A Gathering Storm? Preparing Yourself for 2024

Parents who tell their children stories of men and women who prevailed against great odds help to foster courage, grit, and virtue. Biba Kayewich

As we head into the new year, more and more commentators are putting out red flags rather than welcome mats.

Typical of these columns, though more insightful than most, is Jeffrey Tucker’s “Apocalypse in the Air.” He points out the dire possibilities for 2024 being discussed in “private circles today,” among which are climate and terrorism lockdowns, resources depleted by illegal migrants, and riots related to the upcoming elections. He describes the enormous damage already done to the trust we once placed in our institutions—the government, schools, corporate media, and law. Mr. Tucker then writes:

“We no longer believe in what was, and there’s a pervasive dread in the air about what it is to be. Making it worse, there’s also a growing sense that there’s nothing we can do about it either way. Sure, we can vote, but it’s no longer clear if that matters. Otherwise, there are few, if any, mechanisms in place to take matters into our own hands and right this ship we once called civilization.”

Harsh, perhaps, but Mr. Tucker is correct. We, as individuals, do indeed lack the means to correct the course of this ship on which we’re all sailing or, worse, to save it altogether from sinking. But here’s a bit of good news. This vessel of state carries a plentiful supply of life boats, and the captains of those smaller craft are everywhere. If you want to meet one of these potential skippers, stop reading here and go to the nearest mirror in your home.

Overlooked Necessities

In the event of a natural disaster or some man-made catastrophe, hardcore preppers fill up their basements with caches of food, medicine, ammunition, and other goods they deem essential. While most of us don’t go to those lengths, at a minimum we should always keep some basics on hand to see us through a short-term crisis. Advice on building an emergency kit or purchasing one outright may easily be found online.

Necessarily missing from these kits, however, are some items as essential to our welfare as flashlights, pocket knives, and cans of soup. Outnumbered by a French army and on the cusp of battle, Shakespeare’s Henry V declares, “All things are ready if our minds be so.” Like all good commanders, the king understands the vital importance of morale for victory, a commodity you won’t find in survival kit.

So, what is the state of our morale and interior fortitude? If 2024 brings the calamities that today worry so many observers, will we be ready in our hearts and minds to meet those challenges?

Parents who tell their children stories of men and women who prevailed against great odds help to foster courage, grit, and virtue. Biba Kayewich

Esprit de Corps

To be prepared for whatever punches 2024 might throw at us requires toughening up our minds. Consider for a moment the Marine Corps boot camp of days gone by. Those Parris Island drill instructors weren’t just aiming to make their recruits physically fit. Through constant indoctrination they instilled pride and purpose in these young men. They wanted Marines who could withstand the rigors of combat, and the men they produced took that heat and more on battlefields like Belleau Wood, Iwo Jima, and the Chosin Reservoir.

Like those Marines, we need a mindset that will keep us on our feet and moving forward when the going gets tough. We need self-indoctrination, mental and spiritual inoculations, if you will, against despair and defeat. Fortunately, these pharmaceuticals are close at hand and require no prescription.

Read novels about people who faced hard times, like Rose Wilder Lane’s “Young Pioneers,” and share them with your children. Study the stories of the men and women who in the past struggled against tyranny, like David McCullough’s “John Adams.” Teach your children the deeds of Theodore Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, Booker T. Washington, and any of the hundreds of other American heroes, and you in your teaching will absorb their lessons. Watch movies where the heroes prevail against great odds. Listen to podcasts touting courage, grit, and virtue.

Do these things, and you’re adding stones and mortar to your interior fortress of courage and resilience.

Misery Needs Company

A blizzard knocks out your power, and your next-door neighbor comes knocking and invites you to enjoy the warmth of his wood stove. An elderly friend takes a bad fall, and you offer to pick up and deliver groceries until she recovers her health. The government shuts down schools again, sending children home to learn via computer, and you and some friends stand up against this mandate and open a co-op for your kids.

Loosely translated from the French, “Sauve qui peut” means “Save yourself if you can.” It’s used in English to describe a rout, a general panic, a stampede to safety. And in a disaster, it’s a surefire recipe for failure and hardship.

We need other people, and they need us. Don’t be too proud to ask for assistance when necessary, and don’t be shy about offering help when you see someone struggling. These shared occasions not only strengthen our bonds with others, they keep intact our own sense of our humanity.

The Power Within

In the film “Chariots of Fire,” Scottish runner Eric Liddell, a devout Christian who would one day become a missionary, addresses a crowd after winning a race. At the conclusion of his brief talk in which he compares faith to running a race, he says, “I have no formula for winning the race. Everyone runs in their own way or his own way. And where does the power come from to see the race to its end? From within.”

Our own power to see our way through troubles comes from the same place.

Along with friends, family, and exemplars real and fictional, a faith in something worthy and good beyond ourselves will be crucial if hard times and adversity come roaring down Route 2024. Maybe we’re stouthearted believers like Liddell. Maybe we’re practitioners of some philosophy like stoicism, which is especially popular today. Maybe we live by a code of honor and goodness, acolytes of such classical virtues as prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice.

When we place our faith and our hope in something deserving of worship, that fire in our hearts will light our path.

Here, one caveat is in order, particularly with the upcoming election year. We may place this faith in people we know and love, but we must never extend this same measure of devotion to political candidates or parties. All around us today, we see the horrible destruction done by true believers who make politics their god.

Near the end of “Apocalypse in the Air,” Mr. Tucker writes, “All of this is to say that despair achieves nothing, whereas hope motivates us to find and realize true meaning in our lives.”

In whatever tribulations 2024 may deliver, whether a personal loss or a public disaster, that hope of which Mr. Tucker speaks, along with faith and charity toward others, is the flame that can light our path into the future, however dark and foreboding.