Thread: preparedness

Originally Posted by MickR

You'll have to forgive me if I've misunderstood or if I haven't made myself understood. I think practice is very necessary.
The point I was trying to make was in reference to protecting what you have, with deadly force if necessary, as a few comments alluded to that being a possible scenario, and rightly so.
What I was trying to say, was, it's all well and good to say you have the fire-power to use if required, but if you have never had the joys of having bullets thumping into the ground around you and buzzing around your head (and I hope none of you do, that haven't already). You don't know how you're going to react. There is no practice for having someone shoot at you, with deadly intent and real bullets.
The first time surviver of such an encounter has to deal with the phsycological aftermath. Even if they dealt with the situation at hand, there is no telling whether they, to put it crudely, 'harden up' or go to water the next time around.
The victim of such an attack, if similarly armed, also has to be mentally prepared to kill.
It is a complex subject and as individual as the people who are in the situation, and the situation itself. There is much wasted ammunition, as those involved just panic, and blaze away, hitting nothing. Then panic some more as they reload. Maybe it's dark and they load a round in backwards (yes it can happen with some weapons)...You see what I'm trying to say? You just can't practice for the real life situation well enough to fully understand your own reactions.
Mindset, a preparedness to do or act coldly, ruthlessly, to another, and to be prepared for whatever you can imagine doing to another, being done to you, and surviving that when all is said and done. This is what cannot be practiced.
Fear is something that you need. Fear is the fight or flight reaction. You need fear and you need to learn how to control fear, so that you can bend it to your will. To stand and fight viciously, or, if heavily out numbered, to run so much faster than the pack.


Mick

I was sure I understood what you meant by gadgets. Thanks for spelling it out though. The examples I gave may sound childish and far removed from what you are describing. Checking the pulse is not open heart surgery of course- but you have to start somewhere.

If one cannot manage the smallest things with calm awareness; it is very unlikely to develop those management tools on the spot should a situation devolve into melee. I believe the small things are the important ones; the big things self resolve.

Originally Posted by kevint

...If one cannot manage the smallest things with calm awareness; it is very unlikely to develop those management tools on the spot should a situation devolve into melee...

We're going to have to agree to disagree on this point mate. I know that I will swear at a stupid driver for example, I also know that I am calm, cool and collected under fire...This is from personal experience. Not everyone is the same I know. Small things irritate me as I feel they shouldn't be necessary/ Shouldn't need to happen e.g irresponsible driving. The big things, however are out of your control and just have to be dealt with.
I think your belief that 'what will happen is just fate/god taking a hand in things', to be a fatalists viewpoint. I prefer to make my own luck, rather than have it handed to me by some unseen/non-existant force. No offence intended, just my point of view.


Mick

Originally Posted by MickR

We're going to have to agree to disagree on this point mate. I know that I will swear at a stupid driver for example, I also know that I am calm, cool and collected under fire...This is from personal experience. Not everyone is the same I know. Small things irritate me as I feel they shouldn't be necessary/ Shouldn't need to happen e.g irresponsible driving. The big things, however are out of your control and just have to be dealt with.
I think your belief that 'what will happen is just fate/god taking a hand in things', to be a fatalists viewpoint. I prefer to make my own luck, rather than have it handed to me by some unseen/non-existant force. No offence intended, just my point of view.


Mick

That's okay too. Agreed
I have not been there, but I do know a few who have been in some of the worst places. I am sure if I asked why did you come home while so many who were with you did not; the answer would not be "because I trained more" or "I'm a natural born bad ass". I believe they would say; only because I was lucky.

I read a great book that fell in line with our recent economic downturn & SHTF factor. If any of you read, buy, beg, or borrow "Patriots" by James Wesley, Rawles. It is published by Ulysses Press & the ISBN # is: 978-1-56975-599-0

It's one of those books that is super hard to put down, fast moving, & makes you wonder about things...

Hi guys I wanted to say how much I appreciate ya'lls conversatin' with me on this topic. I will check the book store to see if Rawles' survival book is there and scan through it Shooter; I probably won't read the novel though.

I wanted to revisit Mick's view of my fatalist attitude. It's been popping up in my thoughts and perhaps writing it out/ being subject to your peer review may prove helpful.

I am sure military training is very helpful in many aspects of one's life. Remaining cool under fire is a "good" thing to know about yourself should things really go to hell. However, I believe it will not be quite the same. One may have a great sense of comfort knowing the whole rest of the army has your back. You have communications, air support, supply lines, and I think, sometimes R&R. Not the same as you and your grand daughter plinking thugs while your son-in-law applies pressure to your daughters wounds; or however it plays out 24/7/365.

If you really tried to think of every possible scenario, after awhile wouldn't you just take up wingsuit base jumping, rocket sled racing... who'd wanna try to live through all that misery of a worst case scenario?

My experience in construction, working with professionally trained architects and engineers, skilled sub-contractors and detailed schedules has proven to me that Plans are not worth the paper they are drawn on. Near nothing happens according to plan, most cause and effect is beyond one's control. Should things go well you may believe you have made your own luck, but what happened last time or next time. Things happen because they happen to happen when lots of different people and mother nature are involved. All we can do effectively is establish a broad base from which to react.

