Survival is a state of mind. . .

Good morning my fellow ATS'ers. I wanted to spend a couple moments talking about something rather important to us all. Survival.

Survival, in the true sense, isn't maintaining the latest Ipad, Iphone and Game Console. It isn't even about electricity, if it comes down to that. Survival is about being as awake, aware and alive today as you were yesterday with every expectation for that to continue into tomorrow. Everything else is a bonus and a freebie to take as luxury if we are in a position where the word "Survival" applies.


Food:

It is not the most pleasant of topics and never will be among civilized society, but the fact of the matter is, the range of human survival is an awesome thing to see as adaptation in nature. People can live almost anywhere and live on or without almost anything.

The truck travels towards a garbage dumpsite, either in Payatas in Quezon City or Smokey Mountain in Tondo, Manila. After the truck has dumped the trash in these garbage sites, the leftovers begin to change its nature: from trash to food. Scavengers would swarm on these morsels like they were gadflies, sometimes even fighting over them.. The food we consider trash becomes for them sustenance.

You may think that it is cruel and inhuman to let people eat food thrown away by others. But that’s the way it is in the poorest slums of Metro Manila. Whatever that can be eaten will be eaten. It is the law of nature. It may be harsh but it is the reality.

(Source: Pagpag: Survival food for the poorest of the poor)

There are Youtubes that describe the better ways to prepare and enjoy Pagpag, and I'm not the least bit joking. For the love of appetite though, I'll leave those out.

Time Magazine has a very powerful piece in a slideshow that shows the range of "plenty" in the West to sustenance food diets in other areas of the world for what is taken as the daily normal. Among a few notable examples:

Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp

Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23
Favorite foods: soup with fresh sheep meat

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Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village

Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03
Family recipe: Mushroom, cheese and pork

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Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide

Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07
Favorite foods: fried potatoes with onions, bacon and herring, fried noodles with eggs and cheese, pizza, vanilla pudding

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Great Britain: The Bainton family of Cllingbourne Ducis

Food expenditure for one week: 155.54 British Pounds or $253.15
Favorite foods: avocado, mayonnaise sandwich, prawn cocktail, chocolate fudge cake with cream

(Source: What the World Eats, Part I)

Food isn't the deciding factor, in my opinion, for who would fare well or may not survive in extended periods of limited or no civil services with limited or no large scale food production and distribution. Whatever causes it, that will be a very defining aspect of daily life....but not a deciding one.

Potable Water:
(If that term leaves ANYONE confused...Please, learn the basics. That IS life/death knowledge)

Water is a whole different matter and there can never be enough said about water filtering solutions being on kitchen shelves. Even consumer Britta filters are well worth having if used with boiling and proper instructions to go along with some gallons of pure and unmodified chlorine bleach. (Too much or a "good dash" of bleach into a gallon of water can kill or make very ill as easily as make water safe to drink...)

Shelter:

Even shelter is not the most critical thing, by any means, in survival. Everything from Sheriff Joe's tent cities standing year around in Arizona, to refugee camps world wide, to primitive living in a shocking range of climates and environments around the world, it's again clear that people CAN live with what is available in many if not most cases. The longer the need, the more problematic that becomes but it's still left as being below the most important thing.

?? So what is the most important thing in survival? Well, it's as simple as it sounds but much harder than it seems.

Individual Mindset

I believe that when it comes down to it, mindset is the single most important factor. A false sense of security and expectation of living comfortably beyond where others can by over preparing can actually be a very harmful thing and not at all helpful. ( Now that is not at all to suggest that preparing isn't a wise thing. Everyone should have 3-6 months of food, water and basic supplies for hygiene and first aid. ) That's a given as just common sense in life, regardless of future expectations. (Natural Disasters happen... or meteors fall when no one is looking.. ) It's the going over-board that I think leads some to feeling secure when that is the worst mindset to enter a true SHFTF or disaster situation with.

Among those at ATS who have lived through serious hardship or disaster or strife in their lifetimes, how many of those incidents went anything remotely like what you would or might have thought before the actual event, whatever it may have been?

