Author of The Dark Secrets of SHTF Survival and the online course SHTF Survival Boot Camp
In the last few months, I saw several people dying from COVID. The last one that I saw was a big man in his 50s. He did not die easily. He fought for his life while he was suffocating from fluids in lungs that did not work.
One moment there was a will to live in his eyes. The next moment there was nothing.
I saw much more than several people suffering at their homes, diagnosed with the same illness. Some of them had a whole bunch of other medical conditions, like diabetes, or high blood pressure, or COPD, or something else.
Mostly they are older folks, but there are young ones among them, too.
I also saw cases of people being sick but their closest contacts like a spouse being healthy, not positive on tests.
I heard whole bunch of theories, from blaming 5G networks to absolutely ignoring the disease and calling it fake. I have been through living in total curfew (because COVID) to total the government totally ignoring it and acting like nothing happened.
Whatever actually happens, and whatever the exact reason is for this, it is clear that it is BAD and it brings resources to the breaking point, much faster and much worse then is portrayed in media.
Public response
Public opinion is easy to form, and it is quite easy to “push” people like sheep in the wanted direction if you have enough power to do it. If you have that power you can do stuff that in normal times you could not imagine.
The greatest motivator for that is fear, and among all fears, the greatest one is fear of the unknown.
Through all the happenings in the last few months, the general public feeling is that they are not sure where all this will lead, and how all this might end.
They are in fear of the unknown, and how that unknown future is going to reflect on their lives, jobs, families, and in relation to the world scene…
There is rage in people that boiling under the surface, because they are afraid, and they want their “known future” back.
In the last few weeks, I saw riots erupt every single day because people lost their confidence in how the situation was being handled here with all events. People went out in the streets in big numbers, kicking police, smashing windows… I think the main reason for it was the feeling that their lives are being taken away, or to put it more clearly their future is getting taken from their hands by the people who do not know what they do.
So folks went out on the streets, letting that rage out on the system
It is nothing particularly new. When emotions like rage and fear erupt after boiling for a long time, these things happen.
There’s always someone with a “perfect solution.”
What I noticed too is among a huge mass of those people there were movements with ideas that are very violent and radical, trying to take that rage and fear of the common folks and use it in their favor, in order to steer people. They want to “ride” on the common folk’s rage and fear, and they want to get more power.
So they can rule.
That is nothing new either. It happened through history frequently. In very hard times, a movement with a dangerous and radical agenda took all those people’s desperation, rage, and fear and used it in their favor.
Who would people listen to during hard and desperate times? A movement with radical ideas that promises a solution to all problems, of course.
It is the perfect time for movements, or people, or some man with “solutions” to everything. What you just have to do is to follow their ideas. Yeah, some of those ideas sound…hmmm… maybe weird, or a bit radical, but what the hell? I mean those folks will “save us”, right?
I am afraid of those “perfect solutions” that are coming, at least coming here in my region. Who knows, maybe those “perfect solutions” are coming everywhere.
It is not about conspiracy theories now. It is about how much people must be desperate in order to accept something which in essence could be even worse than the actual situation?
How desperate must a family man who has lost his job, home, health, and safe future be in order to accept something which is, at its very essence, wrong?
Is all this only a prelude to something even worse after which we will all welcome the “solution”?
I do not know.
What the future holds
As things continue to erode here, I feel like I know less.
Or maybe in a way, I want to know less about things that I cannot change, and I invest more in things that I can change.
And again, as much I do not know exactly what the future will bring, I am positive it is not going to be good. Too many things are happening. Too many people are losing everything, including hope.
I am kinda waiting for something that will be even worse than this.
Maybe it is about my gut feeling. Maybe it is things that I experienced in my past, or maybe I am simply wrong here, but I think in the next period of time we are gonna witness major changes in our lives worldwide.
It can happen suddenly, or gradually, but it will happen for sure. We are just not able to see it because too many things are happening around us. We are overwhelmed by current events.
I am not talking about the end of the world. I am talking about the hard times that are coming. Even harder times than these we face today. On the positive side we are into preparing for hard times, so do not be surprised by what comes next.
Be ahead of the majority of others who are not aware of how things will get worse.
Yes Dear Selco
As you said maybe it is my gut or past experiences or something else, I trust your gut BECAUSE of the past experiences!!
Too many times people drown their gut feelings in trying to think optimism instead of just listening to what our guts are telling us.
