SURVIVAL STRATEGIES FOR TROUBLED TIMES
By Thomas H. Greco. Jr.
For years I’ve been saying that we are being led, actually “driven,” toward a new global paradigm that is at once financial, economic, political and social, and I’ve been urging people to prepare for it. They naturally ask me what sorts of changes to expect and what they ought to do to be prepared. I first compiled a list of my ideas on that way back in the mid-1980s, a list that I’ve revised slightly from time to time and republished in various places. Since then the times have become increasingly “troubled” and I am convinced that the situation is quickly approaching a climax during which we-the-people who are not included in the super-class will be hard pressed to maintain any semblance of normality in our lives. We will be challenged as never before to adapt and to find ways to survive (and thrive) in the face of what I’ve been calling the global “mega-crisis” the dimensions of which include global warming, climate change, pandemics, terrorism, and financial and political malfeasance that are causing inflation, depressions, wars, loss of freedom, and that will ultimately enable the super class to engineer a “great reset” and usher in their New World Order.
Here is my latest revision of my Survival Strategies for Troubled Times.
General Strategies
Do what you can to enhance your own health, resiliency and independence, but don’t try to “go it alone;” our safety, survivability, quality of life, and happiness lie in our relationships and mutual interdependence. It pays to be kind, helpful, and cooperative with those around us and to work together to build a new human-centered convivial civilization.
HEALTH, SAFETY, AND SELF-RELIANCE
Learn healthy living and acquire a diversity of practical skills. Cultivate a low input lifestyle. Secure your own material needs as much as possible, and find a safe place to live.
COOPERATION AND MUTUAL SUPPORT
Build mutually supportive relationships. Nurture the development of networks and self-contained, cooperative communities.
DISENGAGE
Reduce your dependence upon conventional systems and structures, governments and institutions, especially those that are being used to drain away our wealth, like political fiat money. Get out of the debt trap and reduce your financial obligations, Shift yout financial resources from Wall Street investments to investments in Main Street.
BE ALERT AND BE INVOLVED
Keep attuned to the changing global conditions of humanity and its habitats. Consult a variety of news sources, not just the ones whose views you typically agree with. Participate in local politics. Ask tough questions. Work with others to help solve local, regional, national, and global problems.
SPECIFIC POSSIBILITIES TO CONSIDER:
1. Food. Grow at least some of your own food, store staple food items, save seeds, plant perennial food plants, especially fruit and nut trees. Learn how to forage for wild foods – many “weeds” are edible. Support local (preferably organic) farmers.
Participate in “Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), also known as “subscription farming.” This is an arrangement in which a group of consumers contract to support an area farmer who in turn delivers their produce to the contracting group. The farmer is guaranteed a market and the consumers are guaranteed a supply of fresh wholesome food.
2. Collect valued items and useful commodities that are likely to retain their value and can be used as exchange media. Some favor gold and silver coins. In modest amounts, these may be useful in the event of hyper-inflation or collapse of the currency. I prefer to hold things that are more useful, like tools, equipment, materials, and books.
3. Get out of the large cities, if possible. Locate a country place that you can retreat to if and when it becomes necessary. Buy productive land that can support you and your family. Choose land that can provide food, clean water, and fuel. Ideally, locate near small towns where you have access to helpful neighbors and common facilities. If you lack the resources to buy land on your own, consider buying in partnership with others or organizing a Community Land Trust, a legal arrangement in which a trustee organization holds title to land while assuring secure tenure, but limits individual speculative gains.
4. Build community where you are. If you must live in a city, get to know your neighbors and organize neighborhood cooperatives and mutual-support structures. Large cities depend on a complex and well maintained infrastructure, and the importation of tremendous amounts of resources from distant places. In hard times these systems may fail, in whole or in part. Learn about critical systems like water, electricity, gas, sewage disposal, health care, and police protection. With your neighbors, plan back-up strategies and create back-up systems that will assure at least minimal life-support. Get involved in local politics and hold officials accountable.
