Ive got an idea that might improve the way we dialog and think about worst case preparations, leaving the city, and bugging out. Words are important and the words we use to describe anything frames the way we think it. So lets all pledge to stop using the phrase HEAD FOR THE HILLS.

HFTH takes a positive event and gives it the negative, moving into a tar paper shack with Jed and Granny, drinking moonshine and shootin possums for fun image...my apologies to anyone named Jed or Granny or who do live in a tar paper shack. That shack might be worth more than an apartment overlooking Central Park in 18 months.

People dont automatically put on buckskin and become Jeremiah Johnson the second they move to a rural setting. We left the city three years ago, and have never regretted it. We raise our own food, have our own water and live quietly. I still work in the city as a corporate video producer, so I have never lost my urban driving skills. I have a city income and a country life, truly the best of both worlds. And that is possible for a lot of people.

Instead of HFTH, lets make up some new phrases and use them here, whenever we talk to the press, to each other, and particularly to those resistant to leaving their urban lives.

Ill make the first stabs: 1) Were leaving the centrally controlled infrastructure 2) Were moving out beyond the city limits 3) Were becoming post-suburban 4) Were privatizing our infrastructure requirements 5) Were heading to a free-food zone before the city becomes a food-free zone Think about it. Im sure you all can come up with more creative ones then these. Timothy

-- Timothy Rebman (trebman@megavision.com), July 15, 1998

Answers

"Running like hell?"

-- Anonymous (Anonymous@anonymous.com), July 15, 1998.

Timothy You obviously havent been out in the sticks much and watch way too much television. There is a awful lot of firepower in the sticks, and the skills to use it. Heck I have three guns and I dont shoot. While I personally can barely hit the side of a barn, all the neighbors are crack shots that any Frankenstein would be a fool to mess with. So send those armed gangs you are so afraid of . Most, if they lived, would be screaming for the safety of the city of angels and the comforts of martial law in a few days.

Oh by the way, about LA. Been there, done that. Ill take the sticks, even on the worst of days, thank you very much. Timothy

-- Timothy Rebman (trebman@megavision.com), July 15, 1998.

I guess I can't say head to the hills cause I'm already there. However, don't any of you kid yourself for a moment that just because we live here that we are safe! Because we live in an overpopulated world. They'll be crawling all over us like ants. Hopefully some of them will be knocked out in the city. When they get through ruining the cities, those left will head for you. If you aren't armed, you might as well kiss yourself good by. However, everyone I know who lives up here in the hills, are armed to the gills! I would not walk onto their property without asking first or letting them know I am coming by. In our neck of the woods, people who wander around are never found again. 12 gauge is best for home protections!

-- bardou (bardou@yahoo.com), July 15, 1998.

How does ETTH sound(Enroute to the Hills)? Actually I'm heading for one of the few isolated stretches of Florida coastline. I figure in a worse case scenario I can raise a garden, fish, go inland and hunt. I tend to agree with many others in the programming community that 50% of the time, their's no leadership, and the other 50% of the time when there is leadership, it's in the wrong direction... Use that as a rule of thumb before moving (or following the advice of a programmer on where to move...just kidding)

-- John Galt (jgaltfla@hotmail.com), July 15, 1998.

How about pre-millennial relocation?

-- Frank A. (Zanazaz@AOL.com), July 16, 1998.

'I'd rather be in LA with soldiers on every street corner...'

I was in LA for the riots. When it started all the cop's headed for their hardened hidyholes. When things started to settle down, the national guard was brought in, and there was the proverbial soldier on every street corner. The only problem was that they didn't have any firing pins in their rifles, those being in nevada.

So, while the soldiers on every street corner were nice photo ops, they did sh** for anyone's (especially their own) personal safety. At night the guardsmen huddled in gangs under street lights trying to look tuff, and hoping no gang bangers would drive by and light'em'up.

As to HFTH, 99.99% of the population is going to stay where its at, they being so dependent on the media for the direction of their lives that they will do nothing, but sit in their isolation units and stare at their deity for assurance and instruction.

I'd like to sit back and do nothing also, but my real world experience is such that I know its in my best interest to act, rather than to try to re-act IF the sh** hits the fan.

-- chuck petras (cpetras@stratos.net), July 16, 1998.

Regarding the comment that it would be safer in L.A. with the National Guard on the streets: if Y2K hits everywhere in Calif., as it will, there won't be enough NG to guard the streets of every major city. LA, San Diego, San Francisco, Long Beach, San Jose, Sacramento, Fresno, etc. etc. Think about it. And how would the NG get to the cities if there are colossal failures of electricity -- no stop lights -- and incredible traffic jams? At least in the country you (can) know your neighbors, form alliances. And the folks fleeing the cities will have to reach you. Gas will be in short supply, the roads will be clogged. In the face of such breakdown, small communities will draw together, hunker down, and probably put up checkpoints leading into counties and towns.

I hate even having to think like this.

-- Kurt Ayau (ayau@iwinet.com), July 18, 1998.

On July 15th, 1998 Timothy Rebman says:

Instead of HFTH, lets make up some new phrases and use them here

How about "getting away from it all" [GAFIA]

-- Dancr (minddancr@aol.com), June 25, 1999.

Dancr -

Yipe, you found an OLD thread, didn't ya? Here I was thinking that some of the originals (like Tim Rebman and bardou) were back on TB2K and then I noticed the date on their posts: almost a year ago. *whew* Time flies like a banana...

I really like the phrase "privatizing our infrastructure requirements". It has that new-speak flavor to it, so reminiscent of many of the communiques we're seeing from The Powers That Be...

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), June 25, 1999.