making one himself and its quite clear that its the key to happiness.

      People would look down at steam cleaning carpets, but its quite obvious that there is something different about it when you’re in control and when you’re helping supply a service to other people.

  3. Much like Chef. I haven’t even heard the show but just read the post and I have to say, Right On!! Goes with my own mantra. ” I don’t have to change the world, I just have to change My World”
    Thanks Jack

    • This is something you have to work add, starting small, and have some serious self discipline. Especially when you come from a background where that just isn’t taught, or at least not well.

      I think taking responsibility of your own income really includes everrrrrrything else as well. (Not that money is everything, but income and money is the manifestation of your work and labors, so you MUST control what you spend your time doing and where you’re going with it).

  5. Oh man have I missed you! It’s been so long. Right on cue you have the most perfect message. Thank you

  7. Jack,

    Right on about the disaster/SHTF already being here….I had a revelation to that effect a couple years back. Had a friend losing his mind because he had finally woke up to survivalism etc….He was full of the “Oh CRAP EMP”. Oh no They’re gonna take our guns. Etc. stuff that people will find themselves in. We happened to be in Baltimore on a drive. I just remembered laughing a bit and saying “Yeah man TEOWAKI got here a bit early didn’t it.”
    I think people are acclimated to their surroundings and sometimes don’t realize how truly screwed up they are.
    It would be amazing to grab some person living in an urban area (say Baltimore) circa 1950 and have them take a walk through their old neighborhood in the present day. To them the zombie apocalypse would’ve looked like it had already happened. A twenty year old wouldn’t know any differently.
    All you have to do is look at any old photos of America 50 or so years ago. I don’t mean this in a sepia nostalgic sorta way–I mean it in the sense that society looked functional and things in general worked.
    People have been used to the dysfunction for so long that they cant see the disaster that they have been born into.

  9. Will definitely find time to listen to this one. You are absolutely right, Jack. You should always be your own master and bear that responsibility of providing for yourself.

    Amen to everything you said!

  10. Loved the show but was a bit amused when I heard the word sorry ( around 1:12ish) . Never apologize when what you’re doing is the right thing, I think someone wise once said ….:)

    • Well you do apologize when you are wrong and if you are wrong you don’t say “I am sorry if you were upset” you know a cop out apology. The kind celebrities make when they do some stupid shit and don’t want to actually say they are wrong.

      What I said is I am sorry if you are upset it was that type of thing, a play on words. Not an I was wrong I am sorry, because it wasn’t called for.

      Now when I do screw up and I will, you will hear a real I am sorry, I screwed up, that wasn’t what you heard today.

    • @Jack
      By celebrities you mean “the elites” who have a camera put in their face?
      I guess some new big advisor for the WH says some nasty thing about republicans and turns around the next day and goes “oh my hot head got ahead of me, me and Boehner have always been friends” or something ridiculous like that. (Like I care) Point being, there is no actual sorries, its intended and they’re held to no standard our accountability.

      The mother of all examples: Jon Corzine. HA

  12. “Its hard to do a lot of shit!” And that is why hard shit only gets propagated by hardcore people. Rant away brother Spirko, we all need those days.

    Yet, to break the agonizing continual aggrandizing of fellow commentor’s: if “we are each our own answer,” then we damn well better all line up at the same starting line. Otherwise, its a nonsensical statement. And we sure as hell don’t have a starting line in this system, or any you advocate. Just more tribal division wrapped in the infinity of allowable fallacy.

    1+1=2. Like it or not. And every person who is allowed 1+1=3 and an infinity of other blatant bull, is another step closer to your ideals.

    I love your show, but sure as hell don’t listen for your politics… Ha.

    Thanks for it all though!

    • It is funny that those married to a political system consider anti political thinking to be “politics”.

      There really are no politics in this episode, basically the solution doesn’t exist in government, government can’t and won’t and never will fix our problems. That is about as ANTI POLITICAL as it gets. I guess unless you love government that is. LOL.

      • Hey jack, I’m an ass clown from way back, still appreciative of your prepping message. Truly grateful for you helping me understand the lifestyle modeled by my grandparents, and for teaching me so many other things in alignment with that lifestyle. But the message about the constitution not being a living document is definitely a political message in the show. It is a “living document” because living people interpret it and derive new law from it and do away with old law that no longer serves america. Yes it’s messy and far from perfect but this is how we deal with things that didn’t exist when the founders signed. Self reliance isn’t political, but that conversation brought the show into the political right v left framework. Anyway too big of a discussion for a comment but thanks for all the good you’ve done. Merry christmas, happy new year, and take care.

        • That is complete and total revisionist nonsense. The constition wasn’t written in anything other than plain English. In the words of your assclown president it is a document of NEGATIVE LIBERTIES as it says what government can not do to you but not what they must do for you. Hence it is pretty damn clear that the document as a LEGAL CONTRACT between government and people is NOT SUBJECT TO INTERPRETATION at all.

