The Real (Sad) Meaning of Survival. An Inconvenient Truth!

What does being a survivalist mean to you.

I guess for most it means being prepared. Prepared with food and survival gear. Being ready to bug out if the SHTF.

Do you have a nice area picked out to go to. Perhaps you bought a place in the wilds of somewhere to 'wait it out.'

Well, this is the very sad truth.

You are waiting for the masses of sheeple to die off. AND THEY WILL

Every city has only about one single month of food within its boundaries. That includes what the average person has at home. Not much is it.

If the water and sewage systems fail, one month may be more than enough.

In the US cities you can expect lawlessness. Many Police will stay home to protect their families. Those that won't are the ones that will shoot first and die first. Disease will spread through tight packed suburbs like a wild fire. Bodies will pile up and rot. Within a few weeks, mice, rats and other vermin will explode in number as they are faced with an unlimited food supply.

Dogs will escape from yards and form roaming packs eating the dead of any species, they are not fussy eaters.

The military will also suffer dwindling numbers and many troops will be used to defend military families.

Rumors that the whites in this or that suburb have food and water will spark race riots. Gangs will simply explode in a world where cohesive numbers will win out. IF you decide to hunker down at home, think of tactics. You have guns and ammo but someone wants your food and water.

Come and get it you yell! They drive a truck through your flimsy walls, breaching your defenses. Yes, you kill a few, but they don't care. They are dead if they don't so taking you down is a no loss situation for them.

The first new Law will make it illegal to hoard food. Those that did not prepare will want yours, for all the good it will do them.

And all the while, the survivalist will hunker down waiting out the end of life as we know it.

That is the real meaning of survival. Living through and waiting for, the masses to die off.

P

Death has got to be easy, since Life can be a hard one.

No idea as to the motivations of others ..

As to myself .. got disgusted with so-called civilization and chose to walk away from the idiocy and insanity of the world. Have everything need out here as prefer a simple quiet life .

If everything falls apart out here in the border regions life will go on as it always has ..

a reply to: pheonix358

What does being a survivalist mean to you?

It all depends on what one considers worth surviving for.

Anarchy + No Basics = TEOTWAWKI

Remember the movie The Road? Followed by The Postman? That's your very best case scenario ... and the copier salesman is a grim reality you'd still have to deal with. I'm waiting for the film that shows TEOTWAWKI, followed by an organized invasion from a country that didn't suffer a catastrophic breakdown.

Yeah, you got it about right,

People who aren't in a good place already won't live most likely long enough to get to one.

You not only have to have ample food, water, medical supplies, means to grow more food, shelter & property enough to grow crops on and be self sustaining you also need to be proficient with many skills most people just don't have anymore.

Christ, too many people today can't even change their own flat tire without calling for road service, men & women.

You should have good skills in carpentry, farming, first responder, auto mechanics, welding, fabricating, hunting, sewing and some tactical knowledge.

And God forbid their iPads and smart phones don't work......

Survival to me means walking off into the bush with possibly only a blade and starting over.

originally posted by: homeschoolmom
Survival to me means walking off into the bush with possibly only a blade and starting over.

Yup, and anything more is gravy. Best to have bush to walk into as at least the basics can be found there. Knowledge of the land you find yourself on, if everything goes tits up,
is more important than supplies in some place you can't get to.

originally posted by: homeschoolmom
Survival to me means walking off into the bush with possibly only a blade and starting over.

For a very few people perhaps. But what do you do with your children and spouse. How do you get out of a large city if the Govt has it in lock down. Once the S has truly hit the fan blades it would be very difficult to get out of any of the really big cities.

The problem comes in when those who are prepared have food that others want.

I wonder what the percentage of the population is that is in some way prepared.

P

originally posted by: pheonix358

originally posted by: homeschoolmom
Survival to me means walking off into the bush with possibly only a blade and starting over.

For a very few people perhaps. But what do you do with your children and spouse. How do you get out of a large city if the Govt has it in lock down. Once the S has truly hit the fan blades it would be very difficult to get out of any of the really big cities.

The problem comes in when those who are prepared have food that others want.

I wonder what the percentage of the population is that is in some way prepared.

