TruthHate

Survival Equals Preparedness

Survival is all about preparedness. No preparation, no survival. But, preparation can come in a vast variety of sizes, shapes, and substances. Mental preparedness is a legitimate form of preparedness, just as stored cans of beans is preparedness.

Preparedness is like an insurance policy, you are blessed if you have it when you need it, and blessed again if you never need it. It is a win, win situation. Reasonable estimates of preparedness follow the familiar 80-20 rule, where 20% are prepared and 80% are not, only the ratio is probably considerably higher.

Noah was prepared while his neighbors were not and we all know what happened. On the whole earth, only one man and his obedient immediate family were prepared and everyone else died because they were not prepared. If it had never rained, Noah would still have been a winner because he wouldn’t need the boat. By having it, he was one up on his neighbors who didn’t have a boat.

Think of the exercise his family got from building that boat, and how it drew all of them together and honed their skills. So preparing has many benefits that are not obvious at first, but become apparent later.

The Ant and the Grasshopper story from Aesop illustrates the value in preparedness. It is interesting that dozens of modern reworking of this story show the Ant being compassionate and sharing with the Grasshopper, and in other cases killing the Ant and taking his food and so on. As society has increasingly become a Welfare State all of our culture is reworked to reflect these new “values.”

Education, itself, is a form of prepardedness, as we are reminded that education, once we get it, is a valuable asset which no one can every take away from you. Children are also considered to have value based on their ability to take care of their parents and other family members by their very numbers. Certainly Noah couldn’t have built that boat all by himself.

Health is another asset that can be held in reserve to help us in time of need. A sick person is already half dead, so keeping in tip-top shape is a strong survival preparation.

Money is another survival tool. With it, almost anything is possible, without it, all things become difficult.

The number of children also matter to our survival, especially in a democracy, because everything is decided by majority vote. If your numbers are less than another group, that group can impose its will on you, in a variety of way that may not conduce to your survival. And because public opinion is so important in the democracy, all the means of communication are part of your survival.

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