How many of you fantasize about TEOTWAWKI?

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by Akheloce, Dec 17, 2009.


  1. Akheloce

    Akheloce Monkey++

    I'm just curious about how many people secretly hope for a return to simpler lives.

    I haven't been on here in a while, since I've been overseas, or at my cabin without easy access to the internet, but I'll fill your ear (or eyes) with some thoughts of mine....


    I live, either in some of the most populated cities in the world, or at my retreat in the mountains of Alaska. Every day in Tokyo, Singapore, or Shanghai, I can't wait to get back to Alaska. However, after only a few days at my cabin, I start to yearn for the convenience of modern society. Every time I walk down to the marbled lobby of a hotel, and go to the concierge's desk to ask where I can find some grub for a decent price, I yearn for the morning I can just cook some bacon on the ol' coleman stove. That being said, every time I wake up at my cabin, I curse the thought of going out in the subzero weather to grab another 4 or five chunks of wood to get the fire started in my sub 50 degree cabin. When I'm sitting in traffic in a taxi on my way from the airport to the nearest Marriott, I'm pissed at all the traffic, and thousands of sheeple walking faster than the cab. However, when I'm at my cabin for more than a couple of days, I dread the 1/2 mile walk to the spring to get more water. I put my cell phone on silent when people try to call me all the time in the city, but after a few days at the cabin, I stare at my driveway hoping someone will come to visit.

    Do most of you know how much it can suck living a simple life? While I will take country living over city life any day, do you realize how hard it is to live a subsistence lifestyle? I'm used to gathering firewood every day, and although it sucks, that's something I can deal with. It also sucks walking to get water every other day, worrying if you have enough food in the winter, and harvesting your garden in the summer (oh sure, it's fun at first, but eventually, you just want to burn it all). After a month at the cabin, the first thing I want to do is drive straight to McDonalds and grab 2 double cheeseburgers because I'm tired of smoked salmon, lake trout, and moose meat stew.

    Even as much as living at the cabin can get old, just how much crappier could it get without the backup of modern society to allow you to regroup? I cut my firewood with a chainsaw. I get to and from my cabin with either a Yamaha Rhino, or a Snowmobile (snowmachine in Alaska). I cook with a coleman stove, because if I cook on top of my woodstove, I have to heat the cabin to 120 degrees. What happens when I can't get any more kerosene or gasoline? Or what about when we eventually run out of coffee? There are many other inconveniences I could come up with, but since I'm partaking in a little indulgence of some raspberry wine (another indulgence which would not be feasable) I can't think of many more.


    This being said, while I have quite the armory and ammunition stocks to guard what I have, I have not needed to stand watch against intruders... If you have ever had to go to "stand to," you know what I mean and agree that this can add a whole new inconvenience to your life.

    While I know I could survive, I most certainly dont want to HAVE to live that way all the time. Coming from someone who has walked the walk, I can tell you that it is not all roses. What do you think?
     
  2. tacmotusn

    tacmotusn RIP 1/13/21

    Are you CRAZY, .... lol, I am a product of my enviroment. I love my creature comforts. TV, Radio (talk and good music), Movies, new books, telephone, my car and truck, need I go on. .... But, I am a realist. I do not like the direction I see the world and this country going. I was a cub, boy, and explorer scout. I camp, fish, trap, hunt, build, garden, target shoot, reload, can food, have a huge food pantry, a diesel generator and fuel, 2 wells, rural acreage. ... and, maybe most important, a cadre of like minded friends and family. I am a political activist, local, state and federal. I yearn for a return to the basics of the Constitution, but I am not just holding my breath waiting for the world to change for the better or to destroy itself. I believe in being prepared for the worst, but Pray for the best.
    .
    .
    I do not fantasize about TEOTWAWKI.
    .
    It is never far from my mind, but it is more of a nightmare, waking or asleep than anything else.
    .
    for what I fantasize about we will have to go to the inferno, and I don't know you that well anyway.
    .
    does that answer your question? !!!
     
