Going it Alone

The best analogy I can come up with is, you do not venture out into a wild, unpredictable, rapidly changing, volatile environment with complete uncertainty as to availability of food or shelter on your own. You just don't do it. Anything happens to you, no one will know or will be able to find you. Only if you are extraordinarily rich, well equipped with instant access to a rescue team might you possibly consider it. Harsh places are not for the sole venturer.

Harsh places are for teams, then there is always some part of the group that can go and arrange for help or rescue. More than this, in a harsh climate you have to carry everything you might possibly need. The basics are a change of gear, food and water. These make up the bulk of what you must carry and limit your time out in the terrain. Then there are the also necessary but more optional items of shelter, cooking equipment, first aid, navigation, communications and so on and on. The bigger the team the more support you can consider which extends further the time possible out exposed. Each extra spread out amongst the load carrying capacity of the team, in addition to their own personal survival requirements. So where does a rogue with you but not with you fit in? Wanting independence but not willing to carry any collective load.

Team work brings with it conflict of aims, personalities, abilities and contribution. Managed well teams can way out perform any aggregate of solo contributions. Handled badly and they tear themselves apart without making progress. Finding the leader, for the challenges of any particular stage, who has a commonality of vision and restrained ego is crucial. So how does this loner, part of but not part of the team, fit in? What contribution can he make? How are any opinions offered by this loner going to be regarded by the real team members? Are his claims of pending doom and disaster going to cut any ice? The answer is self-evident.

Obviously what I have in mind is that the basics we each carry of food, which is the nation's currency, and the water, which is the nation's wealth creation mechanisms of industry, commerce and services. The hostile environment is the global multi-national trading environment and the team of course is the EU. Our best and only chance of keeping our head up and making a contribution in this savage world of prey on the weak and defer to the strong and powerful.