          It is altered only via amendment based on procedure spelled out in the document like ANY AND ALL LEGAL CONTRACTS.

          Whether you or Ron or I agree with it at all doesn’t matter. The fact that the two of you have bought into such nonsense as a legal contract being subject to interpretation is an indictment on our public education system.

          Folks if you want two more reasons to home school your children, I present to you Ron and Christine.

          Try taking any other legal contract to a judge and telling him it is subject to interpretation because it is a different time now then when the contract was written. I mean talk about nonsense.

        • Actually Jack, Parsay Syntax Grammar mathematically shows that the constitution was and is fallible, and is as open to incredible interpretations as the bible’s parable’s via its own adverb verb language. It might have been written plain, but things change, and the English language has forceably evolved into something that can be bastardized with ease. Lawyers know this game very well.

          If it wasn’t open to interpretation, we wouldn’t see ‘them’ trying to tear it apart today.

          Just an FYI for when your ‘interests’ gets interesting…

        • Again try that bullshit with any other contract in a court of law. Fallible isn’t the issue anyway, again it is called an amendment process. Just because someone uses something as an excuse successfully don’t make it right or accurate.

        • I placed this under the wrong reply?

          Jack: David Wynn Miller is using his grammar technology in court and has been for years; against all adverb verb contracts. Mortgages included. It is not for the weak of mind though, and one has to do it perfectly. I only hope I can reach that playing field this life.

        • wow.

          there are so many things wrong with these statements that I don’t even know where to start.

          ‘..It is a living document because living people interpret it and derive new law from it and do away with old law that no longer serves america.. this is how we deal with the things that didn’t exist when the founder’s signed.’

          The constitution simply defines the form and powers of a government formed by the people. It is the foundational law of the current government. Contained within it are clauses detailing how the law (contract) can be changed.

          No ‘interpretation’ is necessary. If the law is deemed to no longer serve the interests of ‘the people’.. they can change the law, using the procedures detailed within the law.

          Do pieces of human garbage try and cheat, steal and embezzle from their fellow citizens.. using sophism and ‘the law’ as their favored tools? Absolutely.

          Is the average citizen conditioned from birth to passively accept injustice and moral depravity if it is ‘legal’, and to find any non-state sponsored act of force to be ‘morally abhorrent’ (while cheering on state sponsored genocide)? Big duh.

          So.. I’m not sure you’re getting just how mushy headed your statement is.

          To quote:
          ‘The purpose of a contract is to establish the agreement that the parties have made and to FIX THEIR RIGHTS AND DUTIES in accordance with that agreement.’

          If you can’t understand this.. I’d like to sell you a car.. for $300/mo for 36 months w/ a 5 year warranty.. which in 6 months I’ll ‘reinterpret’ so that $300/mo, ACTUALLY means the lunar calender, and the 36 months are actually 28 day Mayan calender months and the 5 year warranty is in dog years. Because of course the meaning of ‘year’ is highly subjective and open to interpretation!

          How many DAYS would it take ALL societal cooperation to collapse if contracts were ‘open to interpretation’?

          Your advocating a return to dark ages style trade.. in the name of ‘progress’.

          And no, this has NOTHING to do with right/left, liberal/conservative.. blah blah blah

          this is flat out right & wrong.. as in:
          right = beneficial for every human being (should your contracts with others be honored?)
          wrong = beneficial for SOME to NO human beings

    • Well, if you would like to pick on the single broad term I used instead of answering towards the main topic, then yes, I should have said, “I sure as hell don’t listen for your socioeconomic’s. That would have been more appropriate.

      • @Francis
        I think I must have missed something in this episode =)

        But I’m curious about a couple of things.. you say for instance ‘we damn well better all line up at the same starting line..’

        The implication is that meeting your own needs is a COMPETITION.. that needs to be ‘fair’. I would argue that there is no competition possible in meeting ones own needs. Competition enters into the picture only in the realm of meeting others needs.

        1+13 (or 1+1!=3 for you c coders)
        There are a couple of different ways to take this. If I take it as you’re implying that there is some ‘magical thinking’ in the economics of self-sufficiency.. then I would offer this as a counter argument:

        Marketplace Math:
        1 unit earned value – 40% taxes = 0.6 units value received

        Self-Sufficiency Math (or DIY math):
        1 unit earned value = 1 unit value received

        So.. 1 Unit of DIY Earnings = 1.4 Units of Marketplace Earnings

        Now.. you could throw in a Keynsian multiplier argument that the taxes are going off to ‘stimulate the economy’.. and therefore the marketplace earnings, while not PERSONALLY advantageous are COLLECTIVELY advantageous. Well.. see this chart:
        http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/MULT

        DIY has nothing to do with ‘tribal division’.. its simply a way to more efficiently meet personal needs that can be met PERSONALLY. And it results in a greater societal wealth effect than any possible marketplace/government action could.

