Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Back in ye olden days when I first started developing an interest in what we now call ‘preparedness’ (and back then called ‘survivalism’) it was often a crapshoot when it came to finding information and reading materials. Sure, there were Tappan’s books and a slew of Long and Benson how-to guides but other than a self-addressed-stamped-envelope to the guys at Paladin Press you were pretty much on your own when it came to finding informative reading.

There were no shortage of books on firearms and self-defense, and to many at the time that was the whole crux of the ‘movement’. But if you wanted information on the less sexy aspects of survivalism like composting toilets, non-electric wells, DIY medicine, alternative energy, food preservation and that sort of thing you were pretty much relegated to back issues of Mother Earth News or wandering the stacks at the local library…inconvenient and often unproductive.

The interweb, Crom bless it, has changed that on so many levels that I genuinely think a ‘survivalist’ from 1985 would just be slackjawed at the incredible potential offered by the internet. In the old days if you wanted to find a blast map of projected US targets with the anticipated fallout paths so you could plan your retreat location accordingly you had to cruise through stacks of all sorts of .gov and non-.gov documents. Now you can Google it and even get recent satellite imagery of the area to show you what the scenery looks like. Recent economic trends? Alcohol conversions for engines? Installing non-electric well pumps? All there. Heck, even YouTube all by itself offers more preparedness resources in one place than we ever saw when I was a kid. You trundle over to YouTube and they have videos on sealing buckets, storing grain, making smoke bombs, installing solar panels, cooking with Dutch ovens, etc, etc, etc.

In some ways I’m envious of the people who just recently came to this party. They have more resources available to them than I ever imagined twenty years ago. At the same time, though, theres so much information, good and bad, out there that it can also seem pretty overwhelming. But, I do think that the amazing amount of information out there on the internet makes todays survivalists potentially far more prepared than their compatriots twenty years ago. Heck, just the networking options alone are astounding. Back in the day you pretty much either ran a personal ad in SOF or ASG and opened yourself up to all sortsa whackos or you closeted yourself and hoped to someday just run into a fellow Like-Minded Individual. Nowadays you can lurk unobtrusively and fairly anonymously on various forums and strike up conversations with people without ever leaving yourself vulnerable.

Certainly one wonderful convenience of the internet has been its ability to make purchasing of obscure and hard-to-find items as simple as ordering a pizza. Used to be if you wanted to purchase, say, freeze dried foods you would mail the company for a catalog, review the catalog, possibly find a local distributor to get in touch with (since many companies don’t deal direct), send off your check, and have yours tuff shipped. Nowadays you can price shop on the internet, type in a credit card number and your stuff is on the way within a day or two. And for really obscure stuff and oddball military surplus, eBay has been mighty reliable. One of my favorite things about the internet is the ease and convenience of finding books that I want. No thousand-page publishers catalogs to weed through any more…I just type ‘off-grid living cabin’ and I get a list of all sortsa books that fit the bill. A couple clicks and theyre on the way. How utterly awesome is that?

Even gun purchases are more efficient and easier with the internet. Used to be that you only found a bargain if you hit the gun shows and maybe the out-of-the-way gun shops. Now you hop over to Gunbroker or AuctionArms and hunt around for exactly what you want. And spare parts? Never been easier. Used to be that getting parts for a gun was a tedious experience thumbing through the Gun Parts catalog and hoping they had what you want. Nowadays some fast Google-fu and you can have all the spare parts you want on their way in 24 hours.

Amazing resource, that interweb…..