New Good Karma, If You Want Something Give it Away

This is my best shot at a rebuttal to survivalists. I sometimes have arguments in my head on subjects I think it would be fruitless to discuss with real people. It can be the method I use to sort out my thoughts. This discussion is a continuation of an inside my head conversation. The good thing is that I am always right and always win the debate. But many subjects bear examination, in my humble opinion.

All the great spiritual teachers tell us to "Love your neighbor as thyself", "Do unto others", "what goes around, comes around", You know all the precepts. Doesn't it make the only sense there can be? If you are violent, violence finds you. If you are critical, you think everyone is criticizing you. If you are stingy, you never have enough. If you cheat, you get cheated. I think we can all find stories of this from our own lives. I don't mean to imply that you, dear reader are imperfect, but if you can't find an example in your life, look around you.

So, I know people who are survivalists. I do live in rural Oregon where they still burn crosses on the lawns of so called 'mixed marriages'. It is hard to understand how the symbol of Christ's crucifixion can be the sign of racial hatred and intolerance. But for Klaners, it is. Or is it Kluxers? We have Montana Militia types here. I know they also exist in big cities. I have met one.

So, the idea, as I understand it, is that for a survivalist, you prepare for the big crisis. The big crisis could be a natural disaster, or it could be a revolution, it could be an attack by those Communist Cubans with all their modern weapons. Whatever it is, the survivalist has stored all the food and medicine and water and booze or whatever he might need for a long duration. But then, in that picture, he, being the only smart or prepared one must have lots of guns and ammunition to protect his shit. He must learn how to kill accurately. He must have some kind of a bunker where he can keep his stuff and himself if Hannibal or the Great Earthquake comes.

This kind of thinking leads to a serious paranoia. Everybody kind of becomes the enemy. Survivalists in cities have all kinds of surveillance devices. In the woods, they booby trap their properties. Really. I mean it. This is happening. And I am not talking about a good old hunting rifle or a little purse handgun. I am referring to arsenals of heavy duty weapons.

So, the first logic is that those pesky Cubans who are trying to take over our democracy don't have more than a 1950s inner tube from which to launch their invasion. So, it ain't happening. That, of course, is an absurd example, but you hear this kind of talk. It is not reasonable. Then there is the matter of the natural disaster that has everyone running around killing and robbing each other. In Hurricane Katrina, it looked to me like it was the powers that be who were doing the killing and mal treating the public and putting people at risk. Who the hell cares in a situation like that if people take the bottled water from Walmart to give it to the thirsty? Any survivalist in the Eighth Ward would have lost all their provisions and the bunker would have been flooded, in any case.

But my real question is who is truly more likely to survive, the person who is sharing and caring for others or the person who is ready to kill their neighbor to protect their Dinty Moore Stew?

My guess is that healing others, sharing, half killing yourself to relieve the suffering of others gives you a much higher survival probability than its opposite. You will have two allies that can not be discounted. The good gods and Karma. And if you are going to die anyways wouldn't you rather kick the bucket doing an act of loving kindness than having a shoot out with a starving person? Hasn't history played out over and over that there has often been some kind of magical protection for people of good will in desperate circumstances?

If you are hungry, feed someone. If you are poor, give away the shirt on your back. If you are lonesome, keep someone company. We are taught this because it works. You create the Karma for good to come back to you. Try it in little ways and build the muscles to do it in larger ways. Then you have prepared in a real way for the future.