Is the new interest in survival....

Is the new interest in survival preparation due to a new awakening to the actual reality of the world's overall situation

OR

Is the new interest in survival preparation merely the latest new fashion?


I think that after the news articles that have covered the subject of food shortages and of the new revival of "survival" interests, many people have panicked. The panickers are trying to make sure that they have more of everything than anybody else and like many other oddities that have become status symbols, being ready to survive has, or is becoming, "Fashionable".

What's your opinions on this set of possibilities???

I'd say a bit of both. But I really don't think the majority of people are much more prepared than they were before, even if they do go out and buy all the "survival supplies" the media tells them they need. Buying 50lbs. of rice is good and fine, but if you don't normally eat rice, don't have any way to cook it off the grid, don't store it properly, or mistakenly think that its all you need to survive for a few weeks or so, you could be in for a rude awakening. Same thing with someone who buys a generator for emergencies but has rarely/never used it and just assumes things will work like the guy at home depot said it would when the need arises. If its not a habit, its just a fad.

I think that any time food shortage is mentioned any reasonable person is going to take notice and shore up their own supplies.

Panic? I have not seen any panic. When panic sets in the grocery store shelves will be bare.

Survival prep fashionable? No. Never.

The biggest thing to boost awareness in survival preparation lately is C.E.R.T., Katrina and 9/11.

Furthermore, survival preparation can be buying a box of MRE's, a generator, First aid kit or anything else to help that person get through a disaster. How many people here have fire extinguisher's and can locate and turn off the water and gas main to their house/duplex/apt?

There's nothing wrong with someone preparing the way they see fit even if you might find it ridiculous.


-JRJ

I don’t think the interest in survival is as strong as it use to be. It was not uncommon to have a fallout shelter that was stocked with food and supplies in the 1950s and 1960s. I don’t here anything about that now.


All of us here think about it all the time, but Joe six-pack doesn’t give it a thought other then for a day or so when there is a snow storm coming. He fully expects the store down the street to always have everything he wants and that help for any problem is a cell phone call away.


I wonder if any of those shelters are still around in people’s backyard?

Yes they are, but folks are now buying lots near their towns and having new shelters buried there.

They are also having to put transponders on the hatch so that they can find the entrance when they go to check on their shelters.

Seems that every hurricane season we see folks fighting at the last minute for plywood to board up their windows, water, batteries, etc. Not much preparedness there...

That's a very good point, OBG.

I always wonder, as I watch the rush for plywood, what happened to the plywood they had bought, cut to size, & installed for the previous hurricane???

Blackouts, 9/11, Katrina, and some apparent "food shortages" are getting people to be more aware of their need to prepare. I think most just follow some list of essentials they pulled from their favorite entertainment media. Isn't that enough?

Shows on TV and recent movies have been increasingly focused on survival. I'm thinking of Survivorman, Man vs. Wild, I Shouldn't Be Alive, Survivor, Lost, and Into the Wild.

I've noticed that my local Walmart has signficantly more survival gear inventory, and it has increased slightly in actual usefulness and quality. I even purchased a few items there myself.



ROFL

Consumers are just following their instincts. When threatened, their innate reaction is to consume. Who needs planning and preparation? That would require thought.

I think that it's mostly the latter, due to Katrina/Rita and TV shows such as Man vs. Wild, Survivorman, It Could Happen Tomorrow, MegaDisasters, et al.

I started to get interested in in survival when I was in the Boy Scouts, and from a little board game called "Wilderness Survival by Avalon Hill. I'm not afraid to admit that Katrina/Rita woke me up and refocused my attention on survival requirements. I find that being survival oriented helped my self-confidence and interest in self-sufficiency. Plus, discovering this website was a godsend because of the information, great people and fascinating topics on the boards.

Perhaps it's also important to consider not just who is interested in survival prep, but rather who is planning to stick with it.

I'd guess that a good portion of people 'preparing' for survival events are really not doing much more than giving themselves a false sense of security.

As a child I would "prepare" for tornado season by moving my favourite stuffed animals and books into the basement in a little bag.
I have since learned what was really needed to be prepared, but I became really aware of the need to be prepared after wathcing the Katrina aftermath.
This may be what a lot of other people thought and thus the increase in survival interest.

Welcome to the forum Agate.

