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"That government is best which governs least." Attributed to one or all of these: Henry Thoreau, Thomas Jefferson or Thomas Paine. The main elements in the over-governed state are:
Bloated government As this was being written, many in the Western World were citizens of ruined economies, indentured for life by debt foisted on us by the State and its bankers. Do not expect a government, which has ruined you, to now come to your rescue. Your future and those of your family and your neighbours are in your hands, so think for yourself, get the government and those who have ruined your country off your back and act for yourself. Through a combination of a grossly over-staffed public service, incompetent government and reckless and greedy bankers and developers, most of the Irish population has been ruined. Truly, 'that government is best which governs least'. In several European countries, as millions are ground down by debts created by a reckless few, and those who can do so flee the country, it is a situation second only to the Great Famine in Ireland , but this time no 'foreign oppressor' can be blamed, because it is the State and people themselves who have demonstrated their inability to cherish and nurture their countries. In Ireland, ghost estates litter the countryside, while uncompleted high-rise concrete and steel skeletons are Dublin City's monuments of shame. Radical new thinking is required but the government and economists appear to be paralysed.
The overall political picture Countries with strong economies and political systems that have not been compromised by corruption and incompetence can survive national and international crises without descent into anarchy. The carrying capacity of the country is as important as a stable and trusted political system. Canada, for example, although suffering long and extreme winters has the greatest amount of arable land per citizen in the world. Where there is both carrying capacity and a trusted government, citizens can be mobilised into a national response to an emergency as happened in the UK and Ireland during World War Two when imports, including fuel for transport, ceased. There can be a harmonious marriage of government rationing, self-sufficiency, food distribution and local markets. Ireland, however, while its climate and land per capita have perhaps the best carrying capacity in the world, has at present what has been demonstrably one of the most incompetent governments and corrupt banking systems in the world. Despite this, if the population is not to descend into anarchy in a major crisis, the government has to be supported to the extent that it is prepared, and has the competence, to set up a rationing and food distribution system, which means that it must work constructively with farmers and home growers. Those striving for what will be a necessary degree of self-sufficiency, which will have the two elements of reducing demand on the shared national food stock and increasing the amount of that stock, will have to maintain a fine balance between supporting government in the overall interest of law and order and resisting official interference. The best way to achieve this is to increase the effectiveness of local co-operative efforts: engage as much as possible with local producers and small local markets and depend on the national system for what is available through them only, such as fuel, medicine and food that cannot be sourced locally. The actions which can be taken In the first instance, we need a citizen's national response, which can with as little bureaucracy as possible exchange information with and between local community groups, who will represent the basic food producers and manage their local markets. For some years before the situation in Ireland required the kind of actions about to be outlined here, a small group, seen by many as crackpots was advocating and practicing an activity known as 'prepping', or emergency preparedness. Before the arrival of supermarkets, it was known as stocking a pantry. The time for prepping is before the emergency, not after it, and as this is being written the emergency is upon us, but a section on prepping is added in the hope that some can employ it in better days ahead. To put it in perspective, prepping allowed a family time to stock up while they still had the money to do so and to allow them the time needed to grow much of their own food - that is, to get through to the first harvests. The first step The first, essential, step is to move from the city to the countryside, which may be impossible for many as the property market has collapsed. Many in the city, however, have family in a rural area, and this is a good time to at least consolidate contact with them and find some time to assist them in the initiatives discussed. These, however, are not part-time as they involve considerable effort and, where for example elderly parents live in the country while the troubled offspring are in the city, tough decisions may have to be made. If the offspring are unemployed, better by far that they move back to do some useful work at the parental home than waste away in the city. If one argues that sizeable home gardens and allotments are available in the city also, the dismal news is that a continuing or worsening collapse will result in the immediate theft of growing and grown crops, as food becomes not just a necessity of life but one of the few remaining currencies. There is one important exception to this. In web sites about growing food there is information on how intensive potato production can be carried out in specially constructed boxes that can be in any back garden or backyard where there is some sunlight available. These can be hidden or become so common that stealing from them is less likely. Similarly, were we to return to the kind of home growing seen in Ireland during World War Two, virtually every urban garden would have its own vegetables. Sharing For an initiative such as the one described here to work, sharing is necessary, both at the local level in the form of shared products and experience. Much more, however, is required from home growers and small farmers and horticulturists who share with each other, to the creation of a database covering all the products and services, including free information and advice. A long-term if not immediate objective of any local self-sufficiency initiative is to create surpluses which can be given to those either not able to participate or who are struggling to begin. Ideally these surpluses would replace the stocking needed for most to get started in the first instance. Here is a picture that will surprise most Irish readers, because they will not be old enough to remember it. During the Second World War, the long main road through the Phoenix Park was lined on each side by stacks of turf, harvested from the bogs and stored there as emergency fuel for Dublin homes. Thousands of homes in the Dublin suburbs had their back gardens converted into vegetable allotments, while the construction of potato pits to store potatoes and protect them from frost over the winter was commonplace. A vibrant local self-sufficiency initiative requires just a few, preferably neighbourly, home growers, each representing one family, but all co-operating. These could have a variety of artefacts, such as greenhouses, plastic tunnels and various kinds of cold frame, some of them with one or two of these only. The main sharing between them will be where some can afford to pay others for work needing to be done, help with tools and special jobs and, above all, information on new techniques and on the sourcing of products that are required from outside the group. An ideal example of sharing information on new techniques is in how to build and use potatoes boxes and how to use grow bags. Products sourced outside the group These could be meat, eggs and poultry meat, pig meat and fish. It is a small move for one or more of the group to begin to raise and farm chickens and pigs, but both general meat and fish will require to be sourced from outside. This is not an immediate problem as there are local butchers and town markets for meat and if near the coast local co-operatives for fish. A longer term problem would arise in an energy crisis, especially for the fishing fleet, but whatever the length or depth of the energy shortages priority in obtaining fuel would be given to farmers and fishermen. In general, however, local groups need to identify or establish sources for general meat, eggs and poultry meat, pig meat and fish and to concentrate on producing their own poultry and pigs in the first instance. Threat from government In March 2012, President Obama signed an Executive Order, which would allow the government to seize all or any private property necessary, including food, in case of an emergency such as war, the latter meaning war with external or internal forces. Are US gun-owners the final bastion of liberty in the West? Statistics appear to support the argument that some countries with no gun control have by far the most gun-related deaths, but what if gun-bearing citizens were the only defence against a bigger threat? Unnecessary and repressive legislation can lead to extrajudicial powers given to the state or some other official authority, including the right to punish citizens. This leads to gulags and totalitarianism. Perhaps the Founding Fathers knew a lot more than we give them credit for. Can gun control also become the disarming of victims?
See also The true source of random and mass shootings.
Radio interview with Larken Rose.
Back to to Malignancies threatening society.
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