17 Aug 23
“The naive don’t want to hear truth, because they can’t endure seeing their delusional phantasies demolished”
Nietzsche
Lessons from Maui (and host of other disasters)
1) The naive tendency for most people to assume “technology will beat nature” is ultimately fatal!
What happens when high winds meet power lines and trees?
What happens to roads and buildings when trees and power-lines fall on them?
2) The naive assumption that “I can always call 911, and someone will come immediately and take care of me” will invariably prove a foolish pipe dream.
What happens when phone lines, internet, and cell-phones fail?
What happens when emergency services (mostly inadequate to begin with) are hopelessly overwhelmed and
essentially unavailable?
3) What we call “society” unfailingly reveals itself to be merely a thin veneer, a delusory mirage, when exposed to the heat of stark reality.
No matter where you are, barbarous anarchy boils just beneath the surface, as we see!
Modern instruments of deadly force are never far from hands of the wise.
4) The prepared stand the best chance of ultimate victory.
Empty store shelves, closed gas stations, non-functional phones, inaccessible internet, impassable roads, poorly-maintained personal vehicles, no power, along with wide-spread lawlessness and chaos, will combine to destroy the unprepared!
5) Don’t wait for “permission” to make critical decisions and take decisive, life-saving action!
In Maui, many admit that they saw nearby smoke and flames, but assumed they could ignore this obvious evidence, because there were no warning sirens, and no public officials were advising them to evacuate.
Funny thing about public officials. When they, along with their much-vaunted “plans,” fail completely, they predictably respond with a “study.”
Next time you’re tempted to ask,
‘Doesn’t life require compromise?’
Translate that question into its actual meaning:
‘Doesn’t life require the surrender of that which is true and good, to that which is false and evil?’
Is that not what life precisely forbids- if one wishes to achieve anything but a stretch of tortured years spent in
progressive self-destruction?”
Ayn Rand
/John