        Example:
        You have diabetes due to poor dietary choices. What is the more effective (and profitable for both you and ‘society’) decision:
        a) Pass laws to limit/regulate food contents. Introduce farm subsidies for ‘healthy foods’. Create a multimillion dollar marketing campaign to ‘educate’ the eaters of food. Introduce fines for diabetics to encourage people to not get diabetes. (government response).
        b) Setup a vast network of dialysis centers. Invent new ways to inject and test insulin levels. Research methods of medicating someone with a ‘once daily’ pill to help ‘manage’ their condition. Setup counseling centers, and hold ‘diabetes awareness walk-a-thons’ and a ‘diabetes awareness day’ with an appropriately colored ribbon. (marketplace response)
        c) eat paleo (personal response)

        ?

        The ‘closer’ a solution is to the problem.. the ‘cheaper’ it is. Personal ‘problems’ are best served personally.

        An escalation to a marketplace solution is 10x the cost.. and moving it up to a government solution is 10x the cost of that. (yes, I’m generalizing)

        Another example would be something like a tomato. What is the cost/effort difference between:
        a) a government supplied tomato (meal programs)
        b) a marketplace supplied tomato (from Guatemala.. its organic!)
        c) a tomato growing outside your kitchen door

        If you’re thinking in terms of ‘charity’.. how many government tomatoes can you afford to give away? how many marketplace tomatoes? how many that grew on your own tomato plant?

        the difference is staggering. As anyone who grows their own food knows.. at some point.. you can’t GIVE IT ALL AWAY!

        What government or marketplace solution has ever run into the problem of TOO MUCH ABUNDANCE? (they fail for different reasons.. government, because it is extractive. marketplace, because it must encourage scarcity to maintain profitability)

        Anyway.. I’ll shut up now. Just not sure where the ‘objections’ are coming from.

        DIY creates more wealth/stability/advantage/joy for me AND for the group. So what’s the objection?

    • @ indsidious: I am glad I came back to check on this, but sad to see you take so much time by twisting the topic to pet your new beers from Jack ego… Kidding.

      You start wasting your time almost immediately by inserting the statement of “meeting ones own needs.” Then you follow a bunny trail to debate that statement which was not, and is not, a part of anything I asserted.

      “You are your only solution.” Then most have zero solutions available to them, because those who started the race a mile ahead are intrinsically stiffing those who started a mile behind. As Carlin said, “Its called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”

      Anarchy is by definition a 1+1=infinity society. If one has no education in philosophy I would not expect them to understand why this is no better than what we have. Maybe even worse once a few generations of tribal ignorance has had time to grow mighty. “Bring on the wars” is what they will say. Its juvenile thinking because its a system for juvenile minds. “I don’t care what is true, I want to do it my way.” Thus a vast market place of west borny baptist psychopaths running their gangs and NOT working towards any sort of human evolution.

      Some of what you said I agree with entirely, so too bad you thought you were getting one over on me by making up paths without any regard to the true statements made.

      “DIY has nothing to do with ‘tribal division’..” I know. Good thing I never said that it did.

      Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

      • @Francis
        More of a ‘trying to understand what you are asserting’ than trying to debate a statement you didn’t intend. Your language is vague, and contains many ‘knowing winks’.

        Stating that reality (the way things presently are) is ‘unfair’ is nice, as an armchair exercise. It really doesn’t take anyone closer to a ‘solution’. And in this forum it’s a big ‘duh’.

        My contention (and I’m not saying your own thinking is counter to this.. as I don’t know) is that the best solution to individual problems is individual action. And the best solution to group problems, is group action.

        If your concern is that there are ‘helpless’ individuals, without the resources for action.. Well yes, there are.. but I would suggest there are very few in this audience.

        I’m suggesting that it is better to become powerful, and then help the powerless.. than to remain powerless, or spend your energies complaining about the ‘unfairness’ of it all.

        IMO the world, as it is, is ‘unfair’. And it will not cease to be unfair because I state, in a learned way, that it is so, but should be otherwise.

        Again, IMO, utopian sentiments are more often used by elites as tools of enslavement, than by slaves as a pathway to freedom.

        So.. with the message.. you have to consider the intended audience.. which in this case is those already seeking freedom, personal autonomy and a measure of security.

        Anarchy: Not sure how a call to more personal autonomy is a call to anarchy. Again, I must have missed something.

        Free Beers: Good thing you said something, I missed that comment! Personally though I tend more towards straight vodka.. 😉

        Getting One Over: Uh.. not a contest of wits.. trying to understand what you were saying, because its always possible that I’m entirely blind to something that was being communicated, or just don’t get it.

        Speaking of which.. plain language please.. obfuscation is a sign of a weak argument.. I’m not inside your head, so I may not understand your allusions.

        😉

        (seriously.. ‘ a market place west borny baptist psychopaths’.. I have no idea what that’s about. If I’ve missed some seminal work that will allow me to understand the context.. do tell.)

    • Okay man, if you like the quote at the end, you should go by that. But since you don’t go by that yourself, I can’t be sure why you would use it. I myself am a lover of the English language and have no problems with length in any context.

