Who is NOT making Survival Preparations...and WHY?

Where I live in the backwoods of Appalachia the majority of people are prepared for survival because it goes along with our daily lives and culture. I haven't done anything special to prepare, but I do already have the equipment and skills needed. Statistically speaking, it's unlikely that I'll see a scenario where it's needed. The most valuable thing I can do is pass along my knowledge to my kids like my father did for me. I would feel comfortable with survival at any time, but I don't have a bug out bag or any other catch phrase that people are cashing in on to sell stuff.

reply to post by jude11


Can't be bothered. Too busy watching the Olympics and living my life.

I found a nice used wood cookstove in good shape today. It cost four hundred bucks and doubled my investment in survival prepping but it will be nice to know if the SHTF that I can easily cook pies and cakes and roasts. Living off of rations would suck without cookies. There is no use suffering when it happens. Next project: Two seater Outhouse. Next year sauna.

reply to post by Dyzan


Your avatar is a cat. Cat's always seem to be half dead but on occasion they get fired up. Cats never prepare for the future and live day to day. Perfect avatar for you.

I have NO money to do anything with. Both me and my g/f live on the knife edge of poverty- what little we DID have, the IRS takes because of something they screwed up.

reply to post by wylekat


Call the IRS and renegotiate your agreement. If the agent you get is uncooperative, call back later until you get a pliable agent. I did---and the difference in my payments is $100 less a month!

cut out your dining out expenses. Every meal eaten at home will save you 50%

I don't really do this but my strategy to deal with a major crisis would be geting several eight balls of BTH from Mexico and stash em until things got real bad, put em all in a spoon and cook up. Throw in the cotton, suck it up into the rig and euthanize myself like a homeless kitten. No pain or suffering for me. Thats last resort only but if you're about to die anyway! Why the heck not?

Originally posted by ballsdeep
I'm throwing a bob together but that's the extent of it; if the world's not over in a year I'll save for some land live off grid for a while but honestly, I think if anything DOES happen; (I think) survival will be based on stupid luck and perhaps your geography and not how many cans and guns a brother can stow away.

Edit - I don't have any reservations about death either, in a sense you could even say I'm excited by the prospect, not of leaving earth - but of a new adventure and that familiar warmth from my pineal. If the planet wants me off it then so be it, I love this earth and her wishes are paramount, if it's aliens.. well I guess I'll shoot back but if they vaporise me then there's not a lot I can do either.
I guess I'm saying the situation is far too out of control already, stressing about controlling its outcome on you and your family seems like a mega waste of energy imo.

edit on 14-4-2011 by ballsdeep because: (no reason given)

I know what your saying, and I can somewhat relate...I will be looking forward to death, whenever it may come.

But I still would like to survive...say SHTF, If i survive, I would really like to see how the world is afterwards. Thats why Im gonna prepare myself, with a Gun, water bottles, water filter, and food and what not. Im gonna try and survive as long as possible.

if we are gone we are gone why prepare for something that might never come to be. We have been here how long why would that change. Sorry but I think we as a people will be here til we leave the planet to explore space or need to leave to find a new planet.

Originally posted by joecool9887
if we are gone we are gone why prepare for something that might never come to be.

Because "being gone" isn't nearly that cut and dried. When a civilization collapses, most of the individual denizens do in fact survive the event; they simply have a rotten quality of life and are at the mercy of whichever local strongman next asserts himself.

The people who do a little bit of preparation are the ones who can assert themselves compared to the rest of the population. If you had been a Jewish when the Gestapo was rounded them up in the Polish ghettos, having a few days' food put back could empower you to hide in a crawlspace or flee to the woods outside of town. Not having food might have led you to get on a train to a concentration camp.

Likewise, after the collapse of Roman authority in 376, 90% of the city's population fled. The ones who had food with them obviously were able to flee further than their neighbors....

We have been here how long why would that change.

Because every dog has its day. The dinosaurs were here 200+ million years, so they say. They tell us we've bee here 3 million. Or maybe you were thinking of our particular Western civilization, which dates from the end of the Black Death in the 15th century---so, 500 years.

Every single civilization before us became extinct. Every single one. but us. We even extinctified some of them personally. But we're completely different, right? We'll be immortal.....

Sorry but I think we as a people will be here til we leave the planet to explore space or need to leave to find a new planet.

Who has ever been documented to have left the planet permanently? Only a few hundred astronauts have ever climbed out of our planet's gravity-well, and that was only for a few dozen hours or days or weeks at a time.

The vast bulk of us aren't going anywhere at all. Even if a few of the human elite do manage to escape the earth's fate, they sure as hell won't be taking the likes of us along with them.

And where will they go? We couldn't even sustain Biosphere I & II in the Arizona desert for a few weeks. We can hardly even build up a speed of 1/1,000th of the speed of light. We'd have to sustain an earth-environment for centuries to arrive at even the nearest desolate star-system. No, your story, and your children's children's stories (assuming you successfully breed), will play out right here on the earth's crust.

reply to post by jude11


I'd be curious to know how many Americans are getting ready as opposed to the rest of the world. I'm Canadian and I don't know anyone that's ready for anything. I don't think that's it's because Americans are more independent from their government. They're not. Anyways, it's always good to be prepared for the worse, to have a plan b but not too much. Like building a bunker. I think the media and the internet contributed to that survivalist trend by focusing on fear. I wonder how many people that watch Alex Jones are getting ready.

