We are entering uncharted financial territory with the present situation we’re all facing – economic chaos is going to hit us all hard and none of us will be able to escape the fall-out. That’s the reality. All of these massive sanctions on Russia will impact us too. It’s already in motion, yet millions of people continue to walk around unaware and making no effort to prepare their finances, stocking up on basic supplies and thinking about how to survive escalating inflation, increasing shortage situations and the steep rise in gas prices. I can’t predict what’s going to happen with the conflict in Ukraine, but this spilling over into a larger world war is quite possible. While I hope this war in Ukraine ends soon, no one knows how this is going to turn out.
The steep gas prices are going to drive up the food prices and everything else even more. President Biden announced he’s stopping Russian oil imports and he also has not undone any of the green measures he put in place immediately when he came into office, intent on decreasing American oil and gas dependence. Most of us can’t just instantly switch to an electric car or go green. Russia may initiate major cyber-attacks , our own government is warning as this crisis with Russia invading Ukraine escalates.
Here’s a good video laying out the situation from Chris at City Prepping:
One thing Chris mentions in this video is normalcy bias, which is a cognitive bias where people tend to disbelieve and minimize threat warnings. I’ve seen this myself with people dismissing severe weather warnings even with our modern Doppler radar, where storms can be tracked in real time. Many people still dismiss tornado warnings, even when tornados have been spotted in their area.
We live in a culture where personal responsibility doesn’t weigh highly in our values anymore and that worries me with this current situation. I’ve talked to family members about becoming more prepared and the reactions I encounter when trying to mention being prepared is mostly complete dismissal or acting like I am being too alarmist from my four adult kids. I have other family members who have been preparing. I mentioned stocking up on more groceries with these shortages increasing, when I ran into one of my dearest friends recently at the grocery store of all places, as we were commenting on the empty shelf spaces. She told me she knows she probably should, but hasn’t and she said her pastor has been urging them to prepare.
I write about preparedness here on my blog and I mentioned it on Twitter a few times, but I’m pretty much convinced a whole lot of people won’t take any proactive efforts to prepare and will be left reacting as the economic problems escalate. I’ve been trying to stock up extra on basics, as I can afford, so I can hopefully help my family and others some, if things get really bad. I figure if things don’t get bad, I can always donate extra canned goods and things to my local food pantry or people in need.
Mostly, I’m trying to keep a positive attitude and be grateful for each day. I’m also trying to learn more about the history of Ukraine and the relationships with Russia. I started with reading, Ukraine and the Art of Strategy by Lawrence Freedman and I bought Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine by Anne Applebaum. I have a few other books about Ukraine and Russia on my list that I will probably buy later. Reading more about situations happening in the world helps me understand more about what’s going on in the news now. I had some general knowledge about the Ukraine/Russia controversies and have been following those happenings for years, but I wanted to read more background history considering the events unfolding now.
Whenever I feel discouraged or let fear begin to creep in (and that’s usually when reading news online), I look at a small wooden plaque I bought at Walmart a few years ago and hung above my desk where I sit at my PC:
We still have control over our own actions and our own hearts. We can all choose to be kind to others, no matter how much terrible stuff is going on in the world.
Be Kind.
Pray.
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