Maybe that is the same thing as envisioning every possible scenario. But the way I see it, creating a mental movie of some event and arranging a specific reaction is very limiting. While maintaining a grab bag of generalized skills, knowledge, a strong foundation of The Basics gives you the fluidity to handle the things you couldn't have imagined when the time comes.

Placing myself into the natural flow of the universe; its Divine purpose if you will, is proving to be a great benefit to me. We all have our individual beliefs, and I hope yours will serve you well. Part of what I try to practice(i'm not perfect or enlightened yet) is acceptance and surrender. To some these words may sound passive, and fatalistic. Truly they are not.
It is simply a way to deal first with what is primary-your internal condition. Whatever situation arises, I choose not to label it as good or bad- it just is. So I may think; "It's hot out here" rather than "This sucks". Acceptance is not resignation. "oh here I am in the scorching sun, I'll probably have a stroke" No, I do what I know to prevent hyperthermia.

Surrender is much the same. (I'm not sure how to separate the two at the moment.) It is the same as non-resistance. Just as martial artists are taught not to resist their opponents force; one should not create internal conflict by resisting any situation, such as wishing you were somewhere else or that things were different as examples.

Doing(practicing) these things can(will) give you a sense of space and peace without all the internal noise that comes with labeling everything as good/bad/like/dislike. It brings you into the present moment. You are not acting from fears and limitations collected in the past, nor projecting yourself into a fantasy future where everything is "all better".

Being in this state will allow the unseen, nonexistent force to operate through you. I believe Mick meant this in a way to say: not real. I can agree with that. To be real, to exist in the material world you have to be a thing. "God" is "no thing", as I understand.

Scientist can observe electrical impulses in the brain and identify them as thoughts, but they cannot observe the thinker- where is he?

So that all this remains on topic let me say then, the best first step toward preparedness is to have your mind in the right place.

Well, if you think about it, most big situations are not caused by a single event. They occur after multiple, small interrelated events finally reach critical mass. That's how people get caught in avalanches and lost in the woods.

They either ignore or are oblivious to the warning signs. Hmm, sounds like modern society

That there was an excellent insight into your mind and the way you think(on this topic at least), and I can say I now understand what you are saying so much better. I will also say our way of thinking is not so different. Maybe not that fatalistic afterall. I don't agree 100%...Maybe just 99% and only because the Australian military experience is vastly different to the American experience. There is a larger proportion of self reliance and making do wih the basics taught in the Australian military solely because of a certain lack of resources available to those of you in the U.S. Things will have changed in the years that I have been away from the scene. However I don't think it has changed much, as a mate who joined up at the same time I did and made it his career, was recently (lawfully) discharged, having served in the more recent conflicts, and from what he's told me, I gathered that back-up, air-support and supplies were still dismal. Comforts were usually 'acquired' (A nice way of saying begged, borrowed or stolen) from the Americans.


Mick

That's pretty good. If I were to re-read all that maybe I'd only agree with myself 99%.

I hope all who read the thread will take some measures for self reliance in case of emergency, if you haven't already. You may not feel the need to hole up in a mine field. In case of tornado, earthquake, blizzard it would be way cool to have the means to provide for family and neighbors for a few days.

Ever since I saw the movie Quest for Fire (yes it is an odd sense of humor of mine to reference all these movies after saying I dont watch TV) I thought it'd be neat to start a fire with a hand drill. At least now I know a 5/16 dowel is not the way to go. I got it to smoke a little but couldn't get an ember. I'll try a larger diameter before graduating to a natural shoot.

I'm coming a little late to the party, but you mentioned Discovery Channel's Dual Survival. One of my new favorite shows, along with a fair amount of stuff on OLN, TLC, History & Military Channels.

The hippie dude is Cody Lundin. The other meat eater (after all, vegetarian is a native american word for bad hunter) is Dave Canterbury. Both run their own survival schools.

Cody has two books out right now. I just finished the first one, '98.6: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive!' last weekend. Close to half of the book discusses his choices in a survival kit, which is way more in-depth than anything I've seen yet. The book is geared toward surviving about 3 days, preferrably with an active search & rescue going on. It provides a lot of insight, but there's no discussion of food or foraging at all. Practice is important -- Lundin offers up that the time to read the book on swimming & practice is long before you're on a ship that's sinking.

There ain't nothing wrong with being prepared. Katrina taught some lessons. Hurrican Alex and the completely FUBAR attempts to evacuate Houston taught us more. Learning from other people's mistakes is fairly painless compared to the alternative.

Originally Posted by shooter74743

I read a great book that fell in line with our recent economic downturn & SHTF factor. If any of you read, buy, beg, or borrow "Patriots" by James Wesley, Rawles. It is published by Ulysses Press & the ISBN # is: 978-1-56975-599-0

It's one of those books that is super hard to put down, fast moving, & makes you wonder about things...

I second that. It's a great book. I'm reading it right now.

Once you are done, you will actually think about how easily it could happen!`