Resourcefulness is Resistance

Step One: First We Plan

In the past few days, the world order changed.

For 80 years, we knew who the bad guys were. Now, apparently, we live next door to them.

Whether you’re American or Canadian, this is a scary-as-hell development where nothing seems normal anymore, and the unknown is unthinkable.

I remember the morning planes hit the World Trade Center. We tuned into the the radio in my office, all of us silent. At some point, I broke the silence and said, “I feel like everything I ever knew about life changed this morning.”

We all agreed, sighed, said nothing more.

It’s easier to say, feel, and know your life changed forever when you’ve just witnessed a jumbo jet deliberately crashing into the world’s tallest tower.

But when you realized it after press conferences in the Oval Office, it’s… odder, stranger, and more harrowing to jump to conclusions about what we all saw.

Let’s put it this way: I lived through the Age of Terror, and I’ve never been so terrified about the future as I am now.

But… Deep Breaths

Let’s talk about next steps that you, the human reading this, can take to prepare yourself for the world to come.

At first, it's all mental heavy-lifting. The other stuff comes later.

As I wrote last week, I’ll reiterate: the most important thing you can do is to control what is around you and your particular life.

If you’re trans, queer, Black, etc, then you have alarm bells ringing I’ll never understand or relate to, because I’ve been privileged in being born white, cis, straight. I wish I could offer you more advice, but I don’t have a lot.

[Trans rights ARE human rights!]

What I’ll say to my American readers is this: If you think you have to leave the USA, don’t delay seeking visas and passports.

You can always change your mind later and stay. But the autocratic handbook always, eventually closes borders to its inhabitants.

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World War II is littered with stories of families today who tell of relatives then who chose to “wait and see” in Germany and their invaded territories. Those people didn’t want to panic and lose their belongings by fleeing.

And they died in concentration camps.

If you’re going “whoa, whoa, whoa — that’s quite the leap!” then you don’t know enough of how fast it all collapsed between 1933, when people first began fleeing Germany, through to the end of the war in 1945.

But… I digress.

Here in Canada, there are Express Entry Visas for people who meet requirements in all kinds of industries. They are companies actively recruiting healthcare workers, nurses, doctors, meteorologists, scientists, and others into every province in Canada.

For healthcare specifically, every province, and many regions, are run independently. Look for recruiting firms from each.

If you have humanitarian grounds to come to Canada, it may improve your odds for a visa, not reduce them, so definitely draw on your concerns and use those to help leverage your case.

But DO PAPERWORK IMMEDIATELY. Get that in the works. These things take time and shit’s moving fast in the States. Do not be the one whose story becomes an epitaph because you wanted to “wait and see.”

Perspective: Real Talk

It’s terrifying to think of all that might change, and to figure out where to start in leveraging against what’s to come.

First, you must realize we are not talking about six months or a year. This could start an entire generation of world order. This could be decades of global political shift.

That’s not fear-mongering. It’s simple fact.

There’s minimum four years of this coming — and anyone presuming it ends with the next election is being naïve that there will even be another American election in four years. Trump literally said his voters will never have to vote again after the 2024 election. He SAID that. Americans, get it through your heads: He doesn't want elections and can end them, because he has immunity for "presidential acts".

Policy changes already will ensure millions die worldwide. Period. From USAID to NIH, real lives will be lost in the millions, thanks to these callous decisions.

And you? Your life will be affected every single time you approach a cash register. Every time.

Americans don't realize how much their farming industry relies on Canada. Your fertilizer? Comes from us. Without that, you don't eat. As of today, that went up 25% in cost, and that'll be felt on EVERY food bill, because even what you grow domestically will cost more.

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Shh, the Olds Are Talking

When I grew up in the ‘70s and ‘80s, dining out was a real treat. We ate at home, cooked, had meals together. Takeout food wasn’t a thing until after NAFTA came in and the ‘90s began. Food got cheaper, culture changed. At the same time, immigration diversified, and people with great cuisine moved here and shared their tasty noms with us.

Today’s generation grew up spoiled for choice, bolstered by a belief that affordable takeout is essentially their human right. (They're often outraged over delivery fees, and many don’t even tip drivers!)

Then look at other cultural shifts — the rise of diabetes, wage disparity, lack of home management skills, and it’s almost like all of these shifts occurred, and worsened, on the same trajectory.

Correlation isn’t causation, yada-fucking-yada. Fine.

Let’s say, though, it is. Let’s say all of these shifts are related, and not by chance.

To what end? To make people less capable of self-care, make them more dependent on factory-farmed food, to make technology less repairable, to make small farmers less capable of staying independent… well, yes, all of this. All of it.

It’s all in the oligarchy’s favour that so many people are incapable of cooking, or repairing basic things around their house, can’t garden, and so much more. We are dependent upon them selling us everything we need.

They want it that way. They need it that way.

They have created an entire economy through selling us conveniences, ensuring we’re less informed, less skillful about life in general, and wholly dependent on them for our basic survival.

Then you look to these new attempts to purge government websites of data, information — the threats to libraries, the menacing tone toward PBS and NPR, and so much more: Knowledge threatens tyrants.

It always has, it always will. That’s why Black mothers during the Civil Rights Era made education so prioritized for their children: Knowledge ends oppression.

Resourcefulness? Skills? They’re a threat to the oligarch’s dream of your continued subservience in their empires.

Learn this, live this: Knowledge kills oligarchs. Knowledge kills fascism.

Practical Realities: Understanding Knock-on Tariffs

Okay, so where to start then? In a world where everything’s more expensive, everything’s harder to come by, what is it most essential to you for a healthy, practical future?

