How would you feel if, due to a few small but critical miscalculations, all your prepping efforts came to naught?
This article is to help you gain some perspective on inaccurate assumptions that may derail all your painstaking preparation.
Prepping mistakes won’t only waste time and money but could get you killed.
I am reminded of the Maginot Line. That great wall and concrete barrier the French constructed to keep the Germans out. The speed with which France fell when the Germans invaded is a spectacular example of wasted effort and false security.
And, keep in mind, that French military personnel spent years planning the wall. If professionals can make such glaring mistakes, how can we small folk even hope to plan for disaster or onslaught?
This article will get you thinking about how SHTF could catch your unawares, and help you to think your way through critical decisions that could save your life.
The article challenges assumptions that could lead you down the wrong path and helps you to get a better grip on what post-SHTF reality could look like.
Related: I Lived In A Post-SHTF World For 3 Years, And This Is What I Learned
I have compiled the following as a list of prepping mistakes that could get you killed. I will mention each and then discuss them in general.
Prediction
One of the biggest mistakes that preppers make is that they think they can predict what is going to happen. You may be able to see an SHTF event coming. But witnessing global events and dealing with the specifics as they unfold in your town or on your street are two very different things.
Stockpiling food for 6 months will help almost nothing if you are in an accident on your way to pick up your kid from school, or your daughter is away at college.
While SHTF events may be foreseen, the specific sequence of events is highly speculative at best. Your plan must rather take on the form of a statement of strategy.
A strategic statement that lays a foundation for action. A tactical plan is to have 50 pounds of rice in the basement. A strategy is to ensure that every member of the family can support themselves on the move for 72 hours while making their way to pre-defined rendezvous points.
Another way of looking at this is to ask the following questions: Are you preparing the road for the travelers? Or are you preparing the travelers for any road they may encounter?
Black Swan Events
Another mistake preppers make is to underestimate Black Swan events. The name stems from the belief Europeans had that Black Swans did not exist. Until the first Europeans made their way to China, only to realize that Black Swans were quite numerous!
Since then, the term has been used to indicate events that were believed to be impossible but did occur anyway.
The principle of Black Swan events is that they are almost impossible to foresee. Not only are they in contradiction to expectations, but they are also events that are deemed so unlikely that preparations are not made and precautions are not taken. It’s impossible to prepare for every virtually impossible event.
Expect post SHTF to be full of black swan events.
Your main focus must be the ability to constantly adapt to new circumstances as they unfold. You will be operating with imperfect knowledge in an environment that will challenge you in unexpected ways. The main skill you need. The ability to shift your focus between constantly changing objectives.
The mistake is preparing only for the dangers you deem likely. The way to overcome this is to have a strategy for dealing with the unexpected.
As a side note, the difference between black swan events and prediction (mentioned above) is this. Thinking you can predict events narrows your focus and has you prepping for specific circumstances.
Black Swan events require that you have a plan for events that you don’t think can occur.
Safety and Dangers in Numbers
Many preppers have a roadmap for post SHTF. This often will include concepts for who will be in their group and how large the group will be. This raises the question of how large is the ideal group?
Related: Are you a Community Member or a Lone Wolf Survivalist?
Large groups are great for defense but cannot stay under the radar, and are easily found. They enjoy the benefits of economies of scale and division of labor.
Small groups can stay hidden but are vulnerable. If you are alone, you are your doctor, hairdresser, guard, cook and the list goes on.
Historically, large groups have always fared better, achieved more, and provided greater safety. Individuals are almost always more vulnerable to dangers from outside the group than inside the group.
In an SHTF scenario, you need to make your own choices, but the conclusion above is borne out by historical data. In my mind, it would be a mistake to try and survive on your own.
The mistake to avoid is trying to set up a group post SHTF. Build your tribe in the good times so you know who you are facing the tough times with.
Social Cohesion
Another critical mistake is miscalculating what keeps groups together. You may think its common goals or even benefits to the members of the group. Both these may foster social cohesion, but they will fail in the face of harsh pressure.
The most important characteristics are shared values and beliefs. It explains in part why religions have been so successful in promoting the interest of large groups. It also explains why cults are so effective at retaining certain members. When finding your tribe, make sure that you are in the company of people who share your values.
