I can’t speak for the entire community of people who self-identify as survivalists, but I think it’s a reasonable assumption to say that no one ever went through the annoyances, expense, time, and effort of being a survivalist because their one overriding concern was everybody but themselves. Most people, in my experience, get into preparedness (or survivalism, if you prefer) because their #1 concern is either themselves or people they care about (spouse, kids, family, etc.)
So, it isn’t really offensive, in my opinion, to say that survivalism is about protecting you…your life, your family, your property, your interests. Sure, if your neighbors, your country, your fellow citizens survive thats great…but you didnt stock away all those freeze drieds and ammo to save them. You did if for you and yours. And thats perfectly reasonable.
The reason I mention this is because as I was watching the news I find it very difficult to avoid asking myself, as a survivalist, what I think is a very basic and obvious question: how will this affect me?
“What! People are dying, nations are at war, refugees are being created and you’re sitting in your heated home, eating hot food, watching the internet and you want to know how this will affect YOU?!?!?!”, says the woke and self-appointed self-righteous guardians of outrage-by-proxy
Uhm…yes. I want to know how this affects me. Know why? Because while I am saddened at the thought of people in far and distant lands having their lives destroyed I am more concerned about my own life. Because…well…I’m living my life, not theirs.
So, yeah, maybe its selfish, maybe its thoughtless, maybe its insensitive. But, my first priority is me. My second priority is those I care about. You and everyone else are a distant third. I make absolutely no apologies for this. And I expect that from where youre standing, its the same thing towards me. And…thats cool.
So how does (or will) this Ukraine/Russia thing affect me, other than perhaps slowing down the Eastern European mail-order bride spam? Well, first of all, I don’t think I know a single person in real life who didn’t hustle to the gas station and fill their vehicle today. Me included. (By the way, two years ago, when there were Mean Tweets, if I bought $50 worth of gas it would have filled my fuel tank and half the bed of my truck. Nowadays..no.) And gas cans? Murdoch’s is, unsurprisingly, out of them. Fancy that.
My buddy at the gold/silver store was doing brisk business not seen since the early days of Wuhan Flu.
And although I didn’t do any grocery trips today, I’m willing to bet that the food storage corner at WinCo was a little lighter.
So how will the current situation affect me? Indirectly, mostly. The turmoil in the markets, oil prices, and the off chance of ‘bad actors’ all stand to cause collateral damage. I’m pretty well insulated from the worst of it, but you never know what sort of threats are looming.
I feel bad for the folks in Ukraine but as much as I wish them luck in re-enacting the ending of ‘300’, my main focus, in the midst of pandemic, inflation, and war, is myself and those I care about. I see nothing wrong with that and hope that you don’t either.
It’s wild world we live in these days.
Enlightened self-interest is the main driver of human advancement,this is what drives exploration,technical advancement and overall development.
You now know one person that didn’t go panic fill-up today,I topped up Sat (truck+storage) and over 1/2 tank left. Got best gas price in Indiana $3.07/gal,wish I had 10 more cans to fill.
I laughed out loud about everybody filling their gas tanks. I know I did.
Funny, I didn’t even think about filling my tank.
I didn’t use my car yesterday either.
Both cars are above 3/4, and I’ve got some gas cans already filled.
Good to see you, Phil! I miss Busterknuckles!
Miss?!?
It’s bounced around a bit, but it’s right where you left it.
Try and keep up:
https://bustednuckles.com/
Hmmm…doesn’t load for me.
The Gates of Janus have never been closed in my lifetime. A time of peace has come has never come.
No Sir, you are not alone in that thought.
I recently had a moment of enlightenment with my teenage daughter. We were discussing many similar issues, and it meandered into that old classic of gun-control entusiasts: you value your property more than you value that person’s life!
You’re God damned right I do, is the only correct answer.
My answer to that has always been “No, they value my property more than their own lives. Who am I to argue with them?”
I think one of the consequences of this will be the diminishing of foreign powers acting because of the former ‘might’ of the U.S. government. Biden’s bumbling will encourage those to act in their interests, because U.S. is no longer capable of fighting battles on foreign soil. (Or even our own for that matter. The populations seems pretty split on the other half being a Bad Guy, even if they are American too)_
I think one of the best preps right now is limiting the amount one has in the bank and increasing the amount of physical cash one has at home.
The Reds are big on cyber warfare and when they tangle up the US banking system I’d rather have a few bucks in the bank and a stack of them at home rather than the other way around.
Precious metals have their place but for day to day in the heightened days of this mess, cash will be king while electronic money will be….unavailable/restricted/lost.
Saw one report, and now it seems to have disappeared, that one of the main banks, or THE main bank, in Ukraine was hacked and had all its records wiped.
Even though Mr. Biden keeps talking about repercussions, every general and cyber expert they have had on the news has admitted that not only is the Russian cyber capability better than ours, but our system is wide open. Even when talking about the electrical grid, and it’s vulnerability to EMP. The Russian grid was built with national defence in mind. The North American grid was built with profit in mind, by the lowest bidder.
this is their way of prepping the country for the false flag grid hack. lights out, no election.
