The Crash Course - Chris Martenson [131]
My family’s goal has never been to be 100 percent self-sufficient in meeting any of our basic needs. Instead, our goal has been to increase our self-sufficiency to something—anything —greater than “none.” For example, until we got our solar photovoltaic panels, we were 100 percent dependent on the utility grid for our electricity. Now we’re just a tiny bit less dependent, perhaps 97 percent, but we can manufacture and deploy our own electricity if necessary, and that’s no small feat.
How big is the difference between being zero percent self-reliant and 3 percent? It’s huge. With our 3 percent, we can charge batteries, have light at night and, most important, prevent our fully stocked freezer from thawing during a power outage. We have some control over our electricity, the most critical energy source of them all to our daily lives.
Similarly, there’s an enormous difference between being zero percent and 10 percent self-sufficient for food production. At zero percent self-sufficiency, you rely entirely on the existing food distribution system. At something over zero percent, you may grow a garden, foster local relationships with farmers, plant fruit trees in the yard, keep a few chickens, and/or maintain a deep pantry, which means you can always meet some of your own food needs. Developing even a limited percentage of your own food sufficiency doesn’t take a lot of money, and it requires just a little bit of time. And it allows you and your family to develop skills and connections that will very likely make a huge difference at some point.
So why not set a realistic target that makes sense for you and your family, and then find a way to get there?
The third concept of preparation is to set realistic goals.
Being in Service
Reducing my own anxiety was reason enough to prepare, but an equally important objective was to be in a position to serve my community should that need arise in the future. Were a crisis to occur, I would fully expect to find many unprepared people scrambling around in a desperate bid to meet their needs, somewhat paralyzed by the situation and unable to react effectively. I feel it is my duty to reduce (not add to) the confusion and unmet needs and help out as many others as I can.
Some think of personal preparation as a selfish act, perhaps involving such things as guns and bunkers, but that’s not at all what this is about; in fact, it is the opposite. My experience in life tells me that being a good community member means putting your own house in order first. If you do, you’ll have a stable foundation to utilize, and you’ll be in a better position to add valuable resources and skills to community efforts. A strong community begins with strong households. It’s like a fractal pattern; the whole is reflected in the parts. A strong community cannot be fashioned from weak households.
My expectation is that communities will rally in the face of a disruption, an act that I have witnessed several times during hurricanes in North Carolina. But some communities will fare better than others, and the difference between them will be determined by the personal resilience of their respective citizen populations. Your challenge here is to first get your own house in order, and then work on ways that you can help to increase the resilience of your local community and personal networks.
You must be the change you wish to see. If it is your wish to live in a resilient community, you must become more resilient yourself. In order to best assist your seatmate, you must put on your oxygen mask first.
The fourth concept of preparation is that your community needs you to get yourself prepared.
Step Zero
Many people, when daunted by the potential magnitude of the coming change, immediately jump to some very hard conclusions that prove to be incapacitating. For example, they may have thoughts such as, I need to go back to school to get an entirely different degree so that I can