Tag Archives: safe zones

Should We Prepare for Social Collapse?

We read of those, especially in North America, who are termed “preppers”, people preparing for various forms of disaster (nuclear war, an asteroid hitting the Earth, inability of the State to maintain civil order) leading to social collapse, either with rampaging and desperate hordes of displaced people everywhere or with a mere few “survivors” from whatever calamity has struck. We in Europe tend to laugh at these American excesses (as they seem to us), but perhaps we should be less amused and more cautious.

Naturally, there is a huge difference in geographical and demographic norms. The wide open spaces of much of the USA and Canada contrast starkly with Europe, particularly the UK, with its centuries-old man-altered landscapes, densely-populated cities and towns, lack of true wilderness (except in the North-West of Scotland).

The population density of the USA, overall, is 92 persons per square mile; that of the UK nearly 700. Naturally, that is a misleadingly simplistic picture. The most densely-populated American state, New Jersey (where I myself once lived) has a population density of over 1,200 ppsm, whereas, while the UK West Midlands region has a density of over 3,000 ppsm and Manchester over 2,000, Devon has only 172, Cornwall 154 and the Scottish Highlands and Islands only 11. On the other hand, there is the point that “crowded” (in parts) New Jersey, the 4th-smallest American state, is about the same size as Wales. The more sparsely-populated areas of the USA are often a very long way from major cities or even modest towns.

It is clear that, for the UK prepper, less is more and that the congested urban and suburban areas are to be avoided as a base. However, the distinction should be made between the hardcore prepper, who intends to live by hunting, fishing and his wits, i.e. as a “survivalist” and the person who aspires to the creation of a new society after any collapse of the existing one. The latter is therefore, almost ipso facto, a conserver of civilization and culture.

I have already blogged about the idea of forming and developing a “safe zone” or base area for UK social nationalists. I have suggested that, in terms of region, the Devon/Cornwall peninsula might be the most suitable. Naturally, when social nationalists have relocated to that zone, their lives will not consist, in the absence of immediate war or social collapse, of hunter-gatherer or subsistence farmer activities. They will do normal jobs, run businesses, smallholdings, farms and estates and in general live (in most cases) as they do in those other parts of the UK where they live at present.

I suggest the following ideas. This is not supposed to be a comprehensive list, but only a basis for one:

  • Food Security

Keep a stock of food to last for a year or even two. The Mormons have been doing this for a long time, certainly for many decades. There is no need to re-invent the wheel when we can learn from others who know how to do things. Here is one explanation of how the food storage system works with the Mormons:

https://mormonwoman.org/2009/08/28/ask-a-mormon-woman-why-do-mormons-store-food/

The Mormon system seems to work on the idea of having a buffer for months rather than years, but with modern canning, packing and freezing techniques it should be possible to give the people in the safe zone at least a one-year supply of food from store.

Naturally, in a rural area, agricultural and horticultural produce will be available. Members of the social-national community will no doubt own estates, farms, smallholdings. In addition, those occupying smaller residences can be encouraged to cultivate part of their gardens, grow produce on a small scale under glass etc.

An important aspect of food security is the existence of a seed bank. Individuals and families can keep their own, but the community as a whole should also maintain one.

No doubt people will be able, in hard times, to forage and to find wild food and to fish.

  • Energy Security

It is to be expected that, in the first instance, the houses and other buildings in the safe zone will be on mains electricity. This supply is vulnerable in the event of war, natural disaster or social collapse in the wider society.

The first necessity is to build up the supply, within the zone, of solar electricity generation and solar heating. There are buy-back schemes etc whereby the householder can even sell his excess power to the National Grid, so long as it exists. At any rate, the community within the safe zone should do everything it can to utilize this renewable supply.

Geothermal heating of homes and other buildings is possible now, if the capital is there to utilize it.

It may be possible for individual residences in the countryside to have small wind turbines too, which can both supply those homes with electricity and also put any surplus back into the National Grid or a local grid.

A further option for some farms and estates would be hydropower from rivers and smaller streams of water.

As an emergency fallback, there should be a range of off-grid options for heating homes: woodburning stoves, ordinary open fires and, for electricity generation, emergency generators run from oil or other petroleum products.

It would be useful, too, if members of the community were to stockpile emergency lighting: candles (even tealights), hurricane lamps etc, battery-operated or camping gas-operated lights, wind-up lamps and torches.

  • Water Security

Water supply is easier, being regional and local rather than national. Indeed, many houses and farms in rural England have their own supply from springs. However, a contingency plan must be drafted and worked out.

