“The truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the
images.”
— Plato, The Republic (Book VII – Allegory of the Cave)
GreyMouse stepped to the podium when most of the audience was back in place. He looked around at the audience and said, “We’re missing a few. That’s fine. Thank you for coming back.”
He looked across the audience and said, “Has everyone shut off their phones? Go ahead; I’ll wait.” He paced back and forth while phones were disabled, then returned to the podium and said, “To recap: Box go Bye-Bye, Adapt to Reality, and Call Your Friends. The three parts of the answer to the question of what we can actually do in the face of all the dooms that are swirling around us. How we do it is a whole ‘nuther thing.”
“That’s the thing about doom. We can’t prevent or mitigate it, or even predict how or when it will happen. We need to adapt to reality, and the reality is our civilization is in terminal decline. Negative events are cascading to the point where most younger people have lost hope for the future.” Nods from the audience.
“Take climate change, for example. Worldwide, our leadership cannot initiate a divestiture from fossil fuels because that leads to a failure cascade resulting in the deaths of billions. Billions dead in a distant, uncertain future are easy to discount in our leader’s minds. That’s a problem for another day and a different administration, and who knows what sort of miracle might come along?”
“On the other hand, billions dying on their watch cannot be allowed, because it will most likely result in their destruction by an angry mob. It’s happened many times before. This is one of the reasons most modern forms of press and social media have been taken over by a cartel of organizations with three shared objectives: One: Keep the muggles from getting restless, and maybe starting a movement to make changes to the system. Two: Keep everyone locked into the system because mo' money, and three: Torque the system to create as much prosperity for the elites as possible, because elites are the ones running those organizations.”
“This is done by distracting the muggles with a continuous parade of shiny things, and making sure none of those things encourage them to focus on the overall picture. Any military leader will tell you that distraction is one of the most cost effective ways to gain an advantage.”
“We also cannot take independent action at a national level because it would require us to disconnect from the world economy. No leader could do that, because they are now just figureheads, funded by and beholden to the corporations and elites that are reaping most all of the benefits. Finally, shared sacrifice, or even staged sacrifice is not an option when muggles always elect leaders who promise them everything will be all right. Even when those promises are forgotten when another shiny thing comes along.”
“What about moving to some wonderful place, with good weather, local food and water, and sustainable infrastructure? Nice fantasy, but you can’t pack up and move to utopia for three reasons: One, you can’t know where this wonderful place is going to actually be, or when it might appear. Two, that wonderful place is most likely controlled by a bunch of old boomers who don’t want new folks coming in and distorting their real estate markets or altering where their tax money goes. And three, we are mentally locked into our local area because moving is fraught with uncertainty and costs a bunch of money we don’t have.”
“Even agitating for sensible change in your local area meets resistance, because everything has to be funded and built with everyone in mind, and anything really effective will be so expensive it would alter the structure of the local economy. Altering the local economy impacts property values, and we’re back to boomer resistance.”
“So we are forced to a logical conclusion: Our current environment, as bad as it is now, will only get worse; it started going downhill decades ago. The stress will build until something gives, and then a lot of dominos will fall.”
“The organization I’m presenting recognizes three things. First, it’s impossible to ignore what I call the siren song of civilization. It takes a ton of money and sacrifice to isolate oneself from society, and it’s virtually impossible over the long term. Countless preppers throughout history have learned this to their detriment. So we don’t isolate ourselves from civilization.
“Second, we have to hit the ground running when doom happens. This means we can’t follow the standard prepper model of pulling out some “doom kit” and putting the contents into use. There are horror stories out there about doom kits that turned out to have rotting food, corroded, missing, substandard, or dried out equipment, dead batteries, and expired fuel. Can’t start running when all your crap is actual crap.”
“Finally, politics and prejudice, lack of trust, contention for leadership roles, and issues surrounding money have been the bane of virtually every organization there is and ever was, especially during the startup phase. This organization bypasses all that.”
GreyMouse stepped to front center stage and said, “For that to happen, there has to be a starting point. And that starting point is people working together. Privately. I repeat: privately.”
“Imagine the aftermath of a local disaster. Instead of you and maybe a neighbor doing what you can individually, imagine a team with tools and supplies descending on your place to do patch-up repairs, set up some water storage and food if yours got trashed, charge your portable electronics, evaluate and patch up minor injuries, maybe clear the driveway, and in general make life somewhat livable. Then imagine joining that team and moving on to the next member’s house, and the next. That’s what this organization is for, because no one can handle doom alone.”
“I repeat: No. One. Can. Handle. Doom. Alone.”
He paused, looked across the audience, and said, “I call this organization a Clan. Chaos Clan to be more precise. First, because it’s designed to operate during doom scenarios, which are naturally chaotic. Second, it appears rather chaotic to an outside observer, with a constantly shifting leadership structure and a variety of people doing different things in different places.”
“To an outside observer, a clan is hard to figure out, and sometimes even to detect. That is by design. People do silly shit when their world is falling down around them, and scapegoating tops the list. You can see it happening now. The last thing a clan needs is some influential group learning enough about it to become afraid of it.”
“This segment covers how a chaos clan works, so you can decide if this is something that might work for you.”
He paused, consulted his spiral pad, and said, “I’m going to approach this from the bottom up – starting at the individual person level.” He reached into his bag, withdrew an object, then stepped to center stage and placed the object on the front-facing horizontal stick of the tripod/podium.
