The Future of Preparedness and Modern Survivalism?
Posted on January 23, 2015 by FerFAL

According to some people, the end of the world is just around the corner. Because of one reason or another, an economic collapse, terrorism strike, rise of communism or planed globalist population reduction by the new world order, we are supposed to see a surge of disasters world wide. Even in developed nations expect cities to burn and the masses to riot any time now.
This speech has changed little in over half a century. But wait! Any minute now! Cities will burn, people will stave, the hordes of looters will flow out of the cities, you’ll see, you’ll…
Bullshit.
And it’s the same BS doomers have been preaching for several decades now.
But lets talk about the real fights ahead of us while we’re at it.
You see, while in parts of the world war is destroying lives by the thousands every single day, and there is in fact true hunger in many countries, for those lucky enough to live in developed nations chances are they will be facing different challenges.
Crime and Self-Defense


No one knows for sure what the future holds but while it’s rather expected to see armed conflict and widespread war in developing nations, it’s not as common to see it in developed ones. I’m not saying it can’t happen, but it sure isn’t as common. While some survivalists and preppers believe the UN is about to invade any minute now and North Korea has millions of troops ready to parachute all across the west coast, I believe that in the future the threats will be of a different nature. The crime that already exists, will simply become much, much worse. You won’t need to live in some bunker hidden in the boonies because of a foreign army invasion, you’ll need to live in a well secured home because of the dangerous, constant violent crime that exists and you eventually grew used to. Alarms, reinforced doors, even paying for private security, it will no longer be a luxury but a necessity and the country will soon be divided between those that can afford to pay for it and enjoy the security that comes along with it and those that can’t. Chances are you wont get into a gunfight with the “supreme leader’s” goons, or even with a colorful band of survivors and raiders. Chances are that most people that get killed by gunshot wounds in the not so distant future will die in the parking lot of some 7 Eleven or walmart when stopping to pick some diapers for the baby waiting back home, or shot during a carjack when driving to the office. Awareness and skill with the gun you should be carrying on daily basis already, that’s your best defense for this type of scenario.
Food


We all need food, don’t we? Food is the number one item to stock up on, the one we know we can’t live without. Whenever food is brought up in the context of survivalism, famine quickly comes to mind. People starving to death, people desperate for a plate of food. This is a very real, legitimate concern, but there’s a good chance food will be a problem in the future but in a different way. There’s a good chance food will continue to be the reason why hundreds of thousands die, but not because of lack of it, but because of its poor quality and excess. The true battle will be making sure our kids have real, healthy food and not the garbage often sold to us as food. As of right now, two thirds of American adults are overweight or obese and so are 30.4% of low-income preschoolers. Obesity is what will continue to kill people in developed nations and as the statistics already show us, obesity is worse among the poorest population in the developed world. Rich folks? They’re skinny. With more poverty, we’ll see worse fed people, because of the cheaper junk food, but most of all because of a lack of education. People will die because of the junk food they eat on daily basis, while the much healthier grains they bought for their “preps” sit in buckets waiting for the end of the world.
Medical care
The cost of medical care will continue to rise. On one hand we have companies brainwashing people into eating food that makes them sick, on the other we have the same investors putting money into the pharmaceutical companies that keep these same sheep alive.
Breaking a leg, getting surgery or buying blood pressure meds, no matter what it is that you need it will continue to get more and more expensive, with a fewer percentage of a population capable of affording true quality medical care. Learn how to get healthy and stay that way now, before getting sick.
Education and Mindset
This will probably be the worst tragedy of all. The collapse of the education system. True education and freedom of thought being replaced by some standardized scheme designed to mass produce cogs to fit the corporate machine. Sate owned corporation, of course, or maybe better said, Corporate owned State, with corporate preapproved elected representatives.
The cost of education will continue to grow. First based on where you can afford to live, then based on the private school you can afford to send your kids to and finally based on the college their debt capability permits. And when the degree they overpaid for hardly helps to make up for the debt they amassed before working a single day in their lives, they’ll finally see that it’s more about friends, connections, and ultimately the real-world practical skills you have.
You prepare for this by understanding that education is important, but not because of some piece of paper in a frame, but the actual education you get by studying and working, the kind of education you get maybe working on your own projects after school when you’re still in high school. Google and Microsoft are already paying kids NOT to go to school and join them straight away. Today more than ever, its important to work on what you’re passionate about from an early age, and getting the education and capacitation needed so as to do that. The times when you could just get a degree, hang it in your studio and that alone would always get you a job no matter what are long gone.
Poverty
As you probably already see, poverty is the common denominator in most of these topics. Inequality will continue to grow, with the ruling elite becoming even more powerful, even more controlling of all aspects of people’s lives and people’s liberty and quality of life dropping proportionally.
I believe it’s stupid to worry about preparing for a dystopian American future where wars are fought on every street corner, and lean mean, hardened survivors fight one another over the limited resources such as food, fuel and supplies, that are still available. Have fun watching that movie but no, that’s not the future I see, at least not in the developed world. The future is already here, you just have to look: Overweight and dumbed-down by a poor, corrupted education system and even worse diet. Working on soul-crushing jobs to pay massive debts (their own and their parents!) along with inflated medical and education bills. Distracted by the latest reality TV show or latest cell phone launch, stressed by the growing crime and violence all around them and living with the constant uncertainty of imminent unemployment and growing inflation.
Which one do you think is more likely? Which one do you find more scary?
FerFAL
http://www.themodernsurvivalist.com/archives/3914

