Starvin Larry

The title question almost answers itself. From John W. Whitehead at rutherford.org:

“Back in the heyday of the old Soviet Union, a phrase evolved to describe gullible western intellectuals who came to visit Russia and failed to notice the human and other costs of building a communist utopia. The phrase was “useful idiots” and it applied to a good many people who should have known better. I now propose a new, analogous term more appropriate for the age in which we live: useful hypocrites. That’s you and me, folks, and it’s how the masters of the digital universe see us. And they have pretty good reasons for seeing us that way. They hear us whingeing about privacy, security, surveillance, etc., but notice that despite our complaints and suspicions, we appear to do nothing about it. In other words, we say one thing and do another, which is as good…

Here’s a few snapshots from last weekend’s First Line Course. In the first day’s afternoon, students were instructed on the basics of temporary survival shelters, protecting against thermal loss and constructed their own to live in for the duration of the course:

A short primer on off grid cooking and a stew for the class:

Primitive Skills, Tools and Weapons Demonstration including flintknapping a knife with the class:

All tools were sourced from local natural materials and handmade by one of my Assistant Instructors. There will be a primitive skills workshop and another open enrollment date for the First Line Course the in April 2019.

The level of awareness and confidence gained by learning simple navigation techniques and sourcing your own materials to survive in the wild is irreplaceable- skills above all else. We built that and quite a bit more over the course of a weekend. Coming…