It was a wooden bar about three inches tall and 12 inches long, broken into nine equal segments defined by vertical grey lines. Each segment was filled with a different color. Some segments had a small amount of color at the bottom, two were completely full, with others filled to different levels.
Mouse pointed to the bar, then to another, smaller bar on his vest. The bar on his vest had the same pattern, but it was smaller; about a quarter inch tall and a little more than an inch wide. He looked down at the larger bar on the podium, then out at the audience, and said, “This is a prop that’s easier to see than the real thing on my vest, and it’s the answer to a critical question.”
He gestured across the audience and said, “Look at each other. Go ahead, look around.” He paused, then said, “How can you tell whether or not you can work with that person? What are they good at? How are they likely to behave?” Another pause, then “Unless you already know that person, you can’t tell.”
He tapped the prop on the podium, and said, “This is called a color bar, and it takes its color sequence not from a rainbow, but from the patterns used to identify things called resistors in early to mid 20th century electronics. Hence the brown, black, and white at the end of the spectrum. Gold and silver are not used because they’re not needed and have too much baggage tied to them.”
He stepped to the side of the stage, pointed to the bar on his vest, and said, “This is my color bar. It tells you a lot about me at a glance, because each segment shows you the amount of expertise I have in a specialty. Some people have a vest they always wear to clan activities, and so it’s on there. Others pin it to whatever shirt or jacket they’re wearing that day. Unlike the military, there’s no fixed position for it.”
“Each color represents a related set of skills. We call that a specialty. The height of each color indicates your level of expertise. Notice that I have some level of color in each specialty. The lowest level – 20% – indicates I’ve had base training for that specialty.”
“All clan candidates – regardless of background – get base training in each specialty. It’s how you become a member. Once you have your base color bar, everyone in the clan knows you have a knowledge set common to all members. Two things happen at this point.”
“First, trust becomes possible. It’s easier to trust someone when you know they have a set of skills in common with you. It’s also easier to work with someone who has a matching vocabulary and follows the same rules of behavior.”
“Second, you yourself now have skills that enable you to operate in doom. It’s much less stressful when you’re in a doom situation and you have a series of options already in your head. Less stress equals clearer thinking, fewer errors in judgement and, most importantly, more confidence. False confidence can be fatal, but confidence based on real knowledge is a game changer.”
He stepped back to the podium, pointed to the first segment on the large color bar, and said, “Red is medical. This one sits below half for me, at 40%. It puts me at the apprentice level here. It means I can help a practitioner or higher, operating under their guidance. I understand what needs to be done and generally how to go about it. So I can help out at a medical tent but I’m certainly not going to be diagnosing or coordinating things. I’ll be doing what I’m told, and that’s what apprentices are for.”
Mouse pointed to the next segment, and said, “Orange is for Interpersonal and Procedural, which defines behavioral norms for clan members.” He looked up and across the audience, and said, “This also covers clan procedures like how it conducts meetings, makes decisions, and selects leadership. Since this segment is more than half orange – at 60 percent – I’m a practitioner. At this level I’m qualified to work independently or as a specialist on a mixed team, help with conflict resolution, and so forth. Basically, I’m useful in a variety of situations.”
He paused, then pointed to the next segment, and said, “Yellow is for Food and Sanitation. Think corn and pee.” He smiled as the audience giggled. I’ve only got base training here. I’m good at eating,“ he smiled, “and I understand the basic terminology and techniques well enough to do simple things under the direction of practitioners, which is the whole point of base training.”
He grinned, then pointed to the next segment. “Green is for Farming and Husbandry. Kind of obvious this time. Again, I’m only at base here. My interests lie elsewhere and it turns out I have a black thumb instead of a green thumb. Plants literally die in my presence.” He smiled as the audience chuckled, then said, “I can ride a horse, but I can’t tell if it’s got a problem unless it’s limping. I will forever be a guy you don’t include when planning what crops to plant and where.”
He paused, moved his finger to the next segment, and said “Blue is for Water Management. Actually I’m pretty good at this, especially the finding and filtering part. It dovetails with a couple of my other specialties so I’m a teacher here. Teachers teach apprentices, and qualify apprentices to become practitioners.”
He paused, then pointed and said “Violet, or Purple if you will, is Logic, Data, and Information – LDI for short. Basically, this specialty helps other specialties make decisions. Practitioners also act as recordkeepers for the clan. In this, I’m a stone cold expert. This segment is totally full, which means I train and qualify teachers.”
“Experts are usually qualified by other experts and occasionally elevated by acclimation of other teachers. The LDI folks are the ones that gather information, produce charts and summaries, do complex math, and otherwise help in decision making. We spot trends and are responsible for recordkeeping as well as continuous data acquisition on critical metrics for the clan.”
Mouse pointed to the next segment and said, “Brown is for the Maker Arts: building things and maintaining things. Remember that a clan is designed to operate in doom, so most of this will be associated with wood, pottery, mud bricks, cordage, or leather. Basically brown things, so that’s why brown was chosen.” He smiled, “I was taught woodworking and carpentry by my dad since I was a kid and I’ve been building stuff all my life, so by now I’m an expert. My other full segment.”
