Planning vs. Paranoia for Modern Survivalists
In modern times we face some very real, present and some even possibly imminent threats to our individual or collective safety. We face threats from climate change (no belief in carbon footprints required), coronal mass ejections, and global pandemic. We also face self-inflected threats like hyperinflation, globalism, economic collapse or a massive explosion in the drug war. Moving on to threats to you and your family as individuals, you face potential job loss, imminent domain, loosing a family member to death and even home invasion scenarios.
If you think about these and other threats that we face you may begin to feel a bit exposed, perhaps a bit at risk and hopefully motivated to build a more sustainable and independent lifestyle. What you should not feel is true fear! How is that possible? I mean with all of these scenarios where life, liberty and wealth are under constant threat, how can one not be afraid?
To master fear you must understand, respect and call on your own power. For far to long men and women have become complacent and dependent on government, corporations and authority to protect, provide for and defend us. The reality is government is supposed to defend our opportunities and our rights not our ability to do as little as possible and still survive. Neither government nor corporations are to “provide for” us, they are both supposed to “serve us” in two distinctly different ways.
Due to this dependence the American people and frankly most people in developed nations around the globe have forgotten and lost touch with the power they carry in their hearts, souls and minds. Every once in a while we see it when people are left with no other choice. A 225-pound man tries to abduct a child and instead of dialing 911 a frantic 115-pound mother beats the man to near death (while we all wish she had finished the job). Two men are lost in the woods, one is seriously injured and the other defying all odds gets his buddy to safety. Or a community rallies around a family and raises money to make sure they can keep a 4th generation farm.
In reality it happens every day but we see it as extraordinary and instead of simply expected. You have probably heard versions of each of those stories in the news. People listen to the media spin and think, “wow, what an amazing story”, but are they really amazing? Think about it this way, your child is in danger, would you not fight a bear let alone a man to save them? You buddy is in danger of death, would you not work to your last breath to get him to safety? A family you know that has been in your community for 4 generations is in trouble; would you really sit around and do nothing to help?
When the media sensationalizes these stories rather then simply reporting them as “the daily news” they rob us of our true power. They send a message that to simply do what is right, expected and normal is extraordinary. These types of stories are not “amazing stories of survival” as they are often portrayed. They are interesting, they are newsworthy and I sure prefer them to the constant negative news we get shoved in our faces. Yet all they are is people doing what comes naturally to them when they are in a situation that requires action and there is no one to take it but them.
These stories are simple stories of Americans being Americans and to be fair to the rest of the world, whom we often forget in nationalistic arrogance, they are simply stories of humans being human. There is no true mother that loves her child that would hesitate for a second to fight a man twice her size to stop the abduction of said child. The simple fact that winning this fight is more important to her then the scumbag committing the crime is why she will win 9 times out of 10. That is not an American ideal, it is a universal human fact, try taking a child off a tribeswoman in Angola if you doubt me but expect to end up in a shallow desert grave if you do.
There are two extremely important things to take away from the above…
- We have more power then we have been led to believe. It was not government, authority or corporate benevolence that made a difference in the above three scenarios, it was individual or community action.
- The ability to act, the willingness to act and the propensity to survive are innate human characteristics that are intrinsic to the human soul. From tribesman to accountant from farmer to stockbroker once we get past the exterior paint the capacity and power inside it universal.
This is why you should not live in fear but act in power. As a human you are not only gifted with the ability to recognize, react to and overcome threats. Any animal with the tiniest semblance of a brain can do that. The mouse avoids the cat, the minnow hides from the bass even one microbe eludes another. What you can do that the animal kingdom cannot is to think ahead and develop rational planning - both active and contingent - to avoid, deal with and overcome the worst possible events.
No other creature that we know of can do this. No matter how advanced nothing other then a human can sit down and…
- Think ahead about multiple scenarios
- Devise a plan based on the commonalties of those threats
- Take decisive preemptive action
- Devise an action plan for each scenario that might occur
- And then know they had done all that is possible under their circumstances to improve their position.
When you read that simple five-point list you are reading the most simplified formula for survival that could ever be developed. Further by the very nature of being a human you are the only known life form, of the millions that exist capable of doing these things or even understanding them. That is your power; it is not unique to me or to the “tough survivalist”. This power beats in the computer programmer’s heart and is integral to the store clerk’s soul as well.
With this in mind you must at this point set your sights on planning and avoid anything close to paranoia. You can’t be sure that “someone is out to get you” as so many survivalists are. You can’t live in fear that “someone may find out you are a prepper and come steal your stuff”, when TSHTF. There is honestly no place in your life for fear; in fact we prep to avoid fear, not to appease it. When you are prepared and a disaster strikes you follow a plan and deal with it, which is not acting in fear. The unprepared climb to a rooftop and await assistance or run away leaving all their belongings behind, both of those responses are acting in fear. History has shown us that in a crisis those acting in fear always fare the worst while the prepared tend to adapt, overcome and thrive during rebuilding.
Take these realities and make them your guiding force. Never react to a news story with hysteria and always verify before reacting at all. Take as many of the actions to improve your self-sufficiency as you can but take them to improve your life, not because you are afraid of what might occur. Develop independence and build a sustainable lifestyle because they are your birth right as a human, not because you might need them. The reality is you do need them but not in the event of apocalypse, you need them today, right now.
If you are reading this magazine, odds are that you have always felt that “something just isn’t right” with the way people live or with what most of society calls normal. You knew that debt beyond your means was slavery even if you did not articulate it that way. You understood that going to the store may not always be an option and perhaps shook your head at what so many around you called “progress”. Because of this while you may have experienced great joy at points in your life there was probably always this little nagging sensation saying to you, “what the hell are we doing here”?
That sensation is your soul (however you define it) telling you that you are ignoring your own power, potential and heart. The only way to deal with it is to listen, by now you have learned it cannot be ignored. It must be harnessed, channeled and empowered. As you do that you will find stability, you will find new choices and new options and it will be your personal guide to what is right for you and those you love. Just remember, you ability to plan and act should always trump any fear.