Survivalism...What does it mean to you?!

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by lonewolf88, Mar 11, 2016.


  1. lonewolf88

    lonewolf88 Monkey

    What does Survivalism and being a Survivalist mean?!

    To me, it is being desensitized, bold, daring....fearless. It is about self-sufficiency, camaraderie and being outside your comfort zone.

    Desensitization is NOT a bad thing. In fact, it is a good thing. Not only is it crucial to surviving anything, even every day life, given the risks that anyone puts them through on any given day, but being desensitized actually opens the door to logical and rational thinking.

    Think about a horse for example. How do you get it rideable or even used to loud noises, like firearm reports? You desensitize it by subjecting it to the act repetitively.

    I know I run the risk of being criticized and mocked, blah, blah, blah, etc....but oh well.

    It is sad that The United States citizens has allowed themselves to be influenced by anyone or anything except their own mind, free will and ability to think independently. It is sad that there is growing sensitization and fear mongering going on. What the hell ever happened to make people scare so damn easily?!

    Another thing, you either support, advocate for and adhere to the 2nd Amendment entirely or not at all. There is NO middle ground. You cannot say you support the 2nd amendment and be against anything it involves. Free Will solemnly dictates, that if an individual lives in a state that allows open carry....that that person has the RIGHT and CHOICE to carry any arm they wish. Be it handgun, musket, rifle, shotgun, revolver, Derringer, any type of bow, a knife, baton, sword, any defense device (stun gun, taser, Mace, Sabre Defense Spray.)

    Nowhere in the Second Amendment does it say hide or conceal arms. The concept of concealed carry and the laws that followed, only exists because of the sensitized idiots and fear mongers that think being armed is not normal. Open Carry has existed for thousands of years, before the term even existed. I cannot believe that the human race has subjected themselves to fear and emotion based thinking. Animals think based on fear, humans should not. We are supposed to be intelligent.
     
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  2. Bishop

    Bishop Monkey+++

    I am reading what your saying and I am not going to say I agree or disagree with you but I will say the world has changed wether it be the laws of man or fear as you say I will give you one reason not to carry open if you can carry concealed

    If we will call him a bad guy decided to do harm to a place where there many people and you are open carry who would you take out first the young guy with a Mossberg cruiser slung over his back or a old man that's is concealed carrying that's why all the mass shooting are against people that can't fight back if your concealed they don't know your strong a little tactics make them think your weak when your really strong another reason is you don't want the people showing up to help thinking your the bad guy.
     
  3. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    Correct, the obviously armed, is the first target.
    If you were to rob a bank, you first kill the guard, not the tellers.
    ONE teller with a CCW, and the bank robber is flanked and doesn't even know it. Several tellers with CCW's, and the robber is Swiss cheese.
    Only survivors have to be prosecuted, housed, fed, and given free health care, dental, and free college educations.
     
  4. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    Most of us do not think of ourselves as "Survivalists" per say, thinking "survivalists" are mostly the nut-cases you read about in the paper or see on reality TV. We started this forum as a group of like-minded people gathered to discuss ways and means of being better prepared to weather the changing political and economic climate and share ideas and information about how to best accomplish this. Though there have always been the Rambos that start fires with sticks and kill bison with atlatal and stone-pointed spears sharing their bent on it, most of us think how to make peanut-butter or can some pickles is more useful. We have investigated the options of running off to the cave and subsisting on dead animals caught in our snares and have reached the conclusion that we wouldn't be very good hunters having to lug around a 90 lb. ammo-pack while battling MZBs and gave up on the tactical wheel-barrow a long time ago. Most of us have lived through disasters of great magnitude and have still maintained our humanity while building skill-sets that might be a bit more useful than those of the people we meet fighting for a can of beans at the barren grocery store. We tend to focus more on OPSEC and less on arm-chair fantasy about the brave new world and how we'll conquer it. Most of us try to prepare for a life devoid of many of the comforts the infrastructure provides without having to revert to being cave-men. I can promise that I will never blister my hands with a fire-drill as long as there is a Bic lighter in my pocket.
     
    Aeason, RightHand, Motomom34 and 7 others like this.
  5. Bishop

    Bishop Monkey+++

    Being desensitized is not always a good thing just this morning I watched a video of isis latest video it's bad and did not bother me at all I also have three kids 18 15 and 6 when they get hurt I tell them to suck it up it don't faze me at all and being a father it bothers me because I should not be that way I am desensitized.living life on the edge only gets you broken up limping around or worse
     
  6. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    Have blistered my finkers with Bic lighters.....you have no idea how difficult it is getting a fire started by rubbing two Bic lighters against each other.
     
  7. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    Chello, we really need to work on your technique. ....:rolleyes:
     
  8. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    I am so OLD, that just living another 20years, will certainly be a Survival Miracle... AlaskaChick & I are what folks call "Prep'ers" in that we have ALL that we need, to live, for Years, at a time, where we live... Our Prep'en Lifestyle goes back at least 5 Generations... We can defend ourselves, and our location, just fine... I have had a lot of different Careers, in many past Lifetimes... I have been, NitroOrganic Chemist, Professional PowderMan, Radio/Television Chief Engineer, Marine Radio Operator, Resident Federal Agent, Commercial Communcations Consultant, Data Network Engineer, OEM High Accuracy Ammunnition Manufacturer, FFL Licensee, and a whole lot more... I have lived in Wilderness (What is now North Cascades National Park) with a partner, using only what we carried on our backs, for two years... I now, live in the Alaskan Bush, and have since '91... I have traveled to every Village, in Alaska, at least ONCE, in my Lifetime.... Now, We are reTIRED, and look forward to our Nine GrandChildren, coming to stay during the Summertimes, and the QUIET, of Bush living in the Wintertimes... If you, last 50 more years, and you get that Lifetime of experience, and have half the Fun, and one quarter the LOVE, that I have found, believe me, you will have lived a Good Life....
     