      I articulated myself very clearly. Even though I had no use for it. After all, this is a ‘comment’ section for me, for you it is a place to… I don’t know what to nicely call it. You use it your way, I will use it my way. My way is short banter. I have forums I write at where the people understand my inside jokes.

      There is no law moral or otherwise that shuts down insider meaning (inside jokes.) They are planted as a wink to those who do get it. No one harmed, just good fun.

      So if you have no specific questions, which would have saved you a great deal of ‘long words,’ then,,, see ya.

      • that was me mocking myself.. pot and kettle and all that.

        soapbox is the word

        shutting up now.. 😉

    • David Wynn Miller is using his grammar technology in court and has been for years; against all adverb verb contracts. Mortgages included. It is not for the weak of mind though, and one has to do it perfectly. I only hope I can reach that playing field this life.

      • I felt the need to add this: Keep in mind the guy is a crack pot, I’m not advocating him, he simply discovered it. Now the technology is available, hopefully it will branch off from his ego and whatnot.

        Point being, the Constitution can and should change with the times. And, contracts can be argued if you are smart enough to be perfect in your argument, because our language is diluted with allowable interpretation.

        • I feel the need to add this, one day such technicalities may be used to breach our contract far enough that the people may tire of it. At such time, the people just might hold those who breached it accountable.

          It is nonsense like this that is leading to the utter destruction of our nation by liberal socialist morons that honestly believe it is okay to use force to impose your will on others. Some day it may indeed lead to revolution, I can tell you there are people in this nation who will only be pushed so far, specifically with legal games and violation of constitutionally protected INHERENT HUMAN RIGHTS.

        • No sarcasm. Each one of those parenthesis only proves my point brother Spirko. Each one is a fist to the face of a drowning human. For all but a few anywho…

          I listen to you a great deal, and you listen me … well more in the last hour than ever. So I will be the judge as to how much we have in common this time. And I know we both want a better world to prosper in, and to leave for the next generations.

          Happy longer days and New Year ahead!

      • I completely agree, so those of us on the moral side better get passed these minor differences so that we might actually stand a chance against our common enemy. Eh?

        I’m not saying my thought process is absolute, and it won’t change, but I see the Constitution as nothing more than a farm bill that we are stuck with. Neither of the documents would apply in a better system. Natural rights on the other hand, are something entirely different – concrete – that are not upheld by lower ‘contracts’ like a constitution anyway. Thus why do we protect what does not protect us in a way that is congruent with those concrete laws of nature?

        In this very old system we have no right to land, food, water, freedom of travel, or the pursuit of happiness. So if the constitution can’t provide those common ‘new agey’ basics – lol -, which would actually give birth to true freedom, then I personally classify the Constitution as an archaic and anti-evolutionary document that holds us back.

        For the record; I cannot be labeled. Nor can you. We cross box borders, thus left, right, liberal, conservative cannot trap us. Not saying you were calling me a socialist liberal, but I’m not by any stretch. Meritocratic is the closest, but I have never found anything I entirely agree with.

        Sorry for the rant…

        • I don’t think we agree I don’t think this “old system” does anything to prevent the rights to land (that you actually own) to food (which you have actually acquired via work or money), to water (which you actually have claims to), to freedom (since that hole was fixed VIA AMENDMENT), or freedom of travel (assuming you have a right to be on the property upon which you travel).

          Unless you are being really bad at being sarcastic I have to say our differences are pretty broad.

  13. Thanks Jack. Think im gonna send this episode out to everyone i care about and title it, “2014, what are you going to do different?”

    One of the better cast ive heard you do since i started listening about 1.5 years ago. Happy Holiday / Merry Christmas to you and your family.

  14. RE: The modern mariner’s clock which was invented as a result of the 1700’s British contest which was launched to try and find a solution to the riddle of the ever-elusive longitude.

    Jack, if you can possibly get your hands on the BBC miniseries “Longitude” please do so.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0192263/

    http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519S23K6RHL.jpg

    It’s one of the most outstanding examples of a historical drama ever made. It’s breathtaking. It tells the infuriating tale of British commoner John Harrison, a common man who was a brilliant clockmaker. He heard about the contest, and he built the clock that would allow ship captains to correctly determine their exact longitudinal position. The prize being offered by the contest was something like £20,000, and that was back in the 1700’s so it was probably the equivalent today of millions of dollars. Harrison developed the clock that seafarers had been waiting for for over 2,000 years, and yet he was denied the prize of the contest for over 20 years because he wasn’t a gentleman of any noble lineage. His clock was dismissed as insufficient. Ship captains everywhere were furious, and so those captains went to the King himself. Many of those angry captains included navy ship captains, many of whom were gentlemen already, and yet some of them were NOT gentlemen by birth but were in fact granted the status of gentlemen by virtue of becoming naval officers. These naval captains pleaded with the King for him to intercede in the crooked swindle of a contest because those ship captains knew that the clock which Harrison invented was THE answer they had been waiting for. Sailors were dying year after year by the hundreds because of ships crashing against the rocks in the fog because the ship captains and their navigators weren’t completely sure of their longitudinal positions. But THAT clock was capable of changing everything. THAT clock held the key to solving the riddle of longitude. But the noblemen in charge of the contest refused to consider Harrison sheerly on the basis of his class. And so for over 20 years, hundreds of more British sailors needlessly died.