He moved his finger to the next segment and said, “Black is for the dark arts. No, not the dark arts of mythics, magic, and devil worship. None of that. Dark arts practitioners in the clan are fighters, scouts, lookouts, and messengers. Basically anything to do with security, intelligence gathering or communication. You don’t have to be Bruce Lee to get a full segment here; an expert in bushcraft and wilderness survival, in battlefield tactics, or in radio communications would also have a full bar.
“Fighters are just that; skilled in martial arts because real doom is not like the movies, with infinite ammo, forever batteries and fresh fuel all over the place. Chaos clans are focused on low tech skills that are viable in a doom situation. Guns run out of ammo, so they’re not a focus. There are definitely practitioners in the pew pew arts in any clan, but like any subspecialty, not everyone is into them.”
“Dark arts skills, at the base level, allow people to defend themselves if attacked, but more importantly, teach situational awareness and the ability to see trouble coming – and not be there when it arrives. As you can see, I’m a practitioner here. I have more than apprentice skills in some aspects. My subspecialty is scouting, which includes stealth movement, precision navigation, observation, and mapping.” He grinned, “I’m not the best at running and gunning, but I’m pretty good at sneaking around.”
Mouse moved his finger to the last segment and said, “Finally, the opposite of the dark arts – the light arts: Morale, art, and music, so white it is. All general clan meetings have a segment with something from the light arts; generally music and/or drumming to support at least a short dance. We do this for the same reason that churches have choirs and politicians have rallies; it’s great for forming bonds between people. Light arts are integral to the clan and part of every significant meeting. Light arts are also responsible for signage, because who’s going to be better at it?”
“As you can see here,” he said, pointing at the last segment, “I’m just an apprentice; and only because I can draw maps and diagrams and such. I don’t have an artistic bone in my body. You don’t want to hear me sing and the only instrument I can play is this whistle.” He pulled a metal whistle from his pocket and blew two short tweets. “Everyone in the clan has a whistle, because there are certain message patterns taught during dark arts base training.”
Mouse stepped back from the podium and said, “And with that, let’s take a bio break. We just had lunch and nature’s gotta be calling by now. See you all back here shortly.”
...
When everyone came back and started settling down, Mouse stepped up to the podium, picked up the color bar, and used it to bang on the tripod a few times. He waited while the audience settled down from this universal call to order, and then said, “The last two times we did it without a clock and a deadline. It worked out fine.”
“That’s how clans operate. They don’t do phones and not a lot of us have wristwatches, because phones. Almost none of us have doom-compatible watches and to be honest, none of that tech is multi-generation compatible. Rolexes and other self-winding watches require regular cleaning and specialty lubricants or they gum up inside and stop, but I digress... People have been doing temporal cooperation without technology just fine for a very long time. LDI base training covers how clans manage dates and times.”
He paused while he re-positioned the color bar on the tripod, then said, “To recap, each clan member has received base training in nine different specialties. These are: Red; Medical. Orange; Interpersonal & Procedural. Yellow; Food & Sanitation. Green; Farming & Husbandry. Blue; Water Management. Violet; Logic, Data, & Information. Brown; Maker Arts. Black; Dark Arts. White; Light Arts.”
“Base training is essentially an introductory course in doom-related skills. After you’ve completed base training, you get to choose what specialty or specialties you want to focus on, and start down that path. This is when you start accumulating skills and tools that make you a valuable, contributing member of the community once real doom actually settles into place.”
“There are five levels for each specialty. Base level is the minimum, and as you now know, everyone receives base training in all specialties to become a full, voting member of the clan. Until that happens, they’re a candidate. Their color bar starts out totally blank and is gradually filled in as they progress through the different base trainings.”
“This is similar to being a prospect in a motorcycle club, except there’s a formal path to the patch. Partially qualified candidates attend meetings and activities, and do really basic stuff like setting up and tearing down – standard noob stuff that serves as motivation to continue training.”
“Note that the bars are at fixed levels – 20%, 40%, and so on until full. The level of knowledge a person has at each level is definitely not on such a stepped scale. It’s more of an exponential scale in real life. However, humans have trouble differentiating levels expressed exponentially, so we use a stepped scale. It’s admittedly less accurate, but much easier to see.”
He paused, then said, “The next level up from base is apprentice. You can demonstrate more than base skills to a practitioner to become an apprentice, or you can ask to be taught. Your own talents and interests will tell you which specialties are right for you. Apprentices become practitioners, some practitioners become teachers, and a few teachers become experts. It’s very common to have more than one specialty where you’re a practitioner or above.”
Mouse stepped to the side of the stage and said, “That’s the individual level. Now I’ll cover the organizational level.”
“At the organizational level, every clan operates under the same set of seven principles. If you’re a clan member, you operate under these principles while participating in clan activities. There are no excuses here; what you do during the clan’s time is regulated by these principles. What you do on your own time is of course your business.”
He strode to the podium, looked out at the audience, and said, “The first principal is neutrality. We treat each other like they're an alien from outer space, and we don’t want to start an interstellar war. So our behavior is neutral. We make no assumptions about the other person’s background or status. Rich, poor, in-between; it cannot matter in the clan, because there’s no money in our world.”
“Also, we try not to signal our real-world status. Everybody shows up in work clothes, because some kind of work is going to get done. When everyone is wearing work clothes, the differences that keep us apart melt away. It’s not as rigorous as a uniform, but there are more similarities than differences. To our monkey brains, this makes us part of a familial group.”