- Factors

What factors may bring a survival situation? War? Civil Unrest? Natural Disaster? Food Interruption? Water Contamination or Industrial accidents? Some of those make supplies in place a good thing. In fact, a life and death thing.

Some of those will mean immediate abandonment and flight in an unknowable direction for advance planning.

In the long term, if a long term would be a part of it, one factor remains a constant. Even the BEST prepared people in the world will exhaust those pre-stocked supplies, eventually. Likely, more quickly than ever expected before hand.


So in general, I want to add this direction of thinking to what everyone considers in the topic.

Mindset to survive, whatever that takes, while protecting those closest you each of us, is what may very well matter most and separate many in the end. Mindset on a daily basis for "Situational Awareness" is more important and there is NO replacement for thinking things out before a reaction is required. (Where are the exits in this new place? What seating affords a look toward the door and likely source of anything worth seeing while there? ...etc)

Books have been written and studies done regarding the odds and outcomes to those who think that way daily and live through a disaster vs. those who never consider life below daily norms or with unexpected events.

Survival would seem to favor the mentally prepared above the physically prepared. I hope both are given consideration but only one can't be taken or lost and matters right from the opening moments to the end of whatever has happened. It's also the one that can't well be replaced after it's all started to go badly.

Mindset is exactly what everyone should be leaning towards. I know I have the mindset to do this, along with alot of the skills required, however, my wife and children do not, nor have I even started teaching them. I am taking them camping, and they are going to experience a taste of this. I say a taste, because we will not be hunting for our own food, although gathering and fishing will compliment what I will bring. Also, no electronic gaming devices.
Great thread Wrabbit!

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

I believe that when it comes down to it, mindset is the single most important factor. A false sense of security and expectation of living comfortably beyond where others can by over preparing can actually be a very harmful thing and not at all helpful.

I couldn't agree more. When we take our long hikes, usually 5-10 days, we always take a third person. Choosing this person is always tricky because all our friends want to hike with us but very few have the right mindset. We have rules of behavior on the trail, the first rule is no complaining. Every time someone breaks this rule, we sneak a rock into their backpack.

Among those at ATS who have lived through serious hardship or disaster or strife in their lifetimes, how many of those incidents went anything remotely like what you would or might have thought before the actual event, whatever it may have been?

Having all our camping gear put us ahead of the curve during Katrina, but there were certainly things we didn't expect and we found ourselves lacking. The most notable was mosquito repellant.

For me personally, it was the lack of music. I know that would not be a priority for many but at night it really helps the time pass and kept every ones spirits up. We met a guy with a guitar and he only knew about ten songs but we took care of this guy like he was royalty.

Lots of good advice and info Wrabbit
s&f

You can have all the survival supplies in the world, but if you think your doomed, you dont have a shot.

I am lucky enough to have the mindset, but fear for those who think otherwise. I come from NYC born and raised and would never had thought most survival techniques even possible in my past conditions. Those that need the most information are those in the projects, large urban areas, and mostly those that have never really been outdoors.

You dont need to have land to have cmmon sense. Those that fear the reactions of people that have no survival skills (not the one that we all have internally) are the ones that will use urban survival in a "natural" survival setting. People need to wake up.. and soon.

S&F

Peace, NRE.

Couldn't agree more. Look at stories from survivors of the Holocaust or POW camps. It's also common that many survivors, while amidst their immediate hellish situations, focused their attention on helping others in the same horrid conditions which helped them and others. There is a lot to be said about attitude and survival. That's another reason it is disheartening to see so many people on anti-depressants. It will be ten-fold on them when they go through hard times, even with family and/or friends for comfort. Without their meds, they will have one heck of a long drop, many will not survive. Not saying only people on anti-depressants will fail, but that it is a strike against them succeeding surviving.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


NIcely done.

Mindset is the key to survival. Proper mindset allows you to do everything.

It's not the tools. Though useful, they don't use themselves.

My dad taught me that. The mindset of "I will not fail. I will survive.". With that? You can make the tools. Get potable water. Find food anywhere.

Mind set is all.