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FOREWORD

We live in the midst of a crisis so immense it boggles the poor, overloaded mind of modern humanity. The people of the world cannot seem to grasp its implications.  Like a billboard whose message and image are stretched to such vast proportions that it fills the entire sky from horizon to horizon, the “big picture” of world events escapes the public comprehension.  Those who see beyond the scope of the drive to work, the office, and a close circle of family and friends, can sometimes make out what this big picture is indicating. The Billboard, also known as “Reality” reads;  RETURN TO NATURAL WAYS TO HEAL YOURSELF.   HEAL YOURSELF TO EVOLVE.  EVOLVE OR DIE.   For those of us who do not see beyond immediate daily affairs, there remains only the unsolved mystery, (misery) of life.  Life is not truly a mystery, yet our self imposed ignorance makes it so.  Through ignorance we make mistakes and these mistakes cause pain.  And pain is what we see transcribed upon the faces of sidewalk crowds like the fine print hidden in the text of an unscrupulous contract.

It is not enough to merely perceive a word or two of this Message as large as a cloudless expanse.  The reality that is clearly written for us to read, within the unfolding book of world history and the tragedies it describes, is a warning to our species. Through a lack of foresight that message is not yet clear to most people.  They foolishly assume that it must be unimportant since no serious discussion of its implications is ever explored.  It is not considered polite to upset the breakfast table digestion through a straightforward analysis of modern reality.  Most people would rather stick to those “safe” subjects such as the weather or the doings of the neighbors, rather than risk being politically incorrect. Perhaps this is because the implications of the modern reality are so blatantly obvious that we refuse to see them.  We think to ourselves that civilization as we know it simply cannot be on the brink of collapse, because that’s not how we’ve been taught life is supposed to be.  If such a thought were allowed to flower in the mind, the feeling of being cheated and lied to would be overwhelming.  Perhaps our denial of reality is so great that we live only for today, primarily because there is such a strong collective suspicion that today may be all we have left.

The average person feels locked into a daily routine, desperately groping for answers through a winding maze of uncertainties.  They perceive only the apparent lack of viable choices and the struggle for survival.  Tragically, most of us have chosen a life path that is not the product of our own imagination, volition or inspiration. We have dutifully chosen that which is expected of us regardless of the logical consequences.  A materialistic society has made our choices for us.  Since critical thinking on any level, let alone the collective scale, is not emphasized in our western culture, the logical consequences of materialism are generally of no concern to the individual person. In most cases, today’s well conditioned mind is only concerned with where the next dollar is coming from.  Lost to us is our honesty and human dignity.  Misplaced are our cultural roots, our inherent spiritual qualities, the will to be noble, progressive, humanitarian and wise.  All that is left is the staged emotionalism of lawyers, unscrupulous business practices and the base egotism of social posturing and fashion built upon a foundation of money.  The pseudo-sincerity of selling false images to others is cloaked only by the thin veneer of “polite society”, and everyone is “on the sell”.  Don’t look too deeply beyond the sales-pitch imagery and carefully rehearsed lines, without being prepared to be the subject of ridicule.  If you’re planning to be a realist in this culture, then choose your battles carefully, because they will be too numerous to fight all at once.

The student of history soon realizes, that our civilization has rarely given itself a clear opportunity for reflection upon its own errors in judgment.  Throughout the ages we have been so immersed in the daily routine that the world picture seemed irrelevant.  For us there is rarely the slightest pause in the acquisition of material goods to visualize a different way of life.  This is as true for the average human being as it is for our culture.   So busy are we with the material tasks of this present age, that we do not notice the roar of an approaching calamity, even though it would be deafening to anyone who was not so distracted.  Society races full speed toward an uncertain objective, without any concern for the condition of the “brakes” and the ability to stop as we descend down an ecological cliff-side.  The impartial observer might conclude that our reckless speed of “advance”, is matched only by our desire to escape the momentum of previous centuries.  For hundreds of years we have been pretending that the unlimited indulgence of imbalanced human desires and concepts is without consequence.  For millennia we have been pretending that natural laws can be effectively replaced with the edicts of courts, politicians and military leaders.  So long as we have the time to ignore the mistakes of the past, all future predictions can still be made with smug optimism.  The main problem with this type of thinking however, is that we’ve finally run out of time to make the crucial decisions of right living.  Remaining to us is a small smattering of years or perhaps two or three decades before the collapse of all pretenses and world economies becomes an avalanche of global disaster.  The past is gone, but its results scar the face of social “progress” like deep-seated stresses that are beyond cosmetic concealment.

