(Reuters) – When Patty Tegeler looks out the window of her home overlooking the Appalachian Mountains in southwestern Virginia, she sees trouble on the horizon.
Tegeler is among a growing subculture of Americans who refer to themselves informally as “preppers.” Some are driven by a fear of imminent societal collapse, others are worried about terrorism, and many have a vague concern that an escalating series of natural disasters is leading to some type of environmental cataclysm.
“IN AN INSTANT, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN,”
SHE TOLD REUTERS. “AND I FIRMLY BELIEVE
THAT YOU HAVE TO BE PREPARED.”
“I think this economy is about to fall apart,” she said. A wide range of vendors market products to preppers, mainly online. They sell everything from water tanks to guns to survival skills. Conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck seems to preach preppers’ message when he tells listeners: “It’s never too late to prepare for the end of the world as we know it.”
“Unfortunately, given the increasing complexity and fragility of our modern technological society, the chances of a societal collapse are increasing year after year,” said author James Wesley Rawles, whose Survival Blog is considered the guiding light of the prepper movement.
Tegeler, who recalls being hit by tornadoes and floods in her southwestern Virginia home, said that none of her “survival center” products will go to waste.
“I think it’s silly not to be prepared,” she said. “After all, anything can happen.”
(Reuters) – When Patty Tegeler looks out the window of her home overlooking the Appalachian Mountains in southwestern Virginia, she sees trouble on the horizon.
Tegeler is among a growing subculture of Americans who refer to themselves informally as “preppers.” Some are driven by a fear of imminent societal collapse, others are worried about terrorism, and many have a vague concern that an escalating series of natural disasters is leading to some type of environmental cataclysm.
“IN AN INSTANT, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN,”
SHE TOLD REUTERS. “AND I FIRMLY BELIEVE
THAT YOU HAVE TO BE PREPARED.”
“I think this economy is about to fall apart,” she said. A wide range of vendors market products to preppers, mainly online. They sell everything from water tanks to guns to survival skills. Conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck seems to preach preppers’ message when he tells listeners: “It’s never too late to prepare for the end of the world as we know it.”
“Unfortunately, given the increasing complexity and fragility of our modern technological society, the chances of a societal collapse are increasing year after year,” said author James Wesley Rawles, whose Survival Blog is considered the guiding light of the prepper movement.
Tegeler, who recalls being hit by tornadoes and floods in her southwestern Virginia home, said that none of her “survival center” products will go to waste.
“I think it’s silly not to be prepared,” she said. “After all, anything can happen.”
Living in the time of the end
“Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ” Luke 21:26,27
How to Survive The Collapse of Civilization
Total social breakdown. Major cities gone. The complete collapse of civilization. How will you survive in a land with no government or local police? Communities, survivors left to fend for themselves.
First, though, remember that total social breakdown is defined by instability
After a woman broke into a Japanese kindergarten back in 2001 and injured a female teacher with a knife, there was a public outcry. Simply put, the kinds of violence that have become, unfortunately, somewhat commonplace in the United States had never been so in Japan. Along with this, Masao Omura, a criminal psychiatrist at Nihon University in Tokyo, said the following after the event.
“Socio-political and economic instability trigger psychological instability or uncertainty, and all this, I believe, is contributing a great deal to the rising brutal crime (in Japan).”
Unfortunately, if daily stresses and events of the world today can set off psychological instability, so, certainly, can a mass issue that causes our social networking and power structure to collapse.
Understatement of the century, right?
Thus, in order to keep civilization civilized, people would need to do everything in their power to bring stability back. That would involve some priority considerations.
Priorities considerations in the event of total social breakdown
(the order here doesn’t matter, as it could conceivably change greatly depending on the situation)
Find food and water – If you are someone that believes the world is on the doorstep of Armageddon or could be in for some tough years ahead, you may want to plan for this one in advance. If everything breaks down, one of the first things you’ll need is an immediate supply of food and water.
Best case scenario: you thought about this before the problem and have emergency supplies on hand at your home and / or office. This will help you get through that first week or two.
If not, this could conceivably become the first order of business. Sustain yourself for long enough to come up with a plan. By the way, in speaking of a long term plan…
Find a group (if there is one available to you )- Under circumstances where complete social chaos is reigning, you might not want to be by yourself. First, there’s physical safety in numbers (on Jericho there have been several situations where outsiders have come to the town intent on doing folks harm; on Lost, of course, there’s the Others).
Regardless, a group will help you protect your family and yourself when and if further danger arises.
Beyond that, group membership will help to meet your need to belong later. That’s right, like the world famous psychologist Abraham Maslow has indicated, all human beings need to feel as if they belong and are safe.
How To Really Prepare For Long Term Collapse
Certainly a very deep pantry will feed us for a time directly proportional to the ‘deepness’ of that pantry. Certainly all that we have acquired will help us during the aftermath and unfolding of time.
However when we’re talking about a long term collapse, a time in which life as we know will be drastically changed for a year or more (forever?), then we’re talking about something that goes way beyond just our preps. We cannot simply prepare for such a time by deepening our pantry. While this WILL buy us time, the fact is that we will never be fully prepared in this way.
The key to ‘really’ preparing for a long term collapse is successful adaptability to changing circumstances. Resourcefulness. “To make everything out of anything”. Preppers do spend a lot of time (me included) building up stores of goods and supplies which will indeed create a ‘bubble of normalcy’ around us if and when we need it. There’s nothing wrong with that! This bubble that we’ve created for ourselves will get us through most ‘disasters’ until such time that life returns to ‘normal’.