    I guarantee you will never be able to look at a clock the same way again after watching that miniseries.

  15. The captains went to the king! Always it seems that folks go crying to the government. How much more productive it would have been for them if they went to Harrison and bought the clocks from him.
    A man needs a government like a fish needs a bicycle.

    • I’m not 100% certain, but I believe any such captains might have been court-martialed if they tried to a) incorporate unauthorized equipment onto the King’s vessels, and then b) come up with their own unauthorized procedures for how to employ those unauthorized tools into the running of the King’s ships.

      I actually suspect more than a few quietly rebellious British naval captains were indeed doing exactly that (completely on the sly) during the 20+ years of the prize not being handed out to John Harrison. But such captains were risking not just their careers but even their freedom (imprisonment) and possibly even lives (hanging) for defying British naval command.

      • And as an addendum — the manufacture of those clocks needed a massive upfront infusion of capital. Harrison couldn’t manufacture those clocks on his own, he needed either 1) the King to command for the clocks to be manufactured at the expense of the Royal Navy, or 2) a venture capitalist to sink a small fortune into their manufacture.

        The first avenue wasn’t going to happen if the King didn’t even know what was going on. And the second wasn’t going to happen if access to all manufacturing facilities, and especially to all raw materials (copper, brass, iron, etc,) were being kept out of reach by the noble classes.

  17. “This was never about money for us. It was about us against the system. That system that kills the human spirit. We stand for something. To those dead souls inching along the freeways in their metal coffins, we show them that the human spirit is still alive.”

    Love these kinda shows Jack!

  18. Hey Jack, Just want to give a shout out to JMBullion. I work at a pawn shop and have customers constantly looking for silver. I send them all to JM and have received nothing but positive responses.

  19. Jack,
    Hey, Logistical pain in your ass here LOL. After listening and learning for 2.5 years I came home from driving a truck Oct 20th and have been neck deep in Homesteading projects to the point of not having the time to even listen to a show since then. I have had obstacle after obstacle and injury upon injury since that day, but it has all been worth it so far even though some days I thank you and others I curse even hearing of you HaHa It all seems to be moving forward. All kidding aside I am a member of the support brigade, and will continue to be, and am actually getting back to a place where I can start catching up on the episodes I have missed.
    Anyway I hope you will consider me one of MANY of your success stories and a graduate of the Jack Spirko school of how Sh*t should be, now returning for my post graduate degree in self directed learning.
    I took the Geoff Lawton Permaculture course, and am anxiously awaiting my neck knife!! Though I may not contribute to the conversation very often I will always be around in the background turning people on to your show and zello channel and supporting the community anyway I can.
    Thanks Brother,
    Mike

    • Mike,

      I do not currently have internet access on my homestead. Basically I have to drive 25 miles to find a free Wi-Fi zone to download several podcasts at a time. I listen to the TSP podcast while I am working on my homestead projects, cooking, etc… . I find not only am I learning about what I am doing but I am simultaneously being inspired and knowing I am not really out there doing it alone.

  21. Best line of the show, “Its hard to do a lot of shit!”

    Reminds me of what I tell my kids, “It’s only hard because you haven’t done it before.”

  22. You’re saying a lot of what I’ve been trying to convince my “Republican” friends. I shared the podcast on Facebook in hopes someone will listen.

  24. Jack,
    I’ve been listening to you for about 2 years now and I have to say this is your best podcast. I love it and support everything you said 100%. Thank you so much for everything you do. You are an inspiration to us all! Keep up the good work. Your message is really important to our country and our world.

  25. Jack, I have to take serious issue with one thing you said in the beginning of this podcast. You claimed that this episode was not political. In that, you were dead wrong.

    But I mean that in a good way. What you did here was INTENSELY POLITICAL. What it was not, in any way, was PARTISAN. We’ve developed a collective misunderstanding in our society that “politics” is something that only concerns the foolishness conducted by asshats who have managed to get elected to some office or another and have a (D) or (R) after their names. It’s time for members of the “do-ocracy” to take the word “political” back from the partisan hacks.

    Every day, when you get behind your microphone and provide advice and inspiration to tens of thousands of people to reclaim sovereignty over their own lives, you are taking a major political action. Every time that any person plants a garden to grow their own food, starts producing their own energy, starts a chicken flock (permits and laws be damned), etc. — they are taking a political action. Every time that people in a community come out and help each other in the wake of a disaster and tell the state, “Thanks, but you can go home — you’re not needed here,” they are taking a political action. And all of these are decidedly more effective political actions than ANYTHING that could be done on a partisan level.