To “live only for today” is quickly becoming the most popular view of life, because as everyone knows, tomorrow is looking more uncertain by the minute.  Nearly everyone entertains the secret suspicion that the social order we are expected to believe in, has gone far astray from the utopia of an ideal world.  This of course is not a matter for public conversation, since the facade of “business as usual” is considered far more important than realism. Yet the fall of civilization as we know it, looms large in the screen texts of science fiction writers and political/social commentaries. Even the fledgling mathematician is not hard-pressed to calculate the short time remaining to us before the exhaustion of key natural resources, (needed to support the consumeristic world marketplace). This is especially true given a geometric expansion of world population, the human predilection for extreme wastefulness, war, corrupt policy-making and environmental disregard.

The average individual is faced with the weekly prospect of international genocide, economic collapse, underhanded and authoritarian governmental actions, and a general apathy on the part of a well-conditioned public toward any real change of the status quo. The usual reaction to world or domestic events is one of resignation.  “What can I do about all these problems?” is the usual question asked, and the reply to it is almost always the same; “NOTHING.” The public assumes that social conditions are well beyond their scope of influence.  Or is this conclusion merely a convenience?  Is it just easier to pass off the daily responsibility for personal action, by implying that all action is hopeless?  One might argue in fact that the failure of civilization could be considered hopeless, only when the public uniformly believes it to be so.

Hopelessness is a product of our training as initiates into the cult of materialism.  This is the cult that everybody takes for granted, not because it is rational, but because the majority of the public has been convinced by advertising and “education” of its validity.  First we are taught that our alias identity is what is known as a “consumer”, (a very demeaning label at best) or in other words, “one who consumes.”  In order to be “productive” citizens our task is to work, to buy, to consume and then to die.  In each of these four modes our life energy serves as grease so that the gears of the Great Machine can keep grinding away.  For the most part our function in an industrialized society can be likened to that of beef cattle waiting for slaughter.  Our lives are spent laboring to produce unnecessary goods and services that have no real bearing upon the quality of life, and to fulfill the personal goals of corporate executives.

The next article of faith we are taught to worship is that the only respectable focus for ones’ entire life energies is the accumulation of money.  Money, it turns out, is something we use to buy all manner of flashy trinkets of dubious practical value.  Buying these “things” is called “consumer spending”, which is something that “helps support the economy and provides jobs” we are told.  What this really means is that meaningless greed, like some lurking, nocturnal monster is kept well-fed by the labors of an uninspired public.  The corporate-owned media touts the idea that local communities are “provided with jobs” by some corporate giants’ local factory, using a tone that suggests the people are being offered some special favor for which they are not entirely worthy.   In reality it is not community livelihood that is enhanced by most of these filth-producing engines of destruction.  The real focus is usually the enhancement of the profit margins of destructive corporations, whose sole motivation is absolute and unquenchable greed, at the cost of the entire human race and every other species of life on this planet.  In truth, a “consumer” is a fickle breed of fish who takes any shiny bait flashed before it, and which will do anything to acquire what is supposedly desirable, as narrowly defined by the advertising world. If this means performing any demeaning, unhealthy and socially irresponsible task at the local factory or retail outlet to make money, then so be it.

