Narrative Warfare: So You're In The Middle Of A Historical Event

I was up late last night my time when Russia invaded Ukraine and tracked the early moves as they happened. I'll get into that this weekend at Empire, when it becomes clear what the result will be. Here and now, I'll just talk about the folks whining about being around for a historical event. You fuckers get no sympathy from me.

In my lifetime alone, I've been around for the following:

• The Fall of Saigon
• The Botched Iranian Embassy Rescue
• The Challenger Explosion
• Chernobyl
• The Fall of the Berlin Wall
• The Fall of the USSR
• Tianamen Square
• Desert Shield/Storm
• Yugoslav War
• The World Trade Center/Pentagon Attacks
• The Iraq War & "War on Terror"
• Fukushima

And that's not even half of the historical events.

I fully expected to be incinerated by a nuclear war before I graduated from high school almost 30 years ago; that was the '80s zeitgeist undercurrent (or did you not get the point of songs like Nena's "99 Red Balloons"). When the Cold War ended with a whimper, a lot of us suddenly had to figure out what the fuck to do with ourselves in a hurry, and that same "Oh shit, what do we do now?" feeling is going on with far younger folks.

First, just acknowledge that the life you had is done. This is a hard break, and there is no going back.

It's on you to roll with the changes.

Once you made your peace with the present, it's time to take that old plan and use it to feed the cooking fires because that's all its good for now. Assess what you have to work with--your skills, your resources, your assets, etc.--and contact your network to get you out of the immediate area. Get on the horn with your bank(s) and inform them of your situation; they are not unreasonable and will accomodate your financial moves due to extreme circumstances. Assuming you're not an American--the US already betrayed its citizens and ran like bitches leaving all of you behind, again--contact your embassay and get help getting out of Dodge.

Once you are out of the line of fire, work that network to relocate to a temporary location. From there, this is what you need to do:

• Locate a place where you are permitted to go as well as work/do business and establish long-term residency there.
• Relocate all of your correspondance, banking, etc. to match that new residency as you would with any other move.
• Get your current situation physically, financially, and mentally stable ASAP. You can't do better without this. This may mean putting long-term plans aside for a time.

Once you get this sorted, now you can resume truly long-term planning like you can before this all went down. You're far from the danger zone, you've recovered from the impact of the event, and the fallout from this historical event is shaking out so that you can see where you can go and benefit from here. Now is when you make and execute that long-term plan once more.

Let's recap:

• Get out of Dodge.
• Accept that what was is gone.
• Get someplace safe and stabilize.
• Resume plans once things settle down and the new situation is clear enough for you to plan and execute.

I've seen this exact process play out dozens of times by people of very different capabilities over these last 30ish years, so I know this works. It also shows me the power of having a network of contacts, associates, friends, and (reliable) relatives to draw upon- one of far greater value than any government or NGO. Don't neglect yours.