Strategic Relocation

Part 2 of The People's Playbook

I figured I’d start with this one as it is something I am actively engaged in. I’ll be moving up to Idaho from California later this month.

Strategic Relocation is the name of a book by Joel Skousen. From his website:

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Strategic Relocation is an in-depth analysis of North America's safest places to live. Unlike most guides in today's bookstores that tout the "best places" to live based on golf courses, doctor/patient ratios, warm sunny climates, availability of cultural activities, status of educational institutions and the growth potential of the local economy, this book will help you consider future threats that most other people fail to see or choose to ignore such as:

• A labor crisis or pandemic that halts the inflow of food and business goods

• An economic crisis that threatens your pensions, investments and other so-called "guaranteed" income streams

• A major earthquake or other natural disaster that suddenly upsets the natural social order for months at a time

• An emergency that clogs the area's freeways

• The "unthinkable" nuclear war or major terrorist attack on a U.S. city with chemical or biological weapons

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Joel is an extremely conservative man. And I do not mean conservative as the slur that it is commonly used today. I mean it genuinely. As such, I do not share all his viewpoints. At the same time, that is great because I enjoy learning from people who I do not share all viewpoints on.

It’s quite mind-stretching to see that he believes with some certainly that at some point the USA will be attacked by Russia in a limited nuclear war. Apparently, Russia never bought in the MAD idea (mutually assured destruction) and thought a nuclear war was winnable.

Then I was also just reading in The Pentagon’s Brain, a book about DARPA, about the “super plague” that the Russians were supposedly working on too! But don’t worry the head scientist of such biological weapons defected to the USA.

Anyway…

This book covers very many interesting things. Also included is Joel’s viewpoint is that inside the USA is still better than any other country to be in. That many places that people think of in Central and South America are to go total military dictatorship, as many have before.

If the book interests you than by all means grab a copy. But even without that want to talk about this subject.

My wife and I had actually have been trying to get out of California since 2019 before the pandemic even started. While I love California’s geography and weather, as well my friends that live here, the economics and politics are not serving me.

Our primary reason for moving is that my daughter cannot attend school in California without following the CDC’s schedule of vaccinations. And that’s a hell-no-over-my-dead-body thing for me. While we could homeschool in California, that is not something we are desiring to do at this time.

We moved up to Oregon for a short time. While better on this front currently, that state seems to be following in California’s footsteps.

Unfortunately, a long strange bout of unidentified disease with turned out to by Lyme in my wife brought us back to California, as we needed family support. But after a diagnosis, while not healed completely yet, we’re were in a much better place. Good enough to seek to move outside California again.

After visiting several states we made the decision to move to Idaho. This was before getting Joel’s book, but I was happy to see that state rated the highest at four and a half stars out of five. (Utah being the only other state with that rating)

In Idaho we found a school that never even required kids to wear masks throughout the whole pandemic.

(It was quite ironic to view other Waldorf schools that advocate for no screen time at all for young children…that went to distance learning during the pandemic! Can you say cognitive dissonance? I believe Rudolf Steiner is rolling over in his grave.)

Idaho happens to have the freest laws regarding home schooling. You can basically do anything you want. So that’s good to know should we want that option in the future, which indeed we may choose is necessary in due time.

The gun laws are of course very lax as compared to California.

No one much thinks about Idaho, as compared to some of the other states that have much more focus that many are moving to such as Texas and Florida. I think less attention on the world stage is a good thing.

Since my house burned down in California, looking at the natural disasters of the area was obviously important too. I personally didn’t want to deal with hurricanes so the East Coast wasn’t an option for me. Idaho doesn’t have much. Fires are a possibility there, but not something that has happened in the area I’m moving too.

And then there is the cost. While house prices have risen significantly in Idaho as they did everywhere over the last couple years, and more so because of a lot of other people relocating, it was still cheap by California standards. This immediate savings in cost of living can then be repurposed for some of the other strategies I’ll be covering in the People’s Playbook. 

I could go on and on, but you get the point.

While the circumstances are certainly not the same, I’ve often wondered about the Jews in Germany back in WW2 and before then. At what point was the right time to get out? There obviously was a too late. But there were many that left earlier and thus were spared.

California is on a trajectory. I don’t see that changing any time soon, so I’ve chosen to leave now before it is deemed necessary.  It’s not an easy choice. In fact it changes just about everything in my life to do so.

And this is exactly why this strategy is so important.

Where you live is your home base. This is your base of operations in which the other strategies will be implemented.

Where you live is one of the major fronts of the war that we’re all fighting on.

I have a sense that it is harder to enact change in California due to that trajectory and the demographics. Meanwhile, with its smaller population, more can likely be done in Idaho politically, legally and economically.

Plus it should be much easier to find like-minded people too. (After all there are still people in Santa Cruz driving around by themselves wearing masks here. As I write this, I can see school children walking by themselves outside wearing masks through my office window.)

Here’s a few questions for you to ponder:

• Are you in a strategic location or simply a location of circumstance?

• What are the benefits, costs, threats and opportunities in where you live?

• Should you relocate? Where to?

• Should the shit-hit-the-fan do you have a plan B and plan C for strategic relocation?

As I’ve discussed in the Civilization Collapse Stack, your home is a massively important piece of the puzzle, especially if aiming for subsistence. Mobility is also important too so don’t neglect that.

I’ve chosen to relocate for a wide number of reasons, most of which were mentioned above. And I’m far from the only one. Many others have done the same and many, many more will still do in the coming years.

It’s tough because there is no guarantee that it is the right choice, but I’m playing the odds. What about you?