The current US political situation highlights this point. You would find people at different ends of the political spectrum who place a high premium on what they perceive to be fairness and justice.
You will find people who are focused and physically prepared. But they will not be able to work together due to severe ideological differences.
The mistake to avoid is to have your vision blinded by people who have similar objectives to yours. Long-term thinking dictates cohesion around shared values.
No-One is Coming
One of the worst mistakes you can make is to think that someone else will save you.
Thinking that there is a government agency, military, EMS, or some other group that is preparing to rebuild society and save survivors. Someone could be on their way, but the likelihood is low. Besides, depending on someone coming saving you, is not a plan. Just think about the numbers.
There 3 – 4 police officers for every 1000 members of the general population. This is even less for soldiers, emergency personnel, and other first responders.
In a full-out SHTF scenario, they will also need to save themselves before getting round to saving others.
Don’t factor outside assistance into any part of your survival plans.
Supplies Will Run Out
It’s one of the mistakes to think you can store enough food and supplies to last you indefinitely.
Related: Survival Food – 59 Long-Term Survival Foods and Supplies at the Grocery Store
Even if you store food for 25 years, your supplies will run out. Your strategy needs to depend on storage and production, or you will die soon after your supplies run out. Seeds are an optimal solution, but plants generally have lower nutrient densities than animal products. Particularly concerning protein.
Domesticated animals like cattle and sheep have a tough time surviving without humans. If you are serious about long-term survival, you will need to make provisions for animals.
Hunting wild animals is an option. So is herding. Our forebears use to move their animals with them wherever they went.
Geography is Destiny
Not all places are created equal. The real-estate industry has a mantra that says the three most important things to consider before you buy are: Location, location, and location.
Related: Best States to Buy Your Prepping Property
Historians will also tell you that geography is destiny. This may sound counterintuitive but think about the following. People who live close to the sea become fishermen and seafarers. People who live in mountains don’t build boats, but climb rocks and learn to breathe thin air.
Your short-term vision should include surviving the initial turmoil, but long term, you will need to think about the optimal geographic region where you may want to settle.
It would be one of the mistakes to keep living in a place if that presents less than optimal conditions for survival.
Your relationship to space will also change a lot, when there’s no gas for cars, a region of 10 square miles becomes huge.
Try to settle somewhere close to water and fuel for a fire. Water has the added benefits of fish and also transportation possibilities.
But, the good spots will become cherished, so be ready to defend your turf. Plan your move ahead of time and have more than one option in mind.
Children and Old Folks
Every society is made up of productive members, and non-productive members.
In modern societies, children and old-folk are typically looked after.
In a post SHTF world, scarcity of resources will dictate that all members of a society be productive. It would be a mistake to think that you will be able to look after large numbers of non-productive individuals.
Besides, in small groups that face challenges together, all members will feel compelled to contribute. Find a way to ensure that all members of your group feel worthy by allowing them to contribute to the survival of the group.
Think beforehand about how children and old-folk can contribute. Even if it’s as simple as cleaning and mending.
Teeth and Pain
I mention these three because there are good odds that your thinking is leaning towards storing antibiotics and pain meds. And while that is important, it would be a mistake to stop there.
Health starts with nutrition, and nutrition starts with masticating food. In years gone by, dental health was a good indicator of life expectancy and vitality.
Stock up on toothbrushes and toothpaste, and learn how to take care of your teeth when these items run out.
Bad teeth will lead to malnutrition, weakness, and vulnerability.
Conquering pain was one of the main advances in medicine over the past few hundred years. Aside from stockpiling pain meds, if there is one thing you need to learn how to produce, it’s local anaesthetics.
Related: Dental Care after SHTF
That falls well beyond the scope of this article but will be a worthwhile investment for a post SHTF world. Think off amputations, sutures, re-aligning broken bones, and any form of dentistry.
A distillery is a good way of turning sugars into alcohol which will be extremely important for disinfecting medical instruments and injuries. You can also drink it…just be sure you know what you’re doing.
Nutrition and Health
The internet is currently a battleground of ideologies, and nutrition finds itself sequestered into many of these battles. Many of us make the mistake of confusing ethical considerations for sound nutritional practices. Just remember, ideology doesn’t feed your body.
In a post SHTF world, doctors will be rare and they won’t have drugs to treat you with anyway. Your health will come to depend largely on your nutrition.