“We make no assumptions about another person's abilities from the way they look. That’s what the color bar is for. We also use neutral language and common wording. No slang or highly technical terms. Medical folks are especially bad at this. They can say ‘tachycardia’ between themselves, but when talking to a mixed audience they need to say ‘the heart is beating too fast.’ Same goes for everyone else.”
He looked across the audience to see several heads nodding, smiled, then said, “Neutral speaking is going to be a hard habit to learn, so we help each other out. People use jargon and slang instinctively, so the best way to get to neutral speaking is when we hear jargon, slang, or technical terms, we just say ‘please clarify’ and then repeat the term. It’s then incumbent on the speaker to rephrase using more common language.”
Mouse paused, then said, “Finally, the neutrality principle has five prohibited topics: Sex, Race, Religion, Politics, and Finance are never discussed. Big surprise. These pull any conversation away from the neutral space, thus violating the neutrality principle. They are muggle topics and a huge distraction, so we leave them to the muggles.”
He looked at his spiral pad, flipped a page, then looked out across the audience and said, “The second principle is simplicity.” He stepped back from the podium, spread his arms and gestured around the amphitheater. This is simplicity. No screen, minimal props. Just me talking to you. This presentation can be done anywhere, anytime, whether there’s power or not, and that’s the way things are done in the clan. The whole purpose of the clan is to operate smoothly during doom scenarios, and doom imposes a wide variety of restrictions.”
He stepped to the side of the stage and said, “Chief among the restrictions is loss of electrical power, and with it loss of internet and phones. With severe doom, fuel is no longer distributed, so the generators eventually stop running. Some kinds of doom wipe out many electronics as well."
He paused and moved back to the podium, then said, "But the really big thing severe doom does is make people go crazy. Your nice friendly neighbor is suddenly a competitor. There's ample evidence for this behavior in the Middle East, Africa, and South America today."
"All your acquaintances that have figured out you're a prepper are now at your door asking you to share. There's even a Twilight Zone episode on this; it's called 'The Shelter.' If your local police were (sorta) friendly, they're not anymore. Meanwhile, your bank is getting ready to foreclose on you, or foreclose on your landlord. Corporations are people, says the Supreme Court, and people do whatever they can to survive."
"I've had people respond to this presentation with "There's too much cloak and dagger here. Seems fishy.' And yes, clans operate in a clandestine manner. It's built into the principles, and for good reason: People go crazy. More on this in a few minutes."
Mouse moved to the side of the stage and said, "Back to the simplicity principle. The clan must be able to operate smoothly under doom conditions, which means we practice using low tech ways of doing everything. Low tech hardware is much less fragile. Also, much of low tech relies on knowledge in your head. Your head is a really cheap, secure, and portable storage unit.”
“We practice simplicity by using messengers, relay points, and signal devices. Pre-defined meeting places and times instead of email or texting. Meeting during the day instead of at night. Physical bulletin boards. Everything slows down, but it’s bombproof,” he smiled.
Mouse stepped back to the podium and said, “Now you know why your phones are off. No phones allowed at clan events. This practice gets people used to doing without, and believe me, some folks have real trouble letting go of their tech. Same goes for social media; the clan has no presence there. There is no social media page, web site, chat server, or email address.”
He stepped to the side of the stage, faced the audience, and said, “Again, simple tech, because paper and pen can be made from scratch by certain makers that choose to specialize in this, so paper and pen are what we use. You’d be surprised at the supply chain involved in making a pencil with an eraser, but a fountain pen used to be a split feather, and it can be again. FYI: Good fountain pens are multi-generational tools.”
“These days our supplies are not necessarily hand-made, of course, but the materials we use drive our processes. So we use pen and paper, brushes, watercolors and bigger pieces of paper. Sometimes on tripods like this one, or pieces of paper tacked to a wall. Low tech works in high-tech times as well as in doom, and that’s why we follow the simplicity principle.”
“Intermediate distance messaging – generally between relay points – can be done by signal mirror or signal lantern when a messenger would be too slow or too much at risk. For transportation, the most complex transport machine allowed is a bicycle and optionally, a trailer attached to it. That way everyone gets used to stuffing their backpack or packing their panniers. Missions and seasonal transition meetings that run more than a half day are overnight affairs so folks more than a couple of hours away can make the trip the day before if need be."
Mouse stopped, looked up at the sky, and started sniffing as if he was a dog teasing out a scent. He then said “I smell a ‘but’ coming on… Yes… Yes… it smells like a question. Yesss, there it is: BUT what if I live too far away to make the trip on foot or bike?”
He stopped, looked across the audience, and said, “The answer to that is to start a clan in your area, because when doom happens, that distant clan won’t be in a position to help you. Or, you can move to where they are. It's decision time.”
Mouse returned to the podium, looked across the audience, and said, “One other thing. To clarify: we do things manually, but we don’t take it to an extreme level. We use store-bought soap, paper, ink, chalk, chips, dips, and so on at clan events, but people get accolades for bringing or using something home-made.”
“You can drive to an event to save time – we’re all busy – but you need to park a half mile away if you’re walking, or a couple miles if you’re biking. It doesn’t matter if you’re pushing a cart or towing a bike trailer; it has to be compatible with either walking or biking. This makes sure people don’t pull up with a pile of supplies at the event location – the last principle we’ll be discussing addresses why.”