I think the media has once again turned to profiteering off of peoples fear. Survival Gear, and Gander Mountain stocks are soaring. So are firearms sales. People across America are inundated daily with show after show on there tv, that is about how to use your basic survival skills, whether the show be an actual documentary or a zombie flick, the product placement and the notion of survival skills being cool is nausiating.

Everyone should have extra food...common sense tells you that

Everyone should have a source of clean water...common sense tells you that, too.

People actually turn off there brains, and let the tv decide whether or not they store away for an emergency. Use your brain, look outside, and see whats really happening. Where you live. Prepare according to your situation, for tomorrow, at the bare minimum.

i am not prepared for long term survival living off the grid, cause i dont want to, i do though carry a USK around with me and im currently stocking up on the small MED-kit i plan on having in it...

else... for urban survival i highly recommend a lock pick set...

but thats because i live in a urban area, bugging in, in city would probably be my best chance for survival.

reply to post by reverandrandy

Everyone should have extra food...common sense tells you that Everyone should have a source of clean water...common sense tells you that, too.

100% correct in thinking my friend.

Food, water and shelter...That's it.

And perhaps a few tools to persuade others to vacate would be in order.

Peace

I am not getting ready for disaster because I do not believe any disaster is imminent. I have been preparing my driveway for winter and to last longer by putting caulk in the cracks. That was a long overdue task. I have a small house and little room to store things. I am working occasionally on cleaning it up. That takes time. I do have a few supplies that I bought to prepare in case of a major ice storm knocking out power and transportation for up to two weeks or longer. Today I noticed Lowe's still had some Black Friday specials sitting on their shelves in the afternoon so I bought a more powerful flashlight and a light for my car in case I get a flat and need a good light without worrying about the flashlight battery being dead.

I am not going out of my way to prepare for the end of the world. I believe the Battle Of Armegeddon will be in either 2055 or 2056. There will likely be many other smaller wars and disasters before then though. After things settle down after the major battle, I expect there will be 1,000 years of peace. That does not sound like the end of the world either. For the doomsday people though, I will offer that I expect over 2/3 of everyone on this planet will die before that 1,000 years of peace gets here.

I believe over 80% of Americans are not even prepared for a power outage lasting longer than a day and are not doing anything about it. For those with a brain that see what happens after a major storm or disaster, you know we can count on our government to have food, shelter, water, etc. ready at everyone's beck and call.
sarcasm.

Originally posted by jude11
Who is NOT making Survival Preparations...

Me.

...and WHY?

I don't plan to survive an apocalyptic scenario.

The world is a harsh, cruel and unforgiving place as it is. There's only a vague semblance of justice and I believe it is a place that can offer you lessons in the darkness...but it is darkness.

To ask me to take up arms, horde food, look the other way when begged for help, and potentially kill other survivors just to...get to another day I guess...that's just not worth it.

I don't want to be one of the "Black-Friday" survivors.

I do believe something cataclysmic is going to happen soon or at least eventually, but I am just going to let it be.
I won't kill myself, I won't kill anyone else, I will just let nature take its course. I've had time to think about it, and there is just the point of acceptance that always comes back to me.

I wish I had more faith in man, or at least had a reason to naively believe in us.

- Lee

Originally posted by reverandrandy

Everyone should have extra food...common sense tells you that

Everyone should have a source of clean water...common sense tells you that, too.

People actually turn off there brains, and let the tv decide whether or not they store away for an emergency.

Well yeah, I agree and do have some emergency supplies. Everyone should.
I thought the OP was talking about a long-term disaster where society has completely fallen apart.

That is something I don't want to fight through.

- Lee

Originally posted by lee anoma
To ask me to take up arms, horde food, look the other way when begged for help, and potentially kill other survivors just to...get to another day I guess...that's just not worth it.

Woah, dude. Where did THAT come from?

"Take up arms?" --you mean join an army, or form a militia? No thanks man; I am not a joiner, and don't want to be around a bunch of joiners with guns. I didn't think that was required, in order to prepare for financial collapse or a solar flare...

What does "hoarding food" (sic) mean? If I buy some extra diapers, so I don't have to go out to the convenience store at 4:00 a.m. and pay top dollar for some huggies, is that "hoarding"? What if I have some food and diapers put back, enough so that I can delay grocery trips for 2 weeks or more, is that hoarding? Just because I don't want to be out in the stores for the two weeks leading up to Christmas?

I don't plan on "looking the other way when begged for help." I have my own garden, from which I contribute to my local food pantry. I'm trying to get a community garden going, to give to that same pantry. My prepping is to HELP my neighbors.

I believe it will be the ones who don't prepare, who will be turning away their own friends and neighbors, because the have "only enough for us." All through the Great Depression, my grandparents never turned away a "hobo" who asked for food. Everyone got at least one meal, even if they were asked to do farm chores in return. My goal is the same, to be able to never turn anyone away.

The thing is, most of those who say they are making no preparations are actually "deniers."

They say that:

1) There will be no crisis
2) The crisis will be so overwhelming they will die instantly.

All I can say to that is

1) There is ALWAYS another crisis; from Fukashima to Sandy; there is always another crisis
2) Almost no one dies instantly. Most humans die of starvation or illness. Starvation takes between 1 and 6 months, while disease can take anywhere from 4 days to about 5 years.

So, making no preparations is actually increasing the odds that you will die a slow lingering death.

That's a real tragedy, since social upheavals almost always catapult a new cohort of individuals from the bottom of society up to its pinnacle. With a bit of foresight and planning, you and your family might emerge from the crisis better off than you are today...

Two things I am not prepared for nor do I believe it would be purposeful,

Large asteroid strike and all out nuclear war.

Everything else I'm good to go!