I’m going to give you a tip on how to think about disruptions at the end of this article. First, here are three disruptions — events that can cause cascade failures in global networks — that are at the top of this month’s scan:
- A war between the US/Israel and Iran that can disrupt oil markets and spike oil prices.
- Abnormal weather that can disrupt food, energy, and transportation systems.
- Solar storms that can disrupt electrical networks by overloading transformers.
Why These Disruptions are Currently HOT
Of all of the potential disruptions out there, why are they at the top of the list?
- The EU has just started its embargo of Iranian oil. This will damage their national income at the very moment its economy is in free-fall (hyper-inflation).
- Since last week’s Heavy Weather article, we’ve seen everything from record smashing snowfalls in Seattle to winter tornadoes across the US Midwest.
- An unusually large solar storm is currently raging, and it has produced the largest/fastest earth directed plasma cloud of this solar cycle.
The Tip
I’ll assume you are reading this site and me because you are (rightly) interested in taking control of your future by adding resilience to your life (home and community).
The problem is that most of the people around you are comfortable in their abject dependence. They are often unwilling to think beyond the latest YouTube fad or what’s for dinner.
So, you need to wake them up slowly. One good way to do this is to use these disruptive events to “sell” resilience to the people around you (in your family or your community). Here’s more detail on how to use disruptive events to sell:
- Don’t focus on a single disruptive event like an electromagnetic pulse that knocks out the electrical system for months. Instead, use a variety of different events to demonstrate what the potential impact will be on “us.”
- Avoid overselling the impact of an event. This usually happens when you take a single event and bring it to its illogical conclusion. If you do this, people will think you are a nut.
- Use the event to highlight specific vulnerabilities that have specific corrective action. Here’s one potential script. ”Wow, it looks like (insert event here) is getting pretty close. Makes me think we need to do something to prepare. How about if we (insert purchase or action here).”
NOTE: I’ll include a couple more smart ways to think about disruptive events in my newsletter. If you want more scripts like this, let me know.
No related posts.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I find this tactic particularly effective over email and social nets, because then I can easily drop links to the article covering the event in detail, if they doubt I’m serious (or think the gravity of the event is merely trivial).
I really appreciate these posts, John, thanks! Hope you don’t abandon GG though, I like the theoretical depth of your content there (as opposed to the practical meat here).
Nice tactic. I’m trying to figure out the balance between GG and here. Most of the deeper research on resilience is going to end up on the newsletter.
I had no idea the newsletter had unique content! Signed up. But I’d like to suggest changing the copy from “Sign up below for FREE…” to “Sign up below for unique in-depth essays” or something along those lines. I thought it was just email delivery of these posts.
The timing of this new blog could not be better for supporting my efforts trying to get our little group of Placerville Progressives to think about how our exurb might prepare to thrive in the face of the disruptions coming our way. J.H. Kunstler’s Monday rants also inform my thinking.
A quick question, will the newsletter include different material from the website?
Thanks
M
Yes. The newsletter goes deeper. More original research on resilience.
Major infection outbreak (like schwine flu in relatively recent past) can cause cascade of trade barriers and food supply disruption for several months.
I agree, don’t “over sell” this stuff. I carry a silver half dollar with me everywhere, and occasionally have an opportunity to talk to people about resilience. Occasionally, as in 2 or 3 times a week. Everybody wants to make money, so I use precious metals since they have been doing so well for so long/great fundamentals/resilient currency/etc.
Anyways, silver is my opener. If I can get them talking about money and metals, I can plant the seed for the world of other things they need to be doing.
{ 1 trackback }