“There’s one category of tech that’s allowed. We use radios for communications and have flashlights, music players and such even in disasters because the advantages are simply too great, and that tech can run on batteries kept up by solar powered chargers. We call this convenience tech. Of course, in long doom, batteries and solar panels will eventually die. This is why the clan always trains on simpler practices to accomplish the same thing.”
“We train on and use simple practices because the whole point of a clan is to continue to function, and function well, when the doom becomes severe and long-term. Things are unpredictable, and we don’t want to be caught flat-footed and needing to change out a bunch of processes. Convenience tech is limited to what you can carry on your person or in your pack. It must operate on batteries, and those batteries must be rechargable with a portable solar panel. Finally, it cannot rely on an intermediary – like the internet – to work.”
“Que the question about whether a tablet computer and battery powered pico projector are convenience tech. They certainly would be convenient for holding meetings, wouldn’t they?” He paused, then said, “The problem is that most tablets and laptops are battery hogs and are very dependent on the internet.”
“Windows and Macs are particularly bad at this because they’re always checking for updates and want to store everything from your work product to your preferences and activities in the cloud. You have to do a lot of computer admin work, and keep doing it, to keep a computer off the internet and still remain functional. And we all have seen how uncooperative our phones can be when the internet is down.”
“The next reason we don’t use computers is you can’t tell if you’ve been hacked or if a copy of your information has been stolen. A trained hacker can tell, but I’m betting none of you are that.” Chuckles from the audience.
“Next, computers are the second thing bad guys go for – the first being your smartphone. We all know these things constantly leak a digital trail about everything you do.” Another pause, then, “And finally, computers just won’t exist in long doom, and migrating off of them onto a manual process is a giant pain just when you’re stressed out and don’t need another headache.”
“Clans are used to doing everything manually so that the processes and habits are in place. There is no culture shock associated with the shift from computers to manual because there is no shift. No shift, no shock. Nothing new to learn; no added stress in an already stressful time. This is why we do simplicity.”
He stepped to the side of the stage, paused, and said, “‘Nuff said about that. The neutrality principle lets strangers work together, and the simplicity principle ensures we can continue working the same way after doom happens. The third principle is No Money.”
He paused and returned to the podium, then said, “As I mentioned previously, money complicates the picture pre-doom and goes away during doom, just when you think you need it most. It leads to conflict and power grabs, and did I mention it’s useless during real doom? Let the muggles pony up to the scalpers for gas and food while we go hiking and biking past them, headed to the next mission location or back home.”
He stepped to the side of the stage and said, “That said, personal use of money has its place: I was prepared to pay a registration fee for this space. That involved the muggle world and couldn’t be avoided, but the funds would have come from me directly. Another way to think about it is buying the ingredients for a dish you take to a normal family or office potluck, or buying clothes and giving them to a family member on their birthday.”
“Basically, exceptions are made to allow spending money for temporary things and consumables with no expectation of reimbursement. As far as the muggle world is concerned the clan is like a family doing family projects and events.”
Mouse crossed back to the podium and said, “So Neutrality, Simplicity, No Money. The next principle is Volunteerism. When you go into base training, you’ll learn about the concept of self selection. Membership in a clan is voluntary, and once you join, the expectation is that you will volunteer to participate in most clan activities and volunteer to support other clan members when your specialty skills can help them. This also means you can volunteer to act as part of leadership for missions or meetings. There are no permanent leaders in a clan, and certainly no paid ones.”
“Leadership for any mission’s operational period is chosen by a specific method, described in I&P base training. The method is simple, eminently fair, and eliminates the politics associated with attaining or maintaining a leadership position.”
“Clan missions are all run the same way, with the same leadership structure – but different people each time – and there’s a guide you can refer to for the first few times you’re the stuckee. FYI, we use handles, not our muggle names, even when we know each other in muggle space. There are too many people named Joe or Jane in muggle space. Handles are unique within the clan.”
He stopped, checked his spiral pad, and began ticking items off on his fingers. “Neutrality, Simplicity, No Money, Volunteerism. The next is Participation, which has two parts. The first part is actually showing up. Too many clubs have failed because there were only a few members carrying the bulk of the load, and had a bunch of slackers and hangers-on that were only in it for the good times.”
“Each clan has Logic, Data, and Information (LDI) practitioners, and one of the things they track is participation. Participation in meetings, in trainings, as a worker, and as a member of leadership. Participation in easy tasks and in hard tasks. If it turns out a member is not showing up, or only showing up for the fun stuff, then that person is considered a slacker, and is put on notice. Slackers eventually face expulsion from the clan.”
The second part of the participation principle is Pairs and Teams, also known as No Lone Wolves.” In a clan, no one does anything solo. There are always at least two people working the same job together. Whether it’s mopping the floor, collecting firewood, weeding a field, hiking a trail, digging a hole or staffing a communications relay.”
“It’s not just a safety issue, or the old saying that ‘many hands make light work,’ it’s something else. Something we all kind of always knew, but it took some university researchers with brain scanners and student volunteers to nail it down: Our brains literally sync up when we’re working together on a common task, and we sync even better if we’re doing it in close proximity.”
