What I want to know is how far above third-world status do you think you are? How long before the price of housing, gasoline, food, clothing, and everything else on earth that the corporations can snap up and offer for sale, goes so high that you simply don’t have enough money left to eat? Maybe you could skip breakfast and lunch. It is easier to go to bed on a full stomach than an empty one. How long are you prepared to do that? Forever? Are you prepared for a completely changed lifestyle that doesn’t include regular meals? If you haven’t asked yourself the following question before now, do it – NOW! ‘How long can I survive a prolonged depression?’ 

Just ask the neighbor you have been ignoring for the last year or so how it feels to go hungry. Have you noticed how he’s getting a bit ragged around the edges? He’s lost some weight, don’t you think? And his clothes! They are a bit on the dingy side. And he doesn’t smell so good either. I wonder what is wrong with him. Maybe you should call Social Services…or maybe you are starting to experience a bit of hunger, and after experiencing it for yourself, you start to recognize it in others. 

Maybe you should go over to his place and ask if he is okay, and if there is some way you can help. Maybe a pot of chicken soup would stave off the hunger for a day or two. Cook it at home, because his electricity has been turned off for non-payment. Make all you can afford to because he will be hungry. You see, he wakes up in the morning wondering what will happen when the bank forecloses. He has lost his job because the company went bankrupt, yet miraculously turned up in a foreign country where the wages are low and environmental concerns are an oxymoron. Not only has he lost the income from his employment, but his medical insurance went bye-bye with the job, and the retirement? Forget it. History. “In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a company liquidates its assets to pay its creditors and ceases to exist. Therefore, it is likely your pension and health plans will be terminated” (DOL, 2003).  

Ask your neighbor how long he has been going without money. While you’re there, ask him how long it has been since he has eaten. There’s a saying that if you go three minutes without air, three days without water, or three weeks without food, you die. I don’t know how accurate that is, but I don’t want to experience it firsthand, at least not just yet. I have things I still want to do, don’t you? Doesn’t your neighbor? 

Now ask yourself how long you could go without money. Remember, the banking system runs the world as we know it. With money, you are in debt to creditors. Without money, you are at the mercy of those same creditors. What do you do when you can no longer fulfill your obligations to these creditors? You are at their mercy, and they have no mercy. So, treat them like the foul carrion-eaters they are; get rid of them, and don’t invite them back. Do it now. The longer you are in their clutches, the harder it becomes to stay afloat. When you have no money, you are at the mercy of those who have no mercy, be it the creditors or everything and everyone else around you.  

Your house, car, electricity, water, Internet, phone, fax, food, household cleaning products, personal hygiene products, clothing, and everything else that we Americans are all used to, cost money. Without money, you go without all of the essentials you once thought you needed. Ask that neighbor about his priorities. Ask him what the first thing was that he gave up when the money was not there. What was the second thing to go? How about the third or fourth? Ask your starving neighbor how he handled the slide into oblivion. Ask him how it feels to wake up in the morning hungrier than when he went to sleep the night before. Better yet, wait until he is homeless, then ask him how it feels to have lost everything he owned while his neighbors hid behind locked doors, the Social Services button on speed-dial. Get a good, clear picture of that phone on your nightstand with the speed-dial button looking a little worse for the wear. 

Angry? Good. Got a clear picture of your enemy? Good. So, just who or what is this enemy? Do you know? Anger has to be directed somewhere. Can we direct it at the corrupt system we are living in? Sure, and the power elite that have the upper hand in this corrupt system, because they created it. They know what is happening, they planned it! But they cannot control all events at all times. Perfect they are not, just look at the players. But it is true that they have very smart people working for them who figure out what to do next so they don’t have to do any of the real mental work themselves. After all, money can buy almost anything.

The people controlling the present-day economic meltdown are very formidable, but these vipers are not your personal enemy, and their plan to control the world’s population via economic chaos, along with the reckless worldwide corruption of food, water, and natural resources by their multinational corporations, will eventually backfire on them because no man can think to control everything without some very serious results. These so-called ‘elite’ vipers cannot escape the consequences of their actions no matter how much money they use to make things ‘disappear.’ When all is said and done, all they are left with is moral bankruptcy, nothing more. 

Meanwhile, you have to survive this nightmare you are being thrown into against your will. To do that, you must know who your real enemy is. The enemy is not your neighbor who is trying to survive just like you. This enemy is much more personal than the crooks in the White House and their masters.  

When all is lost, the enemy you face is staring at you from a reflection in the bathroom mirror. Get used to it. 

Now that you have defined the true enemy, the real question becomes, just what will you be left with when all is said and done and the economy collapses in a heap right in front of you? Where do you go, how do you get there, and most of all, how do you convince the enemy in the mirror that there is something to live for? 

Aaron Tippin sings,

You’ve got to stand for something
or you’ll fall for anything.

You’ve got to be your own man,
not a puppet on a string.

Never compromise what’s right,
and uphold your family name.

You’ve got to stand for something
or you’ll fall for anything.

Think you can’t go on? You can. Think of the rest of your life as one of the biggest endurance tests you will ever experience, and walk into it, one step at a time.  

Conquer your fears and fight back with the only weapons of any worth: righteousness and truth. Stand for something worthwhile. If you’ve got something extra that your neighbor might need, give it to him. Don’t be afraid to receive help either. Get rid of the urge to call someone to “get rid of the problem” for you, and get involved in a solution. Make it personal because starvation is very personal. We can’t make it on our own, that’s not who we are. We need each other to survive, and the only way to find people that you want to be with, is to be one of those people with whom you want to be.  Now is not the time to throw away all principle and resort to King of the Jungle mentality. Now is the time to let your inner strength show. Grab hold with both fists and refuse to be reduced to chattel.  

After all, there’s a saying that if you go three minutes without air, three days without water, or three weeks without food, you die. And that’s the bottom line, isn’t it. Do you want to die with your hands around your neighbor’s throat, or with your hands underneath your brother, holding him up? It’s your choice, and the most important one you will ever make. Choose wisely. This decision might be the last one you make in the next three minutes, three days, or three weeks.

Copyright 2008, Barbara H. Peterson 

References:

Tippin, A. (n.d.). You’ve Got To Stand For Something. Country Gold USA. http://www.countrygoldusa.com/AT_stndsomthng_MU.asp

U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). (2003). Your Employer’s Bankruptcy: How Will It Affect Your Employee Benefits? Fact Sheet. http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/newsroom/fsbankruptcy.html