In this very chaotic time, a time of unbelievable confusion and weakness from public leaders who know better (!!!!!) we better be listening to our ‘gut instinct!’ It will save us from what IS coming!
Like they say “follow the money” quite often we say follow the gut! Preparedness depends on us to listen to our gut feelings finally and to be ahead of the game when the whistle is blown!!
Awesome article Selco! Thank you for reminding us that it IS OK to listen to our inner most self in reference to the dangers coming our way!
Your feelings mirror my own Selco. I am becoming more and more convinced that that something worse is coming – as you say, not end of the world worse but worse enough. The slow, eroding loss of hope is becoming palpable.
I’m curious As to what to work on when you say “things I can change.“ What did you have in mind? I have no clue of where to start as I watch this country begin to fall.
You can control your skill level, the company you keep, the supplies you have and the amount of time spent on useless things like FB vs actual preparedness. You can control things like not getting into the “peaceful protest”, riots etc.
Military rule 101 is always better your position. So ask yourself what did I do to better my position if it all goes bad today? This week? This month?
If it was picking up a can of beans and filling an empty jar with water then so be it. You just made it possible to make it one more day.
That you control.
One thing that is still possible is to make your voice heard. You can write, e-mail, call or go in person and tell your politicians how you feel.
If done properly it will be more well received. If you go in hollering, making “demands” and using profanity you will be ignored, laughed at and scoffed.
You can be as active as starting recall petitions.
You can type here, on FB, Instagram and Tweet till you die cause they don’t read it or you can direct them where they will be heard.
This is something you still have control over.
Funny. You can write and email all you want. They don’t care! Some staffer will read your letter/email and dump it in the ‘bin’. Those people you helped elect are beyond you. They don’t give a crap about what you want or think!
Politicians mostly ignore letters, e-mails because they get thousands. Also, they’re people-oriented and vote to waste taxpayer money if some live human asks them to. That’s why Downsize DC has started a project to get people to actually VISIT state reps in person. Look up Downsize DC on the web and subscribe to their newsletter. Then you can take it from there as to what you want to do.
Write a handwritten letter. That will be taken more seriously than a phone call or email.
Saying they won’t listen isn’t entirely true. Unfortunately, alot of these politicians are listening and giving in to the mob, or actually doing nothing and letting the mob continue and walk all over everyone. The mob has expanded to corporations since this all started, not just the people on the street. This applies to COVID as well, some politicians are going extreme, and some are sitting back and doing nothing about the extreme…..
In the 1930’s, the “man with the solutions” for chaotic Germany was Hitler. We all know how that turned out.
Susan, my thoughts also. Lenin came to power when Russia was suffering terribly during World War One as well.
There is a super article on “American Thinker” by a Wm. Gensert, that every American prepper should read-reread-copy, and send to their families. It pretty much explains how we are being manipulated into a coming Civil War2.
Good Article SeIco thank you! One thing I have noticed is that people wearing masks are acting desperate-im thinking of people in Wal-Mart or grocery stores. I don’t wear a mask and it’s like I am the enemy. This plandemic is doing a great job of making people feel isolated even in a crowd. Not being able to see people’s expressions is awful. Closing down alot of places where people generally get together and talk about things is awful. The powers that be don’t want us talking about how we are being treated. The fear mongering is horrendous! I understand that Covid is a real thing but it is being used a 1000% by the globalists to steal all our rights and Liberties. May God help us all.
In my area, that nonsense (masks, unsocial distancing) has stopped, and smiles abound. When the hysteria was usual there WERE a few other real faces. I loudly thanked them. This strengthens our friends and reduces the Mass Formation that Desmet talks about.
In a few weeks that William L Gensert article might become hard to find — at least without this link:
July 18, 2020, Democrats Are Forcing a Civil War, By William L. Gensert
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/07/democrats_are_forcing_a_civil_war.html
Plus 555 comments ….
–Lewis
Good stuff as always. Not too much to add other than half the folks will miss the point and use it to vocalize their own agendas.
“Is all this only a prelude to something even worse after which we will all welcome the “solution”?” – very reminiscent of The Final Solution and the circumstances which led to its enthusiastic support.