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  9. oldawg

    oldawg Monkey+++

    When I started down this path in '73 we were known as survivalist. A few looks but not even as shocked as the looks a "prepper" gets from some these days. We were somewhere between the mainstream population and the commune groups. Our group and MOST groups like us were just working folks some single, some married, some with kids. Most of us males, because of the draft, were vets from one branch or another. Our focus was the same then as now. How to "survive" bad times and prosper until good times returned. Yes we did take security seriously then as now but 95% of the groups were not "rambos". We weren't the free love or dopers either. Then the media got bored and started in on us and before long we where branded as outlaws out to rape,rob, and over run "civilized" society and at the very least seditious. The movement nearly died out as most of us took our beliefs and hid them from but a few trusted friends. Then about 15-20 years ago people started forming "prepping" groups and the movement begin again under a different name. The media has once again started to vilify us and even worse the goobs in guv have labeled us terrorist (again). "preppers" see this and yet some still believe what was said of "survivalist" by media and government as "truth" even though it is the same thing. People learning skills and acquiring tools and supplies to get through bad times in hope that good times will return again at some point. So call me a survivalist anytime. It's a title I wear with pride. Proud that I CAN and HAVE ,if need be, start a fire with what's around me. Yes I do carry my Zippo and as for bison I would MUCH prefer my .54 Hawken over a pointed stick as long as powder and ball last.
     
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  10. oldawg

    oldawg Monkey+++

    No, we really need to keep him out of his wine cellar more. ;)
     
    Aeason, Yard Dart, Tikka and 4 others like this.
  11. Mindgrinder

    Mindgrinder Karma Pirate Ninja|RIP 12-25-2017

    Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.
    Full Hooah.
    .gov takes all it can and gives as little back as possible.
    Full Huzzah.
    Eyes Open.
    No Fear.

    *tap tap* beer to monitor.

    MG

     
  12. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    No matter what happens, we will not be going back to any stone age or serfdom, because even if we get hit my an EMP or solar flare, and all tech were fried overnight, the knowledge does not go away. Only the materials need to be replaced. You don't revert to an earlier age because the electric motors fry, you rebuild, and rewind the motors.
    It will take time, but all the required knowledge still exists.
    You don't lose government because the radio fails, you just can't hear them.
    It takes time to rebuild the damaged parts, but most kids could follow directions to build a crystal radio set.
    Crops still grow, even if the trucks stop running, new wire, new oil, and transformers start getting rewound. New wire and hand tools, and wires get replaced. No knowledge is lost, so the parts will simply be rebuilt.
    There will be no reversion to an earlier time, only a pause while parts get remade.
     
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  13. Bishop

    Bishop Monkey+++

    The postman
     
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  14. Mindgrinder

    Mindgrinder Karma Pirate Ninja|RIP 12-25-2017

    Bull.
    You cant make an iphone from scratch nor "reboot the internet".
    There will be several steps back.
     
  15. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    What IS an I phone? Answer:"a collection of parts assembled in the correct design. "
    And it will be again, when the fried components are replaced from stores or rebuilt in the same manner as the original. .the knowledge does not go away. Only the parts need to be replaced.
     
    chelloveck likes this.
  16. Tikka

    Tikka Monkey+++

    IMO, the ability to manufacture the tiny SMDs in a cell phone from scratch would be quite a challenge.

    The good new is most of these components or the devices that use them aren't made here. :)

    Unless China, S Korea, Taiwan and Europe were also hit..
     
  17. T. Riley

    T. Riley Monkey+++

    image. Knowledge never goes away? Created by the hundreds of thousands by hand with stone tools by the Inca in Peru centuries ago. Anyone remember how to do this? You can't slip a piece of paper between them.
     
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  18. AxesAreBetter

    AxesAreBetter Monkey+++

    Practice.
     
    Aeason likes this.
  19. Yard Dart

    Yard Dart Vigilant Monkey Moderator

    As a former Vet, I will tell you that to be desensitized to certain things is good.... but to loose your humanity and compassion for life and your fellow man/woman.... is not. Never loose sight, for what you are fighting for... and never break your moral code.
    But of course, if you have no moral code... you are just another rabid dog to put down.
     
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  20. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    Yes, but I would use different tools. The effect would be the same. Precision cutting and fitting is done much faster now. Would you like them in stone, steel or glass? Perhaps glazed and fired as well? Fact of the matter, is where they polished surfaces until they mated close, we can cut with water, flame, and saws. And do the work in hours, where they took months. And if the tools fail, we don't go back to polishing (though we could) we build new tools.
    Assume a man went back in time. Back to men with stone pointed spears. Do you really think he would do his best to become a savage? Or would he use the knowledge of metals, and fire, to produce a crude blade? Would he be limited to spear when he knows bows exist? He has hunted with tools these folks could not yet imagine, so would he use that knowledge, or not?
    You and I know, he would use knowledge to build the best tools he could. That knowledge is not lost because the tools are lost, he will remake the tools he knows are possible.
     
    Last edited: Mar 11, 2016
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