Ultimate Survivalism

In a crunch, people think of themselves and family first, then work - and only then, then other people.

But in the end, individual survival is pointless - life only counts in a social context. And I suspect we really are all in this together.

...It's not altruistic or idealistic - it's totally pragmatic.

Bedford's new Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) wants to hitchhike on the final urge - it's about neighbors helping neighbors. The MRC was created for emergencies like a pandemic.

Medical Reserve Corps volunteers sought

David Black is imbued with the spirit of Bedford’s colonial Minute Men and Militia. The local public health director is putting out a call for volunteers to serve as members of the town’s first Medical Reserve Corps (MRC).

As Black announced in a Bedford Day letter last fall, the corps was established by President Bush in 2002 "to encourage volunteerism and service nationwide." Its mission is "to assist the community to prepare for and respond to emergencies, as well as promote healthy living throughout the year." The volunteers will be especially valuable in dire situations when "local resources may be quickly overwhelmed."

Here are some examples of the MRC’s health emergency role, as outlined in Black’s Bedford Day announcement: ...Provide medical and mental health support in the event of an influenza pandemic. ..."It's neighbors helping neighbors," Black observed. "When crunch time comes, individuals think first of family. Then they think of work, because that’s the financial resource to keep a family going. Then people think of other people. We hope that there will be some people who will be available to us."

That said - one of my favorite post-apocalypse books is A Gift Upon the Shore.

But the MRC - or something like it - is worth thinking about IMO.





[edit on 28-12-2006 by soficrow]

Originally posted by soficrow
In a crunch, people think of themselves and family first, then work - and only then, then other people.

But in the end, individual survival is pointless - life only counts in a social context. And I suspect we really are all in this together.
[edit on 28-12-2006 by soficrow]

If were talking a mass panic type situation here i would forget work and my only concern for other people would be making sure they kept their mits off my stuff.

Its basic human instinct to try and survive, people will always try no matter what the odds. I imagine a great many people would be quite happy surviving within a small band of people they have come to trust in a survival situation.

As far as this band of volunteers goes i dont think it would be practical, if real crap ever hits the fan they will be going every man for themselves aswell, Even if for a short term they actualy did some good it would be sooner or later become obvious to most that they needed to get out and look after themselves.

I would trust very few of the people i know in a survival situation so if these people tried to 'help' i would tell them where to get off.

its fine for a more 'local' emergancy but in any of the real international emergancy situations that could arrise they would be as useful as a survivalist with a gun and no ammo.

For me,
I purchased an old missile silo complex a few years ago just north of where I live. It is a remote spot that does not have a lot of vegetation around so I can see what / who maybe coming for miles. Since the purchase, I have since stocked it up with food and medical supplies as well as many parts for my vehicle (which will continue to work after an EMP). There is a lot of grain as well as other seeds so that when it was safe to come out, we can start to farm.
The silo has already been harden (thanks to our tax dollars) by the military and the water supply is straight from the aquapher (However it is spelled) We also have generators etc.
In the case of an attack or even a H5N1 virus outbreak, not only my family but four other close friends and their familes know how to get to the shelter as well as how to enter it.
In the end we will have a community of about 50 people and the supplies etc that we have put togehter should be able to keep us going for about a 3 year timespan.
This is about as high of a number of people that I would even consider to bring into a shelter or even be around post disater since in many cases, people today do not know how to survive without all the conforts of modern society and technology.
There is also the problem of panic / rioting and just plain old "Mad Max syndrom" to contend with. My family and I have watched the show Jerico and we have all found it to be lacking in the realism department since everyone (for the most part) is sooperating with each other. Even small disaters have shown that the "spirit of humanity" only will arise AFTER others have had their needs met.
Look at hurricane katrina for instance, the number of violent crimes commited by evacuees doubled and in some cases quadrupled the crime statistics for the cities and states that they were moved to. Katrina has also demonstrated to the world just how corrupt people are both in and out of the goverment. the laest statistics is putting the profiteering costs of katrina as being in excess of 2 billion dollars. yes that includes the lced tv's for the fema tents as well as the charges by many evacuees to various stripper clubs.

The number of people that we have assembled for our shelter is small enough to help prevent cabin fever, yet large enough to not only defend ourselves (all are ex-military with war experience) but also we will have enough people to hae a thriving community only a few months after a disaster. Any more would strain our resources and they would add to the chaos that most people will have to endure to survive.

Wow, 50 huh, that is alot of people.
I obviously dont know these people and maybe you will all work great together but i would be worried about having more than 4 or 5 people, unless you have a clear idea of who is in charge of what then it will go belly up.

Obviously you have bought this with the idea of retreating to it in the event of a crisis but is this not a rather obvious place for people in authority to go looking for you if it were to be people in authority that yu were trying to avoid, and even people who knew it was their and also thought it was a good place to hideout, not knowing you already had it?

Well the number 50 includes all the children as well as the babies.
Authority (pecking order) is no problem since we have all known each other for more than 15 years and we all know where each of us "best fits" in a tight situaton or in a community.
As for authorities looking for us, well we are not hiding so if they decide to search the land titles etc, they could try to put 2 and 2 together, eventually :0. But then again, the autyhorities will have their hands more than a little full in the event of a crisis.
As for other who know of the silo, well first they would have to even remember that there had been "something" there decades ago. Then they would also have to get through the fence, the locks both "key" as well as an larger alpha-numeric pin number in order to enter the facility. The entrances into the facility would require much more than a few sticks of TNT (will not give the thickness of entrance (sorry)) to get through.
We took a great deal of planning into this since we also thought that this maybe a recreation og the old Cold War days and the Cuban missile crisis which as it turned out to be much ado about nothing. So in our plans we ensures that the facility would be able to use after us planners passed on.

Sounds like you're in better shape than 99.9% of the population. I'm sure you've considered that some of those 50 won't make it to the complex. Do you have air purification for nuclear situations? How is humidity/heat effected by that many people. Altough radiation should fall off relatively quickly (with a standard nuke anyway), how do you deal with sewage?