January 23, 2024

1920’s Rearmament… And You

Navigating The New Reality

0  comments

Personal Rearmament Part II

In yesterday’s post, I started talking about contingency planning for WWIII. As I’m still getting back into the habit of writing blog posts, (as well as all the other stuff – don’t worry, it’s not forgotten,) I went a bit long.

Here’s part two, of what I hope will be a two-parter. Then I’ll have more Vault stuff on the subject of prepping, contingency planning and living your best life whether times get better or worse.

Let’s get back into the swing of the things.

The Problem

Alright. So yesterday, I covered the possibility of World War III and how it affects you. Now, bear in mind, I’m talking mostly to a Western Audience who are not, and are unlikely to be in, a traditional warzone even if World War Three breaks out.

Assuming you’re in an area more likely to be involved in frontline bits, your best bet is to move away from there before the fighting starts.

Assuming you’re not, I listed three major things:

  • Technological and Economic Warfare wherever you live
  • Insurgencies and Internal Chaos wherever you live
  • The Black Swan reality that WWIII will not look like it’s two prequels

So, with those reiterated, the problem is; we’re trying to contingency prepare for war, without actually preparing for it because we’re not LARPing as Rambo on social media so much as we’re trying to improve our position for whatever eventualities may or may not come.

That last sentence is key really: You don’t want to be the guy building the bunker and spending your savings on tinned ham only for us to live in an unprecedented boom and you miss it.

Lessons From 1920’s Rearmament

I was reading about German (and everyone else’s) rearmament in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Now… most people knew that after the Treaty of Versailles, war was coming again. After the economic crash in the 1920’s, it was an inevitability.

However, nobody really wanted to admit it. World War I was unfathomably costly to the world, and it wasn’t palatable to openly talk about it. There was an uneasy truce about; the European Colonial Powers were weakened and barely hanging on, the Americans were trying to manoeuvre to become a world power, the Germans were banned from having any sort of military, and the Soviets were busy partaking in their traditional pastime of massacring each other and hoping there’d still be enough of them left should anyone else want a turn.

In Germany, rearmament was not allowed. So the Germans had to get creative; they started encouraging curious pursuits as hobbies for their civilians; learn to fly planes, learn to hunt, fish and otherwise enjoy the great outdoors with maps and compasses, and excel at physical fitness.

Over in Britain, Churchill – then an opposition MP – pointed out that this looked suspiciously like grassroots rearmament. As everyone else murmured about the cranky old drunk, the Germans unofficially got stronger.

In the meantime, Baden-Powell’s boy scouts received curious support across the Empire and elsewhere, and there’s where we’re going to enter a new section because it takes us into the practical art of personal rearmament.

Grassroots Rearmament

We left the last paragraph with the knowledge that unofficially, people; men, women, children, were preparing for war at a local and individual scale right back in the 1920’s. Officially, rearmament didn’t start until the 1930’s; but what that Official History™ view fails to take into account is that, due to those local ecosystems, when Hitler took power and the Allies started making plans to stop him, they were on each side both inheriting a capable, ready populace.

As I’ve made pains to mention; you can’t change global circumstances, (and that’s important to remember as across the world we enter into Election Year Madness,) but you can change local ones dramatically.

So what can we learn from all this?

#1: Prepping Disguised As Lifestyle Improvements

In the 1920’s, boy scouts were learning how to orienteer, start fires, fire air rifles and gain skills in carpentry, metal work and so on. Hans over in Germany was learning to read maps and fly planes. Someone’s grandmother was pickling, jarring and canning foods they grew in the garden just in case.

It’s all quaint, idyllic, and, well, fun.

It’d take on a darker tone later, but what we have to think about is what hobbies we can do now that are entertaining and yet are useful for if times get rougher in a number of ways.

Ages ago, a friend of mine recommended learning how to pick locks for this reason. It’s a few hours and $20, and hopefully I’ll never have to have that skill. I have an old boy scout manual, and it’s my intention to go through and do a project for each skill.

None of this is because THE END IS COMING! So much as it’s fun and might be useful later. Also, these things either entertain or add to your life.

#2: Financial Sneakiness Disguised As Prudence

I’m conscious of the fact that this is mostly a business blog; I’ve always preached financial responsibility. Having stuff stashed around and looking like you don’t have much is probably good practice, (and maybe the result of Methodists further down my family tree,) but in the case of future strife of all kinds, having money stashed away in a few places and having it flowing in from others whilst nobody knows about it might be the difference between a comfortable time and a really uncomfortable one.

#3: Global Strife Is Longer Term Than Your Life

This is the Temperance to all of this. Imagine you’re a ten year old boy, grabbing the twelfth print run copy of Scouting for Boys. It’s 1922. You think, in your little boy head, one day you’ll be like Dad and you’ll have to save the country from the Gerry’s.

You get called up in 1942. You’re thirty years old. You’ve been working since you were sixteen, your kids are almost the age you were when you were a boy scout.

Here’s the thing; the news article I read that started this series said that World War Three is coming. That was the headline. The actual body text said something else: it’s coming within twenty years.

When it comes to prepping, people tend to make the assumption that they’re preparing for something that’ll happen within a few years. Maybe five.

They assume it’s them who’ll be involved in the catastrophe and they’ll be dealing with it as they are now.

For local, likely scenarios, that’s true. If you live in Hurricane Alley, you prepare the hurricane that’s coming during the next season. You don’t worry about twenty years time.

The more global the issue, the longer the timeline gets.

Remember; you can prepare for a war that will inevitably come, but it might be when you’re a retired old man, not a strapping young one ready to fight.

That’s why you always retain the idea you plan around global events and for local ones.

Final Preliminary Thoughts…

Like most decent blog posts, (and blog posts series,) what you think is a cool little idea unravels like onion layers and before you know it, you’ve written 3,000+ words and not scratched the surface.

The problem with giving emergency preparedness advice is that everyone has very different situations and in universalising the problem, the solutions become less effective.

However, I’ve kept it at a very high conceptual level with the advice in this and the previous article, and I’ll dial it down more for when the books start coming, (they’ll be on The Vault first, of course.)

This intersects nicely with the Survivalism 2.0 articles I wrote for somewhere else in previous years, so I’ll put all that together in a useful package at some point Soon™

And I’ll see you in the next one.

Other Posts You Might Like...

Genealogy As Life Tool

Genealogy As Life Tool

Don’t Think Like A Robot

Don’t Think Like A Robot

On WWII Escapees

On WWII Escapees
{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}

Shameless Plug Time

Join The Private Member Vault... Become a Gentleman Of Fortune

The Vault is my private membership website. Inside, you get access to book chapters, course lessons, e-guides to various online business shenanigans as I write them. You'll also get a bunch more private stuff, a monthly Q and A, discounts on future completed products and there's much, much more on the roadmap.

>