Then, too, there’s “…do not be surprised by what comes next.” Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” – Niels Bohr. It’s such a popular sentiment, it has been employed by many others. And of course besides being entertaining, it’s unquestionably true. So the question isn’t what will come next. The real question, as you sort of concluded, is how bad will it get? And given the evolved, irrational, cave-man (oops, not PC, sorry) personalities of Homo Sapiens, combined with the decimation of so many species whose interactions ultimately provide the opportunity for human life itself to continue, then observing the number of absolutely insane leaders of nations with nuclear weapons (hint: all who have them), my predictions are far more dire than even the most pessimistic that Selco has come up with. China taking over Taiwan as the next step in further territorial acquisition now that nobody has said “boo” to Hong Kong and various international islands? Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Russia exponentiating their various regional disputes? India/Pakistan and their nukes, now that things seem to be escalating along their border again? A bad election here (Civil War II or perhaps we start another war somewhere else to distract our citizens?)… the potential is huge, and the lack of rational interaction stupefying.
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. Except that I’m an atheist, so what should I do?
I’ve noticed more censorship on the internet than normal and it’s becoming hard to view alternative news sources besides the big media , which is the same on every channel you flick through. The “sheep” are easy to control as they always look to someone else to look after them be the govt or a racial . I’ve always thought it Starts with you. In my neck of the woods I’m always hearing it’s too expensive to prepare, that’s BS , that $5 coffee = a can veggies and a couple packets of homebrand pasta. But the need for your luxuries / entertainment seems more important than going without today to prepare for tomorrow.
@ Izzy,
First, if you have not done it already, get rid of the TV.
Secondly, when reading anything MSM, question the narrative they are pushing. There are still some good reporting out there. But there are also the “journalist activist,” who sees it as their duty to forego their journalistic objectivity and integrity for their brand of activism that is spun as news.
Third, seek out alt-media sites like this one that do their best to maintain what MSM has abandoned.
Sure, some of it can be out there. But there are a lot of good writers, who have been shunned by MSM that still publish.
Good luck!
Yeah? Well I say horse plop!
“The country” is far from collapse. There is much more to America than New York City, Seattle Washington, Ferguson Missouri, Chicago, etc. The same way you see Florida as being solid red with covid-19, you only think of the state as being beaches and the dang mouse. You, like anyone else who watches TV, and yells into the cave we call the internet, see only what you desire to see.
Rural America is alive and thriving with our little farms, homesteads, with family and friends. “We” don’t have riots like spoiled children. We are Pioneer Families. We will have seen worse.
Sadly, the need for gainful employment ties most of us to cities, and simply relocating to Rural America isn’t possible.
Lots of folks tend to oversimplify, unfortunately. I totally understand that picking up and moving isn’t a possibility for everyone.
I live in rural America.
While we maybe fairing better than those in some cities, I know full well we are just as connected to the system as everyone else.
Indeed. In early 2020, I moved from world-class Denver to rural WV. Different grocery chains with the same stuff. As an Afghan told me once “The System is the same everywhere.
But rural folks have more “can do,” and wild edibles abound.
The current insanity really will end, followed by magnificent good times. But good times require strong responsible men and women. Today’s adult babies are still waiting for somebody else to fix elections, corruption, etc. We are the ones we have been waiting for, and times MUST get worse for sufficient numbers to awaken from their stupor and get to work. As the Bible puts it, “the devil, having great wrath, for he knows his time is short” and compared times like ours to a woman giving birth. When the baby comes, she forgets all the trouble for joy of the child. But we have clearly not at all hit the worst of the squeeze yet. Keep prepping, but don’t lose hope. The best is yet to come!
Unfortunately, a nation is more than just the better segment of its parts. As the Brits were driven out of various parts of the world, starting with us, I guess, and moving on to the Middle East and India a long time later, some countries – we’re a good example – benefited enormously from that British withdrawal and from the productivity of those outlier countries. It took a long while for us to become a world leader, but it took a long time to do anything in those thrilling days of yesteryear.
China is now heading toward super-power status at light speed. We don’t make much of anything. And our food production leaves a lot to be desired. We produce corn to contaminate gasoline, at a huge cost to us taxpayers, just to make sure… well, I’m not sure what it ensures, except inefficiency and distraction and shorter engine life expectancy and far less agricultural land devoted to comestible production. Our government complexity is exponentiating, leading to ever greater inefficiencies in our economy. And we’re busy doing idiotic things like putting people in jail for absurd reasons, ensuring that the criminal-industrial complex remains profitable and gets lots of slave labor (25% if the world’s prisoners, with only 4% of the world’s population), while no benefit accrues to our society at large. In fact the opposite is true. Those folks labeled “criminals” are unlikely to ever be able to be employable and thus become productive citizens. This further reduces our economic capacity. We underpay folks in some industries so badly that the labor for those jobs relies on temporary immigrants. Pretty damned stupid. And definitely not the “Capitalism” that the right wing raves about worshipping.
