Chapter 3: Of Hippies, Preppers and Christian Agrarians

"Memories of the Past Hundred Years"
June 5, 2059

Matthew 16: 2-3 Jesus replied, "When evening comes you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red' and in the morning, 'Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times."

Surprise!!! I've been given the gift of another week!!........It's been a while since I wrote last. I've been busy........you'd think that after living a hundred and three years, that life would slow down a little. But that's not the case! I'm still teaching gardening skills to anyone interested and this is really a busy time of the year!

Throughout these past fifty years since the Great Crash, I've been thinking a whole lot on how some people could see the handwriting on the wall so plainly while most of society could not. Those that could see, did a bunch to prepare for the coming troubles while the vast majority that could not see, were caught completely by surprise, totally unprepared, much to their distress and loss!!!

But WHY couldn't they see???

It wasn't like the signs and warnings weren't all around us! I dug out my old diary from early in two thousand and ten to see if I could find any clues as to what was going on right before the Great Crash.

Here are some quotes from well respected news sources of that era from just one day--January 4, 2010:

Wall Street Journel--"Budget deficit woes pushing U.S. near precipice"
ABC News--"States scramble for emergency funding as (tax) dollars dry up"
U.K. Telegraph--"Printing so much money is a game with dangerous results"

And part of the climatic news from the Mid-East from that same day:
The International News: "Energy Crisis may cripple Pakistan by mid-January"

And these terrible signs of the times continued day after day while the masses walked thru their lives zombie-like, completely blind to the storm clouds building all around them..............sigh.

It is my guess that the masses of people that lived as part of mainstream society were just so caught up in their daily lives that they could not see beyond the next few days ahead of them and they were certainly clueless when it came to understanding past history or current events. What time they did have to themselves was spent mindlessly glued to the virtual world of television and video games and completely ignorant to the real world. All their daily needs were provided by big box stores or corporations. Their lives were completely separated from the realities of providing their own necessities of life. What a recipe for disaster as events would prove!!

But there were a few people that not only recognized the storm clouds that were building but made considerable efforts preparing for them. It has been my experience that these people fit into three catagories: Hippies, Preppers and Christian Agrarians. I'm sure other people could make different lists with equal or greater authority but this is how I remember that period of history.

"HIPPIES" from the root word 'hip' defined by Webster as 'keenly aware'.

As a kid, this cleancut all American farmboy first came across 'hippies' in the nightly news reports about war protests back in the 1960s. They looked pretty crazy to me! But as time went on, I grew up and got drafted into the army during the last part of the Vietnam War. Fortunately, I was stationed in Alaska.

This ol' farmboy sure wasn't in Kansas anymore!!! I sure learned that life wasn't all black-n-white, left or right, liberal or conservative, love it or leave it. I learned that God and Country weren't the same thing as I had been lead to believe. Now don't get me wrong, I love my country deeply and sincerely but I sure learned that politicians bought and paid for by big corporations don't necessarily have my best interests at heart. I came out of the army very disallusioned and questioning the very premises that were the foundation of the view I had on the world.

Well, maybe the 'hippies' weren't Satan's spawn after all. Let's see, principles of peace and love, social justice, environmental respect, dropping out of the system and moving 'back to the land', growing organic gardens and living a life of respect for each other and the earth... O.K. that doesn't sound too bad.

Loud rock music---I can dig it! Sign me up!

Maybe the free sex and drugs weren't exactly moral according to my religious teachings but most of this sure touched a cord deep inside of my heart.

What pushed me completely over the edge into becoming "a card carrying, longhaired hippie-back to the land-treehugger" was how badly the big increases in fuel prices hurt me financially after the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973. I was into my first year of college after getting out of the army and living on the VERY fixed income of the G.I. Bill. Doubling and tripling of heating oil costs over the winter of 73-74 just destroyed my 'budget'. I swore to 'never get caught by surprise again' by outside economic forces!!!! I felt betrayed---why hadn't anyone warned me that such things could happen?????!!!

The 'back to the land' movement really got moving with the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973 fuel shortages, the runaway inflation of the 70s, the pollution, overcrowding and stress of urban society and on and on. Many mainstream urbanites left their 9-5 jobs and moved onto little mini-farms and homesteads. Most gave up after a few years and went back to the urban culture again but a few settled in for their lifetimes.

Self proclaimed 'hippies' pretty well died out from notice by the general public after the economic recovery of the 1980s. 'CHEAP' oil brought online by the development of the new oil fields at the North Slope of Alaska and the North Sea off of Norway brought another two plus decades of 'shop till you drop,' happy motoring, suburban sprawl. Many hard core 'closet hippies' lived quietly back in the woods, raising organic gardens and developing alternative energies. Many of these old hippies became leaders of the sustainable agriculture and energy movements of the late 1990s but most were quite happy to live 'off the radar'. Some of these old-timers became very vocal proclaiming the warnings of the coming economic crash. Sadly, very few paid any attention to them.

Bedtime........I'll write about Preppers and Christian Agrarians if I wake up tomorrow!

While cruising thru my diary from back before the crash, I came across a quote from an author named "Matthew Stein". Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, his words were quite profound and very prophetic!

"the truth is that if technology fails in a big way, your ability to do things with your hands, like grow food, make a shelter and heal people without high-tech pharmaceuticals, will be quite valuable ... Strength will be in tight knit communities with a shared pool of resources and skills, cemented by strong people bonds"