Keep in mind, that physical strength and mental acuity will give you an edge over weak and malnourished individuals. Sarcopenia is the wasting of muscle and occurs when protein intake is low or you are living with poor sources of protein. It’s typically age or mobility related, but nutrition also plays a big role.
Potatoes: 100 grams of potato supplies 77 calories and 2 grams of protein.
Eggs: 1 large egg = 57grams of egg and supplies 72 calories and 7 grams of protein.
You can eat eggs raw. You can consume the shell for calcium. You can eat the chicken that lays the egg. Chicken poop is fertilizer. You can easily free-range chickens, but this requires a larger area.
Potatoes need cultivation and have to be cooked. You will need quite a bit of additional water to keep them going, but they can be cultivated in a small area.
Eggs have much higher levels of Omega 3 fatty acids, and apart from vitamin C, eggs have more of all other micronutrients.
The bottom line is this. You can live better off 10 eggs per day than 2 pounds of potatoes. With potatoes, you will run out of protein and most other nutrients much sooner than eggs.
Choose wisely, my friends, and don’t make this mistake of thinking humans are herbivores.
Behavior and Violence
Those who study history will tell you that ancient societies had much higher levels of violence than modern societies. This holds true even when you look at death rates during peaceful times.
While all Preppers expect that SHTF events will be violent, some think that post SHTF worlds will be peaceful with small bands of people going about their lives.
History teaches us this kind of thinking is highly mistaken. If history teaches us anything about human nature, it’s that violence thrives in the absence of authority.
The post-apocalyptic literary genre may offer some clues as to the directions in which human nature may move societies.
In my opinion, Lord of the Flies is one such book. Another that I would recommend is The Road by Cormack McCarthy.
A sparsely populated world in which survival is tough may see humans regressing to more primitive states of being.
Related: How to handle violence!
Almost all ancient cultures practiced human sacrifice and many modern examples exist of the low value we place on the life of their enemies.
Thinking that ethics will govern the post-SHTF world because humans are naturally benevolent will be one of the worst mistakes you can make. Benevolence is usually only directed to those inside the tribe.
Final Words
Post SHTF world will not resemble a watered-down or alternative version of what we experience currently. The costs of mistakes will be much higher, with some mistakes or errors in judgment proving fatal.
Current thinking will get you killed in a post-SHTF world. So while you are Prepping for physical survival, make sure that you are ready to recalibrate your way of thinking. It will also be a mistake to think that the evils that plague society now will be better post SHTF.
So there you have it, folks. Prepping mistakes that will kill you if you get them wrong, but will greatly improve your chances of survival if you get them right!
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“Current thinking will get you killed in a post-SHTF world. So while you are Prepping for physical survival, make sure that you are ready to recalibrate your way of thinking. It will also be a mistake to think that the evils that plague society now will be better post SHTF.”
Probably the best thing said in the article – important part of prepping is to get phycological ready to face the hardships and crazy azz crap we’ll be experiencing >> there’s no “boot camp” for us guys – no veteran DI that has survived combat to instill the necessary survivability – take it all in and mull it around deciding if there’s a kernel there that is helpful …
Did he seriously say if someone comes to your home you should run away and if there is a child there you should leave him? Did I misread that? Hold on let me look again. Nope, I did not misread that. He even suggests that one death is better than two. So just let the intruder in without resistance and if he kills the child then oh well? What “experts” say this is what we should do? Have you flipped your lid? Nobody in their right mind would leave a child alone to a murderer. This author is absolutely nuts and immoral for suggesting this nonsense. Somebod on this website needs to read these articles before posting this crap. This is infuriating!!
I agree, as a combat veteran, I’ll be dead before I leave my daughter to anyone. But them again I can shoot!
Hi,
Thank you so much for your feedback.
As I don’t agree with it either, I have removed that part immediately.
Every such suggestion from our readers is valuable to us and we are taking everything you said into consideration.
God Bless,
Claude
The only reference I see regarding children as I re-read this is,” Besides, in small groups that face challenges together, all members will feel compelled to contribute. Find a way to ensure that all members of your group feel worthy by allowing them to contribute to the survival of the group.Think beforehand about how children and old-folk can contribute. Even if it’s as simple as cleaning and mending.”. So where did you read this? And, moreover why did you get 4 thumbs up?