The first thing you need to realize is, the product you buy at the store isn’t the be-all end-all of tariffs.

You have to look at things cumulatively.

• Even if something is made on your side of the border, where do the materials and ingredients come from?
• How many times does it cross a national border, and with whom?
• How does more expensive energy or fertilizer or aluminum ripple forward into every purchase?
• How will compounding tariffs on all those little ingredients ultimately affect a) the price of whatever it is you need, and b) the availability thereof?

Well, therein lies the mystery, right? We couldn’t have possibly foreseen how screwed up the world’s supply chain became in the pandemic. We sure can’t now. What is the knock-on effect of everything happening today? Well, we can’t know.

But What About You?

So, what’s important to you? If this is to continue for five years, ten years, then what do you need to prioritize acquiring/having, to best live your life in a way that accommodates your health, spirit, and financial well-being?

That answer changes for everyone — because you own different things, your health is different, your geography is different.

Your job is to sit down and imagine what happens when things you’ve become reliant upon cannot be obtained.

• Is there a new source domestically that can meet your needs?
• If not, can you stock up?
• Can you learn to make it yourself?

This, too, is where you need to Brain More. These people hoarding eggs: What the fuck are they thinking? Those things spoil, man.

Make intelligent choices, but don’t be selfish. We all need to survive what’s coming. Work together with others in your community so you can weather this together in the absence of other local leadership.

Start Making That Plan

For me, one thing I’ve stocked up on, as little as I’m capable, is the next year of air-purifying filters. They’re American, for starters, but they’re comprised of so many materials that their prices are likely rise 30-50% by next year. But without them, my health is threatened, especially in wildfire season, so, first priority for me.

Another item I’ll need is asthma inhalers. I use a Canadian brand, but what ingredients come from abroad or the USA? I have no idea. At $115 per inhaler, if that price goes up 20% or more, that becomes a real hardship — luckily, I have an extended healthcare plan that covers 80% of it, but I’ll be asking to get a couple refills this week before they restock.

Shoes? I wear an American brand for my bad feet. I’ve bought two pairs and plan to explore shoes from other countries in hopes of finding a replacement brand this year.

I’m also gluten-free, and with a collapse expected at the FDA, I must anticipate American products — which I’d like to boycott anyhow — may not be safe for me anymore. So, despite the boycott, I’ve stocked up on some.

Then there are appliances, clothing, and other items you may require, all of which have varied and complex origins for components in those items. If you anticipate a major purchase this year, doing it now may, 1) ensure it’s even still available, and 2) be far cheaper.

Worst-Case Scenario Thinking

Look, I don’t like imagining bad things, but I like being unprepared for them even less.

So, if you start imagining things like, say, the USA blockading our marine trade as a prelude to war, or drone strikes taking out our infrastructure — including critical interprovincial trade routes — then it begins changing your perspective on what “living resourcefully” truly means.

This isn’t fear-mongering.

This is knowing history and seeing that much of the political context we’re seeing was what began unfolding circa 1933, and, 12 years later, upwards of 80 million people were dead.

So, does it behoove you to go “what if” and plan accordingly? Sure does. It would be delightful to be wrong about all this, and harrowing to be right, but at least I know I’ll be ready as best I can with my limited income.

Make a List: Start There, At Least

With global chaos being an encroaching reality and a terrifying long-term roadmap, it’s important to understand you can’t do everything at once.

Sure, a 100% boycott of American goods and companies is ideal, but it’s not wildly realistic yet, because we’re still adapting to this shocking, sudden polarization.

But what you can do is take a few days to really start pondering what these things might affect in your life, and start making the little changes that can help you adapt going forward. You can keep making changes and continue improving your resourcefulness and domestic-spending habits as time evolves.

You must also be sensitive to understand not everyone can make changes at the same pace that you are. Some people living close to the margins don’t have these options. Respect that and show them empathy, not judgment.

For example, right now, Amazon is a necessary evil in my life, but I’m slowly finding sources for some products I buy through them.

Over the next couple of months, my goal is to ween myself off as best I can. As someone who lives on an island with no car, this is more challenging for me to do than it is for a friend on the Mainland, who has urban choices and easier shipping options.

Someone living in the North, though, may not have this as an option at all, right now.

But life on an island means I also have regional stores, chains, and products to embrace, which can bolster my local economy and keep my community employed, paying their bills, and staying alive the best they can.

To that end, I’m visiting more used stores, supporting buy-nothing groups.

Also, I’m exploring alternative services that allow me to ditch major tech companies. I’m increasingly using Tubi, Pluto, Kanopy, and other streaming services that are free and library-supported.

While I’m not as resourceful and prepared yet as I’d like to be, I know I’m better off than I was last year, in terms of being able to live more simply. A lot of that is down to being more careful with money and purchasing things strategically.

In the coming weeks, I’ll post other practical articles to help other people get a hand on this new way of life: Resourcefulness.

We all need to work together. I have some insights on making a good life from less, and I’ll be happy to share some of what I know.

In the meantime, however dark things look and sound today, please read this important blog post for needed perspective: FASCISM ALWAYS FAILS.

It always fails!

It’s now inarguable that America has become fascist. Changing that will not occur peacefully. People will die. Blood will spill. Freedoms will be lost.

But fascism will fail. We will win. We will make a better world.

First, we may suffer. But we will endure, we will fight, and we will prevail. Solidarity and knowledge will see us through.

Those motherfuckers ain’t seen nothing yet. Hold the line.