A True Story that Just Hasn’t Happened Yet

Freeacre

The timing of this missive is just after I read the headline that the British report an attack by the U.S. on Iran could happen "any day now." I thought I should share my worst case scenario, just in case, with my son - and with you all, to get you thinking of your own worst case response. If it doesn't come down this way, great! We can work on creating a better world.

A middle-aged woman lies awake in the middle of the night. She glances across the sleeping body of her husband at the clock glowing in the dark. It says 3:30. She gets up and goes into the kitchen in her pajamas. She lives in a single-wide trailer in a rural area in Oregon.

She makes herself a cup of tea, and drinks it while she writes a letter to her son.

Dear Bean,

There is going to come a time of total disaster in this country and eventually most of the other countries of the world as well. It has been developing for years, of course, but the powers that be have been hiding the knowledge of it. As it became apparent to the ruling class that our world would soon run out of recoverable oil, natural gas, uranium, and by 2035, even coal as well, they bought up the mainstream media and suppressed information about the depletion of resources. The American public has been distracted by relentless programming that has fostered consumer debt and shallow materialism with bogus “reality” shows and “news” that is insipid and inaccurate. The political pundits, the “experts,” and consultants are bought and paid for by corporatists who are determined to funnel every dime that they can get from the working class to those of privilege. In the last thirty years or so 90 percent of all the wealth in this country has been transferred to them.

Until now, it has been in their interests to keep us alive so that they can continue to harvest and milk us like a vast herd of obedient cows for our money and labor. We work at their jobs, buy their products, inhabit their buildings, purchase their drugs (legal and illegal) that prop up the stock market, frequent their hotels, spas, restaurants, hospitals; attend (and vote from) their mega-churches, invest in their schemes, and fight their wars. Taken as a whole, the foremost function we perform is to service the debt and financial institutions that the central banks have created. This is the matrix that the Wachowski brothers so aptly portrayed in their metaphorical movie trilogy.

But these are the end days, Bean. You’ve heard the Murph-man and I rail about Peak Oil for years. Now it has happened. The peak has been reached as of November of 2006. Now we are at a plateau level. Because the developing nations of China and India are increasing their use of oil by prodigious amounts, the plateau will quite quickly become a decline. We’ll be lucky if there is recoverable oil for ten years, natural gas for another fifteen years, uranium - twenty, maybe. Coal will be gone by 2035. Top soil, water, copper, silver, even silicone are depleting. That’s the “good” scenario. It does not take into account the venality of those in charge.

Just because the general public doesn’t know about this, don’t think that the global corporatists (fascists) don’t know. The United States got red-lined the minute that our domestic oil supply peaked in 1974. From then on, it’s been about shifting our manufacturing base to countries with cheaper labor or a closer proximity to oil in the ground. America was changed from a producing to a consuming society. Citizens became consumers. Workers who used to be iron workers, oil riggers, unionized trades people, scientists, and engineers have become valets, chefs, real estate agents, daycare workers, timeshare salesmen, "professional” snowboarders, and soldiers. We are now a service (read that “servant”) society. We have been marginalized and milked to the point that we are not longer useful. At some point, we become a liability, and we won’t be missed.

Three or four significant additional elements are now in play that could bring this on sooner rather than later: resource wars, climate change, and currency/housing collapse. We could have a military event (like the bombing of major oil fields or the closure of the straits of Hormuz, or a domestic terrorists event, real or contrived) that would stop the flow of oil and lead to WWW as all the major powers attempt to secure the last oil supplies. Countries would re-align for their own perceived self-preservation. The U.S. produces almost nothing, and yet uses 35% of the world’s natural resources, and forces the world to use American dollars for petroleum transactions. This is objectionable to the rest of the world. The countries that hold the majority of the U.S. debt are OPEC (the oil producing nation consortium) and China. To conserve the world’s supply of oil, China and OPEC will dump the treasury notes they currently own and collapse our currency. The stock market is a house of cards anyway, so it will go into free fall reminiscent of the Trade Towers collapse. Watch the real estate crash in the coming year as well. This is an exercise in transferring wealth, big time, by the central banks.

Another triggering event might be global warming. A couple of more hurricanes, levels 5 or 6, might devastate another city or two this summer and also take out what is left of our oil drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Once again, OPEC and China can see the writing on the wall as rising temperatures are creating more and more drought, severe storms, arable land is becoming scarce, water is at a premium. The U.S. is using much more than its share, and we are on the brink of bankruptcy. This is one more reason to pull the rug out from under the U.S. and switch to Euros for petro-dollars. We are the biggest energy and resource hogs the planet has ever known and the biggest bully on the block.

