What's the story with survivalism?

Einhard

So I've been a lurker on this thread over the past few months. I find the topics and responses interesting and often fun, but I can't help be slightly bemused as to peoples' motivation for the whole survivalism things. I can understand the attraction of having the gear and engaging in an interesting hobby, but it sometimes seems as if people are really preparing for some sort of apocalyptic scenario, and that their preparations are in deadly earnest. Is that the case? Are people seriously preparing for such a eventuality? Or is it just all a bit of fun? And if it's the former, what is the likelihood of such an event, and what form do you think it will take?

Appreciate the answers.

Doc Ruby

Well on the likelihood of a serious collapse of society: yes of course its possible. Not particularly probable, especially for such a powerful and advanced civilisation as our own, but I'm sure plenty of other civilisations historically felt similarly before they vanished. Nature is a mother alright.

If I had to put a name on it, the two most likely collapse scenarios would be contagion and methane clathrates popping, with terrorists or rogue states using high altitude EMP bombs as a distant outlier.

For myself I enjoy the outdoors a great deal, I like camping and hiking, hunting and fishing when I can get them, and I like knowing these skills in case I ever need them. I prefer that they be dual use of course, so I can use them in situations other than a total collapse, but remember even in "normal" emergencies, these can be handy.

It doesn't have to be the end of the world, just the end of the world for you.

nuub

I agree with Doc_Ruby I enjoy hunting,fishing and bushcraft these are hobbies albeit useful ones.
But I am more of a 72 hour prepper and think in this day and age you would not have to survive much longer than that pending a natural disaster for which you can only prep so much for with out building a bomb shelter or other extremes but in Ireland there is not much call for this.

Plus it compliments the hobbies I already have. Another reason for my survivalism interest is IMO the fact that we have become to dependent on other ppl to support and if a link in he change was removed we would be held to rites for example the higher the price of food you have less money, the charge for water and there is nothing you can do bar pay them.

I got tired of this mentality and decided just to become a little less dependent on the system and have come to realize that it may well fail and having a back up plan never hurts.

It would not take much for me to go "off grid" if they made RFID chips mandatory and that is plausible then BOOM hills of Donegal here I come!

But I will post the exact quote that made me start to think. its from a book i read as a teenager

"There existed no need to build a physical paradise or a paradise of the mind — we could see the actuality all around us. And the price we paid was the price men have always paid for achieving a paradise in this life — we went soft, we lost our edge."

GCU Flexible Demeanour

My interest is far more recent - I've only recently posted in this forum - although I've been getting interested in related things for a while. I'm not really bothered about an apocalypse scenario. However, I do feel that a slow economic decline is inevitable. I wouldn't be surprised if, for the sake of argument, we found domestic power cuts becoming a fact of life in the face of rising energy costs. Similarly, I wouldn't be surprised if products that we currently import cheaply were to become less affordable.

So, for me, the interest is in learning skills and acquiring tools and capacity that make life more resilient. I'd say the recent bad winters woke me up to the need to make some changes. And its far from being a chore; I've grown veg in my small back garden, and that's a good hobby in itself. The whole family get a kick out of eating spuds that they've watched growing, and peas they've picked and popped from the pod.

mawk

For me personally it gives a feeling of security. I feel better knowing that when day to day tits uppery happens I can deal with it.
For example;Out in the sticks on Saturday gone when a friend took a spill and got his hand cut open off some rocks. I had the survival tin with me so it could be cleaned off with some alcohol and tended with steri strips and plasters.

Not like he was going to lose his hand or anything serious at all. But 5 minutes of thought a few months ago really helped the situation.

Those kind of small payoffs are why I prepare for things.

Unsinnig

Flooding all around Ireland, some crazy storms on the west coast, tainted drinking water in Dublin and Limerick. All examples of small, current events where "survival" skills come in handy. There's some consolation in knowing that I have the skills and tools to not be affected by the drinking water situation in Dublin, unlike large swathes of the population. As previously stated, something small like that can be the "end of the world" for someone, if only for a day or two. Why not be prepped?

evilmonkee

I have an interest in survivalism from multiple perspectives:

1. Theory, if a disaster does set in, how will humanity function? I don't believe that the world will collapse anytime soon but its an interesting topic to discuss.