  3. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Direct answer to your question.

    Yep, I have. Yep, I can see that the grass is always greener. And yeppers, stewing over the alternatives, I'd rather be where I can run to the grocery store and know they will have my favorite grapefruit juice. But knowing that a time could come when that convenience won't be there, I prepare for that, all the while hoping I don't have to fall back on the preps. Living in a teepee for a while in my 20s might have been fun (Camping was a ball.) Not quite so appealing now, but if I had to, I think I still could. That said, at my age and condition, hauling wood and water has no interest for me at all.
     
  4. Tango3

    Tango3 Aimless wanderer

    reading this was a cold splash of reality:(http://www.survivalmonkey.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13835&highlight=alaska+trapping)

    Get up in the dark,cold cabin;

    head outside to the cold outhouse;
    start various wood stoves,cook breakfast, head out ,
    work 12-15 hours in the cold/wet tending your trapline, hustle back before dark, enjoy 45minutes of a.m. radio or reading before bed.
    ( that's your rewards other than satisfaction from hard manual labor)(albeit in a beautiful setting all day.)
    go to bed
    getup
    return to the top.
    I always looked at teotwaki to be what it is,(i.e. something to be endured/survived,)certainly not looked forward to.
    fighting tooth and nail for any scrap of calorie just never sounded like fun , black plastic military rifles (toys) not withstanding.

    If I get real hungry around 5:00p.m the local little Ceasers still has "hot and ready" pepperoni pizza for $5.00 just 2 or 3 miles away.
    That is simply amazing.We have access to food everywhere without planting/waiting/weeding /harvesting..

    Anything I might be doing post teotwaki ; I/you can try now...
    feeling "froggy", turnoff the utilities for a weekend or a week..Hike down to the local pond and bring water back for the filter everyday.

    No I don't wish for any of that.
     
  5. Gray Wolf

    Gray Wolf Monkey+++

    I don't fantasize about it. If it ever occurs, a lot of people I love are going to be in a world of hurt. It's fifty miles to the nearest decent size city, we go once or twice a month. I enjoy the convenience of electricity and satellite internet, DVD movies, and refrigeration.

    Having said that, we heat with a woodstove that does not need electricity, and have alternate means of cooking and lighting too.
    It's a compromise that affords me the best of each lifestyle for now.
     
  6. Tracy

    Tracy Insatiably Curious Moderator Founding Member

    A "simpler life"? Yes, I'd love it! TEOTWAWKI? Not so much.

    Just had this conversation with the kids recently. They were saying that the house wasn't very warm the other morning. Ha! Shoulda' been up before I got the fires started. What would you do without indoor plumbing? My daughter's decided that she would just die. ;)

    I've spent time living the simpler life. Carry water from the river to cook, bathe, clean. Light the oven with the wood you just chopped to bake or to heat up the water to bathe. Scrub clothes down at the rapids. It isn't really that simple. Long, busy days and sleep-like-a-baby nights.

    You're right... you long for the conveniences. I couldn't imagine that the whole family would enjoy it as much as I did. Not too sure I would enjoy it so much if I had to live that way forever.

    I believe that attitude would get us through the day, every day, if that's what life brought our way. :) You just do what you have to do.
     