Thankyou for removing that section Claude
I read that whole article and no where in that article did he say to leave children or old folk.
Todd Clark, it is because Claude removed the section from the article. I just happened to read it before he got to it
Staying would guarantee that you die? The hell it does!!! Why the hell do you think we have guns and ammo? To give to the intruder while we run away and leave defenseless kids behind!!!?? Man you are INSANE
So people, are you going to give up all your supplies and arms if they hold a family member hostage? There are many angles to look at in bad situations. Don’t condemn too early.
I think none of us can say precisely what we would do in that situation. What we need to do is to make plans for what we would do. Plan for the worst; hope for the best. In any hostage situation, the likelihood that the hostage taker will let you live in an EOTW situation, I believe would be slim. If you surrender you are dead or worse. I do not believe in the goodness of man. I spent 25 years watching the scum of the earth parade through courtrooms. There are truly evil people in the world. We used to rid the world of them but have gotten soft and too far away from most of us being exposed to the evil that actually exists. And this is in a world where law enforcement and court systems and prisons actually exist. In some states they actually do rid the world of evil people and carry out the death penalty. So if none of that acts as a deterrent in the world today, what do you think will be set loose to prey upon society in a world without rule of law except might?
The author suggests that having six months supply of food won’t help if you are involved in a vehicle collision and injured. I would suggest that having a supply of food will relieve at least one cause of anxiety if you are injured and unable to work.
The author also seems to suggest that we consider whom we should throw over the side of the lifeboat and get rid of “dead wood.” I would suggest that we examine the “dead wood” very carefully before chucking it overboard. At my age, there are many who would consider me useless as I need glasses to see clearly; hearing aids to hear adequately; my mobility is limited due to some surgical procedures that didn’t go quite as well as hoped for. I do have a couple of redeeming features. I can shoot reasonably accurately and am fairly familiar with firearms and I still have my brain which seems to function reasonably well and the biggest thing I have is 80+ years of making mistakes which have taught me some things not to do. I have already made those mistakes several times over which younger folks are about to make. I may not be able to tell you what is the correct course to follow but I sure as heck can tell you what path you should not follow, having wandered down that path several times before.
I once hired a man to work in my printing company. He had a doctorate in music. He had once been one of Time magazine’s 500 promising young men. Unfortunately somewhere along the line his rocket fizzled out early. He was the music director of a small town orchestra and taught music at the local junior college. In his mid 40s he went through a traumatic divorce that he didn’t see coming and wound up basically with an older car and the clothes on his back. While he was a master on the French horn, he was at a loss with other mechanical equipment which did not make for a good fit. He was interesting to talk to and I knew he was desperate for a job so I kept him on when I should have let him go. I knew he would be leaving as soon as he found something in the musical field, so rather than add to his miseries and to bolster his self esteem, I kept him on. I should have fired him some efficiency experts would said. Yet he made a simple suggestion to me that solved a problem that I had been wrestling with for as long as I had owned the business. It was a forehead slapping moment. Of course! How stupid of me not to think of it myself! It solved a nagging problem that had been a source of discontent to me and my employees and sometimes affected morale. Good Old Bob! He would have been cast off as a nice guy but useless in most situations. But his simple suggestion just smoothed a stone in the shoe type problem for everyone. I was so glad I had followed my altruistic side rather than my business side.
There is Japanese film about a marginal village that practices elder euthanasia. When a man or woman turns 60, they are given three days rations and sent up a local mountain to die as the village has determined that after 60 you don’t grow enough food to sustain yourself so you become a drag on the rest of the village. The name of the film is Satoyama which is the name of the mountain the folks are dispatched to. Besides the ethical questions that naturally come to mind, the film raises other questions. For some it also, hopefully, stimulates pondering significant philosophical questions. It used to be on Netflix when they sent out discs. Don’t know if it is in their library presently. I recommend it if you want to have your thinking process stimulated.
The natives of the northern regions of North America are reputed to have had a similar practice where an elder who felt he or she no longer contributed to the village, wandered off into the great white unknown to die. I don’t know if that is true or not.