Quoted:
Excellent piece.

Quoted:
I'm happy too see the "quality of food" thing mentioned.   Our American diet is filled with so much JUNK!  

I'm fortunate enough to afford healthy food and to be able to hunt a lot of my proteins.  I've adopted a mostly Paleo diet.

Quoted:
I agree with most of this. One nit I would pick is that my observation of a lot of so-called "poor" in rural areas is that they actually eat much better than rich folks in the city because they have to buy, grow, or raise whole foods and prepare them in their own house, not cruise down to McDs and wolf down a Big Mac or three.

The "inequity" between poor and rich will only be cured when the the poor are not being paid to stay that way and the rich are not rewarded thru cronyism. Eventually, as Maggy Thatcher once said, the .gov "runs out of other people's money". When, not if, that happens, there will be a massive reset - it cannot be otherwise unless our so-called "leaders" grow a spine and start whacking everything the .gov does back into its proper box. How likely is that?

Quoted:
I prep for the end of the world.

Not because I think a comet's necessarily going to take out the Southern Hemisphere tomorrow, but because it's the easiest way to cover all the bases.  If I'm ready for TEOTWAWKI, chances are good that I'll be ready for the real emergency, for example, the ice storm that knocks out power for two weeks.  The EOTW scenario helps ensure that I'm ready not only for the ice storm, but also the kid that cut his thigh open crossing a barbed wire fence, the tree-trimming truck that crushed the sewer line, the shorted-out well pump power line... the "minor" emergencies that can still make life miserable if you're not ready for them.

Quoted:
Great post...putting on the OPSEC glasses, I worry about it in the following order:

1) Health
2) Finances
3) Personal Safety
4) Natural Disaster or Industrial Incident
5) Everything else

My thoughts are that if you are not healthy, nothing else matters.  That goes to the top of the list.

Secondly, if you don't have anything, you don't have to worry about someone stealing your stuff/assaulting you - so crime risk comes second to the priority of gaining something financially.  Spend wisely, save up for a stable economic life and helping others is common sense. Money provides velocity to do other things.

Third, crime... I see it every day here in Houston.  The "bleeding over" of crime from the "bad areas" to the "good areas".  I am sure that some of that "bleeding over" is on purpose...the have-nots trying to forcibly take from the "haves" that they've been taught to hate....some neighborhoods already have their local warlords. HPD doesn't do shit as far as I can see.  It's the highest likelihood bad event that can occur other than a heart attack or car accident.

Then comes the slightly probable but significantly impactful natural/industrial incident. Don't worry too much about it happening, but take precautions in the event it does.

To me, economic problems and crime will be like chickens pecking us to death over decades....they are the cancers we need to cure if we have any hope of a successful society.

Quoted:
You see, while in parts of the world war is destroying lives by the thousands every single day, and there is in fact true hunger in many countries, for those lucky enough to live in developed nations chances are they will be facing different challenges.

Quoted:
I see no real difference between long term SHTF or short term SHTF.  Prepping is not about building a big stash of stuff, it is about weaning yourself from government. It is about becoming as self-sufficient as possible. That works for any scenario: from Mad Max to Katrina.  