In fact, I can’t think of much we’re doing right. At least the British – belatedly, to be sure – but at least they recognized their downward trajectory and took steps to salvage their economy before there was nothing left of it. We are doing nothing of the kind, leaving China yet another avenue with which to attack us. Since they hold huge amounts of US bonds, and gargantuan hordes of silver. There lies the potential for catastrophic inflation, driven by China, and gaining them world economic (and thus political) dominance. And of course the pandemic hasn’t helped matters any. We’re Making America Gross Again, just like during the last Depression, when 25% of the work force was on the streets. Regrettably, though, this one promises to be worse. MUCH worse. At least back then we had a far more rural and agricultural nation, which helped considerably. When I was a kid (admittedly the Dark Ages had just ended), my small town had two diary processing plants, 6 dairy farms – with dozens of additional farms in neighboring towns and villages – and a tremendous amount of local food production. Now we shop in South America & the Far East. That is a recipe for disaster.
I guess I should stop now. I get depressed dealing with reality. I regret that I was never into drugs. They sound like they provide a considerable improvement over reality. And they certainly make a tremendous profit for the Capitalists involved in their sale and distribution.
Brilliant analysis!
So I’m not the only sentient biped Tellurian.
Selco (Jose?) says “In the last few months, I saw several people dying from COVID.” So they’re dropping like flies in Peru? Hmmm?
Peru is a country of 33 million. As of July 18, there have been less than 13K deaths from COVID. This is statistically insignificant?
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/peru/
Selco lives in the Balkans. You have your authors confused.
Famine and collapse of modern civilization caused by Grand Solar Minimum is coming.
The Great Unknown , Trusting your Gut Feelings , and than understand History repeats for ManKind . Everything is what it is and not another thing ,and to see clearly and to hear clearly you must believe in GOOD An EVIL . And then here we the people are and current events prove for the few who know GOD we know Peace an WAR and the reason is evil is real and as the founder wrote suffering evil is possible BUT there does come a time ,a season for when EVIL can capitalize on the weak in sprit to advance itself to be in the light of day and control the night and then when that does happen a type of human can an will step up stand up and do battle for one simple reason
We are AmeriCANS
Yes. We are Americans.
And one half of us Americans hates the other half based off who they voted for in 2016.
Us Americans are getting dirty looks or even fighting and in some cases, killing over wearing or not wearing a mask.
A segment of society that seems to be ruling over the rest of us wants to Cancel those who have a differing opinion.
Corporations are bending over backwards to appease that group.
City officials are ordering their LEOs to backdown from riots, looting and arson.
Americans are expecting some kind of civil war within the next 10 years.
The average American is overweight, has at least 2 physical conditions (diabetes and hypertension being the primary), cannot walk a mile let alone go up a flight of stairs without getting winded. Big Pharma, for profit healthcare, producers of ultra-processed food stuff make money off us Americans being unhealthy.
So, where is the evil?
Too add: Was your comment really only three sentences?
Guadalcanal,
Great comment. This woke nonsense has taken me by storm, so to speak. I stopped watching the CSM ( Corporate Shout Machine) when it started “foaming at the mouth” about WMD nonsense.
With each passing year it just gets worse as the original BS touted is suddenly “incorporated” in to a new history…..without question, then spewed as fact by the CSM talking heads going forward.
Just a quick comment on the decline of physical fitness capability of “our present US population”.
USMC mid seventies physical fitness test to hit 100% and receive Iron Man status and enjoy a “96”( 4 day pass ) for the effort consisted of:
20 pull-ups;
80 bent knee sit-ups in 2 minutes;
3 mile run in 18 minutes.
I racked up so many 96s when I was discharged they paid me for 31 days unused leave with com-rats, added to my final paycheck…for a 2 year “Vietnam contract” enlistment!
“Tell That to The Marines”
Was talking with friends yesterday.
The idea of a “feeling” of something bad this way comes was mentioned.
While my Marine Corps training generally does not do “feelings,” sometimes it is that little voice in your head that tells you something is up and you might want to pay attention or even do something about it.
What that may be, could be anything from buying an extra bag of flour or yeast, to planting a garden to learning canning of those veggies you grew. Could be walking more each day till you can walk 1 and a half to even three miles a day and thinking nothing of it.