    • @Chris you and I differ greatly on what is and is not political. I totally disagree with your assessment. What you got wasn’t political but non partisan, it was ANTI POLITICAL.

      Calling such political would be like calling a speech on atheism religious.

    • Political:
      Of or relating to the government or the public affairs of a country (wikipedia).

      Partisan:
      Prejudiced in favor of a particular cause.

      IMO.. personal response-ability is not political.

      By stating that the ‘important part’ (focus) of personal action is its effect on the state.. you make the state central.

      There is a huge difference between thinking:
      How does this individuals actions effect the state (political thinking) -and- How do the states actions effect this individual (liberty thinking).

      The actions I take for my benefit are taken for my benefit. Not to influence those who would rule or subjugate me.

      Do you take action as a free man? Or as a subject (political)?

      IMO.. our only concern/care regarding the state should be the same care you’d take if you were walking in the woods where there had been bear attacks.

      Don’t seek it out or antagonize it, and if you see it coming, go the other way. Otherwise.. enjoy your walk.

    • Chris,

      I’m so happy for your contribution here as it has put another layer on to my own understanding.

      I’ve been listening to Jack, when the description of a podcast seemed worth a listen, for only about half a year (my original find and listen came about because of permaculture,) yet others who have been listening much longer express a reaction to this podcast similar to mine. Heaven’s to Betsy, but this was a wholly remarkable exposition, rant, speech of one side of the coin of truth that I have ever heard, bar none, full to the gills of with practical, personal wisdom about living a better life through personal responsibility, organized and rolled out like a big ol’ wave.

      But not political, a-political? Hardly, but fully the opposite, as you say! Just in the time I’ve been here, I’ve noticed Jack peeking under the other side of the coin, the side that doesn’t work with fighter and gun analogies, but with analogies that foster love and cooperation. The best way I can put that is to play off the marvelous song that bookends each podcast. The revolution is not completely you, or Jack, or me, but the revolution is also resoundingly WE. And if we are lucky with foresight and determination, it could be not so much a revolution but a metamorphosis of understanding to the next stage of humanity, where personal responsibility is coupled with responsibility to all and everything in the web of nature’s interdependency around us, a permaculture principal if I ever saw, heard and felt one.

      Our American forefathers hashed out a pretty good working model for representative democracy with individual freedom rights inserted. It helped to move the human enterprise somewhat beyond tyranny and feudalism, and we’re now ready to move further. We don’t move anywhere by contending that what they created is now corrupted beyond redemption, so we best just do our own thang. The human enterprise is way, way more complex and interconnected than our paleo past. Fix and adapt it where WE can and fix it together, the other side of the coin.

      BTW, Jack, I did not appreciate one bit your dumping on our grandmothers (blue haired old ladies.) A longer life than yours recognizes the fact that our grandmothers worked and nurtured far harder than most of their chest beating mates and have earned their dotage, not that dotage by any person is a reason for ridicule and disregard. As a male in his prime, your happiness and strength is relative as is all of life (more permaculture.) All is entropy and rebirth. The blue haired old ladies deserve a real, “I’m sorry.”

      • @Ron –
        IMO the move from immaturity to maturity is:

        Dependence -> Independence -> Interdependence

        When a community/nation devolves it falls from Interdependence to dependence.

        Where we are right now.. is dependent. Moving towards independence automatically leads to interdependence.. of individuals who realize that interdependence allows them to retain their independence/autonomy/freedom while adding the benefits, richness and safety of community/family.

        always IMHO

        • Insideous you wrote,

          I like this although I’ve never quite thought of things in this manner. I, myself, tend to too much abstraction, and this has enough abstraction to leave me wondering. Do you think that you might give us a “for instance” or two to flesh it out. I’d be glad to do the same if you have any questions about what I wrote.

        • One day we are going to have to have Episode-______- An Interview with Insidious as a show. I swear to god you seem like a long lost brother to me. If we ever meet you have many beers coming on my dime.

        • Wrong again,

          It was both me and the system, because my quotes disappeared again. This was the quote that went away while trying to use the /quote tool:

          “In any event I really don’t give a shit who disagrees with me, I sent you an email directly about this. My issue is your stupid shit about things “creeping up on me” like peace and love and cooperation.”

          “

        • @Ron –
          Reply for your example request..

          colonists move to america, still dependent on europe for support (dependence)

          become independent of need for european support by first homesteading (independent) and then forming towns (interdependent)

          now able to stand on their own.. cut ties with their ‘parents’

          this pattern is repeated with western expansion

          i would say that the de-evolution in the US began during the great depression.. where, rather than remaining interdependent, people began to rely (depend) on ‘the government’ to take care of them.

          the seed of this mistake (IMO) was the rise of socialist thinking.. that the ‘we’ was the foundation of the ‘I’.. instead of the other way around.

          once people got a taste of less responsibility, with the same amount of benefits, dependence began to increase.. reaching the rather precarious point we’re at today.

