Category "Community"

Underground Railroad for Survivalists

- - Community

The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad

  • Most survivalists live on continents
  • Some potential disasters affect climate – think super-volcano or nuclear war
  • Others are local and your only option is to leave

In which case you might find your survival spot is no longer fit for purpose, and you need to leave. For sudden climate change, that might mean heading to the other end of the country or continent.

It crossed my mind that something akin to the Underground Railroad used by slaves could work the same way. Like-minded survivalists letting you stay at waypoints, share supplies and information, and so on.

To reduce the risk of infiltration, many people associated with the Underground Railroad knew only their part of the operation and not of the whole scheme. “Conductors” led or transported the fugitives from station to station.

That is a tactic also used by drug-dealers, and it is worth sticking to. No published route!

But how do you meet and recruit people across a continent? How can you get it going?

This is kind of a long-winded approach, but it serves many other purposes as well.

Civilian Action Groups

Or Collectives. Think organizations that use volunteers, like the Ballarat show (regional fair in Australia), fire brigade, St John’s, Salvos, op shops, scouts. 

Form an umbrella group for sharing some resources and helping each other out when needed. There are meta-volunteer organizations, but they are all about the management side. I’m thinking something for the workers.

Have government funded training festivals for sharing of ideas and celebrating and thanking volunteers. Within this, form a militia of sorts in each town, ready to respond to disasters and threats and disease.

Within that, meeting points and survival supplies, bunkers and fire shelters. 

Within that, find like minded survivalists to form a secret society that networks towns up and down the coast and inland. An underground railway for survivalists to travel along. Each nodule only knows if those one and two connections away. Few have the full map. All are sworn to secrecy. 

Yes, a secret society. Ready for anything that the future throws at us. A wide-spread secret militia of sorts.

The Case for Insular Communities

- - Community

We have (so far) not suffered much from COVID-19, relative to predictions around the next big pandemic. Experts say there is a 50% chance of the big one happening every 50 years, and a big one is 10 million+ deaths globally.

The only way a virus can spread globally is through travellers. If we can limit travelling, we can limit the spread of a virus.

At an international level, that means closing borders quickly. Hopefully it will happen quicker next time around – in 2020 the whole world was affected, even Antarctica. But then again, the next nasty virus could spread quicker, and have less or slower to appear symptoms. So we might still get it in every country.

At a local level, there are many factors in play:

  • Gig economy, and people working in multiple, low-paid jobs
  • Typically low-paid people live in more crowded accommodation
  • Large gatherings / super-spreader events
  • Travelling outside of your suburb for shopping/leisure

All of these can be reduced or negated by people living in small, insular communities. Typically these would be rural intentional communities. A community that is 100% separated from the rest of the world is totally safe in a pandemic, and also reduces the number of potential spreaders.

But we could take steps to make out lives more insular, instead of 100%. This comes with additional benefits:

  • Knowing your neighbours – the more insular, the more you know the locals
  • Safety – because you know more locals
  • Care – because, for example a beggar, you are more likely to know their story
  • Economy – buying local benefits the community

So how do we become more insular, without becoming some totally isolated intentional community?

  • Work locally – choose less travel and more support for local businesses
  • Socialise locally – don’t be an anonymous tourist in some popular suburb – hang out with the locals
  • Join groups – local education and charity groups exist
  • Ditch the Internet – you can find romance and have discussions in the real world
  • Shop locally, instead of online. If you keep trying on shoes locally and buying online, that shoe fitting business will close
  • Give locally – while it is great to give to international charities, charity starts at home
  • Attend political events. I don’t mean Trump rallies, I do mean your local council meeting

The more you do each of the above, the more insular your community becomes. There are no negatives (well, except for gossip, so play nice), many positives, and one of those is less potential for a virus to spread and kill people you love.