Elsewhere In the World

I spend time in forums, blogs, and chatrooms all around the world; any English-speaking forum is pretty much fair game for my interest. I have learned a lot of instructive things; what is going on in other parts of our country and world, how people feel about and have various perspectives on The New World Order, Globalism, The Euro, politics both from within their own countries and without. I've chatted with (people who purported to be) Russians, Indians, Arabs, Israelis, British, Pakistanis, as well as folks from our own country. It is always fascinating how their news sources and opinion columnists view things and report things, and how the mindset varies from country to country and people to people. I get links to news sources all over the world - and it's funny how their interpretations of terrorism, global warming, and financial stability differ from ours.

One of my favorite places is a forum on self-sufficiency. These are not leftovers from the Y2K scare, or escapees from the tinfoil hat club. OK, some of them are. But most are people who share ideas on how to be truly self-sufficient; everything from 'loading their own' to the best chickens for egg and meat production. We have participants from Portugal, even the Netherlands, who talk about what they are trying to do. It is a happy place, a quiet and serene place, where we can talk about not just what they do but why they do it - their political, social, and spiritual beliefs as well as their day-to-day struggles.

Some of them are 'closet' survivalists - they have computers at home (that are run on solar or generator electricity, and transmit via satellite) where they telecommute to work, or they go to work in cities while their homes are very rural. Some are diehard 'shackers' - haven't worked in a paying job for years; they make their money off of their farmsteads by cutting wood, selling eggs and meat, plowing/cutting/logging/grading other peoples' properties, doing the things that most folk haven't the time or inclination to do.

We cheered when Deberosa got her first Dexter cattle; she gives us updates on what they do and how easy they are to care for. We debate the pros and cons of different breeds of chickens, cattle, horses, and goats. We talk about making soap, cheese, butter, and even wine. We
share contacts of where from to order the best cages, seeds, churns, milking equipment, tractor parts.

We talk about SHTF and TEOTWAWKI scenarios, discuss politics and candidates and theology and religion with calm respect and equal passion. If some individual posts a long and involved diatribe about paranoid tinfoil hat scenarios, we politely ignore it. But it is evident that the group feels that something is wrong in the world, and they just want to step away from the violence, the illegal immigration, the gangs, the terrorism, the passionate and divisive topics that they see as being promoted mainly on purpose to cause events to happen - much like the magician who waves his right hand while performing legerdemain with his left.

There is a whole undercurrent of people who are quietly and steadily working toward survival of almost anything - not fearfully or in a panic, but calmly and even happily stepping back and away from violence and upheaval.