Tani Newton
Not to beat about the bush: we are living at the end of Western Civilisation. And not to belabour the point, let me address the question of what we can do to survive.
I’ve long lived by the belief that the people most likely to survive the fall of everything that is familiar to us are the people who have learned to treat their own health, grow their own food and bring up their own children. I catch my breath when I see people now spontaneously starting to do these things. The fact that it is happening more by necessity than by choice makes it no less spine-tingling.
Interest in natural medicine and in self-education has been growing slowly for many years. But now, as the hospital system collapses under the weight of bodies and the school system implodes into its own moral and intellectual vacuum, it’s taken off. So really, that takes care of my first two tips already.
3) Learn to grow your own food. Easier said than done, but if or when supply chains start to collapse, we’ll probably all get a lot better at it a lot faster. This includes learning to hunt or forage for wild foods.
4) Strategise to preserve the things that matter. For instance, have hard copies of great books. Sounds old-fashioned, but you know the only reason we still still read Cicero is that someone survived the fall of Rome with a hard copy of his books. Network with other sane people, and make a point of visiting one another’s homes so that you can physically find each other.
5) I asked my most trusted friend to supply tip #5, and got: “Pray to the living God.” I can’t go beyond that. Disagree with me at your leisure, but a crisis such as the end of the greatest civilisation in history, or indeed the everyday crisis of each of our souls, needs something more than a mere belief system or a general all-purpose spirituality. It needs a living God who is mighty to save.