Finally, we are taught that not only is money our only true and Almighty God, but that the material things it purchases represent the full extent of reality.  If it can’t be bought then it must be worthless, or at least that is how the dogma reads.  Materialism teaches that if it can’t be immediately measured on a scale, tasted, touched, seen or heard, that it either doesn’t exist or is basically unimportant. The belief underpinning Western society, (and now a majority of the world by extension) is that existence is simply a marketplace of goods to be bought and sold.  That attitude is also being applied to human beings, (labor).  Our worth as individuals is judged by the content of a resume’.  Bodies and minds are sold as commodities, to be exploited for the purpose of inducing the highest profit margins possible, in the shortest period of time.  Bodies and minds are viewed as expendable components of the corporate machine, to be replaced by fresh “spare parts” as the need arises, as soon as they are worn out.  Human life has been reduced to the level of the functioning machine that produces on demand.  The apparent, prevailing belief is that the public is merely a resource to be tapped, (the term used is “human resources”) by those who possess the sly cunning to pull off the scandal of our age without being noticed.  In this paradigm, we exist only to make more money for those who already have more of it than they could ever hope to use, (on a practical basis) in several lifetimes.  Toward this end, the cities of the entire planet are being converted into sweat shops, as armies of wage slaves live out their lives staggering under the weight of materialistic ideology.  As consumers our assigned role is the unquestioning membership in the cult of materialism, with no less devotion displayed than 40+ hours a week, for 20-40 years.  We are expected to happily, or at least willingly live decades in debt to others, (a concept known as credit) and to engage in a life of meaningless drudgery for wage pay, (wage slavery).  As long as we believe that this is our “lot in life”,  the feeling of hopelessness and desperation which runs rampant in this modern age is perfectly predictable.

We live in an age where everyone is “the victim” in one way or another.  At the same time we seem to be running out of a fresh supply of perpetrators who are supposedly doing the victimizing.  Some say that the government is to blame, or point a finger at different races or political groups.  Others assume the modern condition is simply the work of some reservoir of great evil.  It is more than reasonable to ask if any of these are truly or ultimately to blame for our social ills.  A more likely answer is one that is much simpler, such as;  the state of the world as we know it, is a matter of mutual consensus.  Society exists as it does because this is what we have made it.  It continues to remain in a state of perpetual crisis because the lifestyle we have chosen, (in the worship of money and material things over more important values) literally sustains such a world society.  Because there is a demand for destructive industries and their wasteful products, they continue to flourish like unpulled weeds in our collective garden, and so do the destructive attitudes that go along with them.  For the sake of money we are sacrificing our very lives, sanity and happiness.

In this guide an alternative to materialism is presented, with some very concrete suggestions for the reestablishment of individual freedoms.  What you see before you is  a basic manual for grass roots, social revolution.  What the modern person needs today more than any other commodity, is the regaining of their natural, vital spirit.  The public must  regain an unconditioned freedom of thought, and throw off the yoke of senseless drudgery. The ideas herein are aimed precisely at the weak spots in this house of cards we call modern society.  The Survivalists’ Guide exposes consumerism as the outright fraud that it is. 

In this ruthlessly honest material, the reader is allowed an excellent opportunity to shake off the stupefying effects of modern media and education, to get in touch with their own true self and the clarity of mind that goes along with it.  Specific suggestions for a complete shift of lifestyle toward the natural, the real and the spiritual are given so that the individual may reclaim the full extent of their human potential. This book is a spiritual journey into the meaning of Truth and the principles of natural law, which compose God, Nature and the human soul alike.  To gain the most from the pages within, be prepared to question the entire scope of what the modern world considers both sacred and unquestionable.  Be prepared in fact, to again find a hope for the future of humanity and the self, one that owes its potency to the stark realism that is so desperately needed by the public today…

Matthew Webb visionquest@eoni.com 

The World Mind Society http://www.eoni.com/~visionquest 

CHAPTER 1