Many societies practiced infanticide in times of great deprivation. The thinking being that it was better to let an infant die who had not yet reached the point where they contributed to the village than to take necessities from an adult who was contributing to the village. During the great famine in one of the countries sucked into the USSR, people ate their children. Some families traded children knowing that they would be eaten but they couldn’t eat their own children. That is a terrible decision to have to make. I don’t know if that was Ukraine or one of the ‘Stans. I tend to think the history I read was about one of the ‘Stans but I don’t recall which one. What a terrible decision to have to make. Do you ever get over having made such a decision?
There is no easy answer to a difficult question. That’s why our politicians keep getting stuck to the tar baby. They seek the easy answer to extremely complex, difficult questions. Sometimes the answer is something that pleases no one. I once worked for a judge who handled divorce cases. His dictum was “If both parties stomp out of the courtroom slamming the door behind them I figure my orders were just about right. If one party looks the least bit happy, I want to look at the file again because I figure I must have missed something.” In a surprising number of divorces it is money that is the source of the discord. They are making X dollars a month and spending X+100 dollars a month. The pressure of trying to maintain that unhappy situation leads to divorce. Now they want to support two households on the same pattern. The judge can only grant a divorce, he can’t make loaves and fishes to feed the multitudes. The best decision he can make will make both the parties unhappy.
So there are no easy, black and white answers to some of the dilemmas presented in this article. Just formulate plans on various scenarios and hope for the best.
Plan now for the scenarios presented in this article. You don’t have to agree with him but you should think seriously about what he is attempting to suggest.
LCChuck, As usual, outstanding comments!
I have been concerned since the Soviet Union crashed. 9/11 was our BIG wakeup call. Who knows what will hit us next, whether nuclear, biological, or chemical…I am thinking EMP or or worst case Virus Scenario…either of which will eliminate most of the population in a year or two.
As an old Boyscout, “Prepare for the worst, Hope for the best” RINGS VERY TRUE.
I have gathered knowledge and experience over the years, Certified as a Disaster Recovery Professional showed me what FEMA can and can’t do…they can not be there for most of us.
I certified as a Gunsmith, that is more of a hobby, but is a very good one to have.
And I certified as an Agriculture Science Teacher for a local High School.
So it is important to identify your biggest weakness and address that for the biggest improvement in your strategy.
LUCK…don’t be in the wong place at the wrong time…and that could be today, tomorrow, next week..who knows. If that happens, you had best be prepared…my basic bugout bag goes with me anytime I get in the car. Water, snacks, meds, and much more.
Always pay attention to the news!!! The WORLD News, not just the compromised news in this country. Has WWIII already started, biologically? Being surrounded by coutried that hate them, will Israel survive again, or will Iran launch a secret nuke? Who knows…there is so much we do not know. “You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know”
THIS is an outstanding website, absorb knowledge now!!! Later may be too late.
Good luck to all of us!!
Agreed about hostage situations being almost impossible to deal with once they happen. Best plan is to do the most one can to avoid them, and leave the rest to the Lord.
LCC–Is the film you mentioned actually “The Ballad of Narayama”? I can’t find any references to a similar-themed film named Satoyama. I haven’t seen Narayama, but it sure sounds depressing, even for a think piece.
Thanks for all the great commentary you have been providing at this site, for as long as I’ve been visiting it, and probably long before that also!
Black Swan: You may be correct that I have the name wrong. It has been more than ten years since I viewed that motion picture. I knew that the title was longer than just the Japanese word that I posted which is Japanese for “nature” or something close to it. The Ballad of Narayama could well be the name of the motion picture I referenced. The suffix “yama” means mountain in Japanese, so the mountain could well have been Narayama. Sorry for the misinformation. I recommend the film. It is not for little kiddies to watch, however.
If you read correctly it says:
1:) If YOUR ATTACKED. So its happening now. You wouldn’t get to the child since you are being attacked and your caught off guard. Doing so gives the attacker leverage over you.
2:) It also states that almost no parent or grandparent would leave a child behinded.
3:) It was a conversion that was heard by so called experts. They would I assume be talking about the average person. Not someone that is trained or prepared. It is about how to survive a situation like that. Most would leave the child or baby and take what they need and go. we can all agree or disagree about it but at the end of the day if you’re dead so is the child. Most people cant defend themselves and trying gets them killed.
If you have a chance to flee with anyone do so if you cant defend. This is just advice for the average person. But being prepared is about not getting into that position in the first place. Most people freeze in situations where there being attacked. drawing attention to a child only makes it worse. But until something like that happens most wont know what they’ll do. This is something to promote discussion not to put the author down.
