Thursday, December 10, 2009

"Fatal Errors" and "The Big Die Off."

"Your system has experienced one or more fatal errors and must shut down at this time."

Or so said the message on my Dell laptop this morning. Coming on the heels of the death of my Gateway PC, this event is temporarily maddening but instructive in the larger sense.

Systems fail. They grow old. They wear out through use, abuse or inattention to maintenance. Systems die. This is true for computers, for people, for countries and for civilizations. Only God and man's folly are eternal.

Plato said, "Only the dead have seen the end of war." And war, the ultimate "fatal error" of one side or the other, is the natural result of cumulative individual failures -- political, moral and physical.

It is easy, but tedious, to catalogue the failures of our political, social and economic systems today. Anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear can craft his or her own list so I shall not waste time doing so here. But know this:

Our system has experienced one or more fatal errors and must shut down at this time.

We have been blessed to have grown up in a time of unprecedented plenty and freedom without -- most of us -- ever having to "endure the fatigues of supporting it."

That time is now past.

For whatever we intend to preserve of that failed system for our children, our posterity, we must now be prepared to fight. If you are not making those preparations now, you will likely be consumed -- with all that you hold dear -- in the coming system crash.

When a computer crashes, you simply discard it and obtain another. When political systems, nations or civilizations fail, they collapse in a welter of blood and carnage, usually ending in mountains of bodies, slavery and a long dark night of tyranny.

This is referred to by people today who recognize the existential danger by the short-hand acronym of "TBDO" -- "The Big Die Off."

This is not a video game.

There are no do-overs.

This is as real as it gets.

Your system has experienced one or more fatal errors and must shut down at this time.

Whether you survive The Big Die Off with anything left that is worth preserving is up to you.

10 comments:

jon said...

up from barter, to indirect trade, on to commodity money, then to fiat money -- and back to barter again.

little wonder that paganism, the worship of cyclical symbols in nature, runs wild in history.

aughtsix said...

Like many of us, I suspect, I have for years vacillated between apocalyptic certainty and various hopes for its avoidance. This began with the sixties and all that that entails.

And we have reeled from crisis to crisis all these years without the ultimate calamity. Reagan temporarily stemmed the tide. Clinton, as horrible as he was, did not trip the wire.

But you make the point. The analogy is apt: the cumulative entropy of systems, technical or human, must result in failure.

I have been waiting for The Collapse for so long that time, skepticism and eternal hope combine to dull the sense of expectation.

Until now. Never have we been so in peril from within, not only because the domestic enemy is so bold but also because the people are so cowed, apathetic and ignorant.

I am past the middle of my sixth decade. I come from a long lived line of sturdy yeoman stock. My pleasure would be to live long and share my beloveds' lives. But if need be (and I fear it will), I will rather fight and die to preserve Liberty for my children's children than to stand idle while their rightful heritage is burned down and trodden under the Tyrant's boot.

One hundred heads, each of us.

Molon Labe!

aughtsix

III

jjet said...

Mike,

There may be more to the computer failures than you think (or at least have stated publicly).

Marshall Smith's www.brojon.org was driven off the air by a concerted and very professional series of attacks. Now, a lot of what he said was waaay outside the box and seemed a bit kooky, even to me. But some/much of what he said was spot on.

I assume he really po'ed "Them" and that "They" took him down.

More importantly, I hope you are taking precautions for your and your family's personal protection. I hope you have set up a telephone tree notification system so that local Threepers can come to your aid- armed with cell phones and video cameras, of course.

BTW, the check is in the mail tomorrow to help out a little.

Stay in the fight, my friend.

skipelec said...

For us, without a large support group, plus our age, it will be a home stand. It is sad to contimplate but when they kick in the door we will most likely die.
We are not ready to run nor to defend a large area, just here.

Anonymous said...

I work in IT, and couldn't help lol.
Unfortunately, "Your system has experienced one or more fatal errors and must shut down at this time." fits the situation perfectly.
My body's warranty expired long ago (after over 20yrs of 'politics by other means' around the world), so I don't expect to make it through the BDO. I would normally plan on helping the kids and gkids make it instead, but the adults are all on the wrong side of things, logic-wise. Maybe that will change as things develope.
Hopefully I'll at least get to be a significant speed bump vs the dark side.

thelastpatriots said...

This very thought has crossed my mind many times in the last year, more so as I plan deeper and deeper on how to keep the family from becoming statistics.

I know I'll likely fall along the line somewhere in the cause to restore the republic, but it is required, and a duty that cannot be shirked.

Getting older, tired, and damned cranky, and it's time to lace up the boots, grunt under the pack, and sling the rifle up one last time.

Hopefully my life experiences through the years and across multiple continents under service to a few presidents will be enough to not let fatal mistakes occur and waste my effort.

-A Patriot

Anonymous said...

Hey Mike:

Read about your problems with your PC. I'm fixin' to send some cash, not enough I know, but I hope it helps. I've also found a really good PC at FRY'S Electronics for a couple of hundred dollars. Should fit your requirements nicely.

Keep up the good work and hope you finish Absolved soon; I'm anxious to read that rascal.

Hope you and your family have a nice Christmas.

Ol' Vet

Anonymous said...

Amen,

My line in the sand was drawn long ago. I'm sure that there are thousands who have drawn that line in exactly the same place, and I will be in good company when the time comes...................

aughtsix said...

In the interest of accuracy and full disclosure, I should have said, above, that, "I am past the middle of my seventh decade.

My ability to dispense kinetic behavior modification has never been higher, however.

Black Flag 14 said...

Too many people think they can't do anything without a lot of other people being in on it. Everyone must make individual preparations, and try to network as much as possible. Think of circles; the individual is the core, the network of friends is the next circle, coalitions of networks with common members are next, and so on. It cannot be precisely put down on paper because of the dynamics involved, and just because someone isn't involved now, doesn't mean they won't want to get involved later. Form casual relationships with lots of people, and bonds of trust with as many as possible, and wait for the day when necessity will cause the networks to naturally coalesce into working organizations.