He paused, raised his hand, then asked “How many military or veterans are here?” Four hands went up. “Ok,” he said as he lowered his hand, “think back to basic training; all that marching around. At first your unit was all raggedy and out of sync, and got yelled at a lot by the drill instructor. Then, you started getting better, and a bit better, and then one day this feeling came over you, like you were all connected as one, and your heel beats went pounding down the pavement in total unison, and you knew you were better than all the other units there. Remember that?” Definite nods from the veterans.
“That was your brains synchronizing. Some scientists theorize that it’s a form of quantum communication. Whatever; it’s real, it’s repeatable, and when you’re synched up things just go faster and with better results. The studies are conclusive on this. So pairs and teams, with no lone wolves.”
He paused, checked his spiral pad, turned to the audience and said, “I cannot stress how important participation is. Before you join a clan, make sure you’re willing to put the effort in. If it turns out you’re a slacker, you will eventually not be invited to meetings of any type.”
“Fun fact: Clans don’t have a regular meeting place. The location changes every time. If you don’t know the next location then all the effort you put in will have been wasted.”
“Remember that clans exist in BAU but are designed to operate – and operate smoothly – in doom. Meanwhile you have your BAU career to maintain in order to keep a roof over your head. That means something else has got to give. Usually that means less doomscrolling, streaming, gaming, or social media participation.”
Mouse walked to the side of the stage and back, saying “Neutrality, Simplicity, No Money, Volunteerism, Participation.” He stopped at the podium and said, “The next principle is Mission-centric.” He paused, then said, “Almost everything the clan does is oriented around the concept of a mission. A mission can be short, like a weekend work party, or it can be big and complex with multiple operational periods, like the spring planting mission.”
He strode to the side of the stage and said, “Remember this morning when I described the Incident Command System? Clan missions are based on a similar structure. Missions have operational periods, with specific goals and personnel. Operational periods have a formal transition process, where knowledge is transferred from one OP leadership team to another.”
“For example, the spring seasonal mission covers a full three month season, beginning just as the snow starts to melt. The plan for the spring mission was finalized during the knowledge transfer portion of the winter mission, with the initial mission leadership assigned during spring mission planning. The winter mission closeout happens in the morning, and the spring mission kickoff happens that afternoon. Our continent has four seasons, and that’s why clans have four seasonal transition events every year. It’s also a good excuse for a party,” he grinned.
He moved to the other side of the stage, and said, “The winter mission is focused on equipment maintenance, indoor caching projects and skill building. The spring mission pulls seeds out of storage, germinates them, and manages planting in various locations. The summer mission establishes and maintains the gardens, the compost bins, the worm farms, the beehives, and the animal pens. It sends out scouting teams, builds new structures, and maintains old ones. The fall mission focuses on processing and distributing the harvest, storing seeds for next year, and planting cover crops.”
“Each mission has a specific goal or set of goals. A weekend mission to build a new food storage cache is an example of a single-goal mission. That mission has its own plan and would use specific people, equipment, and materials to achieve the objective. A seasonal mission, on the other hand, has a number of goals and a more complex plan.”
He moved back to the podium, looked at his spiral pad, flipped a page, then looked out across the audience and said, “Not every clan activity is focused on growing food, but it’s a big part, because while everyone likes to eat, not everyone can be a farmer. Most of us don’t have the aptitude or education for it. But everyone can be a farm laborer. Farming has labor intensive peaks – planting, harvesting, amending the land. It’s all hands on deck at that point.”
“After all, everyone needs to eat after doom comes. Fortunately, there’s a lot of lower effort time between those peaks, and so there’s room for a variety of interesting things like training candidates and apprentices, practitioners and apprentices helping other members with medical issues, mechanical issues, and the like. Some will be missions, some will just be members helping members.”
“Each mission has a specific organizational structure, and it goes like this: At the top is a person called the Mission Chief, or just Chief. Their job is to delegate and mediate, working with up to four section chiefs to follow the plan and adapt to changing conditions.”
“The four management sections of a mission are Operations, Logistics, Planning, and Data. If it’s a short, stand-alone mission like planting a small cache, there won’t be a planning section because plans are only updated for the following operational period, based on progress and experience during the current period. The logistics section makes sure equipment, supplies, and material are managed and tracked appropriately. This is where stuff is acquired, issued out, tracked, cleaned and returned to the owner at the end of the OP. The operations section handles task assignments and tracking as well as communications.”
Mouse stopped, crossed to the side of the stage, and said, “Finally, the Data section acquires and summarizes whatever metrics are defined for the mission. Data is a special case, because data usually crosses operational periods and even different missions. For example, how big was this year’s harvest compared to the amount planted?”
“This data is usually passed up to the clan data archive, which is maintained by LDI practitioners. The archive holds the clan’s accumulated knowledge like mission plans, performance data, and so forth. Everything but personal information like medical charts.”
“Personal information is always under the control of the individual. Each of us chooses what to disclose, to whom, and when. Data about interactions with individuals is tracked, like the types and number of injuries during a mission, but who got injured how? That’s held in each person’s medical history, which again, they retain.”
“There’s a whole separate guide on mission management, and once you are qualified on it you will be selected for a mission leadership slot, either as the Mission Chief, one of the four Section Chiefs, or an apprentice to one of them.”
