Practical Question and Answer series
Some In the Wake readers has written in with a set of questions
bout how to deal with problems in day-to-day living during collapse.
I'll be responding to these questions one by one in a series. If
you have suggestions for answers to these questions, or if you
have questions yourself, please email
me.
Some answers are modified or supplemented on the blog before
the new information is integrated here. So check on the blog to see the very most recent stuff.
Frank asks:
1) What do I do for toothpaste?
I don't know how to make it. Shampoo? Glycerine soap? Goodness--razors!
(read my answer)
2) How
do I get access to hard-to-find objects, materials and ingredients?
(read my answer)
3) How do I protect them from the unprepared
and desperate have-nots if I don't already have a fort-knox style
bunker? (Security issues) (read my answer)
4) How will I manage long-distance communication?
(read my answer)
5) How will I transport myself if my car is toast
because it's gas-based? (read my answer)
6) How do I live if my work skills are too specialised
and high-tech dependent? (read my answer)
7) Pipe tobacco! And Beer and Wine! What's
life without some of the niceties? (read my answer)
8) Condoms? (read my answer)
9) Whoops. Medical supplies. (read my answer)
10) A good library will be indispensable too. Can you do dentistry,
remove an appendix, midwife or care for the dead?
Pig Monkey asks:
11) I'm not sure if this is more appropriate
for a q&a or a section of the booklet, but I'm curious to
hear your thoughts on post-collapse survival in a winter environment.
These days, we have fancy clothes, indoor heating, and what not.
We may perhaps venture outside for a short ski or somesuch, but
are nowhere near suited for long-term winter survival. I went
to a free Snow Camping 101 class today at my local REI that went
over the basics of making igloos, quinzhees, dugloos, and snow
caves, but I'd love to see more. Also inherit in winter survival
is, of course, producing and storing food.
11.5) Clothing, I think, is an important
part of this question. With our current mass produce, mass consume
society, even if collapse came tomorrow the survivors of our generation
and perhaps even the next would have enough "technical"
clothing to survive (assuming retail centers and factories didn't
implode), but this obviously isn't sustainable. Seven generations
from now, post-collapse children will still need to live through
harsh winter conditions. Hopefully by then, humanity will have
reclaimed the practice of growing cotton and weaving it into clothing
(something I know nothing about), but I can't see that being enough.
I'd
love to see a discussion of using animal skin, foliage, etc for
not only additional clothing layers, but for blankets and added
insulation in shelter walls.
12) What does Collapse hold for those of
us with prescription glasses? Stockpiling is of course a wise
idea, but not sustainable. Will those of us who rely on glasses
(or have any disabilities that require dependence on products
of civilization) be eventually wiped out? Collapse will favor
those without, but will it destroy us? Is this simply the sad
truth of "survival of the fittest"? (Do you believe
in survival of the fittest?)
13) This question leads into another --
do you think, post-collapse, we will form social groups or live
individually? Obviously having some sort of tribe to care for
the disabled and elderly would be a great help.
14) And now for a more broad, perhaps philosophical,
question: Do you trust emotion or reason for survival? Decisions
often have to be made in a fraction of a second, not leaving enough
time for much thought. Do you think one should trust the gut feeling
or what logic/preparedness/training tell us?
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