Welcome back to the FamilyPreparednessGuide blogsite!
I’ll try to Keep It Super Simple!
It doesn’t matter! We’re all survivalists! Unless you’re indifferent to the world around you, you’re a part of one of the above categories.
Indifferent people are usually totally dependent on the systems of government and charitable institutions and organizations. It’s intuitive, the less one has, the less one risks.
On the other hand, few are self-sufficient, i.e., totally independent, except for some rather small communities of religious groups who have almost isolated themselves from the the rest of society-—but they’ve also been acclimating to the outside world. Perhaps in some jungle in the tropics there are small tribes able to eke an existence from the environment, but even they are rare anymore.
You may argue that the truly rich are self-sufficient, but I would say that your view is flawed. Consider the richest man on earth—Bill Gates—-with all his wealth, does he own his own airplanes, pilots, airports, equipment, and all that it takes for him to travel the world? He does much good, but he’s totally dependent on others to support his philanthropy. I suppose that makes wealth as a guarantor of self-sufficiency a counter-intuitive reality.
It seems the most dependent groups of people, then are the truly poor and the truly rich-—who would have considered that? Obviously, it’s my opinion, and not true in every situation—but you can’t disprove the concept!
We’re all survivalists—in the most general terms, it’s a matter of degree and beliefs or feelings:
As I have observed, reaction and response to chaos seem to be the fuzzy dividing line separating those espousing the concepts of survivalism, preparedness, and self-reliance.
Here are my observations, summarized briefly, in terms of dealing with the potential chaos that might arise from widespread financial disaster, civil war or riots, famine, international war or terrorist attacks, or a pandemic, or whatever… There are only three types of disasters: natural, people-caused, and personal!
Survivalists are prepared to deal with chaos and don’t expect normalcy to return form many years—if ever!
Preparedness people will be able to ride the chaos for a relatively short period of time until it’s over and normalcy returns.
Self-reliant families will be able to live virtually normally throughout the
chaos and live sustainably for a period of many years.
It’s all a matter of degree—freedom and right to bear arms and civil liberties notwithstanding, any individual, family, group, or community could be any of the above—or in more than one group simultaneously!
I told you it was a little bit of fuzzy philosophy!
Does it help you gain perspective?
Are you ready to prepare?
It’s as simple as that!
Till next time…
James Talmage Stevens
Author: Making the Best of Basics – Family Preparedness Handbook
Blogger: www.familypreparednessguide.com
BlogTalkRadio Host: www.blogtalkradio.com/family
email: editor@familypreparednessguide.com
P.S.: Your COMMENTS are appreciated. Enter them in the box below. I respond to all comments—except spam!
July 11th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
Diggity Dog: On July 4, I spent almost an hour on BlogTalkRadio (www.blogtalkradio.com/family go to Jul 4, 1:00PM CDST, Family) and download the digital recording. More than 150 listeners have done so in the last week. Here’s what I’ve learned from association with all the above, whether survivalist, preparedness, or self-reliant individual or families:
In terms of expected chaos, the survivalist is prepared for it to not end (thus TEOTWAWKI); the preparedness person/family plans to be able to deal with the situation until it’s over (short-term); and the self-reliant plans to be able to live virtually normally and can continue to live in a sustainable manner until things return to normalcy.
Another consideration is the determination of where each group is on the continuum of from dependent, to interdependent, to independent?
Grab the recoding–call me on the radio program, and let’s talk about it!
Thanks for you comments! JTS
July 9th, 2009 at 10:17 am
I struggle with which title to use because many of the terms are very loaded with innuendo. Being a preparedness guy will attract a large amount of EMT and Red Cross types. Being a survivalist will attract a lot more whack jobs but some of them have insanely good advice to give if you can live through the diatribes. And a self-reliant family tends to draw a lot of religious types.
I’m pretty flexible and accommodate all as long as they’re not loaded up with hatred. Life is too short for that.