Mouse walked from the side of the stage to the podium, saying “Neutrality, Simplicity, No Money, Volunteerism, Participation, Mission-centric.” He glanced at his spiral pad, walked back to the podium, and said, “The last principle is Distributed Storage, Distributed Operations, or DSDO.” He looked out at the audience and asked “How many of you read apocalyptic fiction, or watch shows like The Walking Dead?” A majority of hands went up.
“Then you know.” He paused, then said “Bad guys always come. If not for your stuff, then for you and yours. The reason this is a recurring theme in fiction is because it’s a recurring theme in history.” Another pause, then “And they always outnumber you, or have superior weaponry, or whatever. The story is as old as time.”
“This is why survivalists, prepper groups, and militias generally start with a focus on military weapons and tactics, then set up a compound in the wilderness, and then fall apart on their own or are torn asunder by law enforcement. Who knew that a bunch of guys with black rifles wandering around a compound in the woods would be perceived as a threat by just about everyone else?” he asked sarcastically.
“I’m not going into the issues involved with bugging out from wherever you are IRL to your retreat when doom happens. There’s a lot of fiction about that journey as well. The hero is always super-skilled, in totally great shape, and usually has forward positioned all the necessary supplies and equipment for whatever adventure the author is running. I don’t know about you, but I am not that guy.”
He stepped to the side of the stage, faced forward, and said, “When you have a headquarters, you have a lot of advantages, and you also have a problem. There’s a bunch of stuff there, so life is easier, but bad guys are going to come for your stuff. So you expend more effort and resources on defense, hoping it’ll be enough. The problem is, there’s always somebody with a bigger gun, or more guns, or saboteurs.”
“Who here has watched The Postman?” Several hands went up. “Remember the scene where the community had a big strong perimeter wall, but when the bad guys showed up they brought horse-drawn, civil war style cannons? Boom. That’s a problem, because building a fort capable of withstanding cannon fire is a completely different level of design and construction. What if the bad guys have drones? Armored vehicles? It’s a never-ending story.”
He returned to the podium and said, “Any experienced military veteran or martial arts instructor will tell you the best fight is one you only attend as a spectator.” Smiles from the veterans and a couple of others.
Mouse smiled back, and said, “When a clan has a major event, like a seasonal mission transition, it’s always in a different place. This does two things; it prevents bad guys from ‘fixing your position’ as the military saying goes, and it makes it very hard for you to set up some sort of stronghold or storage space in anticipation of hosting events there. If you’re only going to be somewhere for a short time you only bring the supplies needed for that occasion.”
“If our scouts and lookouts warn that a significant force is coming, everybody jams their stuff back into their packs and heads out in all directions. This is why clan members park cars some distance away and walk or bike in; it forces us to bring only what can be carried and keeps us in practice for a fast exit."
“When the bad guys get to their target location, it’s empty. This is concerning to them because arriving at an empty location where your intelligence said there was a significant event happening usually means a lot of stuff was packed up and trucked away. In their experience, major events always have a lot of stuff."
"If the target had enough time to pack up and truck all their stuff away, something is either wrong with their intelligence or their target was warned well in advance. That leads to a whole lot of questions amongst themselves. Did somebody rat them out? Was it a false flag? Are they about to be ambushed?" Mouse smiled and said, “Inquiring minds want to know.”
"This, incidentally, is one of the reasons resistance forces are so hard to root out. From the French resistance in World War II, to the Viet Cong in the '60s, to today's insurgencies. We're taking a page out of the guerrilla warfare handbook."
"Imagine how effective this will be in doom, when all the bad guys are in much smaller organizations and surveillance tech is severely compromised. Not having a lot of stuff on site means clan members can move fast, and speed of maneuver will be a key success factor in doom."
He stepped back, spread his arms, and said “So that’s distributed operations. The other is distributed storage. Clans build caches all over the place. Mostly at each other’s homes, but also abandoned buildings, empty lots, BLM land, wherever. Pairs and teams are tasked with pulling appropriate supplies from different caches for a particular event, and there are different kinds of caches depending on the content of the cache, such as temperature stability, quick access, or high concealment.”
He held up his spiral pad, and said “Cache locations and contents are described in these. Details for each cache are stored in multiple places for redundancy, and those are held by different people. Each document has only a few caches in it, so if a document is compromised it doesn’t give away the whole picture. Locations of crops, caches, communications relays, and so forth are encrypted using the clan standard encryption mechanism, which you’ll learn about in Dark Arts training.”
Mouse studied his spiral pad a bit, then said “everything we do provides advantages during doom, right down to our everyday carry.” He picked his vest up from the tripod, put it on, and then said “We’re at the end of this subject, so it’s an excellent time for another bio break. When we get back, we’ll recap, then cover how clan prospects find their local clans, or if there isn’t one, how to start one.”
“See you in a bit” he said as he stepped off the stage.
…
Mouse returned to the podium, waited while the audience settled down, and said, “No clock, no deadline again. See how easy it was to get the hang of it?”
“First, a recap. Clans in a nutshell.”
“A clan focuses on enabling resilience in its members. By resilience I mean three things: One, eliminating our dependency on increasingly tenuous supply chains by building a set of skills and supplies to handle personal and local disasters. Just that one thing takes a lot of stress out of your life. Two, enabling us to become producers or service providers on our own and thus earn an income outside of “the system.” And three, gaining access to a local community and mutual support network that many of us have lost and others have never had. More stress reducers.”
