David Rauschenbach ("Leader by default")

Simon Black recently recommended a book to his readers titled Emergency, by Neil Strauss. The recommendation was this:

“Neil tells an important story that we are all completely dependent on a functioning system of complex infrastructure.

We don't think about, for example, whether or not the lights will turn [on] when we flip the switch. We don't think about whether or not water will come out of the faucet, if the toilet will flush, if the grocery store down the road has food in stock, or if the gas station will be pumping fuel tomorrow. We take these things for granted... Emergency tells Neil's story about making this realization, ...”

I call this coming to one's senses, which happened to me at some point.

And as complex as the issue is, I think it can be reduced to a single question: “What is the ideal place to live?”. The relevance might not seem apparent on the surface, but bear with me.

For some years now, I have been a great admirer of Ray Swangkee and his website ThePeacock.com, where he promotes fortress living as a reasonable alternative to society's most massive problems.

Although fortress living appealed to me from the start, I have found it incredibly difficult to communicate its numerous advantages and aesthetic appeal to others. While it is one thing to point out that peak oil and global economic collapse will strain existing infrastructure, institutions, and planned-obsolescence practices beyond their tipping point, it is quite another to clearly articulate a positive and workable alternative.

Ray once fasted while asking the universe for reasonable solutions to such massive problems. That opened up a channel, and over the course of a few decades, resulted in original material spanning several thousands of pages, collected into 200+ books, all free for download on his website. My assessment is that he received his answer in spades, but, aside from “nutty” readers such as yours truly, expecting the average person to wade through all that stretches the imagination.

So while I strongly desire such secure, sustainable, intentional, and communal “condo” living for own family and like-minded friends, I have generally been unable to connect the vision with others, because the material is just too abstract, and examples are too lacking in the western world. Which is why I was ecstatic when I plugged in Diznee'z “Yung Blak Stalyun” for movie night with the family, and saw their glorious recreation of an Afrikan Kasbah, which seems to be exactly what I had in mind, for starters.

(Phonetic English used above to confuse copyright robots)

The Swangkee Farm is a treasure trove of permanent construction prototypes. A common design primitive found on the farm is the Swangkee 2' x 2' solid concrete column. (Note: Swangkee means first class quality.)

The 9'-tall column shown here was built in 2008, at a material cost of less than $200! Now lets stop and think this over for a moment. Such columns, or narrower, are usually found holding up 6- to 8-story parking garages. How many thousands of years do you think that this column, if properly tiled, could hold up your earth-covered roof, which roof would never need repair work of any kind, other than your extended household just “doing the gardening” up there?

And, now that you've seen what a couple of hundred bucks can buy, do you still think your wooden/plastic firetrap house is worth its inflated bubble price of ¼, ½, or 1 million dollars, when everyone knows that, if left alone, it is no more than 30 years away from the trash heap — that is, if a tornado, fire, flood, or earthquake doesn't get to it first!?

This thought for the day comes from a famous and enlightening book titled “A Pattern Language: Towns • Buildings • Construction” (1977).