          I kind of think of it like this:
          – Your child is tired, so you carry them
          – They decide being carried is easier than walking, so they want to be carried all the time
          – At first you only carry them occasionally, but as they walk less and less, they get weaker and weaker
          – Eventually they can’t walk on their own.. now we’ve reached:

          Think of the crippled children! We can’t just leave them lying in the gutter!

          – Other children see your child being carried all the time, and now they want to be carried to..
          – The get weaker..

          Ultimately? You have a bunch of exhausted adults (the carriers) and a bunch of crippled children.. collapsed on the ground in a heap.

          IMO.. we’re about one metaphorical day from the end of that story.

          And the only ‘solution’ is for the children to learn to walk again.. and become adults. Not so they can carry other children, but so they can choose their own path, rather than continuing down the one chosen by their parents.

        • Jack wrote,

          I’ve learned a lot from you and said so repeatedly. Not enough apparently to warrant a little push back at the Gospel of Jack. Why have a forum if it’s just for blind stroking?

          I would have expected nerves of steel from you. Say what you mean. If you want me to go away, I will, without you’re taking the time to block me, or whatever the procedure is. Just say it, if having a sterile soapbox is what you want. Or just ignore me, call me names, or mock and denigrate me as is your wont. But don’t have the temerity to say that you don’t care. Just say what you want of me. If you want me disappear, it will sadly be done.

        • Ron for some reason when you try to quote people it isn’t showing up. Can’t tell you why if it is the system or you.

          In any event I really don’t give a shit who disagrees with me, I sent you an email directly about this. My issue is your stupid shit about things “creeping up on me” like peace and love and cooperation.

          First I don’t care who disagrees with me but don’t go telling me what I think, or how I think or how I should think. I won’t do it to you, so do me the same favor.

          The bigger problem is as you have said you are new around here and you only listen to stuff that interests you. Well let me educate you that community, peace, love and many things that are considered “left” have been part of TSP since it was founded in 2008. For you to say that this type of things is creeping up on me is to infer that I was opposed to peace and community and cooperation, that is fing insulting given how open I have always been.

          I know it is very hard for a socialist to comprehend a libertarian and voluntarist view. You are so used to pushing against what you consider right wing ideology that it crosses your streams and you just don’t know what to do with it. You tell me I am wrong all you want and you waste as much keyboard energy as you want and if anything you will be either ignored or possibly told you are wasting your time.

          But don’t go telling me what I am thinking, don’t speak for me and don’t insinuate that you know anything about me as a man and what I stand for. You clearly have no idea who I am and you have no idea what libertarian means. May be one day you will understand that libertarian isn’t “right wing”, I am happy to wait for you to get there or to watch you not get there. Just don’t go speaking on my behalf or stating what I think or saying that such and such is creeping up on me again, or you will have to find another place to voice your opinion.

          Again just because it is probably hard for you to grasp, I do not care that you disagree and say so, I don’t care that you think I am wrong, I am fine with that. Just do me a favor and don’t tell me what I think or what I am thinking or what my views are, I can do that for myself thank you.

        • @Jack,

          Not the system, me. I wrote a reply to Insideous but neglected to post it before hitting your reply button, so I bunged up the system. Sorry!

          Well…, if I’d had said that it would have been creepy for sure. I said that you were peeking under the other side of the coin, implying that you were continuing to learn about, yes, peace, love and cooperation. But…, I can see how you could see that as my declaring what you think, so for that I apologize, I’m sorry. I won’t try to be gentle about it in the future and just say “Jack is wrong” and say why.

          Jack is wrong about government being worthless, fit for nothing, and not able to help in crises. Government has become in this day nearly hopelessly corrupted on many levels, but we’d better well hope that it’s not as Jack characterizes it with such certainty in B&W. My parents would be disappointed today, but not ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater. They were of the greatest generation, growing up in depression and both veterans of WWII. They were happy for government help and saw what it could do at its best. Now that we are faced with a likely financial collapse that will make the Great Depression a stroll through Neverland, we’d better hope that somehow government can come up to the task and try to help ensure that it can.

          Let’s enable it’s best again, rather than ragging it down to nothing. That would crush the bits of our civilization worth saving. No amount of personal responsibility can make an infrastructure for civilization’s current complexity unless you want to leave that to trans-national corporations, a-la, more NAFTA abominations as will come with TPP, if we don’t stop it. Government sucks for a host of reasons, but inevitability is not one of them unless we let it.

          Better, Jack?

        • See my comments about the government of your parents above. Belief that the government of our parents or our grandparents was good is delusional thinking. Add to what I listed elsewhere what we did in that time in Central and South America. Flatly your nostalgic view of the government of the 1950s is a sad as the nostalgic view of conservatives of the nation of the 1950s. Neither are based on facts, just a view sold to you by those in power.

