If you polled a group of people about what ‘survivalists’ or ‘preppers’ do, I would wager that the majority of answers are something along the lines of ‘they prepare to survive and live through the end of the world (or some flavor of it).” Now, this is a reasonable, albeit uninformed, opinion to have. I mean, we have camouflage, guns, ammo, bunkers, night vision, freeze dried food, livestock, gold coins, etc, etc. These are things that, normally, are kinda regarded as ‘end of the world’ items. Apocalypse is nigh? Get thee some chickens and rabbits. That sort of thing.
But I disagree. You, right here right now, are engaged in survivalist activity. When everyone is driving their car down to ‘E’, you’re never letting it get below half-full (or half-empty, I suppose). When people blissfully walk out the door of their houses unarmed, you’re slipping some thundertoy in your pocket. They’re buying jet skis and big screens, you’re paying off debt and saving cash. In short, even before the bombs drop and the pathogens spread, you’re engaged in various acts of survivalism.
Survivalism is giving yourself as much advantage as possible for when something big and bad happens. If we were to sum up the nature of survivalism in one word, one idea, it would be resilience. For most anticipated unfortunate events we can’t be 100% proofed against them..a lot of that stuff is out of our control. But, while we can’t control what happens to us, we can control our response to it.
An example… I worry about being unemployed. I increase my resilience to that by trying to do a good job at work, but also by living within my means, keeping as much money as possible, and making sure I’m ready to go find new work if I have to. By not carrying debt, keeping plenty of cash, and keeping my skills up to date, I increase my resilience to losing a job. Contrast this with someone who lives off their credit cards, spends everything as fast as they get it, and never develop or grow professionally.
Another example…when I take road trips my biggest concern is getting stuck somewhere due to bad road conditions, fuel issues, vehicle problems, etc, etc. I increase my resilience to these threats by carrying water, extra fuel, backpacking gear, food, cash (notice that money is a multitool for pretty much every emergency), and that sort of thing. Contrast this with someone who just blithely hops in their truck for a four-hour drive and winds up running out of gas when the gas stations are closed, gets stuck on a closed highway due to snow, or winds up on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere with a busted u-joint.
The message I’m trying to communicate here is that as a survivalist, you aren’t engaging in survivalist activities after the bombs drop, but that you’re actually engaged in them pretty much 24/7 in your pre-TEOTWAWKI life.
Or..at least…you should be.
Here’s a truth that you can absolutely bank on: before the big EOTWAWKI happens you will face many smaller, personal ones. You may be in one right now. What do they look like? Job loss, divorce, medical emergency, foreclosure, busted transmissions, leaky water heaters, tennis-ball-swallowing dogs, vulnerable loved ones, home invasions, unexpected expenses, 2am phone calls, and a thousand other crises that mean nothing to everyone else but are paramount to you because they are happening to you.
THIS is going to happen ALOT more often…..
…than THIS.
But if you’re a bit prepared for those events…youve increased your resilience against them…then, guess what, they aren’t EOTWAWKI events. They’re learning experiences. Or pains in the ass. Or simply and only…inconveniences. And I will happily trade EOTWAWKI for an inconvenience all day long.
So, moral of the story here – being a survivalist is an every day affair.
Great article and absolutely correct!
Great article.
Unfortunately when done wrong survivalism is just a suburban fantasy excuse to buy a lot of guns.
I’ve never needed an AKM in the continental US, let alone enough AKM’s and ancillary gear to equip a fire team. However there are plenty of times I have needed $500-2,000 for an emergency.
Really even in the bad parts of the world a wad of $100 bills solve problems.
Better yet, hold real money like gold & silver that can be converted to fiat if needed without the counterparty risk of holding paper. Currently, many areas around our world would prefer gold over any U.S. currency.
If you have 10k for your emergency fund you want to protect against inflation PM’s are a reasonable idea.
If you keep a few grand around for a power outage or earthquake it needs to be cash. You won’t be able to change gold at readily in a short term emergency and the local gas station/ Safeway/ motel 6 won’t take gold.
How much getting stuff done in the 3rd world with gold have you actually done? Or are you just theorizing on the interwebs?
You might be surprised how many folks and business establishments will accept PMs for payment. Been to more than a few gas stations with signs stating they will accept pre-1965 silver coinage as payment.
In a previous life I was a defense contractor that traveled frequently around the globe. They all transacted in gold & silver as the norm, especially in the middle east. We were payed in cash and I always enjoyed converting the paper into the local gold and silver coinage.
It seems that America is the only country that doesn’t transact in money, only debt. This is changing though and American’s are finally waking up again to the value of sound money.
This. I’ve had the dubious privilege of traveling the world since it went to hell “post-UKR”. I’ve seen gold and silver, euros and dollars pass with remarkable accuracy way before the local currency. Thing is, these are places that have been invaded over a thousand years. We don’t know the US will adopt precious metals so quickly. We hope. But keep USD because people still believe in them HERE. And that belief is hard to break. Long time reader, back from a long hiatus.
