Be prepared. For the unpreparable.

So two nights ago I watched the movie House Full of Dynamite. It looked at the response (at both a human and military level) to a single nuclear missile attack on America. It was a good movie. Chilling, but good. And it got me thinking.

In my younger days I was a Scout. And as everyone knows the Scouts motto is ‘Be Prepared.’ This is a good motto I think.

The founder of the Scouting movement Robert Baden-Powell explains:

you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your DUTY;

Be Prepared in Mind by having disciplined yourself to be obedient to every order, and also by having thought out beforehand any accident or situation that might occur, so that you know the right thing to do at the right moment, and are willing to do it.

Be Prepared in Body by making yourself strong and active and able to do the right thing at the right moment, and do it.

But how do you prepare when there is nothing you can do?

The world is pretty wobbly right now.

Big breath in…. 

There is extensive geopolitical unrest and conflict, there is mass murder and ethnic genocide, the science is saying our failure to throttle back from crossing the nine planetary boundaries is likely to deliver a catastrophic collapse of the biosphere, economists are warning that the AI bubble is about to burst leading to economic recession and a stock market crash, a narcissistic, Machiavellian, man-baby is in charge of the most powerful military force on the planet, people are flocking into aggressively tribal, deluded, egocentric, destructive world-views driven by hallucinating AI and powerful social engineering algorithms controlled by a clique of power mad, big-tech, man-o-sphere plutocrats , the fragile food security networks feeding the planet are at risk of repeated seasonal failure due to severe weather events generated by climate change, and this whole tangled collective of badness is quietly primed for that unexpected flash of nuclear Armageddon whilst capitalism schemes how to leverage off the whole of this paragraph to maximise uber-corporate profit. 

Did I leave anything out?
Is any of this going to happen? Is there anything here that we can actually prepare for?

Will grabbing your metaphorical or actual bug-out-bag and making a dash for your fortified bunker get you through to the other end of the existential darkness?
Will sticking your head in the sand of denial and hoping it will all go away change the low hanging weights of probability?
Will your Netflix stream hold up?

Actually, there is something you can do. You can be prepared.

Baden-Powell was on to something: always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your DUTY. 

Being prepared doesn’t mean status quo until something happens in the future and then getting all angry and reactive and finger-pointing and shit.

It means preparation. It means doing the work now so that you know the right thing to do at the right moment, and are willing to do it.

It means figuring out what duty means. To you.

The stuff you will need to won’t be found in a bug out bag. It will be found in your skin bag.

Be prepared to be kind to your fellow sentient beings.

Be prepared to resist falling into reactivity driven by prejudice, projection and other peoples narratives …instead of responding in sensible and skilful ways.

Be prepared to draw down on deep resilience and compassion.

Be prepared to take things one day at a time.

Be prepared to give help. Be prepared to accept help. 

Be prepared to be your best self moment by moment. 

Be prepared.