That is the direction I am approaching this from. How is my household vulnerable to cyber and lone-actor engagement?
The answer is far more than I am comfortable with, but far less than most other people.
I’m working on that comfort level.
I suspect I’m like many here on this subject. For me the aha moment was seeing the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (from several states away) and realizing, “the dot gov may or may not come by to give me supplies, so unless I have my own stuff and can protect it, my family will go hungry”
Powerful realization. If YOU control it, you have some hope of having it when you need it.
Short answer. It affects every single one of us. As long as the rotting bag of Dicks sits in the Oval Office. Holding a job he did not win but stole. We are all in danger. I don’t have anymore confidence in this dummy thrn I did Obama or Bubba the Gutless. All are self serving. Self centered. And none are very bright.
Clinton gave dual use tech to the Chinese that enabled them to orbit a space craft and deorbit same. Wether a manned space craft or one carrying a MIRV package filled with Chinese nukes. Obama. Is an illegal alien non citizen and therefore a Russian plant. Biden is disqualified by the contents of the 25th Amendment. He can’t wipe himself. Can’t bath himself. Can’t do much of anything except screw up every damn thing he touches. This then was Obama’s insurance policy against impeachment and removal. Now in desperate need of a hand puppet the left steal an election and insert this idiot whose IQ is smaller then his shoe size. Probably smaller then something else.
In his book “How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years,” Howard Ruff pointed out that providing for yourself & those you care about is not selfish, because you will not be competing for the same scarce goods later on.
That’s a nice thought. I’m tired of hearing people call preppers ‘hoarders’. They’re not.
Hoarders deliberately target critical items in a crisis. Preppers buy those items when there’s plenty for all – long before the crisis.
how? by giving team brandon the excuse they need to stay in power. false flag, martial law, suspended elections if not ww3/nuclear exchange….. we are ruled by bumbling fools. i watched the talking heads/experts? spouting at the mouth about this, knowing full well they don’t have a clue what is really going on. most of them are using talking points from the 90’s, the rest from the 60’s. and sanctions? the only ones hurt by that are us. our illustrious gop reps baying for war right along with the rest of them. does anybody know we buy 600k barrels of russian oil a day? or that russia exports more wheat than we do? or that if russia is put out of the swift bank, the dollar ceases to be the reserve currency and crashes? its clear no one in power has thought it out.
Designed to fail, once you accept THEY WANT YOU DEAD it all becomes a lot clearer. We are dealing with psychopaths at best, clinically criminally insane truthfully. Hitler,Stalin,Mao,Pol Pot ,Mussolini,were just the warm up acts.
“ So, yeah, maybe its selfish, maybe its thoughtless, maybe its insensitive. “
Um, no, no it’s not. It’s called survival. I was a survivor long before I was I survivalist. Whether it was surviving a birth mother that didn’t want me or the horror of foster care I learned to survive no matter what before I was 3. I did it by thinking of me. And that’s what I still do. Yes I have to factor kids and grandkids into it now, but I’m the baseline. NONE of kids have anything close to my real world experience and for that I’m grateful.
Watching the news with all the women, children and elderly hunkered down in the subway tunnel with what looks to be limited resources, anxiety is naturally very high.
I wonder how many are sitting comfortably at home diving into their preps. And what is the over/under on how many grabbed up their AR’s, ammo, extra mags, body armor, bugout bags, maps, water filters, and MRE’s and ran out to confront the invading Russians head on?
Reality is much different than theory and conjecture.
It’s the Serenity Prayer, man. Just because I’m aware of something terrible happening, doesn’t mean I can change it. If I can’t affect it, I try to not worry about it.
The world ‘is’ what it ‘is’, and I am what I am.
Can’t fix the world, but I can (possibly) fix myself.
“Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee…”
Survival prepping is merely one’s hole card, and bottom dollar.
The current Marxist idiots running the entire government aren’t playing well in the Heartland.
Cook polling has shifted two Senate races. One in Colorado from solid Marxist to likely Marxist.
In North Carolina that race went from likely Republican to solid Dead Elephant.
Vermont might be a surprise as well.
There is a good opportunity to take at least 4 seats in the Senate and possibly two additional. The one great big unknown is how bad the Turtle screws shit up again. McConnell has a unique ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. We’d still have the Senate if it wasn’t for China’s favorite Republican. The entire top leadership in both chambers needs to be replaced on the Republican side.
He worked against the Tea Party. And the Republican base which is now the Trump base. He is next to useless. And Useless and he were buddies when Biden was in the Senate. Kentucky needs to send Mitch McConnell either back home or back to Bejing.
Nothing wrong with looking out for yourself, but be ready to help those you can too.
The Sereneity Prayer! Yes! You can’t fix everything, but do what you can. My trouble is a lot of people are victims of their own bad decisions and I struggle to have sympathy for them. We all struggle, and we all need to find a way.
Remember the oxygen mask on an airplane? You can’t help others if you can’t help yourself. Wealth, resources, education, even attitude. Helping others can make YOU your best you. I’ve learned a lot from CZ and others here, I need to do more to pay that forward.