Fear, or Fantasy

Great post, and all of the responses are thought provoking, informative and eloquently stated...

Survivalism Soul-Searching indeed.

So for me at least, I have to think that the majority of my upbringing played a HUGE factor in my interest in survival in general. Thinking back on it now, it makes sense that I have progressed to the ideals that I have. Quite literally, I was raised in a small town by parents that were (for lack of better vernacular) total hippies, I remember coming home for dinner to find The Doors playing on the stereo, dad playing the guitar and momin the kitchen up some fresh foods from the garden. They would talk all this "crazy stuff" about mother earth news, someone would grab one of the Foxfire volumes.. light an oil lamp and talk about how life was much simpler back then. How time flies.... just like when I got that BB gun..... From Boyscouts and up, to playing wargames with my friends in some wooded area, to growing older becoming more aware of my surroundings... hunting, camping and all other things outdoors.... it all seems like a conditioning of sorts.


It's funny to look back on really, I was really given a free reign to do what ever I chose to do, and what believe in. I was never forced into any belief structure or "popular culture" so to speak, and for the longest time all of these experiences were a distant memory to me... until some point in time in my later years it all resurfaced. I go back to visit now, and everything has changed... the woods that I grew up in are now filled with urban sprawl, fancy multi-million dollar homes stretching for miles... where I used to play. I think that is when it all came back to me. Enough reminiscing though..... back to the point.


I would consider myself as a realist, seriously I don't by into all of the doomsday scenarios that abound... but I still live by that motto of "be prepared" every day. And truth be told, I was ready to roll out on the eve of Y2K.

It has been awhile, now I'm living in the urban sprawl and working the dreaded 9 to 5 and I may have gotten rusty but recently I sat down and decided to read more on the alternative lifestyle and off-grid living. After reading this post, it really strikes a nerve... after all, the original question remains to me.... and some things become clear.

As survivalists, we are a breed of our own... that I must say. What makes us what we are is many, yet we are few amongst the masses. Some of us wish for a more simpler life, or a more perfect life... some of us wish for large change and prepare for the small changes.

For some of us, the opposite is true. After all, in time we become new.


To all,
One thing has me thinking here, and that is the possibility of the existence of a...

Self-Inflicted-Sit-X



Lets just say we are a collective consciousness, wishing for change in a dramatic kind of way. If enough people in the channels are thinking of and visualizing a TEOWAWKI
scenario, could it be likely that we would create it ourselves?

Or is is more plausible to say, we survivalists are just a little more in tune to our needs as a species, and not our wants. Psychology of the survivalists.... eh? Could be a great topic indeed! Try to see the bigger picture here... and let's keep this going.


enough rant, it's miller time.


starred and flagged from me.

T-9

Originally posted by angryamerican
its the every day Joe. especially the ones I work with. Sometimes its the same people who ask it over and over again. They just don't get it, it seems as tho they want to but something is holding them back so they keep asking.

From a psychological standpoint . . .

They subconsciously perceive you're being "different," as a refutation of their lifestyle. That can be true for any social issue, whether its politics, sexual orientation, etc. Being different is tantamount to saying "you're wrong," and the more profound the issue, the more threatening you seem.

The fact that you prepare for possible hard times is a threat to their mantra that 'nothing will happen.'

Remember the fable of the grasshopper and the ant? The ant works all summer digging a hole and storing food, while the grasshopper naps. Guess who freezes to death when cold weather sets in.

It's a fact of human nature that the grasshoppers are always nasty to the ants. It's like Noah's neighbors, once he started building the ark

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