“All of this is done while continuing to participate in BAU.” He paused, then said, “No one is saying this will be easy. Each of you has a personal decision to make, and that decision probably won’t happen today. That’s OK. It’s a life-changing decision.”
“All I can recommend is that you make your decision within a week. This allows enough time to carefully consider this, discuss it with your family, and determine if it’s what you really want to do. Just know that most people who put off the decision more than a week have made their decision anyway, and that’s fine too.”
Mouse stepped to the side of the stage, and said, “If you decide to join, you need to find an existing clan in your local area; you need to know where to meet and when. Here’s the secret: Clans must recruit. This means specific notices will be posted at local libraries and library branches at a minimum. I’ll talk about these in a bit.”
“So check out your library bulletin board, find out the location of the next open meeting, and show up. If you’re already in a different clan and want to connect, show up a bit early wearing your color bar and look for a person with a full color bar – some level of color in each slot. If you have full colors in your bar you’re coming in from another clan for whatever reason. It might be to join the clan or pass a message from another clan.”
“Yes, I know there’s a serious time lag involved. You have to wait for the next open meeting to see anyone. That’s on purpose. Bad guys rarely have the patience to wait around for the next recruiting meeting just to meet with the recruiter. There’s security in simplicity.“
He looked across the audience and said, “I’ve looked, and there were no recruiting notices posted when I got here, so there’s no clan here. If you think a clan would be a good thing to have here, you’ll have to start one of your own. And that brings me to the other side of this prop.” He flipped the color bar to reveal: https://c-clans.tiiny.site.
“Here you will find all the details you need to stand up a new clan, or participate in an existing clan. The formal principles are there, as well as levels and specialties, along with training guides to achieve base certification in each color.”
“There are also guides to organizational activities like establishing clan AOs, running the monthly General meetings, planning and executing missions, and so on. Basically, it’s a clan starter kit.”
“Clans have individual names, typically associated with some landmark or event of local significance, and if you are the founders, you get to pick the name.”
Mouse paused, moved to center stage, faced the audience and said: “I saw an article about how most of us doomers have zero to very few good friends. I believe this lack of friends is more prevalent among doomers because it’s such a taboo topic among the muggles, so finding people we can relate to is harder.“
“A clan is your opportunity to fix that. It will definitely feel different at first, but that’s a result of putting a system in place where people can actually start building relationships. Think about it: Working side by side, feasting together and building realistic hope for the future is a really bonding experience. The clan principles make it possible to come together without spinning out on some prohibited topic or another.”
He paused, then said, “Don’t get me wrong. A clan is a bunch of work. Building anything new is hard. Building something new and resilient is harder still. Then add on the existing load of continuing to make a living in the muggle world.”
“A lot of modern science fiction these days defines a universe that takes place in the far future, and there are often ruins of cities used as evidence of the collapse of the prior civilization. Usually the initial trigger was war, or resource collapse, or a pandemic, or nobody knows because historical records were lost. Either way, the result is a bunch of ruins that serve as a cautionary tale. Usually there are one or more shining cities where the elites live, and other less shiny places where everyone else lives. The story line usually runs along the arc of conflict between those two.”
“What is so rarely covered is how their ancestors got through the period of, and just after the collapse. When things got scarce, then scarcer still, until life was completely different. The period that generated those ruins. Not many people are able to cope with this situation. They can’t or won’t recognize reality, and if they do, they don’t have enough friends or alternative resources in place to enable adaptation to the new reality. This is when being part of a clan will make a huge difference.”
“Being part of a clan is not easy. It requires thinking outside of the box. It requires working with new people, learning new skills, and developing new attitudes. People who commit to doing this hard thing will bond at many levels. A lot of creativity gets unleashed when folks work together to build a new world in the shadow of the old. Who knows? You might even build a new you. After all, clans only use handles, not real names. So you get to pick one that will fit the new you.”
He paused, stepped to the side of the stage and said, “The recruitment process for clans is twofold. First is a notice like the one you saw inviting you to this meeting. OR, you saw a very similar notice with a URL that led you to this document. Either way, the same information was presented to you.”
“I can’t emphasize this enough: The physical notices or online references that lead to this presentation are the only way clans recruit. There’s more detail covering why this is at the main URL shown on this prop, but the bottom line is you cannot recruit directly. You cannot excitedly describe this presentation or the contents of the main URL to friends and acquaintances, online or off. You cannot expand the notice into an essay or recruiting pamphlet. Please respect this rule.”
“Even if you think you’ve identified the ideal candidate for your clan, all you can do is give them the notice that leads them to this presentation and state that it might be of interest to them. They must self-select just as you did. It’s what project managers call a critical success factor.”
“A final warning: If you’re self-selecting to explore more about clans, don’t talk about what you’re doing. You will be outed on social media even if you didn’t post there because everyone is using social media. Then the trolls will arrive. Clans are like Fight Club: The first rule of Fight Club is you don’t talk about Fight Club. Just post the notice.”
He took a step back, looked down for a moment, then walked back to the podium, looked across the audience again, and said, “The next section is Q&A, and it happens after this meal break. I’ll be back after eating to see if anyone is still around.” He put his notebook and prop away, lifted his vest from the tripod and put it on, unwound the lashings holding the tripod together, set the sticks to the side of the stage, hung the cordage on his belt, picked up his bag, and set off toward his task buddy.
Continued...