Quoted:
Unless one lives way, way out in the boonies, most "rural" people have neighbors within sight or gunshot sound range... I am always amazed how often RURAL roads, even off-road roads, are traveled by someone... From the rural people I have met, many of them are barely surviving financially and don't have much to anything in "preps," but they have SKILLS... They know how to hunt and usually own a deer-rifle with a scope. They are good enough shots to put down a deer. So my BIGGEST CONCERN in SHTF is these people getting hungry and desperate, figuring out YOU have STUFF and FOOD, and using those hunting skills on YOU as you step out your front door.... The ASSUMED MORALS of the rural folk can no longer be assumed to be GOOD people, as it is no longer true in many areas, as Hillbilly Meth & Oxy dealers show us in the news...

So it is Brave, New World out there... Much more to factor and consider...

But avoiding URBAN, at this stage of the game, is still good strategy.

Rmpl

Quoted:
I see no real difference between long term SHTF or short term SHTF.  Prepping is not about building a big stash of stuff, it is about weaning yourself from government. It is about becoming as self-sufficient as possible. That works for any scenario: from Mad Max to Katrina.  

Quoted:Lived in cities the first 26 years of my life, lived rural the other 15. I've met easily 6X the amount of millionaires living in the country than I ever knew or even heard of living in the city. So this old cliche that everyone who lives in the sticks is an "ig'nat hick" that doesn't have two $20. to rub together. That's definitely not the case. Some of the smartest and wealthiest people are found in the country.

Quoted:
I recently heard a statistic that in my home state of MS there are more people on some form of government assistance than have jobs. Let that sink in for a minute...

Quoted:
When things come apart slowly, people adapt or at least 'normalize' to the progressing situation.  When things come apart fast, those least able to rapidly adapt panic and panic leads to irrational behavior (think reacting violently).  So far (in my opinion) things in this country (and in other 'first world' countries) have been on a slow wind down.  The question is (in my mind) if/when the 'spin down' picks up speed (and I am sure again in my mind) that it will happen, who among us will see it for what it is at that point in time.  Times are becoming interesting ............

Quoted:
I always find it amusing when people within our own community who proclaim themselves "survivalists"  label others within our community crazy. Like preparing for economic collapse is SOO far fetched that those of us who take it seriously and are committed to it are delusional Mad Max wannabees. Just ponder a few facts.  1. The US Dollar is the reserve currency for most trade on our planet. Because of that fact the fed is able to print cash (which is a bad thing) pretty much at will. However, loosing our reserve currency status would cause our dollar to implode. If you don't know what the reserve currency is or what it means you owe it to yourself to look it up.          2. Im sure the majority of the population in Argentina, 1931 Germany(Wiemar Republic) the US in 1929 and 2006, Zimbabwe had any idea that they were on the verge. How soon we forget!!!  NAW IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN HERE.......  3. What makes you more comfortable?? believing that those in control of the Ponzi scheme we call our economy can continue to keep it going or preparing for the possibility that they can't ??

Quoted:
I always find it amusing when people within our own community who proclaim themselves "survivalists"  label others within our community crazy. Like preparing for economic collapse is SOO far fetched that those of us who take it seriously and are committed to it are delusional Mad Max wannabees. Just ponder a few facts.  1. The US Dollar is the reserve currency for most trade on our planet. Because of that fact the fed is able to print cash (which is a bad thing) pretty much at will. However, loosing our reserve currency status would cause our dollar to implode. If you don't know what the reserve currency is or what it means you owe it to yourself to look it up.          2. Im sure the majority of the population in Argentina, 1931 Germany(Wiemar Republic) the US in 1929 and 2006, Zimbabwe had any idea that they were on the verge. How soon we forget!!!  NAW IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN HERE.......  3. What makes you more comfortable?? believing that those in control of the Ponzi scheme we call our economy can continue to keep it going or preparing for the possibility that they can't ??

Quoted:
Im not arrogant. You insist on Argentina. You're the one talking about Argentina, not me. As I said in the previous post, I'm talking about things that are already happening in USA and given the trend are likely to continue happening. No, I'm sorry, I can't educate you on Argentina right now. I've written tons about it already, use the search function if you're interested.
FerFAL

Quoted:

Interesting, I have thought about this a lot except I believe the opposite.  The U.S. will go down the hardest and the fastest.