Oh, where to start, where to start...
I guess the first thing is, don't be quiet! I did the S&F thing after the first few posts. The OP hit the nail on the head, it's the will to survive
that allows one to survive, not a bunch of storehouses or technological gadgets. A stockpile of guns and ammo is fine if SitX is you in a foxhole
surrounded by the Russian Army. If you're facing me, thanks for the weapons.
Second thing, Dan Tanna, you are the one person I would want to meet (or maybe not want to meet?
) in a life-or-death struggle. I appreciate your
attitude and your intensity. Keep it up. I see the survival forum as a place to pick up a few pointers, sure, but moreso a place to try and spread the
info I have about surviving. This in hopes that someone else will make it (I'd hate to have to rebuild society alone.
). Your posts assist me in
both ways.
No one here knows what a SitX situation will be. We are discussing something that could range from loss of cable TV and having to drive an older car,
to living in a mudhole and eating dirt while dodging heavy arms fire. I think far too many people have never had the experience of losing everything,
of starting again from scratch, without help from anyone. That's a mind-chiller that will make you sit down, hang your head, and wait to die.
As for Survivor Man, oh, yeah, he'll survive for a while. Long enough to make a fresh meal for something, anyway. The guy is a fool; on one episode
in the Everglades, he stepped right over some perfect catfish bait while complaining about how he can't catch fish. Then he decided to build a
raft... I was laughing my butt off as it fell apart at the first drop of moisture. The man was surrounded by food and shelter-building materials, and
had a carefully-selected bunch of tools; apparently he didn't know how to use them properly. Then he complained about 'having' to eat snake, one of
the best meats I know of (next to fried alligator tail)!
What will make the difference between living and dying will be the ability to see things for what they really are: is the thing you are after a need
or a luxury? Can you eat things like bark, leaves, roots, and not worry about having some soda to wash it all down? Do you know what to eat? Some of
that stuff is nutritious, and some is deadly. Can you throw off societal values that are suddenly no longer applicable? Can you steal for survival
without being seen, can you forego a free cache of food that is actually a trap, can you eat a fallen competitor? More importantly, will you?
Can you kill another human while looking in his eyes? That's the 'look' that was mentioned earlier, that gaze that shows you are no longer
considered human, but just another annoyance in the way. It can take years to get to that point mentally, or it can take military training. That's
more than practice at killing; they literally tear you down mentally so they can put you back together. It's the same look we all get when we kill a
mosquito or a cockroach. It is really only scary when it is directed at you, when you become the cockroach.
And perhaps even more importantly, can you turn it on and off? Can you go from being a normal, caring individual in a society to an animal bent on
survival at all costs? That will bring the most casualties of any SitX, when people are trying to change and adapt. The harsher the conditions, the
harder it will be for people to make that leap, and the more will die trying. They will be the lucky ones; the real horror tales will come later, when
the loneliness sets in and that need for social companionship becomes so great. The numbers will be less, but the toll that can take on a human being
is too awful to put into words.
No, please don't be quiet. Keep screaming your message loud and clear. I have come to feel a kinship to a great many of those in this forum as well,
and I want all of you to survive so we can perhaps meet again on the other side.
There
will be the other side. Just never forget that.
TheRedneck
awesome!