This site has a lot of good articles on it. That’s the reason you’re here reading them now. I don’t agree with all of it, but it does make you think about what would you do. That’s the point, getting people to think for themselves.
Instead of putting them down, let us know you’re thoughts on the matter. Offer a different way on how you would handle the same situation. every situation is different as is the outcome.
Its a discussion point not a be all and end all on what to do. Take it will a grain of salt. Contribute your thoughts and make it a discussion.
I think I have already given my suggestion. You fight. How is that scenario any different than a crazed lunatic breaking into your home late at night and he stands between your room and your five year olds room? Do you jump out the window and run away because you were caught off guard? No , you grab your gun and confront the SOB and eliminate the threat. You have the legal and moral duty to protect your family. And unfortunately sometimes the bad guy wins. That is a risk I am willing to take.
Agreed, No surrender, especially when wife and kids are at risk.
My solution is a couple “early warning” highly trained protective dogs, Rottweilers. They will scare 99% off, the dumb 1% will not end nicely. If more than one attacker, your dogs will buy you time to get fully armed and do what you have to.
I dont know how you put up with critical non-contributors. My camp will be me and my family. Maybe a submissive scraggler may come along and not have to be killed. Easy come, easy go and everything from then on will not be easy.
Family only, anyone else is ALWAYS suspect.
Stu: I think it would be helpful to have several scenarios in mind in the situation you posit. Let me present a couple off the top of my head without spending a lot of time thinking about other possibilities. I will leave that to you. The lunatic is already in your bedroom and is struggling with your wife. What do you do? The lunatic is in your child’s bedroom and has your child in his arms. What do you do? What does your wife do? The lunatic has already stabbed you once and is about to do it a second time when you grapple with him. What does your wife do? The lunatic kicking in the front door still is an easy scenario but you need to have a plan of action for it too, other than just “Grab my gun and go shoot him.” Call 911 as you are heading to the front door? Give the phone to the wife to call 911? Whose responsibility is it to go gather up the kids and where does that person take them? What if the wife is off visiting her mother for a week? Just a couple of quickies but I hope you see what I am getting at.
I suggest it is just as important to think about various possibilities and how you and the family should react to each. If you have responsibilities, duties and actions to take planned ahead of time, it is easier to react and reach a satisfactory conclusion. Believe me when I tell you that in an emergency, even with a planned out course of action and acting in a cool, collected manner, one will still screw up. Again, age and experience. I’ve been there and done that. The Thomas Fire at 0300 in the morning proved that my plans and preparations, while they were extremely helpful, still fell short of what I had expected of myself. The shortfall, thankfully, did not prove fatal and it was easy for work around my shortcomings. The bright side is my wife got a new underclothing wardrobe due to my leaving her suitcase packed with her undergarments behind. At least that’s how she saw it.
from my own perspective, if a truly EOTWAWKI SHTF situation occurs, I have a mind set to try to survive and keep my family alive and safe while also avoiding conflict and remaining as self-reliant as we are able, but…
I would expect massive fatalities to occur relatively quickly whether from the initial SHTF event, and then the elements, famine, and/or disease will take their tolls, and then maybe experience a lull where you definitely do not want to become complacent, because I would expect that shortly after any lull that allows people time to recover, the evil minded will emerge and attempt to raid, conquer, and enslave others, and that is when your true survival skills and tactics will be critically put to the test.
I do not agree about the movie, The Road. The book was poorly written but informative. The move, How-To get yourself killed and nothing else.
All of us should have a tobacco patch. If need be, buy it for the pretty flowers, but get it and let it selfsow. Tobacco and calendula, another vital herbal, should be in every backyard all over the lower 48 and Hawaii. Most ornamental tobaccos are rustica, the original versions, and powerful. niio
Picking up from LCC, you’ve got to have older people in your group, it is much better to be taught than to learn from mistakes. An important consideration is that us old frts require up to 75% fewer calories than a young person, our knowledge is cheap.
Lord of The Flies, 1984, in the 1950s we lost faith in the basic goodness of most of us. The story of Sione Filipe Totau is worth learning, A group of shipwrecked young boys behaving well and surviving alone for a year.