P

you are quite right.....but raiding the preparers is still only a short term solution.....

survival is survival it has not changed,we as people have just gotten used to feeding of the proverbial tit so to speak

All depends on how things fall apart, plenty of places around the globe that have had things fall apart (as in many prepper's nightmare scenarios, economic disease, war) and water kept flowing, food kept getting delivered etc.

We as a species are pretty fricking resilient when it comes to survival and getting things done, especially if we think we can make a buck doing it.

Plus of course any scenario with a social breakdown on a catastrophic scale, governments see that coming, and they seal off the cities in advance, well before the SHTF.

Because they know perfectly well that in the event of a catastrophe, the cities are dead weight. Too many mouths to feed, and providing services that are usually non-critical.

So there will be military roadblocks around every major population center, to stop them from rampaging out and destroying the critical farming infrastructure.

So you can prepare all you want, but if you live in a city? I think you're probably wasting your time.

You forgot something with your OP. Once the food in the major cities runs out, the people will migrate outwards into the countryside. They will start raiding and pillaging farms close to civilization. The more cities in an area, the worse your chances of surviving in the wilderness will be. I wouldn't count on much hope from anywhere on the east coast for instance. Your best chances or survival would be in groups as well. As a lone survivor, if you come across a group of people who have no scruples about taking your stuff, you are doomed. This is something that I see many a prepper fail at. They only want to survive by themselves. Well I hope you bug out far enough into the wilderness to do that.

It's not unwise to prepare for the worst of possible situations however there is something that will come in to play that people aren't giving enough credit to - we are social survivors. When things get really bad a new reality is often embraced and people begin to work co-operatively when they wouldn't have before. We might imagine a wild west happening but in truth I think we'll see the better nature of many coming out, people sharing and organizing for protection of their homes and families. At least where I live I feel comfortable with my neighbors. Not everywhere will be like this but far more than we might imagine is my belief.

a reply to: Asktheanimals

I have been through something like that on a small scale and yes, people came together ..... for a while. There were angelic people who would give you the shirt off their back, but once things calmed down many went back to their more base nature and started to steal whatever was not chained down into concrete.

It is the gangs I would be most concerned about followed by those who think that they are entitled to whatever they want. Add guns into the equation and you would need to be in a group that could make opponents think of their own mortality.

I would love to think of everyone coming together in harmony and in the fifties and sixties in America this would certainly have happened. Now, I am not so sure, not in the big cities anyway!

P

Fernando "Ferfal" Aguirre

Assuming this guys books were actually based on the truth... yes things will be more dangerous, yes things will be harder to come by... but at least in that economic disaster down in Argentina they did not fall all the way to Mad max style survival.

I have an acquaintance that lives in Argentina, some areas you would never know the collapse happened other areas yea you better be armed and not traveling alone.

The story of the lone wolf survivor is just that a story, a group is needed for security and to make sure everything gets done that needs to be done in a timely manner.

Well ... I'm gonna stalk and gather intel on everyone in the survival forum and mark my words ... when the SHTF ... I'm comin' for your food ...


Unless the nuclear plant I live near goes into meltdown. Then I'm coming for your flesh.

a reply to: BelowLowAnnouncement

Well ... I'm gonna stalk and gather intel on everyone in the survival forum and mark my words ... when the SHTF ... I'm comin' for your food ...

Ill be waiting.

Please bring your gear.

I can use more.

a reply to: pheonix358

I'm not sure what the purpose of this thread is. I'm actually highly anticipating the mass die off.

originally posted by: allenidaho
a reply to: pheonix358

I'm not sure what the purpose of this thread is. I'm actually highly anticipating the mass die off.

It gives you a time line of what would happen. You don't need to be prepped for two years. Most will die reasonably fast. Of course the ones left are either survivalists or real bad people that may have gone cannibal.

Just something to think about is all, just to remind everyone of what to expect and what to prepare for.

P

a reply to: pheonix358

Well aren't you a little ray of sunshine this morning!

(curls up into a ball and sobs uncontrollably under his desk)

Okay. Better now. (sniff)

What you say is all true. Sadly, even those who embrace a religious faith will be lacking in any type of charity. Turning into an animal may be the only way to survive.

But, if I may ask, is it worth surviving? Coming out the other side of an apocalypse, would it be worth surviving?