Dear Friends,
It seems to me, it’s time to panic, completely freak out, set your house on fire, get a shopping cart and load it with toilet paper, then hide behind the seven eleven… or not. From the headlines in the papers, and to hear the talking heads on TV, mindless panic is the only rational response to this extremely bad cold that is going around. Every news site I peruse is wall to wall doom porn. Basketball is not being played, (or at least the audiences are home watching on TV), the economy is going to crash, (even though the stores are packed with people shoulder to shoulder buying toilet paper and hand sanitizer), and everyone will get it within a month, (even though the spread has been arrested in China and South Korea, and it isn’t spreading in Australia or South America). Clearly, it’s time to light our hair on fire.
I have always advocated for people to keep at least a month’s worth of food on hand. Even if it is just survival food. Because, those who do, don’t have to go shoulder to shoulder during a pandemic, in a frantic hunt for hand sanitizer. We have plenty of bar soap at home. If a natural disaster hit, the people with food in their pantries give humanity some elasticity to disaster. The food supply doesn’t immediately run out, the fuel supply is less volatile and there is plenty of toilet paper to go around. How many people who have extra in their homes for emergencies, do you suppose, are fighting hand to hand over a roll of toilet paper today? A little preparedness gives a person a great deal of calm… in the face of the media and elite demanding we all have a communal conniption fit.
Those who keep so little in their homes that in an emergency… they would starve to death before the day is over, have reason to panic. The mindset that goes along with having nothing in reserve lends itself to a thoughtless reliance on the system. If your life is totally dependent on the system, any hiccup in it, and you better flip out. If on the other hand, you are even a little bit self reliant, snafus, epidemics and recessions are far less terrifying. Being totally reliant on a system, they have no idea how it works or the mechanisms that run within it, makes someone dependent. These are the people most easily manipulated into self harm for the benefit of psychopathic elite. You see them at the stores today, going toe to toe over a sanitary napkin.
Of course this could lead to the extinction of the human race, which is the scenario that is being considered the most likely by the media today, but the better bet, is that it will not. Ebola and SARS, were far more scary than this bad cold. Which could follow the same course as the 1918 pandemic, a mild version goes around in the spring and the following fall the deadly strain ravages humanity. Although the 1918 pandemic had little long term effect even on the war. To rationally justify the amount of panic and fear that is being promoted, this must be far far worse. Then again, to bet against the human race is always a lose lose proposition. Like Pascal’s Wager… because if you bet for our extinction, who will pay off the bet? If you bet on our survival, if the bet can be paid off, it will be.
The one thing about a panic, is that those who don’t, can scoop up tons of deals. During the depression, bankers who kept their heads became the next generation of uber rich, the traders who held onto intrinsically valuable stocks came out ahead, and the people who bought up the land of their neighbors at fire sale rates, expanded their farms. The secret is to have some extra set aside, so that in the case of panics, you don’t, and can take advantage. Moreover, by doing so, you help stem the panic, saving those dependent on the system much sweat and tears. Today is no different than all the panics that have come before. It is an opportunity as much as a disaster, and this may not even be a disaster at all. So, take advantage of the deals as best you can, but be careful not to buy flashy tulip bulbs.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
