by Ray Jason
Will I ever see my friend again?
The Shadow Sailor just raised his anchor and headed for the Canal. We had spent an intense three hours discussing his concerns and his strategy.
His mission was to escape the dark, planet-shattering storm that he could sense just beyond the horizon. This tempest, which so terrified him, was not a natural phenomenon. Instead, it was a combination of two of Humanity’s worst traits – delusional Pride and destructive Power. He perceived them as the fuse and the explosive charge that would lead us to Nuclear Annihilation.
As a final face-to-face gesture of generosity, he had come to encourage me to gather together my Sea Gypsy Tribe and head for the Southern Hemisphere as he was doing. He was visibly disheartened when I responded that we had recently debated such a strategy and had decided that we had as great a survival chance right here.
Certainly there were real advantages to the Wide Waters of the Pacific. But we knew our archipelago intimately. And we believed that, in the Aftermath, we could fend off any feral, predatory survivors. Then we could live off our stored long-life food and the local fish and shellfish that we would test with our Geiger counters.
As a farewell request, he asked me if I would share his concerns through a new essay at my Blog. And so, my Unknown Reader, I am now honoring his heartfelt plea.
*******
For those of you unfamiliar with the Shadow Sailor, let me introduce him. He has traveled to nearly 80 countries in this sailboat, but he does so clandestinely. He has mastered the art of being a sea-going Gray Man, who rarely interfaces with Immigration and Customs.
In fact, he rarely interfaces with anybody. I think of him as an ocean hermit or a deep-sea monk. His boat, could pass for any 40-foot cruising yacht, except that it has a conspicuous sat-com dome – a satellite communications rig. These are expensive and bulky and are usually found only on rich people’s mega- yachts.
For the years that I have known him, my guess has been that he was some sort of computer geek/genius who cashed out early from Silicon Valley and now had enough passive income to sustain himself comfortably.
Whatever his background is, he now dedicates himself to studying the world and trying to figure it out. The sat-com dome is a real asset in this quest. He can be in mid-ocean and still stay connected to the internet.
*******
The incidents that had motivated him to shift from thought into action – that had caused him to “go nuclear” – were the recent missile attacks in the Ukraine/Russian war. The targets had been of no value to the Ukrainian military. Instead, they had struck early warning Russian radar sites designed to detect a surprise attack from nuclear missiles launched from the USA.
It would be hard to fashion a more “eat dung and die” provocation than that.
Certainly, senior American military officials realize that they cannot defeat Russia in a conventional war now or in the near future. Every one of their supposedly high-tech weapons systems that they have gifted to the Ukrainians have been easily defeated in the battle-sphere.
Yet, the American Neocons still refuse to negotiate, and seem driven to an endgame where every fighting-age Ukrainian male is either dead or an amputee.
The Shadow Sailor continued his explanation by noting that the West knows that it cannot win a conventional war with Russia, either through its proxy, Ukraine, or directly. So why do they continue to “poke the Bear?”
Are they so delusional that they think that they could win a nuclear war?
He then rattled off some indisputable facts that seemed to support that possibility. The so-called Elites, who I call our Malignant Overlords, would know the appointed hour for a sneak attack, so they could retreat to their fully stocked bunkers and thus survive.
Plus, many of these “deciders” are in favor of massive planetary depopulation and would not mourn the incineration of billions of people.
Further evidence is the fact that many billionaires have also recently built under-ground escape bunkers. They would not be spending millions and millions of dollars on these, unless someone had clued them into impending catastrophe.
Even the Doomsday Clock is closer to midnight than it has ever been since its was first created.
I countered his arguments by saying that even the most vicious of the Malignant Overlords, while striving towards some new world arrangement, would prefer a functioning infrastructure rather than a global ashtray. He responded that I was ascribing to them a level of rationality that they simply do not possess.
What is rational about killing another 100,000 more Ukrainian soldiers with the vague purpose of helping Biden’s re-election prospects. What is rational about blowing up the Nordstream Pipeline, that harmed the Germans far more than the Russians? What is rational about economic sanctions that have accelerated the growth of the BRICS alliance, which will hasten the Death of the Dollar?
The Shadow Sailor further lamented the fact that for security reasons Russia could not TRUST the United States leadership. They vowed to not move NATO one inch eastward toward Russia and then spent decades doing just that.
They designed the Minsk Agreement to resolve territorial differences between Russia and Ukraine. Later it was revealed that this was just a charade to allow Ukraine to build up its NATO armed and trained military.
The U.S. claimed that they would not provide Zelensky certain weapons systems, but then eventually gave him Abrams tanks and advanced missiles and F-16 combat aircraft.
Such profound lack of trust exacerbates the “tripwire effect.” This means that if the Russian missile defense forces detect an incoming attack, they will be far more likely to launch retaliatory strikes immediately.
During the Cold War there were several instances when false alarms occurred that were swiftly double-checked thus averting a nuclear catastrophe. The chances of such calm decision-making prevailing in our current conditions is far, far lower.
*******
After a couple of hours, our geopolitical deliberations gave way to a more personal discussion. He told me of a life-changing film that he had once seen called THREADS. It described the reality of what the world would swiftly become after a full-scale nuclear war.
The scenario was bleak, miserable and horrendous. The threads of the social fabric are so ripped and shredded that Life becomes a barbaric struggle for survival. Daily existence has become such a gray monotone of fear that the biggest decision each day is whether to commit suicide.
*******
Finally, we spoke of where he might head in the vastness of the Pacific. His answer was perfectly in keeping with his contrary-to-ordinary way of viewing the world.
He said he had his GPS set for Bikini Atoll. I laughed and asked if he was referring to where they had done all those hydrogen bomb tests in the 50s and he nodded yes.
When I jokingly asked how long he thought he could survive on radio-active fish, he told me that scientists had been systematically visiting it for decades and that it was almost completely radiation-free.
He further elaborated that there were only a few caretakers there and that it was now bountiful with fish. He chuckled and said that the lagoon was so plentiful that you could “fish with a basket.”
After laughing over this vision, we fell silent for a few minutes. Then he said, “It’s time.”
I climbed back into my dinghy as he started to prepare his anchor gear. I looked up at my longtime friend and said that perhaps my Sea Gypsy Tribe might change its mind one day. And if so, we would come join him. We would weave some baskets and we would catch some fish.
He smiled down at me, raised his anchor and sailed off.
When things get really rough in the near future, it will comfort me deeply to know that this One Man Tribe is out there somewhere. And that he is quietly carrying forth the torch of human goodness.