Survivalism has gotten a bad reputation from the mass media, which likes to depict survivalists as a gaggle of white trash locked in a fortified bunker, surrounded with guns and suffering inbreeding while practicing mass breeding (37 wives, anyone?) and brainwashing their dozens of children to reject and shun any contact with the outside world, which is viewed as sinful, etc. Eventually the authorities swarm their compounds in hordes, taking the children and putting them in foster care, the women in psychiatric institutions, and the men in jail... that is survivalism, according to the mass media.
In reality, "survivalism" means being prepared for anything. Your regular avenues of living; e.g. finding food. Or staying warm. Or staying clean, safe, unharmed, etc, have been interrupted, so you have to create new avenues.
We are always a few seconds away from losing those avenues, though thankfully most of the time they continue to remain there undisturbed... but would you know what to do if it did happen?? What if shit completely unraveled and events spiral out of control, as in a nuclear attack? A meteor impact? An earthquake that measured 9.8 on the Richter scale? A civilization busting volcanic eruption of Yellowstone that killed millions and plunged the country into darkness? A hostile takeover by the government? Can you really afford to spend precious time waiting for help that never comes?
It doesn't take much to knock people back into the Stone age, and by the time they realize that the technological infrastructure that we've spent decades developing is no longer there, perhaps permanently, their realization that they are now up a creek without a paddle has set in, along with the realization that they have no idea what to do without their ATMs, their credit cards, their electricity, their running water, their sanitation, their McDonalds' drive thru, the Internet, cellphone service, forced heat and air conditioning, etc. You can panic, run amok and loot. Or you can spend a little time preparing now so that when the fecal matter hits the ventilation device, you can better assist yourself and your fellow man through the coming woe.
First off there is the issue of food. Have some! Stock up on pasta, dried beans, crackers, canned goods, bottled water, peanut butter, etc. etc. Have a couple of different possible ways to cook these or prepare them. Under normal circumstances (e.g. the power is functioning normally but just too broke to order a pizza) you can cook beans over night in a crock pot. Under extreme conditions, you might soak them in water and then cover them and let them sit out in the sunlight. Or build a fire and so forth though you need wood for that... an axe is a kickass thing to have in just such a case.
Secondly, there is the issue of temperature and safety. Synapse has a couple of sleeping bags rated at subarctic temperatures so around here if a snowstorm hits and the power goes out staying warm is not a problem. Have a plan in place where to go, what to do, etc. Be prepared for an existence that is off the grid, e.g. the power goes out. The heat doesn't work. There is no TV, no Internet, no cable, no nothing. One winter, our little family ran out of propane and had no means (money) to buy more... fortunately, we had a fireplace and a family member just up the road with so much firewood on his hands it was practically coming out of his ass hole!! For four months, the spouse and I took turns staying up through the night feeding the life-giving flames inside of the fireplace while the rest of the family dozed in the one cozy warm room inside of the ice-cold house. If faced with a similar emergency, MAKE SURE the flue is OPEN, because you DO NOT want to wake up dead from carbon monoxide poisoning...! Also, make sure there is no crap built up in your chimney and the flames should be no more than two feet high, chimney fires can be a bitch to deal with, and the fire department may not respond if there is a general state of emergency that is severe enough... the last thing you need is your precious domicile burning to the ground!
Thirdly, have a way to deal with sanitation and the disposal of human wastes. Your toilet may or may not work dependent on the situation; if the source of the emergency has disrupted water lines and you are on city water then probably not. And do you really want to waste precious water in the flushing of pee and poop? A bucket with a cover can function as a makeshift port a potty. You will need to empty this once or twice a day dependent on usage. Camping toilets can be a real boon too. In the case of the bucket you will need to dig a latrine in the ground and pour the waste in it, and fill it up with dirt when you are done (once a week, you may need to dig another one) If you are on well water, do this away from where the unprocessed sewage can contaminate any ground water.
Water sources: Have a supply of bottled water. You can also collect rainwater in a barrel or melt freshly fallen snow too. (In the case of a nuclear attack, skim anything floating off of the top before consuming, you don't want to accidentally ingest radioactive fallout!!!) In a pinch, you can get potable drinking water out of the toilet tank (no fecal microbes lurk in there.) If you have the patience, the time, the resources and the tools, you can always dig your own well... do this away from where you are disposing of your wastes!!!
Basic personal hygiene --- hand sanitizer can be a real boon. Failing that, rubbing alcohol can be a way to sterilize your hands if you need to deal with someone's injuries. A small amount of water in a basin can be heated to a temperature that is comfortable for taking a sponge bath after which you can save the water for watering plants or better yet, for any provision gardens you've planted to raise your own vegetables. Clothing can be laundered in the bath tub, as Synapse has found out for two months following the untimely demise of a washer he bought brand new... and the gray water can be saved for plant watering or not, depending on your needs. Have a clothesline or other drying method if your dryer doesn't dry! Hair washing can be done in a creek -- I'd personally restrict the use of any creeks for the washing of hair, less chances of getting entangled with leeches or anything else that might be lying in wait for you.
Have a medium of exchange!!! In the worst case scenario people have often turned to bartering goods and services. "I'll give you half of the beef cow I just slaughtered if you dig a well on my property" or "I'll give you a dozen chicken eggs for one hairbrush" etc. This is a great way of getting to know your neighbors and also getting your hands on needed resources you may not have in and of yourself.
Finally, know who you can turn to, and be someone others can turn to. Ultimately, in a cataclysmic event, natural disaster, or other emergency, survival depends upon both your own actions, and the actions of others. No man is an island -- we need each other.
What qualifies Synapse to write all this stuff? Well, I have been there!!! I've faced periods without running water, periods without heat, periods without food, just about every fucking thing I've covered in this article. You can do one of two things with this information: You can write me off as a loser, stick your head in the sand and be caught unprepared when the unthinkable happens, or you can take my life experiences as the warning to you it was meant to be and live. Yes, its going to suck, but in the end, you'll know that you don't NEED any Haitians coming to your rescue.
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