2. I have a keen interest in the outdoors, hiking, growing, diy etc. a lot of the skills lend themselves to this, for example survival kit is necessary when hiking.

3. "Beprepared" in general. power cut? I've a torch on my keys and candles/ torch stored inside the back door. Need First Aid? I've a kit in the car, a large one in the house and asprin in my wallet.

4. The possiblity of a "disaster", such as the recent bans on drinking tapwater in parts of dublin, the freeze a couple of winters ago, house flooding etc. are not far fetched.

I think what can get lost in translation is the idea of a "disaster", this doesnt necessarily mean TEOTWAWKI. But simple things such as cutting your hand, power out, contaminated water, car break down, loss of your wallet etc.

Einhard

Thanks for the replies. It's an interesting subject alright, and I like watching Ray Mears do his thing. Wouldn't mind getting into it myself, and it would be for similar reasons to those mentioned above- an interesting hobby, being more prepared in localised, small scale scenarios.

eth0

The place might not be about to collapse but there isn't much of a hint even of good times awaiting us.

bonniebede

For me there are a number of issues.

Be prepared mentality, for the small scale local things. Like recently they dug up the local mains and though they always say when the water is going off we got no warning of muddy undrinkable water all of a sudden - no problem if you have a few litres stored away. As others have mentioned, snow, flooding, small first aid etc etc, why not be prepared?

Also some things can be a big disaster on a personal scale - house fire, heart attack, car accident. We tend to think they will happen to someone else, but it could be you.

Secondly i think our human environment would be better if we rebuilt some of the family and local networks we have lost in the move to mass urban living. So being more self sufficient, even at a hobby level for me i hope will translate to a slightly slower, healthier, more active way of life. Can't see myself becoming an all out self sufficient small holder, in fact that would probably kill me, but a few more afternoons in the garden could do the physique wonders.:rolleyes: I lose interest in just cutting grass, so am developing an interest in a bit of veg and composting and the like.

I would like to do more hiking and camping, and hope to build this up with some friends kids who are just coming up to the age of being able to join in. A good walk for me, a chance to teach them some skills while having fun, and a break for the friends by babysitting for the afternoon, its a win win.

Self defense skills - if we're going to invest in mass schooling why is this not on the agenda????

I expect religious persecution to grow generally, and particularly in this country, the more you can live quietly and self-sufficiently the better, i think.

Mass extinction of human population through infection? A very long shot - but I would rather be a survivor nonetheless.

One thing I do think these mostly mental prepping 'games' do is keep to the front of your mind that YOU have to take responsibility for your safety.
I am always mindful of people who survived - plane crashes, ferry rollovers, fires in large buildings etc becasue they were alert to danger and got out, while others who were seated beside them chattered, and wondered and did nothing an perished. I was in a hotel last year, on the third floor ( I usually refuse rooms at that height) when the alarm went off. It was interesting to see how few people responded, including the staff. It was a false alarm, but I would still rather exit the building as i did, than find out to late that it wasn't a false alarm. The fire brigade will ber out tonight - if it was your house would you have a smoke hood to hand? A fire extinguisher, escape blanket, practised escape route and technique, some way of getting down from higher floors? not to mention smoke alarm?

Finally i would say that the fun of prepping is that it overlaps lots of areas of interest, say garden foraging hunting, with crafts, planning, finances, etc and it gives an edge of purposefulness to these things, even if only practised and enjoyed at a hobby level.

bonniebede

Did i mention fun? without calculating the probabilities it is theoretically possible that the zombies are coming.:rolleyes:

Tabnabs

bonniebede wrote: »

One thing I do think these mostly mental prepping 'games' do is keep to the front of your mind that YOU have to take responsibility for your safety.
I am always mindful of people who survived - plane crashes, ferry rollovers, fires in large buildings etc becasue they were alert to danger and got out, while others who were seated beside them chattered, and wondered and did nothing an perished. I was in a hotel last year, on the third floor ( I usually refuse rooms at that height) when the alarm went off. It was interesting to see how few people responded, including the staff. It was a false alarm, but I would still rather exit the building as i did, than find out to late that it wasn't a false alarm. The fire brigade will ber out tonight - if it was your house would you have a smoke hood to hand? A fire extinguisher, escape blanket, practised escape route and technique, some way of getting down from higher floors? not to mention smoke alarm?