While I am just a little old lady and I don’t move as well as I used to….I would be an Elder you would want to take great care of and bring along.
Why? Because I am not just an herbalist…and know so many plants for both food and medicine…I have also studied self-survival methods for over 50 years now…
I am an excellent shot, excellent at tracking, a good hunter and I can make traps and I also fish. I know a number of ways to make shelters and how to preserve food for travel..and how to help a woman have a much easier child birth experience.
I can navigate with the sun and the stars, make fires, make salves and potions and teas for medicine….and which plants to use for soap and cleansing rinses for your hair and body cleanliness
So don’t be so quick to desert your Elders people….we know a lot as we have lived a lot.
And while we all most certainly do need protein in our diets….87% of the food of Native Americans were wild plants…
Relax folks! The author is simply trying to make a point about the kids. How many times have we all watched a scene in a movie where the “hero” is confronted with “drop your weapon or I kill the kid”? I know I’ve sat on the edge of my set saying ” Don’t do it! Its a trick! They’ll kill everyone.” and then they do. The bad guys have no conscience. And they know that you do. That is their advantage. You have to make quick calculations. Could I do it? I just don’t know and hope I never have to. But you can bet that I am going to think about it.
Thank you Claude; as always – all of the information is extremely helpful. Probably not a bad idea to pack a Bible! Of course that may get you killed too; but some things are worth it. If I don’t ever get to meet you in person, Lord willing – see you on the other side! Thanks again, and take care everyone.
Interesting that much of the discussion for this article relates to an incendiary paragraph or two that Claude promptly removed due to the outrage they caused. I never saw them, but I get the idea that they had to do with leaving less productive people behind in some possible scenarios.
The thought has to occur to those of us who are aging, is that if the SHTF this year we may still be quite productive, but what if it’s 10 or 20 years out, and we’re still around but heavily impaired? I’ve thought about that, and maybe had posted it elsewhere at this site, who remembers? But if it came to that, I’d tell the Generation X and younger family members to take their kids to the best safety they can find, and leave me to ride out whatever’s happening where I am at the time.
Leave me some supplies, yes, and some means of self-defense. Leave me some packs of seeds so I can keep the garden going, if I’m still in good enough shape to do that, even if maybe at 1/2 or 1/4 former speed and efficiency. And a couple of traps for small game, since I’ll presumably still know how and where to set them. But take all the good stuff you can fit in the vehicles, and go!
If we’re in the border region age-wise, how can we stay productive enough to add value to a group, rather than drag it down like a sea anchor as our need for care by others increases with time? 1) I’ve heard the phrase “Preserve, sustain and protect” as being not just a good idea, but a moral imperative, regarding our own life. So, stay healthy, keep medical and dental work up to date, and take responsibility for having spare glasses and a good supply of needed meds in our bug-out or bug-in supplies. 2) I will continue to cultivate skills that nobody else in my group has, or where I am clearly the best. I’m working on building and maintaining fires that last through the night while using the minimal amount of fuel, which might become scarce if many people are in survival mode. I plan also to get better at outdoor cooking. I’ve mentioned archery before, and though I’m pretty bad at it, I’m still in first place in my current tribe. 3) Add tasks to your wheelhouse that nobody else wants to do, even though anyone could. For example, are you the only one willing to bait hooks and clean fish? Are you the only one willing to take night guard duty regularly? (Assuming you still see well enough, LOL–in my case, that’s in increasing doubt.) 4) I add to my knowledge supply when I can, and also to my ability to teach knowledge and skills to the youngest cohort, which is now sometimes called Generation Alpha–those with birth years beginning with 2010. We will all be depending on them someday, if there’s a long-term and irreversible upheaval.
This site helps so much with preps for anything from a temporary power outage to a true “black swan” event. After I post this, I’m going to click that “Vote 4 Me” link to rate this one the best ? Anyone else?
In his book “SHTF Survival Boot Camp: A Course for Urban Survival” the author, Selco Begovic, who has lived through the end of the world scenario that was Sarajevo, recommends a group of 25. He also recommends an amalgamated group of no more than 150. Interesting that his recommended group sizes roughly equate to what the army and U.S. Marine Corps use as basic groups. The Marine Corps infantry platoon at full strength consists of three 12-man squads with each squad headed by a squad leader. The platoon has a platoon sergeant usually a staff sergeant or gunnery sergeant and a platoon commander, usually a second or first lieutenant. That’s 41 in the platoon, slightly over Begovic’s 25 person group. The difference is that there is a formal command structure in a Marine platoon that a group of civilian individuals would generally lack unless the leader of the group had prior military service and knew to organize his or her group accordingly.
