Saturday 13 June 2020

"Prepping" for Disaster, Collapse or Total Destruction

There is a considerable literature on disaster preparedness. The idea of a Disaster is one of some limited catastrophe that leaves intact the basic structures of civilization; and the problem is a matter of bridging the temporary gap that exists before civilization regrows to restore normality.

Beyond a Disaster is what currently is very likely: Collapse.

In a Collapse the basic structure of civilization is destroyed. This may be permanent (ie. may last many human generations) - or the gap may be filled, to a greater or lesser degree, by assimilation into a surviving external civilization - by being invaded, colonized, or whatever.


The gap caused by Collapse is far too great for preparations to be relevant - not to recognise this is to fail to understand the nature of a Collapse.

When a civilization goes-down, problems are too many, too unpredictable, and too severe, for planning survival. Think of being an Ancient Briton/ Celtic family when the Roman legions departed c. 410 AD. Trade almost ceased, the standard of living plummeted by half (which meant about half as much food), government evaporated, bandits and feuding warlords arose, technologies broke and could not be replaced...  

And if Collapse is Global, as it will be, nowadays; then it is essentially permanent.


Of course, if Total (planetary) Destruction is the prospect - something like a solar incineration, or an impact from space, or some kind of cataclysmic volcano-earthquake scenario; then nothing could be done to ensure survival.


So, what's the point of this discussion? Well, partly that 'Prepping' is of value for a limited span of possibilities, and when it comes to the main possibility confronting us here-and-now - which is civilizational Collapse; Prep is essentially irrelevant.

I also have a problem with the Prepping mind-set; which is focused on material, physical survival - on 'saving our skins'. Most Preppers are thoroughly materialist and hedonic in their world-view - they are 'survivalists' who regard death as annihilation and 'therefore' something to be postponed for as long as possible.

(Actually that 'therefore' doesn't follow; because if death is inevitable, it is also possible to infer that one might as well get death over and done-with; especially if the situation is one of suffering, fear, misery, boredom, despair...)

A further problem is that the survivalist mindset will lead to Christian Apsotasy in a world where evil controls all the social systems, all the institutions for survival. Sooner or later, the Christian will find himself in a situation where to survive would entail actively supporting institutions with evil motivations.

Indeed, we are surely here already? Anyone in doubt now knows-for-sure - from their explicit statements over the past couple of weeks - that all governments, bureaucracies, mass media... all the major social institutions are actively supporting Evil Liars - the forces of value-inversion. Yet we all rely upon these institutions to keep us alive...


If we regard the current world crisis, the totalitarian takeover, the increasingly overt and aggressive civilizational suicide; as essentially a spiritual phenomenon; then it becomes primarily important to think about salvation rather than survival; and about theosis rather than preparedness. 


The challenges are, or soon will be, to remain Christian when there are so many forces encouraging the support of that which is evil in its nature and motivation; and to learn the personal spiritual lessons from the many unprecedented experiences of this era.

Because our situation is unprecedented. The entire world leadership is corrupt and on the side of evil - and the mass majority are either supportive or passively compliant.

Hence we absolutely-must think for our-selves; each individual person must discern and evaluate the situation because (almost certainly) there is nobody else that we can (or should) trust to do it for us.


This is Not really "Preparedness", because we do not know what will happen nor when. Nor is it a matter of being prepared for a disaster 'at any moment' - which (if we are honest) would not be compatible with a good daily life.

It is more a matter of you and me being awake and aware, of learning from our actual daily experiences, of attuning to our own deepest thinking and genuine intuitions.

A matter of Not 'putting off' the main business of life.

If we don't do it now - we may never get the chance to do it at all.

 

8 comments:

Moonsphere said...

You are correct Bruce, no amount of physical preparation, no cupboards of tinned food can help us. It has been said that the events of 2001 opened the 13th Chapter of Revelation. We are now nearly twenty years into the unfolding - and the beasts are rising.

We are always offered the spiritual route of transformation. If not taken, then the metamorphosis must unfortunately take place in the physical realm in the form of societal collapse, war and famine.

The plans of Providence do not allow for protracted periods of stasis and spiritual degradation. If the divine impulses are denied then humanity must face the consequences. In the end we are asked simply to hold to the truth.

Ingemar said...

Moonsphere,

How is 2001 (I presume you mean the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon) related to Revelation?

Moonsphere said...

Hi Ingemar,

The suggestion is that 9/11 represents the turning of the page to a new chapter, not that the event itself was prophesied within the text.

Bruce Charlton said...

@M - Yes, or the millenium in a broader sense (not an exact date, but those years around 2000). That does, in retrospect, seem to have been the inflexion, or maybe the point of no return.

