Read "Tunnel in the Sky?"

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Not sure how many of you read Robert Heinlein in the past or have gotten past his creepy right-wing libertarianism, but he wrote a bunch of "juvenile" novels. One of them was called Tunnel in the Sky, about survival training. It's interesting because it comes right out and says that the worst thing you can bring to really make sure you survive is a gun. In fact, the character that brings a canteen and a knife survives and thrives, and the guy who brings a (sci-fi version of a) machine gun dies fast.

The underlying idea is that the guy with the knife is thinking, "how can I stay out of trouble?" and the guy with the gun is thinking, "I can handle that!"

This forum is much more geared towards, "let's get along and rebuild" than most prepper forums. I'm not sure if it's a commentary on politics or consumer-macho gun culture, or what, but it has struck me as interesting that max firepower is so highly correlated with survivorist stuff.

Re: Read "Tunnel in the Sky?"

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I must have read it 50 years ago...Heinlein truly did explore some weird shit--incest, juvenile sex, "God-Jehovah" as one of many gods, and, of course, a Nietzsche-like fascination with "supermen". But I don't really remember Tunnel in the Sky.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Read "Tunnel in the Sky?"

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Interesting. My wife and I close on our twenty acre tree farm/climate change/societal collapse retreat next Monday. One of our major requirements was that it be rural but absolutely not be "in the middle of nowhere". There must be a community nearby to stand with. After literally years of looking we located it 5 miles as the crow flies and 6.1 miles by road from a very progressive little town and 20ish miles by road from Charlottesville, VA. This is mostly in reply to your "let's get along and rebuild" comment. Of course I'll have some guns up there, but a whole lot of other important stuff, too. Possibly most importantly, an electric UTV that can be solar charged so we can get to and from town to pick up and drop off supplies.

It already has a 10gpm 150' well and grid power for now. :bananadance:
'Sorry stupid people but there are some definite disadvantages to being stupid."

-John Cleese

Re: Read "Tunnel in the Sky?"

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Mason wrote: Fri Dec 06, 2019 3:37 pm Interesting. My wife and I close on our twenty acre tree farm/climate change/societal collapse retreat next Monday. One of our major requirements was that it be rural but absolutely not be "in the middle of nowhere". There must be a community nearby to stand with. After literally years of looking we located it 5 miles as the crow flies and 6.1 miles by road from a very progressive little town and 20ish miles by road from Charlottesville, VA. This is mostly in reply to your "let's get along and rebuild" comment. Of course I'll have some guns up there, but a whole lot of other important stuff, too. Possibly most importantly, an electric UTV that can be solar charged so we can get to and from town to pick up and drop off supplies.

It already has a 10gpm 150' well and grid power for now. :bananadance:
NICE!!
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”

Re: Read "Tunnel in the Sky?"

5
Libertarianism and “young adult fiction” are synonymous.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: Read "Tunnel in the Sky?"

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Bisbee wrote: Fri Dec 06, 2019 4:46 pm Libertarianism and “young adult fiction” are synonymous.
Nice catch!

The few pseudo-preppers who think guns n ammo are all you need will admit that they plan to be vultures. The rural ones with water will be OK until they run out of gasoline and food. The rest will die of thirst pretty quickly or disease from contaminated water.

Groups and cooperation are how humans have thrived and will survive.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: Read "Tunnel in the Sky?"

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Mason wrote: Fri Dec 06, 2019 3:37 pm Interesting. My wife and I close on our twenty acre tree farm/climate change/societal collapse retreat next Monday. One of our major requirements was that it be rural but absolutely not be "in the middle of nowhere". There must be a community nearby to stand with. After literally years of looking we located it 5 miles as the crow flies and 6.1 miles by road from a very progressive little town and 20ish miles by road from Charlottesville, VA. This is mostly in reply to your "let's get along and rebuild" comment. Of course I'll have some guns up there, but a whole lot of other important stuff, too. Possibly most importantly, an electric UTV that can be solar charged so we can get to and from town to pick up and drop off supplies.

It already has a 10gpm 150' well and grid power for now. :bananadance:
Very nice and five acres is a good buffer. It's rural now but watch out developers will be buying up land for housing projects.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Read "Tunnel in the Sky?"

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highdesert wrote: Sat Dec 07, 2019 9:31 am
Mason wrote: Fri Dec 06, 2019 3:37 pm Interesting. My wife and I close on our twenty acre tree farm/climate change/societal collapse retreat next Monday. One of our major requirements was that it be rural but absolutely not be "in the middle of nowhere". There must be a community nearby to stand with. After literally years of looking we located it 5 miles as the crow flies and 6.1 miles by road from a very progressive little town and 20ish miles by road from Charlottesville, VA. This is mostly in reply to your "let's get along and rebuild" comment. Of course I'll have some guns up there, but a whole lot of other important stuff, too. Possibly most importantly, an electric UTV that can be solar charged so we can get to and from town to pick up and drop off supplies.

It already has a 10gpm 150' well and grid power for now. :bananadance:
Very nice and five acres is a good buffer. It's rural now but watch out developers will be buying up land for housing projects.
And then the county will jack up your property taxes as each of your 5 acres is worth more and more to developers. So a long-term plan when that happens to sell that land at a huge profit and buy some more in a less accessible and desirable area, but which has water.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Read "Tunnel in the Sky?"

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I own everything Heinlein wrote including his correspondence with various new age groups who styled their practices on Stranger in a Strange Land. Tunnel in the sky is one of my favorites of his juvenile tales. Politically he was an interesting guy. He worked for both the Republican and Democratic parties in turn at different times in his life.
Never smile too big, the gods may mistake it for hubris.

Re: Read "Tunnel in the Sky?"

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K9s wrote: Fri Dec 06, 2019 6:50 pm The few pseudo-preppers who think guns n ammo are all you need will admit that they plan to be vultures.
I ran into a character on a CO gun forum whose SHTF plan consisted solely of strapping a couple of rifles to his back and heading to the mountains on a dirt bike to hide out from "anyone who might be looking for him". Not a month later, a wild fire hit his area heading for the city and coming from....the mountains he'd planned to bug out to.

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