Stay informed, but also think critically. Question any and all sources of information, scrutinize the narrative, seek out other sources on the same topic.
“I saw riots erupt every single day because people lost their confidence in how the situation was being handled here with all events.” That is NOT what is happening here in the U.S., these are coordinated attacks with an agenda. The agenda is to “abolish” the United States. We must all step up – the perfect solution involves every citizen who still believes in and cherishes their country and all that we stand for. We have a leader, we need to support him in the ways that we can.
I think there is what is called a cognitive dissonance resounding through our society. Most people want to maintain the status quo, and support leaders in the hope that they will perform as they always have, and the outcome of their performance will be as it has been. But people are realizing that it has been this status quo that has put us mostly in the situation we are in today. We are approaching the pinnacle of apprehension that the system is still doing us any good, with the bureaucracy bloating up on an unstable currency, social media contradicting itself daily, and the steady build up of institutional mistakes leading to individual failures resulting in boarded up storefronts, homeless cities popping up everywhere, constant riots, and panic hoarding. There is good reason no one can find ammunition today; people are stockpiling what they feel are essentials, just in case…
This is such a different paradigm from anything we have experienced in the past 80 years. Everyone seems to agree that something bad is coming, and we must get ready, but no one seems to have a clue as to the type, magnitude, or life-cycle of this enigmatic calamity about to fall upon us.
Here’s my take: Everybody gotta die sometime. Once you realize you can’t do anything about that, you have to decide just what is important about the time and opportunity you have left. You have to realize that anything and everything can be taken from you, and accept that it is inevitable, regardless of how well you prepare yourself. Adjust the value you place on the things in your life based on this. At some point, as with the big 50 year old Selco referred to, life becomes too difficult to be worth putting forth more effort. You can rage all you want, but you can’t stop the inevitable. Eventually, we will all grow weary of this life. In the meantime, don’t be stupid, make the most of what you have, and avoid the rhetoric and hyperbole. As Selco says, you can’t do much about that anyways. Maybe time to review the serenity prayer.
and I will add this one extra dose of perspective; if the SHTF were to happen tomorrow, and the lights go out, the stores and the gas stations and the schools and the hospitals and everything just stops working, people around you start freaking out, and you are left with whatever you have today, including your wits, how will that change the way you think, and more importantly, why?
Wouldn’t it be better if you were already there, at least psychologically?
Sorry, Selco, but I have to disagree about Covid-19. If you visit the CDC’s website and go to the Covid-19 page, you’ll see the terrifying bold headline about 500,000+ deaths from Covid-19. Scroll waaaaaaay down to the bottom of the page, you’ll find a paragraph entitled “Comorbidities”. The second sentence into that paragraph reads that 6% of deaths reported from Covid-19 died from Covid-19. The rest had comorbidities. If you examine the accompanying chart, a little higher up on the same page, you’ll find that nearly all Covid-19 “victims”coincidentally also had flu, pneumonia or both. In years prior, between 50-70,000 people died of flu. In the 2019-2020 flu season, CDC reports an “estimated range of 12,000-61,000” deaths from flu. That’s as close as they can come. The 2018-2019 flu season–according to the CDC–influenza claimed the lives of 61,000 Americans. I’ve heard local lying politicians that still keep our People’s Republic in the Rocky Mt. West locked down explain that the reason almost no one died of flu in our state was because of mandatory masks, social distancing and handwashing. Covid-19, cases however, are still prevalent, so only parts of the state can open up–with masks MANDATED throughout the state, anyway. Riddle me this: How can mask that eliminated flu, fail to protect against Covid-19 OR farts? Why would anyone be shining us on about the danger of Covid-19? For that we can look to the “Cares Act” of 2020. This act–based probably on the best of intentions–pays physicians $13,000 if they write “Covid-19” on a patient’s death certificate. Prior to 2020, physicians never listed a disease as a cause of death, but rather the physiological development that killed someone–like, Cardia Arrest, Respiratory Failure, Cerebrovascular Accident etc. Hospitals that place patients on a ventilator that ultimately died from Covid-19, receive $39,000. A patient may or may not have been tested, as this isn’t required in order to receive the payment. The CRP test used to diagnose “Covid-19” was never intended as a diagnostic tool, according the inventor. Recently, Elon Musk was tested 4 times in the same day, at the same hospital, by the same nurse. Twice he was negative, and twice he was positive. Thank God the taxpayers can afford all this…