        • @Ron (wrong reply level) –
          Your statements here boil down to:
          ‘The government was ‘good’ during my parents lifetime’
          ‘The government is inept/corrupt now’
          ‘We better hope/support the government or we’re all screwed’

          IMO This sentiment is the exact opposite of what was expressed in this podcast.

          Hope that a corrupt, inept, fully captured entity will save us?

          If you have/know of/can influence the path/actions of ‘the government’.. have at it! Otherwise.. you might want to work on a strategy who’s foundation is a little more substantial than low probability hope.

          Why low probability?

          How often has the present government (our adult lifetime) succeeded at ‘solving’ any societal problem?

          ???

          Any examples?

          My track record at solving my problems is much much higher.

          😉

        • I will add that this believe that “the government of our parents was good” is delusional.

          That government segregated people based on race, locked up people in concentration camps, seized the wealth of America, broke our word to the rest of the world, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

          Have you noticed that Obama makes Bush not look so bad and Bush made Clinton not look so bad. Just because something after something else is worse doesn’t make what came before it good.

  26. I loved this show, and have listened to it twice. It’s good to know that others share my world view. Well done.

  27. Jack,

    I thought on one of your history segments you started to say something about Christians being killed in Egypt and other Christians not helping them or something with regards to emails you got from Alex. I think actually that sort of thing may have fueled wars and such and Christians perhaps eventually did try to do something about it in many cases.

    At one time I tried to make some sense of the crusades and read parts of a few books. It seems like a complex topic, but some of what I read tried to say things like Christians on pilgrimages to the holy land where mistreated by Moslems and such or that Christians where being harmed in parts of the middle east etc. I also have the impression that rulers and such exploited tensions between different religions for their own purposes. This makes it hard to ascertain the full truth perhaps. In some ways that is not much different than today. I’ve also heard it said that the Crusades helped end feudalism in Europe and similar arguments that are made that WW II helped end the depression.

    People seem to think the Crusades are worse because they are religious wars, though our modern wars are not much different or maybe worse. Alot of those crusaders where out there looking for adventure and to better themselves much like the people who join up with the military today is my impression. I think the Knights Templars where a military order that became very powerful and rich and seemed to have even started the system of modern banking.

    I also think that when the mongols invaded Tibet, they actually converted to Tibetan Buddhism which I find interesting.

  28. I’ve also heard the argument that the crusades helped prevent the spread of the Islamic empire. I am just saying that. Even though I am a Christian I do not call myself anti Islamic as many on the right. I even have an audio version of the Koran on my IPod. I don’t really listen to it much but I have listened to it in the past.

    However also, I think there’s many thing such as this:
    http://historymedren.about.com/od/crusades/p/crusadesbasics.htm

    “For centuries, Jerusalem had been governed by Muslims, but they tolerated Christian pilgrims because they helped the economy. Then, in the 1070s, Turks (who were also Muslim) conquered these holy lands and mistreated Christians before realizing how useful their good will (and money) could be. The Turks also threatened the Byzantine Empire. Emperor Alexius asked the pope for assistance, and Urban II, seeing a way to harness the violent energy of Christian knights, made a speech calling for them to take back Jerusalem. Thousands responded, resulting in the First Crusade.”

    I’m sure I’ve stirred up a hornets nest among the crowd here. But here I am trying to go to bed early because I have a flight and couldn’t sleep and was thinking about this ..

  29. The revolution is you! Sounds like this is just what I needed today. It definitely makes you feel good if it is what you are doing on a daily basis. Great episode!

  30. Love the comment about the guy with big upper body, and small legs. A Power lifer Friend called it ” Riding a chicken “. Love the thought of being balanced.
    I wonder how many people are ready ” EMP” but not ready for an everyday problem like car accident, or kitchen fire .be balanced

  31. Regarding the issue of “doing something” about the Christians being murdered in Egypt, one need not attack a state to make a state do something about murder. During the time of the Soviet Union under Gorbachev, he would persecute the Jews and not let them out of the country to go to Israel. So… Jews in America organized letter writing campaigns. We dedicated a religious service to remembering a Soviet Jew… placing an empty chair at the front of the congregation so that everyone could see. We not only goosed the Soviet leadership, we goosed American politicians to bring up the subject when some negotiation was going on, related or not. We wanted it mentioned. Eventually, the Soviets saw it was to their advantage to let the Jews go rather than persecute them.

    So… I am Jewish, not Christian. I have no idea what Christians are doing in their churches, but my sense is… very little in regards to the Coptic Christians being murdered.

    I bring it up NOT to make Christians feel bad but I’m worried that Christians don’t seem to realize that you guys need to hang together or you will hang separately. The Christians have become the new Jews. I don’t think you guys know what to do when you are on everyone’s list for abuse and you’d better learn. There is a reason why there are so many smarts Jews around. It’s because most of the dumb ones got weeded out early on.

    I like Christians. I don’t want to see you guys get weeded out. The Copts are experiencing it now. Don’t think you are immune.

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