I don't think survival preparedness is considered fashionable, at all. And I haven't noticed an uptick in preparedness in the past year. Certainly not post-apocalyptic survival. Perhaps if the television show "Jericho" had higher ratings and stuck around for a few seasons that would change.

There's always been hoarding around snowstorms and hurricanes. Surprising there's not more hoarding going on now because of the rice shortages headlines and, even worse, reports of pending doom in the form of hyper-inflation.

Awareness of the need to prepare for lesser crises probably is greater in the past decade, though still not anywhere near the level it needs to be. There's a federal government web page -- ready.gov -- devoted to it. Y2K, 9/11, anthrax, northeast blackout, Katrina, Rita -- took place in the course of just a few years. So there are more people with duct tape, plastic sheeting and N95 masks shoved in the back of a closet or in their basement, somewhere.

Because of historical discoveries in the 90s, the Pacific Northwest is being educated on its vulnerability to a massive earthquake and coastal towns there now have tsunami evac routes. Californians' earthquake preparedness comes and goes with tremors. Because of the James Kim family's horrible experience with being stranded in their car on an Oregon backroad, many more people became aware of how tenuous survival could become during such a seemingly routine roadtrip. Recently the mid-Atlantic and northeast states have seen and read news reports of their vulnerability to hurricances and the fact that these areas are overdue for a huge storm.

Yet, I am unaware of any of my friends being as prepared as I am. That's simply because I'm the one with most of the camping gear. Despite the many wise posts on this forum, I haven't made any special effort to store extra food or water, except for my dog (my only "dependant"). I always keep ample canned soup on hand in case I'm stricken with the flu. Since 9/11 I do top off my gas tank every Sunday and won't let it go below half. That's because I live in DC.

In the early 90s, while I was gearing up for camping, we were hit with a week of severe ice storms and rolling blackouts. Ever since I have been conscious of the survival utility of camping and hiking gear. More recently I've become aware of the notion of "bugging out" and my bikes and bike trailers assume new significance.

But do I see increased preparedness around me? No. But perhaps there are closet survivalists among us. That would indicate that such survival preparation is not fashionable.

TS_Shawn,

That's some very good points that you've made.

I have been finding more people have made basic preparations. These same people will not admit to it (because they feel foolish????).
{covert hoarders???}

Still, others like to point out the latest gadget or tool they have acquired but they go outdoors a heck of a lot less than I do.
{the "Fashionable ones"}

Others are convinced that the Gov't will provide whatever disaster assistance they may require and/or need.
{typical Katrina or Rita victims}

I know a lot of folk who have first aid kits ready, and food stored, etc - and this is in "suburban" NYC.

Do folks call it "disaster prep"? Nah It's "I have a first aid kit" and "some flashlights and laterns after the last blackout" and "Gee - I do buy my food in bulk at costco - it's cheaper, and I have a nice patry of cooking stuff like Grandma had" and "Yeah, I still have my old camping gear, and my sons have theirs" Many/Most of my friends are fairly prepared, but don't THINK of it as "disaster preps"

That's in line with the level and admission of preps that I am seeing for the most part. Thanks for putting it into words so well.

A fad for some, most assuredly, but in others I am seeing what I believe to be an almost subconscious level of preparation. I have been shopping with many friends both male and female and they will frquently pick up a couple of extra candles or or boxes of batteries and other items. If I ask them about it they will say it seemed like a good idea at the time. Also I have 2 friends with rural backgrounds that I have known for 15-20 years and they have always stocked enough food, etc. to last themselves and extended families for at least 30-60 days because they were raised that way. If you take the time to observe people as they shop in a grocery store you will frquently notice that many are adding a little extra to their shopping carts. I have talked with employees of grocery stores and they comment on how people seem to be purchasing more. Of course this may be simply out of fear of rapidly rising costs on some items.

There will always be a wide range in people's planning for emergencies, just like with everything else, from the people who think their government will take care of their every need to the people who think Burt Gummer was underprepared.

I don't have TV, and I don't know anyone who watches Oprah (okay, I'm deprived), but does anyone know if she has ever done a show on getting prepared? Surely she has more clout than Britney Spears or the others of that ilk. If there's one person who can influence American, she is probably the one.

Sue

Hey Susan. I don't suppose that you and Blast can do a segment on Oprah's show?

An Oprah segment on preparedness surely would have a big impact.