5. Disengage financially. Begin to disengage from the conventional financial systems as much as possible. Don’t depend too much on banks or other fiduciaries, and avoid, as much as possible, the use of the conventional money system. If banks fail, you may lose your deposits, while finding that your debts remain. Convert most of your financial assets to real (tangible) assets while holding some in liquid form for payment of taxes, utilities, and other necessities that require monetary payment. Support the emerging decentralized economy that promotes humane values, equity, social justice, sustainability, and local self-determination. Help to organize and use properly issued community currencies and credit clearing exchange systems.
6. Become debt-free; kick the credit habit; pay as you go. Don’t get caught in the “usury trap.” Especially, avoid borrowing from predatory lenders and credit card companies. Do not borrow to buy consumer goods; purchase these only when you can pay for them in full. Get out of debt as quickly as you can and stay out of debt. If you must borrow, borrow from people, not banks. In a crunch, it’s better to have your debts in friendly hands, someone who won’t take advantage of your distress or press for foreclosure. If you have a home which is mortgaged or are making payments on a major durable item such as a car or truck, you might consider the following possible options:
a. Accelerate your repayment schedule by making extra principal payments out of current income.
b. Refinance using funds obtained from individuals-relatives, friends or associates to pay off the bank. You might obtain from them non-interest-bearing loans or, better yet, negotiate a contract that will allow for sharing of both the risks and benefits of ownership. You might give the new funds providers a part-ownership in the property. You, the user/occupant, would pay rent on a lease and they would receive a part of the rent in proportion to their investment. You would also buy back their investment over time.
c. In the case of a farm or multi-unit residential property, you might create a “community land trust” or LLC to hold title to the property which you would then lease back on a long term basis. Others would put up enough money to repay the bank mortgage in return for equity in the buildings or a lease hold on the land.
d. Another possibility is to sell the property and buy one you can afford to hold free-and-clear.
e. If you are in extreme debt, filing personal bankruptcy may be an option. Consult a financial advisor or lawyer for advice, which can often be obtained through non-profit organizations like councils on aging or legal aid.
7. Simplify your lifestyle and reduce your needs. Learn how to live better with less. Do it yourself, fix what you have, reuse, make-do, or do without. Share with others. Kick the shopping habit and emphasize non-material satisfactions and gifts.
8. Learn to share and cooperate. Secure your basic necessities like food and shelter by creating community and cooperative arrangements. Possibilities to consider are neighborhood associations, buying clubs, food cooperatives, shared or co-op housing, barter clubs, trade associations or mutual credit clearing exchanges.
9. Finally, engage with others to work out your own ways of securing access to the basic necessities–water, food, shelter, energy, clothing, tools and equipment, transportation, and health care, and through it all keep a positive, hopeful attitude, and make time to play, meditate, and pray.
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Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
This article has also been published on Expert Click and Medium
Beyond Money 
Reblogged this on Calculus of Decay .
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The only lasting solution to have peace and prosperity The History of the World is the History of Psychotics From The Secret World of Psychopaths: Why Psychopaths Have Always Ruled the World and Always Will; Citation: “…Psychopaths aren’t like you and me. They have a goal and they go after that goal at all costs. Ask yourself this question: Would you kill someone to get what you want in life? How about dozens of people or hundreds? How about thousands? Millions? The vast majority of people would answer no to killing even a single person…Psychopaths have always ruled the world and they always will. That’s because they have a very distinct advantage over the rest of us. They’re willing to do anything and pay any price to get it…No matter how many people they kill or have killed or how many lives they destroy, it doesn’t matter because only their goal matters…”.
From The Secret World of Psychopaths: “…They’re helped into power, usually by an economic disaster or external threat and once they’re there they don’t leave until they’re carried out in a body bag…This scenario plays out again and again in history with near 100% consistency…”.
From School of Medicine and Public Health; Citation: “…The study showed that psychopaths have reduced connections between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), the part of the brain responsible for sentiments such as empathy and guilt, and the amygdala, which mediates fear and anxiety…”.
