While looking for a cleaver title, I looked-up Survivor. There were three definitions listed, but only one extended the meaning beyond the obvious: Law - a joint tenant who has the right to the whole estate on the other's death. I hung on that notion for days before realizing it summed up my intention for making this guide better than the central notion: one who remains after a catastrophe. I am not cleaver enough to prevent what ever catastrophe you might believe imminent, nor would I am able to help much in its aftermath, but I can tell you what a lot of cleaver people are doing to make themselves more self-sufficient.

I am in no way disregarding the possibility of catastrophe. But far too often that conversation turns emotional and quickly degenerates to politics. What I am disregarding with great deliberation and delight is any possibility that your survival should be connected to politics. Politics is deadly. We've go to get of it.

Shades of meaning color everything, and the murky shadow of politics should not be confused with governance. We need a government. We have to manage things. We do not need politics. We’ve all read Lord of the Flies and we’ve all seen Star Trek. The choice is not which ideology to follow, or what party to vote for, but rather what goal you have in mind for humanity. The future is almost entirely a matter of what we believe the future can be. Politics blurs our vision, distracts us, and then picks our pockets. 

So here’s my seditious plan to rid the world of politics: The more each individual becomes self-sufficient, the less society needs politicians.

A non-political world where everyone is self-sufficient. Not rich. Not poor. Not equal. But not out of balance. Self sufficient. Happy enough. 

A world is hurtling toward our children where the old saw 'work hard and you'll be rewarded' will seem laughable. You're laughing too, right now, if you believe robots will replace most manual labor, jobs will move to those countries where labor is cheapest - until we run out of those countries, and most important: if you believe infinite growth on a finite planet is absurd.

Self sufficiency is one part skills and technology; one part preservation of the basic system that supports those skills and technology. To be self sufficient is to have control over technologies that plug into nature, produce what we need, and sustain the natural world for the next generation. Maybe we might actually improve it for the next generation. That hasn't happen in the entire history of humanity.

Why would we want such a world? So we can have enough time left after earning our keep to sing and dance. To be happy. To enjoy life. We cannot continue to voraciously consume the material world unless we figure out how to replenish it, but we can consume all the entertainment we create without concern. We just have to get smarter.

Unfortunately, this will take many generations. So, this guide is first and foremost an aide to rational parenting.