And spawn a huge boost in sales for any product she plugged.

Her endorsement of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" sold a lot of those books so she has some recent immersion in the most dire scenario.

Someone noted earlier in this discussion that America had a large-scale preparedness effort during the Cold War.

What was that "duck-and-cover" turtle's name?

Bert is the turtle's name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_and_Cover_(film)

" I don't suppose that you and Blast can do a segment on Oprah's show?"

I would rather see Doug Ritter, Martin Focazio and Blast together on her show. Blast provides the situation, Doug and Marty provide the instruction on how to prepare for it.

Sue

Still, at least one person is learning useful survival stuff from me. My four year old daughter caught the second fish of her life this weekend.

She caught it with her bare hands!

-Blast

Two fish in 4 years, sounds like you need to find a new fishin' hole; the one yer usin' is about wore out.

You might also think about gittin' yer kid her own pole. Handicapping her like that ain't gonna help her chances none. Besides, if'n she's noodlin' cats at her age, she's more like bait than a grappler, don't ya think?

I told you that if you starved the children, they'd learn how to feed themselves. You might try giving her a little bit of equipment, though.

Seriously, My congratulations to your DD1!!!!! She's done good!!!!

I vote for Blast, Wildman and Doug to appear on the Britney Spears Preparedness Special with Guest Stars: Les Stroud and Lindsey Lohan. Same useful information. Better comedy.

I would change the wording a little. Yes to the first sentence. However, the second sentence should be changed at the end from "prepare" to "survive", "adapt", "deal with", or something similar.

"Run screaming from" was the wording DW suggested, then after thinking about it more she decided Doug and Marty would be too smart to be in a room with me and a camera.

-Blast

I guess after the "rice scare" left the headlines survival prep quickly went back to boring. After all, why prepare until you know for sure the storm is coming your way? Makes sense to me.




http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/05/29/hurricane.prepare/index.html

I think there are a lot of things that go into the idea that there is a new interest in "survival" and preparedness. But one of the things that should be considered is that we need to think about this stuff at all. Being able to do many of the things we not think of as preparedness or survival skills, we just things more people did and knew how to do in the past. I doubt you can find a single garden in the neighborhood in which DW and I bought a house. I doubt you can find anything else being raised for food within a mile of that house, except for maybe an occasional fish coming out of Long Island Sound. I also doubt you will find as many people now with have mason jars of preserved foods within twenty miles of there as you would have forty years ago, even though today there are a whole lot more people living there. And canned goods, I doubt you'll find as many in peoples homes too. A lot of this stuff is something that people with an interest in survival or preparedness are learning how to do, while a large percentage or prior generations just knew without a special interest.

There's other stuff that goes into it, like Katrina, shortages, etc., but a lack of the fundamental knowledge past generations had is also part of the equation.

Over @ www.standeyo.com you will see a notice that because of the sudden demand for their books on preparation, they will be slower in posting news on their website.

I have no affiliation with the Deyo's but I do own a copy of: "Dare To Prepare". It's been very helpful concerning the DW.

I guess I would fall on the list as a more recent adopter of survival prep.

Mind you, growing up our family always kept an eye out for being prepared. We had a sizeable garden as we lived outside of the city with no food stores except in the city... The 72 flood that hit Wilkes-Barre really opened peoples' eyes. My mom always canned veggies every year.

Our basement had a large stock of canned food. The 2 freezers we had always contained approx. 1 side of beef. We had rifles/shotguns, fishing gear, propane stoves, coal stove, etc... On occasion, esp. in the bad snows, we were stuck in the house but didn't worry as we had plenty of stores in the house.

As I got older, I got more interested in aquiring camping gear... Well, for me, survival gear went hand in hand with that. I had purchased a case of MREs (when you were able to get the real ones). I had a tent, knife, survival blanket, fire tinder, etc... I always made sure that I had enough things with me both in a pack and on a canteen belt to make sure I could get home safe. I had paracord before I even realized how useful it was.

Currently, I make sure to keep a nicely stocked survival kit. I keep dehydrated food and MREs on hand (still mostly for camping but makes a great food store). I keep plenty of canned food available, cases of water, and propane in stock. I have a gas grill and camp stove, just in case.