From Factor Structure of the B-Scan 360: A Measure of Corporate Psychopathy; Citation: “…Babiak and Hare began working several years ago on the development of an instrument for rating psychopathic features in corporate and organisational settings. The result was the 113-item Business – Scan 360…”.
From How UBC behavioural scientist Robert Hare is keeping psychopaths out of the boardroom; Citation:”…Personality tests that red flag traits such as psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism have grown in popularity since the economic crisis, as more companies attempt to safeguard against toxic employees…By 2012, the B-Scan 360 checklist was down to its current 20-item list, targeting four personality domains: manipulative/unethical (glib, charm and deceit), callous/insensitive (“cold inside” and remorseless), unreliable/unfocused (no loyalty or goals), and intimidating/aggressiveness…”.
From Soviet Gulag Quotes; “…While there is real merit in worrying about Corporate Psychopaths, there is much more merit in worrying about political psychopathy. For what is our modern politician but a charming manipulator with a calculating mind? What else can be made of the lack of accountability we find in politicians today, or the glib way in which they deflect questions and criticism? And what holds out the promise of power more than politics?…Yes, indeed, Political Psychopaths have produced more victims than Corporate Psychopaths; and while we may read of corporate greed or embezzlement in the news, we may rest assured that the Soviet Gulag, the Chinese Labor camps, and crimes of the Nazis were not the work of capitalists, but the work of capitalism’s enemies…”.
From Executive Psychopaths; Citation: “…They’re chameleons. They have a cunning ability to act perfectly normally and indeed to be utterly charming, as they wreak havoc on the lives of the people around them and the companies they inhabit. Many of psychopaths’ defining characteristics—their polish, charm, cool decisiveness, and fondness for the fast lane—are easily, and often, mistaken for leadership qualities…”.
From Corporate Psychopaths – We All Know Who You Are; Citation: “…They care simply about themselves, their immediate needs, their bank balance and the shiny things they can gain from their “career”. They couldn’t give a hoot about the company’s success or employees well-being. Instead, they receive a perverted pleasure from abusing and hurting their victims…”.
There is an urgent need to prevent evil people who pretend to be mentally healthy; to have control over any group of people. Any profession including teachers, physicians, lawyers that gives authority to manage over even the smallest group of children and adults must be mentally tested. The evil – chameleon people who are also called since ancient times enemies – within in a large group created holocaust, all wars, and all human sufferings.
From Inside the Mind of a Psychopath; Citation: “…Charming as they may seem, psychopaths can also be tone-deaf because they lack access to their own feelings and those of others…”.
The B-Scan 360 test at first must be required from all political leaders Worldwide; in the future it will prevent governments from entering into wars and committing crimes against humanity.
The B-Scan 360 test is not perfect yet but now it is very much needed. The early warning that a person might be psychopath is his/her tone-deafness.
There is an extremely urgent task to perfect the B-Scan 360. When B-Scan 360 is near its perfection; no psychopath will attempt to pursue a career that requires them to be tested; to avoid “embarrassment” and rejection. Similarly, people with tone-deafness will not pursue a career in the singing industry or sing in a group of friends knowing that they will be immediately rejected.
The B-Scan 360 test must be at first adopted for all Judges and some lawyers; who work at all levels of Government, federal, provincial and municipal. They are creating laws and rules also called “Authorities” that unnoticeably prevent real Justice from being enforced against the Government institutions that abuse individual citizens.
In the drafting of legislation, regulations, treaties, agreements and other governmental documents and papers lawyers play a major role. In various aspects of this work they are called upon to advise upon legal and constitutional questions which frequently go to the very heart of the governmental role.
From Loquitur Cabrini University Student Media; Citation: “…Indifference and the silence of people lead to the holocaust. To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest of all sins….”.
Any civilised country must be governed by mentaly healthy people; this is a must; and peace and prosperity will be for all people in this World forever.
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