  7. dragonfly

    dragonfly Monkey+++

    Personally...I have nightmares about it.
    I do NOT want to see it occur, ever...
    But, I'm a realist and not blinded by the "dazzle them with brilliance, if you can't buffalo them with BS."
    Having spent a great deal of my youth with my grandmother, I was educated in the reality of the world...
    I learned things about the depression and what people did to survive...
    I learned to plant foods, and how to cook them...
    Now, I have my own little piece of land, and have already seen what man is capable of...and it hasn't even begun to get bad, yet.....!
    It is not anything I'd like to see escalate any further....
    I can't understand how people this day and age, can even live in the metro areas, and large cities....
    It scares the bejeezes out of me.
    Too many weirdo's and unknown factors, with so many people all crowded into one place...
    But I'd really dislike more of those people living out near me!
    I pray WE never have to live in the day where things go to "hell in a hand basket"..
    We have even devised several euphamisms (spelling?) to "shield" ourselves from the reality and thought of that very event:
    When the balloon goes up...
    When the wheels come off the cart...
    Etc., etc.
    I belive we live in a world we have "created" with a very serious flaw, it is based on an assumption WE could actually survive....
    It is not really probable, not for most of us.
    We have (myself included here!) created for ourselves: a real false sense of security, which relies on being able to function in a time where the stuff really hits the fan.
    I have been in Vietnam, a combat veteran...and I have to say, I doubt that many I know could SURVIVE any length of time at all, due to the very nature of what many forsee as taking place....
    In a real scenario (Vietnam) you had MANY others to rely on, to provide for your water and food needs, and security 24/7.
    Now seriously, with all of that, coupled with the need for: growing foods, hunting, cooking, and washing of clothing....it's a logistical nightmare at best!
    IF you have some 24 or even 30 people, it might be done, not easliy, but it would take a lot of sacrifice and diligence....
    Compared to the logistics of the Military Services, lets face it: WE are screwed!Honestly....I can't even look in a mirror and bring myself to lie to me!
    I know it, I know many out there also realize the futility of it all, but WE keep on, keeping on!
    Like the old saying goes:
    It's better to have something and not need it, than to need something and NOT have it!
    Just my very humble and concerned opinion....
     
  8. NVBeav

    NVBeav Monkey+++

    When you have family, it's in your best interest to go over in your mind all the scenarios you think may happen. It's emotionally draining to think about your family starving or neighbors/friends turning on you for things you have and they need, but action is needed and you don't want to be like a deer in headlights when it comes to making decisions.

    Like the old saying goes: "Those who fail to plan plan to fail."
     
  9. NVBeav

    NVBeav Monkey+++

    Excellent analysis and thanks for putting it into words.
     
  10. E.L.

    E.L. Moderator of Lead Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    It would scary, utterly terrifying knowing that lots of people that you care about are going to die. Every time I go to the ranch I don't want to leave, but it does have electricity, and a stove, and a gas heater. Sooner or later I would run out of steroids to treat my Crohn's Disease, then what do I do? Trust me I would go to great lengths to acquire meds. It would not be fun, well for a while it might then the reality that we would not be able to have or live like we used too would set in.

    I need to buy more cows.
     
  11. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    Every day since I was a very small child, I have envisioned the day when society would collapse. In part, this is due to the input I had; reading books which outlined a doomsday scenario, or some other type of escapist perspective.

    Life in the wilderness is not easy -nothing worthwhile ever is. Think about that a while.

    Everything we have in society is disposable, easy, fast...unnatural. To understand the full extent of the equation, one must objectively look at their own perceptions. Life is what we make it.
     
  12. SLugomist

    SLugomist Monkey++

    I fantasize about it all the time. Will it be hard? extremely. Will I survive? probably not. Will it be a welcome break from the typical rat race? most definately.
     
  13. Tango3

    Tango3 Aimless wanderer

    The whole thing comes down to energy (calories), ever see a fat rabbit in the wild? (no). Excess calories (energy surpluses) are extremely rare in nature.
     
  14. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    Was she the Asian girl, Ms. September, I think? I did have this one thought, however brief, involving a bowl of noodles and a snake hide shoe string.
     
  15. Quigley_Sharps

    Quigley_Sharps The Badministrator Administrator Founding Member

    Better learn to hunt, fish, trap and gather for the winter all summer.
    I would enjoy it and could survive it.I dont expect you to believe me, but there are some here who know me, and know i would do fine.
    Am I [loco].... maybe.....
     
