So what are we supposed to do about a looming war and financial collapse?

@DWW25921 I watch Doomsday Preppers on Cable. One Idea Is to have sealed gold slips worth $50 for handy trade. Fresh water is good too.

@talljasperman I don’t know if it’s doomsday, but being prepared can’t hurt.

“What are we supposed to do?”

Instead of spending time researching the eminent collapse of society, consider saying hello to your neighbors and involve yourself with local community affairs.

But don’t talk about the doomy gloomy. They’ll think you’re weird and shun you.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies So focus on the positive and get involved! Not a bad answer. I can dig it.

@@RealEyesRealizeRealLies has it exactly right. As Will Rogers said, “Worrying is like paying on a debt that may never come due.”

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room True but does being prepared not lessen that worry?

You should network and get valuable connections who might be a help if there is a collapse. Being the loner is gonna be your demise and no, the govt can’t possibly help everyone at the same time. Trust me, when people’s kids begin to starve its gonna get ugly out there. Doing nothing is wrong. If you have been thinking about it, by now you probably realize this.

@woodcutter Alright, so I need a “support web” of sorts. Not a bad suggestion.

The ugly truth about something like this ,is this: Some people are gonna die. The weakest of us will have to work the hardest to keep going. I don’t have any idea how many people are on prescription drugs but when there are no more scripts being filled the weak will automatically get weaker. And I suppose luck could play into the situation but it is dangerous counting on it. If you don’t have at least one firearm and ammo for it,even if its a small one work on that. It shouldn’t be at the top of the list but its right up there. By the way if you have been a devout gun control activist up till then, and made that known to neighbors who differ from you, you really can’t expect them to loan you one of theirs. Even if they have a shiitload of them. So don’t ask. You dug your grave on that one.

@woodcutter ~Then don’t expect the activists to share their pot. ~

I can tell you the names of my neighbors a block down every direction. We say hello while walking the dogs and wave as we drive by.

“Nice garden”… is all it takes to meet a gardener on good terms. Ask questions and offer help.

Get to know your hood. You’ll find plenty of handy man’s, hard working gals, gardens, tools, generators, countless trucks and vans, a few cops, firemen, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, engineers, millions of dogs, and lots of poppers.

The best way to not be in fear of your community, is to get involved in your community. Folks take care of their own.

@talljasperman Pot is gonna be the least of anyone’s worries when there’s no food to go with it.

There have been stories of imminent financial collapse for the last twenty years. (And they are not professionals.) That’s not new. And activity in Syria will not be anything close to the full on boots-on-the-ground in Iraq the years ago. So be involved to have your voice heard. But getting involved in some survivalist thing is a waste of time and money and happiness.

@zenvelo I hope your right.

@DWW25921, yes of course, preparation is important, but it’s a matter of priority. Preparing for financial emergencies or retirement, for example, makes sense regardless of one’s age… but worrying about doomsday scenarios doesn’t.

As far as the Syria situation goes, I think wiser minds at the NSC and State Department personnel got the president’s ear after the cruise missile threats of a week ago. I think it is apparent that the most opportune time for military intervention is long over. The time to do this would have been the first few months of instability, when the moderates still had a say in the outcome of the revolution. Since then, the moderate faction, the business and middle class, has been neutralized, liquidated, or put themselves in self-exile and are represented by the weak, Istanbul-based Syrian National Council (Think de Gaulle’s forces isolated and ignored during his exile to Britain in WWII, But without weapons or military organization).

The war is now between the brutal Assad regime and the remaining five extremist factions—all six groups being undesirable. What is left, among others, is a large faction of extremist Sunnis who would like to eliminate all the non-islamic peoples of Syria including the Coptic Christians, the Jews, and especially all other Islamic “heretics,” including the Alawites, (who represent 12% of Syria’s population), and who have appealed to Assad for protection. There is the Free Syrian Army, which consist of several autonomous units consisting of anywhere between 15 guerillas to battalions of 1,000 fighters each, guided by the different factions of the Muslim Brotherhood, an umbrella group of Islamic extremists. There are al-Quaida units, imports from Saudi Arabia and Qatar led by Ayman al-Zawahiri. Within these groups are seething ethnic and religious rivalries, all purists who believe their way of honoring their gods are the only righteous way, or their ethnic group are the chosen ones and they will commit genocide to prove it. None of these, including the Assad regime, are consistent with the global status quo—and certainly not conducive to political economic relations with the west.

So, what to do? I believe the US and its allies will do what they have done before in these situations. And I believe it is the wisest course considering the choices in Syria. When the anti-Assad factions begin to weaken, support them. When they become to strong, and appear to be winning, support Assad. Do this until the moderates in Istanbul can be strengthened into a viable government and then install them when all the combatants are sufficiently vanquished. It is cynical, and there are innocent victims. I see no other alternatives.

World financial collapse? You got me on that one.

It’s funny to me how people in some of the safest and most stable parts of the world are also the most paranoid and fearful.