Moonsphere said...

@Bruce Yes, the turn of the millenium in the broader sense.

Also, whilst acknowledging your own position on the subject of "numerology" and indeed systemology, I think it is worth mentioning that 1998 = 3 x 666, the number of the Beast famously referred to in Chapter 13.

Not just Lucifer or Ahriman - but now the "Asuras" also. This means the "I" itself is now imperilled.

From Steiner' 1909 lecture - "The Deed of Christ and the Opposing Spiritual Powers Lucifer, Ahriman, Asuras":

"In the course of the Earth-period man will cast away all the evil brought to him by the Luciferic Spirits together with the blessing of freedom. The evil brought by the Ahrimanic Spirits can be shed in the course of karma. But the evil brought by the Asuric powers cannot be expunged in this way.

Whereas the good Spirits instituted pain and suffering, illness and death in order that despite the possibility of evil, man's evolution may still advance, whereas the good Spirits made possible the working of karma to the end that the Ahrimanic powers might be resisted and the evil made good, it will not be so easy to counter the Asuric powers as earth-existence takes its course. For these Asuric Spirits will prompt what has been seized hold of by them, namely the very core of man's being, the consciousness soul together with the 'I', to unite with earthly materiality. Fragment after fragment will be torn out of the 'I', and in the same measure in which the Asuric Spirits establish themselves in the consciousness soul, man must leave parts of his existence behind on the earth."...

"Man does not as yet entirely base his life on the principle that his true being descends from the animal. But this view of existence will inevitably arise, with the result that men will also live like animals, will sink into animal impulses, animal passions. And in many things that need not be further characterized here, many things that in the great cities come to expression in orgies of dissolute sensuality, we can already perceive the lurid, hellish glare of the Spirits we call the Asuras."


https://holybooks-lichtenbergpress.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/Rudolf-Steiner-Lucifer-Ahriman-Asuras.pdf

Bruce Charlton said...

@M - I don't take the Asuric powers seriously as a distinct entity (on the basis of Steiner mentioning it in a single lecture) - I see this as a more extreme development of the Ahrimanic impulse. As such, yes - the I is indeed imperilled. And this is freely chosen by many modern people. We see this all around.

Steiner did very well indeed to see what would happen after another century of denial of the spiritual, denial of God. From his tone, I think he foresaw the modern mainstream celebration of extreme sexual depravity, teaching it in schools; the sexualisation, castration and mutilation of children for the gratification of the sexual revolution agenda etc. And that all this should be a part of a 'new' (pseudo-scientific) morality of value invesion.

He seems to have been thinking this kind of thing, but could not bring himself to write it (it would have seemed impossible to his contemporaries); whereas for us it is everyday officially implemented reality - to criticise which is severely sanctioned.

Steiner had a scheme of Lucifer and Ahriman as specific beings who were not really evil so much as imbalanced, one-sided; but I use these terms as more of a typology of genuine evil - a broad division of demons or demonic strategies.

By genuine evil, I mean opposed to God, the Good and creation.

Also, I do not regard reincarnation as normal or necessary for most Men - although I acknowledge it as a real possiblity, something which does happen from time to time. So, for me, karma doesn't really come into it.

dearieme said...

Bah! King Arthur will return to save us. He was from Jedburgh, you know, and is therefore a sound fellow. Or was it Kelso? My memory is going.

Bruce Charlton said...

Range Front Fault in Southern Utah has left a new comment on your post ""Prepping" for Disaster, Collapse or Total Destruc...":

Bruce….may I opine a different perspective. Prepping does have a preparedness place for many SHTF scenarios. I agree that should there be total collapse or big natural disasters the contract is ripped up. My husband and I are mid-level prepped up. When the WuFlu nonsense was imposed, toilet paper disappeared. For a long time. Normies started a TP meme that only nutty preppers had TP, associating prepping with Ruby Ridge, and that meme is, of course, nutty and started by those lacking. ...

Trust in God and carry some tent pegs. God helps those who help themselves.

I don’t believe having an active spiritual tuning fork and being prepared are mutually exclusive. Am a good example. I do see how obsessing over the material can block out hearing Creator. Yet we have reached a happy medium. Being modestly prepared allows our mind to relax and pay attention to spirit and the beauty in the world around us in our red rock southern Utah. And reach out to our neighbors....

Yes..listen to the deep promptings from God. Yet there is a lot of room and a gradient between 1 to 10 on the Richter Scale. 10 means kiss your toushie goodbye. In between there is a lot of room to live.

Many many thanks for your inspired written thoughts. You are read around the world….