  16. dragonfly

    dragonfly Monkey+++

    Today, not unlike so many others, I got slapped in the face with a dilemna of sorts....reality time (Murphy's law?)
    I knew the big cat we had adopted some 3 years ago had something terribly wrong with him.
    When we got him, within a week it had cost $600.00 in vet bills to get him over an infection following the Humane society's "neutering" process.
    That was bad enough....
    Today the vet bill was $400.00 just for "tests"..
    The vet said the cat looked fine.
    I said NO, he is not fine.
    He either has a parasite (which I hoped against all hopes was right), or it was something else.
    He suddenly had lost weight in a couple-three weeks from 40 lbs to 15lbs.
    The blood tests took over 2 hours.
    He is dying, from diabetes, advanced stages.
    I was told he would have to spend 2 nights in the hospital at a cost of somewhere around $800.00-$900.00 depending on what would be needed.
    Then, "IF" he survived the process of having his blood cleaned and balanced by dialysis...He would need 1-2 injections of insulin from then on for as long as he lived....and a LOT of vet visits to monitor his blood levels.
    The insulin alone would be from $140.00 a month or more, and no guarantee he would survive more than 2 weeks.....
    But many have and are still going today..

    The MORAL of the story:
    Do I sacrifice any part of my family's needs to save a family pet?
    Dilemna.
    I really have an affection for that fat old bastard, "Tiger"....
    He sleeps with me, alone.
    But, I cannot for the very life and soul of me, afford to lose the gains I have made.
    The cat will die.
    It is inevitable, one way or another.
    It is one of the many factors which we face everyday as compassionate human beings.
    I love the old fart, but it's come down to his survival or mine.
    The decision was made to immediately change his diet as recommended, and to let nature take it's course.
    Who knows?
    He may fool us all and outlive the entire human race!
    ( I can see the irony in it already!)
    Sometimes we have to make decisions, which are at best uncomfortable....
    But we make them, and we continue forward.
    Perhaps,....that is why we are what we are....SURVIVALISTS.....
     
  17. dragonfly

    dragonfly Monkey+++

    Actually, I'd like to take a long "vacation" on the land.....
    IF I could just relax up there...
    Seems it's more hectic with "interlopers" than anything here and I live on the outskirts of north Phoenix!
    It would be nice to get up, cut some wood, cook breakfast, run fence lines (not in the snow or mud as it is right now though) and tinker around the place.
    Picky huh? ( I like nature, but I'm NOT a fanatic about it!)
    I'm not into that much "entertainment"!
    I'd like to get up there and build the rabbit hutches, the chicken coop, and whatever else I can think of!
    Just to be able to think!
    No sirens, no highway noise, no airplanes, ( I live at the west end of a runway!), and no more danged oompah, bavarian style perverted mexican music!
    Don't get me wrong, It's not that I'm anti-social, I just don't do well around a lot of people.
    I prefer nature, the trees, the critters, and so on.....People seem to create problems, one way or another.
    It's just in their nature.
    Give me the deer, the antelope, and the elk!
    Them's good eatin'!
     
  18. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    We had a cat when I was a youngster, and it came down with downs-syndrome for cats or something, it was pretty terrible. After a few weeks my Dad just took him out for a walk, crushed his skull and came back alone. It wasn't easy for him -he loved that cat...but it was his responsibility to deal with it, not some overpaid vet. It wasn't the first animal he ever put down. Now he has another cat, more than two decades later. It got lost outside one year during severe winter and lost its ears and tail due to frostbite, but it is still alive today. Crazy cat bites everybody except Dad. Weirdest thing.

    But yes, pets are almost like family. It is terribly hard to let them go.
     
  19. Tango3

    Tango3 Aimless wanderer

    I feel for you 'fly; I put my best friend "indy" (a std. yorkie)down, Same thing she slept on the couch with me.Got real sick at 15 years, we resisted hundreds of dollars in tests. Took her camping once towards the end, I'm not ashamed to say I bawled...the toughest part is I chose the time and date of her death. Pets are hard, you are going to out live them. There are folks who can kill a pet, seemmingly with no feeling..I'm not one, you're not alone.
    Its hard and its going to be hard. :(
     
  20. SLugomist

    SLugomist Monkey++

    Just remember, Natural is defined as "Not man made". Therefore MAN is not natural, since he is made by man.
     
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