LOL, I do similar things. When I take a flight, I always reach under the seat to confirm the lifejacket strap is there and ready to be pulled out. In hotel rooms, I look at the fire escape drawing on he back of the bedroom door and see if it's left hand on the wall or right hand on the wall to get to the emergency exit in a dark or smoke filled corridor. Always have your shoes beside the bed in case you have to leave over broken glass.

Small things like that whereby a little mental preparation can make a world of difference.

bonniebede

Tabnabs wrote: »

LOL, I do similar things. When I take a flight, I always reach under the seat to confirm the lifejacket strap is there and ready to be pulled out. In hotel rooms, I look at the fire escape drawing on he back of the bedroom door and see if it's left hand on the wall or right hand on the wall to get to the emergency exit in a dark or smoke filled corridor. Always have your shoes beside the bed in case you have to leave over broken glass.

Small things like that whereby a little mental preparation can make a world of difference.

Yep, I always walk the fire escape route from a hotel - I have got to the bottom of a stairwell and found the door chained.

Deerhound

I have always been theoutdoors type. My father taught me tracking, trapping and snares from as farback as I can remember. I spent most of my summer holidays with a rod in myhand or running wild around the countryside.

In the 80’s like somany others I went to the States. Through friends I made there I learned toshoot and hunt and got into bushcraft and studied herblore. I was lucky enoughto get a Green Card and through my job I got EMT-Paramedic training andadvanced weapon training but my first love was always the great outdoors.

You might ask what doesthis have to do with survivalism/prepping and how I got into it, well thathappened in September 1989. I was working in the Caribbean on St John in the USVirgin Islands a beautiful paradise of an island. It is 9 miles long and 3miles wide with a population of about 4000 and about 75% of the island wasuntouched national park. There are no rivers on the island so all the housesare built on cisterns to store rainwater and the water is then filtered fordrinking, cooking and washing.

Again what has that to do withsurvivalism/prepping. Well in the middle of September ‘89 one Hurricane Hugowent straight through us and a load of other islands and then went on to takeout a whole chunk of the east of the US for good measure. We were given lessthan 24 hours’ notice but we managed to get a load of food before the shelveswere empty. I won’t bore you with the gory details of the next 36 hours of hellthat I and my friends lived through but when it was all over we had losteverything except the clothes we were wearing and whatever we had in ourpockets. 90% of the buildings on the island were gone and all the powergenerators, transformers and powerlines were wiped out. The house I was livingin was one of those erased and all our food was gone. The same went for a lotmore people.

A dawn to dusk curfewwas imposed but because of my EMT and firearm training I was made a policeofficer for the duration of the emergency. There were emergency stores of foodand supplies on the island for disasters but when they were opened it was foundthat at least half of them had gone “missing”. Through the police emergencyradio we found out that our only link to the larger island of St Thomas, theferry, was badly damaged when it was driven aground. A lot of St Thomas emergencysupplies were “missing” too.

We were all issued 4days of MRE’s and told that more would be arriving soon. We had plenty of waterfrom the cisterns but even if the building was still standing you had no powerto pump it or run the filters. We had plenty of wood to boil the water from thedowned buildings but you couldn’t cook with it because it was all pressure treated.We were given two more days of MRE’s and told to make them last because therewere no more until we got aid from outside. From the radio we found out thatthe National Guard were making good use of the curfew to loot every buildingstill standing on the other islands, luckily we were too small to have aNational Guard detachment but I wouldn’t like to vouch for the regular policeofficers whereabouts during the night. We also heard that the States gothammered by Hugo and all the aid was going to them first, we were on our own.

