A World Gone Crazy

The world has clearly lost its mind.

As I’m sure you’re aware, we had a jackass sending bombs to people he disagreed with politically. Then yesterday, we had a jackass talk into a synagogue and start shooting people simply because they were Jewish.

This comes after months and months of low-level violence in the form of riots and assaults against people because they supported a certain politician and just a year and a half or so ago when a man tried to exterminate members of Congress for being part of the wrong party.

We are living in interesting times, in the Chinese curse sense.

And honestly, no one is ready for this. None of us are. You don’t get “ready” for stuff like this. Not completely.

What we’re looking at is little more than the start of an internal civil war. If something doesn’t give, we’re going to watch our nation torn apart, so it’s time to dig in and get as ready for this kind of thing as possible.

By now, I’ve talked a lot about what I think people need to do to get ready. If you’ve read this site, you already know that if you’re not already in good physical condition, you need to be. If you are in good physical condition, you need to be in better condition.

No, that won’t help you if a bomb explodes in your face when you’re checking the mail, but that’s hardly the only mode of potential attack.

If this progresses, you’re far more likely to find yourself in the middle of a riot or being individually targetted for attack for whatever insane reason one can imagine.

We live in a world where crime has been decreasing, but where that’s unfortunate for some people because it undermines all of their beliefs. Because of that, they seem hellbent on personally jacking up the crime rate.

But they’re far more likely to do it face-to-face than by mail, and that’s why you need to be prepared.

Get your ass in shape. Get stronger. Have enough conditioning that you can deal with either fight or flight (because both have a place). Have the skills to take someone to the ground and keep them there. Have the skills to shoot someone in the face if you have to.

Just as importantly, though, understand the signs that a problem is starting to form. Understand where to go and where not to go. Know when to stay away from a particular part of town on a given day or given times of the day.

Even if you have no interest in protecting other people, you need to be able to protect yourself and your family. If you’re alone in the world, unless you’re eager to die, you still need to get your crap in gear and be getting ready.

Am I saying that this is going to spill over directly in your life? No, I’m not.

What I’m saying, though, is that you can’t trust that it won’t. You can’t rest on the sidelines and pray that the horrors of the world will pass you by.

One thing I often tell myself when I don’t feel like training is that someone out there is training to kill me. If it’s not some fellow American who thinks I espouse the wrong politics then it’s some jackass who is outraged that my religion doesn’t require me to pray five times a day while facing Mecca.

Someone out there wants me dead. They want you dead too.

For most of us, it’s a non-issue. They’ll never have the opportunity to do it. They’ll never be close enough to lay a finger on me.

Admittedly, I prefer that arrangement.

The problem is that I don’t get to make sure it always stays that way without becoming something of a hermit. That’s easy enough for me to do as it is, but it’s not a good thing.

Even that might be insufficient, though. If someone finds out where I live, what’s to stop them from coming here to launch an attack? I mean, if they want me particularly dead.

For others, I could be worshipping in a church or synagogue and have to deal with a maniac wanting to kill me just for being there. They don’t even need a religious motive. They just don’t like people of my faith.

It just happened.

Make no mistake, though. I don’t expect this to die down anytime soon. Not without someone doing something extraordinary to quell the tensions. Even then, I don’t think it’s going to settle for a good, long while.

I hope I’m wrong.

I hope I’m being paranoid.

I hope that in a few years, I’ll read this post and laugh.

I don’t think I will, though.

So if you’re already working on things, keep it up. There is no alternative to being as ready as you can be should bad things go down.

If you’re not, then get started. Lose weight if you’re like the two-thirds of Americans who are overweight or obese. If not, then get to lifting anyway. Get to conditioning yourself. Learn to fight. Learn to shoot. Learn to gunfight–and yes, there is a difference between that and just shooting. Learn to think.

But at the same time, don’t lose yourself to fear, either. Don’t let it control your whole life.