My wife gives me funny looks sometimes as I add to my gear, but I think she appreciates knowing that I would be able to take care of her and my son if something happened. She is definitely a city girl and would not do well trying to survive on her own in the woods... This is something I will make sure that my newborn son does not mimic! He will be in the scouts and will benefit from my taking him out into the woods with me.

Do I obsess over my gear sometimes... Sure I do. Then again, what price can you place on safety? The life of your loved ones? As they say, stuff happens. Best to be prepared.

You're not the only one who gets funny looks from your wife. Recently, I bought one of the recently discussed KaBar knives. I found it used and cheap, so I bought it. I would have preferred the smaller version, but I took the larger 7 inch blade because of the price. She seemed worried that I was buying more "weapons," but she doesn't even know about the kukri. She did seem happier after I told her it was in her BOB, into which she has never looked.

I also think obsessing over gear and plans is a common problem with people on this forum, not that I think it's really a problem. Of course, I'm the guy who has a bunch of heirloom seeds in a drawer although I live in a Manhattan apartment, which has no place to really grow anything.

Admittedly, that sounds like me. I've trekked through the woods and I've been to the lake many times but I never had to live off the land.

Jeanette Isabelle

Yeah, the Mrs. worries over all the "dangerous weapons" (knives, swords) I have. Worries that the little one will find them and hurt himself when he is older.

I take a deep breath, look at her in the eye, point the silverware drawer and say that there are many sharper knifes in that drawer that could hurt him. A screwdriver used improperly could hurt him... It is all about education about what is right/wrong and safe handling...

*sigh* I think many have lost the art of teaching write from wrong for their kids.

As a side note, she does love the SAK I had bought her a while back... *shakes head* Some days she gets it, some days she doesn't...

I agree with you there. A knife is not dangerous provided you know how to properly use one. I believe the most important survival tool is knowledge which is why it is so important to teach kids how to use tools properly.

Jeanette Isabelle

I think Mike_H is right in that many today don't teach children enough lessons in morality, but that may be because many today do not believe as much that certain things are simply right or wrong. If I go any further I'm into a political discussion about moral relativism and the so-called cultural wars, so I'll stop.

JeanetteIsabelle is also right on. However, I think many do not teach their children how to do lots of things today. I've got a friend who is pretty capable as far as fixing and creating thigns. He was licensed as a shipboard engineer, worked as one and as a mechanical contractor, so has can do welding, plumbing and a number of other skills. but he continually refers to his own sons (4 of them) as "useless" when it comes to yard work, such as raking or cutting his lawn. I know that by the time I was the age of his two oldest, I was out cutting neighbors lawns for money, and I learned from my father. If his sons do not know, then isn't that probably because he did not teach them?

I think there is also something in there about a changing set of what we expect our children to be able to do. For example, my friend's father expected mroe from my friend, than my friend expects from his sons.

It is a changing culture... So much has been lost, but I'm determined to teach my son proper morality, respect, chivalry, etc...

It all starts in the home... If the TV and computer is the babysitter, you're fighting a losing battle. Go out... teach them how to fish. How to start a proper fire with flint and steel. I love the Dangerous Book for Boys. I think it really hits the nail on the head for things we shouldn't forget.

I think that Blast is doing a great job with his girls. Catching a fish with their hands... Priceless!

Absolutely.

I'm thinking it might just be a bit more awareness. Between rising gas and food prices, and articles like CNN mentioning rice shortages, maybe people are starting to get just a touch more worried about the "what-ifs." It might not even be "survival" so juch as it is "I can afford it now." Which, admittedly, is economic survival.

Speaking of food shortages, I was reading today that the US only has about 2 weeks worth of wheat on hand at any given time. Where did I read this? In a pizzaria, one of the trade magazines! Yes, they have periodicals specifically for pizza.

Wheat or flour? Wheat crops aren't harvested every two weeks year round, so some HAS to be stored somewhere.

That just doesn't make sense to me.

-Blast

To put this in perspective, I'm now twenty-two-years-old, not much older than today's kids. In 1994 I was eight-years-old, doing the laundry and basic cooking. At that time my sisters and I were living with our grandmother and I know that played a big role.

I would not be so quick to dismiss this generation with "Well, with TV, video games and the Internet, it's a loosing battle."

Jeanette Isabelle

If I'm dismissing anyone, it's not the kids. When parents complain about the kids and say things like that, then I normally think that it's the parents not putting in the effort to lead their kids to meet different expectations.