  • Communications

The Internet was designed, originally, as a means by which communications might continue even after nuclear war. Presumably, that system will continue in some form even during social collapse. If so, it might be of huge importance beyond the confines of the safe zone, in the struggle to rebuild the wider society.

The community ought to maintain a radio transmitter.

  • Conclusion

An article such as this cannot cover all aspects of how a decent society might survive when the wider society around it is in a state of disorder and even collapse. I have not touched upon questions of social order, for example. However, these few proposals may start running a current of thought. The proposed safe zone will have to operate on the basis that an externally-triggered emergency will probably occur before very long.

Update, 21 July 2019

I saw this on Twitter. Obviously drafted with American conditions in mind rather than European/UK ones, but not bad overall.

https://twitter.com/SoCarbonNeutral/status/1151751859125669889

The Organization of Community

When new social-national communities emerge, as they will in the coming years, the question is posed as to their organization.

It is important to note that, in the UK, a social-national community will not, in general, be anything akin to a commune, paramilitary encampment or religious settlement such as a monastery or convent. It will be a community which interpenetrates the existing or pre-existing ordinary village, suburb, town or city. The template can best be explained in relation to what might happen when social nationalism arrives in a large village or small town.

Scene

A social nationalist with capital buys a country house or estate, somewhere near a small English or Welsh town. He or she needs workers or retainers to help with the house, grounds, park, perhaps farmland too. Those people are sourced from the wider social-national community in the UK. At the same time, these people gradually infiltrate the local community, not in any sinister way, but by doing the things that they would have done wherever they lived: sending their children to local schools, joining local non-political groups (am-dram, allotments, churches, residents’, neighbourhood watch etc).

Other social nationalists arrive, buying houses locally, renting property, getting jobs or living off pensions or even State benefits. Some buy or rent farms, cafes, pubs, shops. Some start to work in the local offices of larger enterprises, in the local Jobcentre (if any), or in the local council offices. Others are able to work from home, thanks to the Internet.

Nothing alarming or noisy happens. There are no marches, demonstrations, or other disruptions. People get on with normal life. Underneath the surface, however, there is purposeful movement, a current beginning to flow. There are meetings, discussions, social events; nothing too large or noisy. In time, the social nationalists number in the hundreds and are a significant proportion of the local population, with more gravitating to the area every week. The time has then come for overt political action.

A by-election for a council ward is held. Few of the original local inhabitants even bother to vote. A social nationalist is elected, either under Party banner, as “Resident”, or “Independent”; even perhaps under System party aegis.

The local council is taken over before very long. Social nationalists are then in the driving-seat locally. The area and the wider region becomes a magnet for social-national people from across the UK as it becomes known as a place where censorship and hostile opposition is unknown or swiftly checkmated. The local librarian is a social nationalist, the Mayor, the schoolteachers, the council officials, the friendly innkeeper and his wife, the sub-post office people.

The election for Westminster is held and the social nationalist candidate is elected, perhaps under social nationalist party banner. By this time, the national press, radio and TV is trying to spread lies about the people in the movement, but can do nothing against a solid phalanx of believers, living, working and acting in a situation where the Zionists and others can do nothing substantial to harm or impede them. Locally, social nationalists run an Internet radio station, even local transmitted radio, as well as the local free newspaper. It is not long before the movement spreads throughout the whole region. People of like mind are fleeing London, Manchester, Birmingham etc so that they can live in such a region. A mini-ethnostate has been created.

The story does not end there, but on a wider stage.

Fortress-Centres of Culture and Science

In the Dark Ages, the flame of civilization and culture was kept burning in fortified centres: walled cities, monasteries etc. It may be that the time has come to think in terms of “back-up” for the knowledge and human expertise that we take for granted today.

What does that mean in practical terms? There can be little doubt that, were a breakdown of law and order to occur (whether as a result of war or natural calamity), the British cities would probably become chaotically lawless in a short space of time, especially if fuel, food, water or utilities were unavailable.

It seems to me that those inclined to social-nationalism should think in terms of relocating to areas some distance from major cities, to small towns and villages where like-minded people can become either the majority or a strong minority. Such clusters of people can take over the local councils, local businesses and farms, as well as doing the usual run of employed work which they might do in the cities where they, perhaps, now live.

The idea has the following merits:

a. Political (electoral or other) bases can be created, with voting weight;

b. The clustering effect would enable concerted action;

c. In the event of catastrophes in the wider world, these centres would become the places looked to by the wider masses for leadership.

Clausewitz said that, in order to extend power, one must first have a secure base. It is that that social-nationalism lacks at present in the UK. The above proposal aims to address that lack.