Myself and friendsfound out from the local “herb” growers where and what plants in the park wereedible apart from the usual coconuts and bananas. Some of the feathered orfurry residents of the park made it into our cooking pots and once the watercleared we added fish to our diet.

What amazed me was theamount of people that as soon as the sun came up would make their way to theferry dock, the civil defence station or the churches looking for food hand-outs.In my “job” as a cop most of our shifts were spent breaking up fights over foodor dealing with the theft of food. Now we were far from being the only peoplecatching or gathering food but the vast majority thought that they should justhave it handed to them on a plate, some others needless to say thought thatthey just had the right to take what they wanted.

Another thing that reallysticks out in my memory were all the interviews we heard from the Americanradio stations by the government of the USVI telling everyone how bad thingswere for us and how much we needed help but for 26 days not one official of anykind managed to find his way to our little island to officially tell usanything. Then a whole load of them showed up to tell us that supplies wouldsoon be arriving. What they forgot to tell us was that the supplies had made itto St Thomas three days before but were only making it to us now. It tookanother 8 weeks to get power back.

I learned a lot abouthuman nature during this time both good and bad. I learned to put my faith inmyself and those others that I trust, not in governments or agencies or any oftheir underlings. And rule of law is only good as long as there is enough strengthto enforce it.

This is why I prepare,not because another hurricane might go over me but for all the other thingsthat could go wrong. I am now a husband and a father and have a duty of carefor my family, that more than anything else I will not entrust to others.

KrustyBurger

I can't say I'm a prepper although I have some rudimentary supplies. I'm a regular reader of this forum and I wish I had had half the skills that some of the people on here have.

There's nothing wrong with preparing for an emergency be that a few days stuck in your house because of the weather or counting the seats to the nearest exit in an airplane. You'd be stupid not to.

Learning which plants are edible is an easily carried skill.

Knowing how to make an emergency shelter or how to start a fire, find food etc are great skills to have.

Being prepared is a wise course of action. You just never know when you'll need them.

In response to the OP,

It's 99% hobby for me - I love hunting, fishing, foraging (home brewing! ) and growing my own food.

The chances of civilisation collapsing are obviously quite remote - but it conceivably could happen. I'm happy knowing I've some core skills that would help me out in that scenario.

Druss.

Blog:
www.huntforageharvest.com

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/#!/druss_rua

Please "Like" my Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/HuntForageHarvest

nuub

I would love to learn about the native edible plants of Ireland any advice on books or places to go, besides expensive bushcraft centers?

We should be thought this in school. My wife is Swedish and she knows nearly
every dam plant that is edible in Sweden and was thought it in school and can transfer it to some plants over here:eek:

Unsinnig

nuub wrote: »

I would love to learn about the native edible plants of Ireland any advice on books or places to go, besides expensive bushcraft centers?

We should be thought this in school. My wife is Swedish and she knows nearly
every dam plant that is edible in Sweden and was thought it in school and can transfer it to some plants over here:eek:

The Collin's Gem book "Food For Free" is a great start, and won't hurt the wallet at all (I picked mine up off Amazon for €4 delivered, in almost new condition)

nuub

Thanks very much for that. All you need is for someone to point you in the rite direction

Rhinocharge

Einhard wrote: »

So I've been a lurker on this thread over the past few months. I find the topics and responses interesting and often fun, but I can't help be slightly bemused as to peoples' motivation for the whole survivalism things. I can understand the attraction of having the gear and engaging in an interesting hobby, but it sometimes seems as if people are really preparing for some sort of apocalyptic scenario, and that their preparations are in deadly earnest. Is that the case? Are people seriously preparing for such a eventuality? Or is it just all a bit of fun? And if it's the former, what is the likelihood of such an event, and what form do you think it will take?

Appreciate the answers.

Best case scenario this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89OQAT3dDM0&feature=share&list=UL89OQAT3dDM0