Posted on 05/05/2015 6:44:12 PM PDT by Kartographer
Looking for goods and usable items during the war often meant I got myself in some weird situations and scenarios. I knew lots of guys who risked their lives just to get to some destroyed places because they knew they could find some items that meant a lot for them personally but actually those items were useless in given situation around us at that time.
But people often act like fools and if you find yourself in a survival situation it is the perfect time to lose your life if you act like fool.
(Excerpt) Read more at shtfschool.com ...
Preppers’ PING!!
That is what my mom told me when I was packing a go bag.
In the decades since it has not changed. People are what is important. The rest is just stuff.
Good article.
It is amazing what some people will do - risking a life for music tapes, that were not even going to provide music at the time.
“most important survival lesson: Stay out of the trouble. “
That would be hard if/when the liberals come after us for being traitors. But I don’t intend to do anything noticeable until necessary, when it will make a difference.
“People are what is important. The rest is just stuff.”
Unless the stuff includes food, water, or weapons.
I trust our Iron Lady has seen this?
Situational awareness is key. ALWAYS be aware of what is going on around you.
As another FReeper once said, keep your head on a swivel and your hands out of your pockets.
... unless you pocket carry. Then modify that last piece of advice.
Not in a survival situation, necessarily. That’s what makes them survival situations. And don’t count on FEMA to provide for us!
“I trust our Iron Lady has seen this?”
(To others who read this, Old Sarge calls me “Iron Lady”. You will have to ask him why that name.)
I find these two following paragraphs, to me, are the crux of Selco’s message (I didn’t correct his misspelling as Selco’s English is a second language for him and we are just glad he lived through that war and can give us tips about surviving in war.):
“The problem here is holding onto old concepts and not accepting change. One day you have law and order and you can call someone when you see trouble because it is not right, next day suddenly there is no one to call and you might feel you have to jump in to make things right. You may find it cowardly that man wants to stay put when bad things happen around him but in reality in most of the situationz you can not do anything without huge organisation that helps you and big personal risk.
So just listen to first survival and most important survival lesson: Stay out of the trouble. Life is very real and it is easy to forget how brutal “real life” can be. With real life I mean life without our civilized society or just life without all support and help we take for granted.”
“...holding onto old concepts and not accepting change.”
Simple example: Hurricane is coming but I’m okay as I have everything I need when power goes off. Lady across street is a banker giving investment advice to customers – she isn’t a dummy for sure. However, the first day without power, my husband is outside drinking our hot coffee and banker lady asks him where he managed to get coffee. He came in house and got her hot coffee and took her a can of Safe Heat and a Sterno stove and instant coffee (we used regular coffee but had non electric coffee maker) to make coffee, and she took the hot coffee but wouldn’t take the Heat/stove/instant coffee, because she said, “I don’t know about that and I’m afraid to take it.” Because it was new to her, she rejected the ability to heat/cook food and heat water. For those five days without power, she and her high school son ate cold lunchmeat sandwiches and nothing hot, except we kept giving her hot coffee every morning. She will not survive in a serious emergency lasting for a while because she was, as Selco says, “holding old concepts, and not accepting change”.
“You may find it cowardly that man wants to stay put when bad things happen around him but in reality in most of the situationz you can not do anything without huge organisation that helps you and big personal risk. Stay out of the trouble. Life is very real and it is easy to forget how brutal “real life” can be. With real life I mean life without our civilized society or just life without all support and help we take for granted.”
Stay Out Of the Trouble:
People happy with themselves who don’t need other people socialization every day in their lives, will fare better in an emergency (less likely to be robbed/killed/commit suicide). People who go outside to talk to others, looking clean and munching a fig bar and drinking a cold beer, and bragging about what they have, won’t live long. In an emergency, the tendency is to share your trouble with others – talk about it, ask what they are doing to see if you can get info. to help you, just share, share, share information, trying to feel better by talking to others. Get that out of your head right now. Get your act together now so you know exactly what steps to take when the emergency hits. Don’t expect others to help you, help yourself now while you can. If you really are a “people” person, talk to yourself now, practice in your mind how you will feel if you don’t talk to others. Practice seeing in your mind, a concrete wall around yourself and you cannot talk to others – think what you could do in that situation to keep being productive without others around. To really feel uncomfortable, consider you are the only person alive in the country. How does that feel? And, don’t leave a safe place to go fight because it would be exciting – surely, none of you would do that – right?
Real life example of people person crashing in emergency, (how other people around you may change their behavior):
I thought my husband would be fine when Hurricane Ike took out our power. We had everything we needed to be live well and be safe. I was wrong. He became very antsy, agitated. He couldn’t sit still, had to keep moving, but the worst was, he wanted to leave. He suggested going to a house he owned in another county. That house was also without power and had no preps of any kind. It would be as Selco says, “...people often act like fools.” I finally told him, he could do what he wanted, but I wasn’t leaving this house. After practically throwing a temper fit, he didn’t leave. This whole episode was totally unexpected by me. Why would he want to leave when he had everything he needed to get through this emergency very well? Well, for one thing, he was a people person and I hadn’t put that in the equation for getting through an emergency – he was deprived of people calling him, which they did several or more times daily and he called friends/others every day.
He also felt he had to go somewhere which MIGHT be better, but no way was it going to be better. He was not thinking clearly. Be prepared for change in behavior of those around you – do you have someone who, in normal times, stays in contact with people every day? If you do, talk to them now about how they will feel when they can’t do that. Get it out in the open now, so perhaps you can prevent that happening if there is an emergency.
“Life is very real and it is easy to forget how brutal “real life” can be. With real life I mean life without our civilized society or just life without all support and help we take for granted.”
Example:
When hurricane took out my power, I was in “real life”. “...without all support and help we take for granted.” I was without utilities and there was no gasoline for a hundred miles. Oh, but, if I needed it, I had medical care at the hospital – NOT. You couldn’t call 911 because your phone wouldn’t work (mine did because it was the old type plugged directly into the wall and that is not an electric outlet, just for phone).
So, your phone didn’t work, but you could get in your car and go to the hospital - NOT. When power went out, the hospital’s backup generator did not come on – the hospital had no power. (Serious patients were taken by ambulance to San Antonio.) No operations could be done. Electrical “fixer” men for the generator could not be contacted (phones down) and anyway, they were at home with their family riding out the hurricane.
In an emergency of any kind, DON’T EXPECT ANY OUTSIDE UTILITY COMPANY OR MEDICAL SERVICE TO WORK. Selco says: “life without all support and help we take for granted.”
I can't stay out of trouble during non-emergency times.
I'll just have to cope. ;)
/johnny
“I’d like to join Commander Riker in applauding your most particularly excellent post:”
I live my life just to get applause from Commander Riker. :o)
It seems to me that having enough trigger-pullers to mount a 24-hour watch will be paramount.
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