Yup.
Normies and the rest of us… don’t be a normie.
Nice one, CZ.
Besides increasing their resilience, your readers are increasing their self-reliance, which I why I favor the term Self-Reliant as opposed to Prepper.
As we have all heard said more times than we can count, “No one is coming to save you!”
You just described 90% of rural people north of the 45th parallel.
Mainly because lack of resources (money), lack of infrastructure (few stores and “you can’t get there from here”), and a need to not freeze to death for 6 months out of a typical year. Not many plumbers, electricians or heating guys getting to you during a blizzard, or if the power goes out for a week in December, or when temps get past 30 below over the whole region for a while.
Not everybody can take the heat, and not everybody can take the cold. Seems like the cold-dwellers tend to be more skilled, have longer and much more cyclical timelines, and enjoy more homogeneous communities even if they’re more scattered out.
There are plenty of Jacks-of-All-Trades to help the neighbors that deserve the help.
Very good points! I have always just figured it was plan old common sense to be “ready” for issues that will always come up. I just realized that the car we got two years ago now (was at gas station this morning) has never been below a half full fuel tank.
I have enjoyed reading your posts for a while now, but I am always keeping an eye out of something I can share with the wife and the rest of the family, to get them on board!
Thank you
Sadly, this used to be called “common sense”. A little personal responsibility is always needed to prevent an unforeseen crisis instead of wanting for someone to save you. In the world we now accept, these traits are thought of as being passé . if you have not groked the situation in this country by now, you are too late to the party. Knee pads may be you last resort.
Embarrassed to tell you the number of sailors (on food stamps) I had to counsel who blew their meager paychecks on new ‘spinners’ for the ’86 Grand Marquis.
Most people can’t be helped.
Well said, yet again. Yes, the chances of a minor emergency far outweigh the chances of an EOTW scenario. Even a $500 emergency fund makes life a lot less stressful. The only thing I might add is forging a good network of friends/skilled people. Knowing a good plumber/electrician/mechanic/lawyer (!), and have them know you can be priceless. And if you have a skill they might need, so much the better.
Guilty on the professional growth aspect, I tend to consider that the years aren’t many but…it’s true. Never stop learning.
Last year the emergency fund turned a major vehicle repair from a gut wrenching terror to just an expensive irritation. I was able to carry on as normal – and learn that reloading that savings takes willpower. That resilience is a gift to myself that I consider to have a much higher value than the face value of the cash.
Everyone on here gets it and that pleases me. Prepping is a philosophy of life: avoid bad events if possible, mitigate any negative impacts if not. Be able to recover as fast and best as possible (resilience). Always have 4 plans for anything you want to do (PACE) primary, alternate, contingency and emergency. Primary is what you want to do; alternate allows you to hit the same goal if blocked somehow; contingency allows you to exploit favorable circumstances (and achieve a better outcome); emergency allows you to get out with what you have got if everything goes to shit. I have often said that a shoebox full of twenties is more useful than a shoebox full of .50BMG. But, if you can have both, then have both!
Half a shoe-box of each. There are times when a $20 is worth more than all of the .50BMG you can get – and vice versa. I usually use the comparison of a ham sandwich and a gold brick. The one you want depends upon your circumstances at that moment, and most often that moment is not of your choosing.
I’m soon to be 74 – I’m in reasonably good health, but I’ve accepted the fact that if the SHTF, I’m not gonna be around too long after that – and I’ve come to be OK with that – it’s probably not gonna be the kind of life I’d wanna live, anyway. My meds will run out, food runs short or runs out, maybe stuff like electric and water becomes sporadic or stops, and criminal activity arrives at my up-to-this-point peaceful doorstep and my ammo runs out or a superior force takes me out, and the level of effort required to grow my own food and heat my own house and take care of animals and livestock and is more than daunting for me – so before I turn into someone like the guy in “The Road”, something or someone will probably take me out of the game – seems better to me than the alternative. BUT, living in the right now, I have no debt, a more-than-adequate and liquid financial base, no mortgage, no real important dependencies on anyone, no other people or hangers-on to take care of, and I’m able to go wherever I want to go and do pretty much whatever I want to do. When my ticket gets punched, I’ll go with the satisfaction of having done more than OK in the here and now.
the best revenge is to live well.
Wrong!
https://youtu.be/NzvFNLAnYNw?si=lDcZV7MgeQO95fkb
Pithy!
Another thought provoking article that gets to the heart of things. I”ve really like reading your stuff for years now. It written in a style that easy to comprehend and that unusual at a lot of blogs.
One question, what do you do as a career?
Amateur gynecologist
So how do YOU handle a yeast infection?
Same way I handle a busted recoil spring: parts swap. Replace coed #1 with spare coed #2.