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Newsgroups: misc.survivalism
Subject: Article: "How Bad will it Get?" part 1
From: Digman@ix.netcom.com (Digger)
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 05:28:43 GMT

	How bad will it get? When will it happen? Am I really
prepared? I assume these are questions that "Self-reliant" people ask
themselves all of the time, not to mention the ever popular "What role
will the Government play in a crisis of that magnitude?" Almost
assuredly it will be an adversarial role at best. Considering the
recent attacks on Militias, Separatists and Religious groups by the
FBI, ATF and other government terrorist agencies, convince me that
"Komrade Klinton" and his underlings will expend every effort that
they can to "shove" this country and it's people into their beloved
socialistic "New World Order". 

	There are as many theories as to how prepared one should be as
there are possible scenarios concerning the "collapse". If you believe
Kurt Saxon's theory about the National debt and it's interest (which
is pretty compelling) we may indeed face some sort of economic crisis
by the year 2000. We are already witnessing smaller banking
institutions being absorbed by the largest ones. Hostile takeovers of
businesses are commonplace. Individual free-enterprise is slowly being
dismantled by large wealthy conglomerates. Small business is failing
at an alarming rate. Truthfully, anti-trust issues are increasingly
ignored by the Government. The enormous growth of the stock market
could end up like a balloon being filled until it pops. The growing
disdain with welfare abuse and subsequent welfare reform laws that
have been passed lately and the recent anti-immigrant laws will all
add "fuel to the fire". The Socialist-Elitist power base has continued
a 'soft on crime' attitude for over 30 years now in an order to
justify more and more restrictive and prohibitive laws. Continual
disarming of law abiding citizens has led to increasing frustration of
those citizens and all the while the elitists are armed to the teeth.
More often than not, decent, hard-working, law abiding Americans are
feeling increasingly powerless against crime, inflation, underhanded
business tactics and Government intrusion into their lives.
Government indifference in certain areas and over-legislation in
others has led to a 'crisis of priorities' in this country.

	Everywhere you look, life is over-complicated. Thousands of
"systems" are overtaxed or overburdened. Here in California we are
facing the fifth year in a row of excess rainfall. Some areas
receiving more than 200% of the normal yearly rainfall. The floods,
levy breaks, road and land damage is definitely overtaxing our tax
base. California is favorite landing-zone for new immigrants as well
as illegal ones. All you ever see is construction on our forty year
old road system to expand and accommodate the massive amount of
automobiles which causes more back-ups and is almost always
over-budget and over-deadline. California also has the distinction of
being one of the largest welfare states in the nation. Our schools are
for the most part, poor, and we are one of the most expensive states
to reside in. California is suffering from an impending rupture of the
belly, so to speak. Too many people, too many disasters, not enough
money and not a clue in the world. If you multiply this by other
highly populated states you may get a recipe for destruction.
  
	Considering that at least 30% of this country's populace is on
some sort of "Social Entitlement" massive animosity and anger will
ensue when those entitlements are cut or withdrawn. Our Government's
overindulgence of lazy, ignorant people over the decades has begun to
come back and haunt it. After all, this is the only nation in the
world (as far as I know) that pays people to have babies and not earn
a living and financially subsidizes immigrants. But, even ignorant
people can become angry and fight being ruled more by emotion than by
intelligence and logic.

	While I do not condone his actions, the Una bomber, may have
been right when he stated that technology will ruin mankind. In this
country we have become so dependent on gadgets, gimmicks and
techno-advances the we may have forgotten how to be self-reliant. All
this technology has made the average American apathetic to his
environment. One of my favorite sayings is;
"Boobus-Americanus....everything is fine as long as the lazy-boy
vibrates and the cable TV works". His neighbor's house is being
burglarized, but hey, there's a really good field-hockey match on
ESPN2. Shut off his cable and he's ranting up a storm.
 
	All of those factors, including never-ending racial tensions,
are currently in the works, and can contribute to a social collapse of
some kind. Sadly, a revolt based on the Government's long standing
abuses of the Constitution and Bill of Rights (which I think is an
important issue) will be secondary to a general uprising of the poor
and lower middle classes against the wealthy elitist power base in
this nation. As more and more individual rights of Americans are
compromised, the sheep will slowly awaken and stampede. The time frame
for all of this is unsure. This could easily take another generation
to complete the circle. I do, however, believe that by 2000 the
situation will escalate. I have no real "hard" evidence other than a
nagging feeling based on what I have seen over the last fifteen years.

I could continue with other observations but I think you get the
point.

	Recent reports have surfaced concerning Urban Battle Tactical
Exercises being conducted by the U.S Military to undoubtedly prepare
for possible civil unrest far worse than the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
Questions about the "willingness" of Military personnel firing upon
fellow citizens have been debated with mixed reviews. I believe the
reasonable assumption will be that, yes, the Military will fire upon
citizens when ordered to do so. When the "Poop hits the fan", as many
of us believe, the Military, National Guard, Police and Sheriff's
agencies will become the enemy to even decent law-abiding citizens. It
is sad to think that you may have to end the life of a Police officer
that is just "doing his job" but the reality of it is that if you were
ordered to drop your weapon, even though you are simply trying to "Bug
out", You may not be killed but you would certainly be detained,
searched and have all of your weapons confiscated. You would then be
sent on your way unarmed to face the wrath of the criminal vermin
prowling the streets, which brings me to......... 

	Militias. I believe that originally, our founding fathers
envisioned Militias as citizens organized and trained to protect
states from being overrun by a sudden tyrannical shift in the
Government. Even though they are not a part of the actual Military of
this nation, their goal is supposed to be the same. That is, to
protect and defend the Constitution and ensure the continuation of
domestic tranquility. The founding fathers set this up specifically so
that "We the People...." would never have to suffer the abuses of an
imperialistic, tyrannical Government such as the colonists endured in
the early days of this country. Unfortunately, nowadays, any group
that dawns a uniform and picks up a weapon seems to be calling
themselves a "Militia". This is simply wrong and does nothing to
promote the 'correct' stature of true citizen militias. Groups like
the Montana Freemen, in my opinion, are nowhere near a true militia
but more like self-serving militant malcontent revolutionaries waiting
for a chance to "stick their collective foot in the door" and had no
intention of defending and upholding our Constitution.

	In part 2, I'll discuss my observations on where I think the
crisis will start and how I think one should be prepared to deal with
it.