However it is extremely important to look outside that bubble in preparation for a major event, a collapse of life as we know it today. If you are preparing for this, then you must look towards a means of self-sufficiency and safety/security.
If you become self-sufficient (be it just yourself or with a group) and if you remain safe and secure in this self-sufficiency, then you will more likely survive. Awhile ago I wrote the article, “Survival Skills Of The Great Depression Era”, which listed things like frugality, homestead and farming skills, handyman, mechanic, and health care as some of the valued skill sets during that time.
Prior to that I wrote the article, “Practical Skills That People Once Knew”, which listed attributes such as Woodworking, Metalwork, Hand tools, Carpentry, Cooking, Sewing, Gardening, Raising chickens for eggs and meat, Foraging, Canning, food preservation, Hunting, Trapping, Raising farm animals, Tree-cutting, firewood, Butcher, Baker, and Candle stick maker…
As I’m sure you’re beginning to see, the point I’m making is that in order to really become prepared for a long term collapse of life as we know it today, then we must get beyond Preparedness-101 and really focus on additional things such as mindset, skills, and adaptability…and put ourselves in a hypothetical position of trying to survive during a time when our infrastructure and supply chains are basically long gone or greatly diminished.
When your own stores run out, then what? When you really think about it on the most very basic of levels, to really survive a long term collapse we must produce enough food (calories) to live. That food must also be preserved for throughout the year. How many of you (us) can actually do that? Do you really know how much food that is? (It’s more than you might think)
If you are interested in preparing for ‘long term’ collapse, then it might be a good idea to start now with your thought process, plans, skill set development, and ‘know-how’.If you really want to survive ‘long term’, then you must be able to adapt, to do it, to find a way to be more self-sufficient. This may involve moving somewhere else and changing your current way of life. Not many will actually do this because it is so disruptive to their current normalcy. It is not comfortable to make such a big change.
Additionally most people do not believe that there will ever be such a time in which our infrastructure, our supply-chains of good and services, or our grocery stores will be disrupted for a long period of time. Our society and way of life has long ago advanced beyond the ‘primitive’ requirements of self-sufficiency (which is actually looked down upon by many) and to actually forego our modern way of life to one of basic self-sufficiency is to take a big step backwards in their minds.
It is inconceivable that all of our technological advancements could some day be disrupted in such severity that their lives will actually be in danger. The system is so big that it seems impossible to fail. It’s unimaginable (to them).
But is it unimaginable to you?
Do you have what it takes to really survive long term?
Do you have what it takes to really survive long term?
(food for thought)
It is true that a disaster of sufficient magnitude to bring on a worst-case-scenario, is less likely to occur than otherwise, the odds are not zero. A black swan event could turn our world upside-down in an instant. So having said that, what are some of the issues we would have to face given a worst case scenario where we would somehow need to survive without our existing working infrastructure for a period of time beyond say, 3 months?
Even well before 3 months, the majority of people will have run out of food. In fact, the majority of the population (since most people live in cities or suburbia surrounding those cities) will run out of food in a few weeks or less. Grocery stores could theoretically be cleaned out in 3 days due to their current ‘just in time’ supply chain. But for the sake of considering the issues of long term survival (after most people’s canned foods, etc. runs out), how will these same people keep themselves alive?
The primary issues as I see them are Water, Food, Security, Trade.
Most of us know that we cannot live without water for very long at all. We take it for granted. It ALWAYS comes out of our faucet. When the day (days, weeks, months) that it doesn’t, this will be the most significant of all shortages and will bring on the most deaths the soonest. Lack of water. The cities of millions upon millions of people will become desperate within days following the last drip of water from their faucets. No water for drinking, cooking, cleaning, flushing the toilets… yes it will be bad. Very bad.
What will be the long term solution? If you live in the city, you will NOT survive unless you get out and find a safer place with water. If you live in suburbia, UNLESS you have well water (most in suburbia do not) and UNLESS you live next to a clean source of water (stream, river, lake), you will NOT survive long term unless you find a safer place with water. Many parts of America will be okay in this regard as their are plenty of regions with regular rainfall and bodies of water. However there are also many parts where this is not the case (you know who you are).
Once we hit ‘long term’, those without adequate security will NOT make it. Very desperate people will do very desperate things, and you WILL become a victim during very desperate times. Once your group is secured with water, food, and security, it’s just like ages gone by… in order to progress from there you will need to trade and barter. The very basics of trading require that you have ‘stuff’ or skills to trade in the first place. The larger the group (community), the more ‘stuff’ and power you will have to get the things you need to begin to bring your lives and comfort level up a notch. It will be community rebuilding – starting over – the great reset.
That’s basically how I see it regarding if we ever are unfortunate enough to have to truly face an apocalyptic ‘long term’ survival in a collapsed modern world. Volumes could be written on the details (and has been written in many books and blogs), but simply understanding the fundamental ‘what if’ and understanding and having solutions for the basic necessity for water, food, and security before one can even begin to consider trade and barter… is what you need to know. ~ Ken Jorgustin
Contributing Sources:
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/retreat-living/long-term-survival-after-tshtf/
How To Really Prepare For Long Term Collapse:
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/survival-skills/how-to-really-prepare-for-long-term-collapse/
http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/american-preppers-get-ready-for-civilizations-collapse/
http://www.prepperfortress.com/how-to-survive-the-collapse-of-civilization/
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