The full strength Marine infantry company consists of three of the aforementioned infantry platoons plus a weapons platoon which would have some additional mortar or heavy machine-gun weapons. It would be approximately the same strength as the infantry platoons. It would also have a headquarters unit consisting of the company commander, the assistant company commander, the first sergeant, supply personnel and office staff. close to a fifth platoon. Again, that is similar to Begovic’s recommendation and again, that is a full strength infantry company which is rarely the case. Again the structured command establishment makes administration of that big a group possible. He definitely recommends joining or establishing a group. He insists that no one can go it alone. He recommends caution in who you allow into the group. This is especially relevant where almost everybody is against everybody else.
While I found the book jumbled and poorly edited, there were many very good tips for surviving what basically was an “everyman for himself” era. Not only were there two or three, depending who was allied with whom at the moment, military-style elements involved in the conflict, there was also the muslim vs. christian vs anyone else conflict contributing to the general chaos. There was also the UN “peace-keeping force that only hindered survival, hardly helping the situation.
He describes obtaining water, food, sanitation — it is a prepper’s manual by a guy who has actually lived through an end of the rule of law situation. It isn’t some theoretical book written by somebody like me who has only thought about the problem and not actually lived it. While it was fascinating, albeit jumbled, reading I only picked up one extremely valuable tip in the book. I didn’t know that one could use an enema to re-hydrate someone who couldn’t take fluids by mouth either because they were unconscious or vomiting so severely that they couldn’t keep fluids down. At first I didn’t believe it, thinking it was some central European folk remedy. Further investigation revealed that it was a method of re-hydration in practice in the U.S. from the War of Northern Aggression through WWI before venous re-hydration became the standard of care. Look it up. It may save a life sometime. You want to research proctoclysis.
I also recommend this book because it was written by someone who has lived the chaotic life of a world without rule of law. They didn’t have organized anything and in addition, everyone was shooting at everyone else with whatever firearms they had, including tanks, mortars and heavy artillery. There may have even been hostile aircraft in the air. I don’t remember if that was added into the mix. It may have been because the UN (read the U.S) had air superiority and no one wanted to risk losing an expensive a/c to the U.S.
LCC
Interesting about the sizes of the groups…a couple months after a major event, there will probably be starving ruthless gangs on motorcycles about the size of platoons, and their leaders would know military tactics to survive, sending out probing scouts ahead of time. That scenario would be difficult for even large groups of well armed survivors, unless military defense tactics are in place.
Regarding the enema…a friend who is an RN said it works, the bowels will absorb the water, and if available, pure distilled water with some baking soda would work best in a crisis. But it obviously could be a very messy contamination situation at best, and could spread pathogens.
Oh, and she said the water needs to be close to normal body temperature, too cool could cause loss of body heat and hypothermia, too hot will damage the sensitive bowel intestinal lining.
The Incident Command structure been taught and adopted by nearly every response group in the country. The fire service has used it for at least 40 years. Preppers that are unfamiliar whit the IC System would do well to check it out. ?
In all honesty, I think this author needs to recalibrate his thinking! He certainly doesn’t present the best course of action that anyone could build up to be prepared I n a SHTF situation. It’s not where you are or what you have. It’s what you know along with a positive can do attitude!
I had an uncle who, in the 1950s went to Medical School. He was a volunteer on a study where for 3 months those participants could only eat potatoes. They could fix the potatoes any way they wanted to, but were only allowed salt and a bare minimum of butter to add to them.
At the end of the three months, all participants were in good health, normal blood work, and able to keep up with those in their Medical School Class who were not in the study.
Medical School has it’s own kind of rigors, not like an SHTF scenario, but don’t discount the fact that you can live on just potatoes and function well if that is all that is available!
The Maginot Line was not a “wall”. It was a series of fortifications, troop quarters, etc, mostly underground, that was easily flanked by the Wehrmacht by attacking through the Ardennes region in Belgium. Walls are just not effective.