This leads us to “Demand Reduction” or “The Die-off.” The End Game. There are too many people on the earth to be sustainable. In my lifetime, we have gone from 2 to 6.3 billion people, and it is projected that I could live to see 9 billion. The food production has been so incredibly intensified by petroleum based fertilizers and pesticides and gasoline based machinery that it has produced this hellacious population increase. Once the oil runs out, the planet cannot begin to feed us all. Combined with the alarming dwindling arable land, water, fish in the ocean, top soil, wildlife, climate change, etc., it is estimated that 5 out of 6 born since 1960 will die of starvation, violence, or disease world-wide.

Of course, the elites figure (much like our Rapture-driven Christian brethren) that the few to be saved will be themselves. Once the God-favored, 144,000 begin to glow, and their clothes evaporate, and they float up into the Light, that still leaves oh, say, six billion still on the planet to fight for the leftovers. The newly outfitted Homeland Security Gestapo will stay busy for awhile rounding up scapegoats and dissidents while the privileged tip-toe past the masses and head for the hills of their private islands and fortified havens in Patagonia or whatever.

Actually, it is this point that I am actually writing to you about.

This collapse could come relatively slowly as the whole country starts to look like Flint, Michigan. Or, it could happen very soon and all at once. Once it is full blown, what is the point for our owners, to drag it out longer and have less to scoop up later when the dust settles? I mean “soon” like next month soon. By the middle of March or so, our navel forces will be in place to attack Iran. Iran is not going to take a nuclear assault on the Cradle of Civilization lying down. They might just strike first. Anyway, however it shakes out, be ready to recognize the signs of time to bug out. Where you are is not sustainable. The town relies on tourism, and tourism will be dead in a weekend once gas goes to $7.00 per gallon and people are looking in the rear-view mirror hoping not to see a mushroom cloud. It will be Time to Get Your Hat (TGYH).

It takes at least two refills of gasoline to get here in a car from there, and that’s assuming that you can drive straight here. But, you may not be able to because there is a rumor that there are Oregon survivalists who are poised to blow up or otherwise block the traffic on the main highways leading into Oregon from California in the event of a mass exodus. Forget I-5, for instance. Try 395 from Nevada. The best idea, if the weather co-operates, might be to travel light on a motorcycle. Bring as much cash as you can (credit cards and ATM’s will not function long. Maybe days, or hours.) Bring a gas can and a hose for siphoning. Bring a small tent and camp gear. If you are running from authorities, ditch the cell phone. You can be tracked by it. Don’t call me on a cell phone. You may have to go cross country to avoid highway check stops. Bring your copy of my will and deed to the house so you can show good reason to be in Oregon. You may want to bring Newy and Whitney and Katie with you. They are welcome, as long as they are willing to defend the place once they get here.

This place, such as it is, has been created, after all, as a lifeboat for you and yours. It’s paid for. It has water. It has a greenhouse, woodstoves. The area has a railroad and a low density population. The climate is challenging and the soil quality sucks, but we’re working on it. It’s the best we could do. But, you do have a chance here.

Just get here, Bean. When the internet goes down, the ATM’s won’t work, the credit cards won’t scan, martial law will be declared, people will begin to be rounded up. It will be too late by then, probably. They’ll say it is for National Security, illegal immigrants, terrorists, domestic insurgents, etc. etc. They’ll use all the reasons we’ve been hearing and accepting and were complicit with over the years as our government victimized other nations while we watched “Survivor” or football or MTV or listened to iPods and played “Doom” and rode around like Mac Daddy in cars with built-in boom boxes.

The real reason will be Demand Reduction. With so little natural resources left to go around, the fewer people alive to use them, the better for those that plan to survive at the expense of everyone else. The Owners-of-It-All will want to keep some viable people around for labor and some for security forces and the rest will be scheduled for death. If you look up and see tick-tack-toe configured chem trails in the sky overhead, it may be too late, My Dear. People may begin to get sick with a pandemic or some killer mold or some unidentified widespread virus. I can hardly imagine that a government would actually take measures to exterminate whole populations. But, then I ask myself "What do I think our biological weapons are for?" In that event, probably there is no defense other than a strong immune system. Know that I have loved you throughout every breath you have taken from the day that you were born. You have given my life its meaning and purpose. Your life has been one filled with adventure and fun to balance the challenges. Better, by far, than most on this struggling planet.

Just get here, My Love. We may be able to create a new, smaller, better little corner of the world and call it “Cascadia.” We may get it right, yet. The future is not yet written. Just get here. Tune into your inner core and move when the time is right.

But, if you can’t, and if you hear that I have died, comfort yourself with the knowledge that when I died, I fell into the loving embrace of our Mother, the Earth. From there, I will wait for you. It will be okay. We will go back to being that sacred star stuff from which all life springs.

Aho

mom