Is survival in a collapse situation realistic?

[bigpaul]

Originally Posted by guidoLaMoto

Some of those with skills & knowledge will survive. It's a probabilities thing and dumb luck will be needed in addition to preparations. A dandelion puts out a million seeds at a time, and all them could survive, but only a few of them do.

Marc is correct about complete collapse. Collapse will be on a small or possibley larger scale, but diffuse, with islands of power maintained by traditional authority & power. It's only a matter of time before they find you in your remote hiding place.

when I talk about collapse I mean total societal collapse. not some minor event.

[Dave_n_Tenn]

Prepare for the preparable and the most likely.

40-40-20

[bigpaul]

prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

[MTSilvertip]

Originally Posted by ghostee

Hi everyone.


I am getting sort of interested in prepping and survival, I am thinking about learning self first-aid and self-defense arms training (am open to alternatives to guns if it's an option). I do feel convinced that something will happen in a matter of time down the line.


There is a certain question I still want to ask - I know that prepping for survival in a collapse scenario is pursued by a lot of people, but how realistic is survival for more than a few months in a situation like the national grids going down or even nuclear conflict? Besides location (that sounds obvious) and having a plan squared away, is it really as simple as just mindset?

In consideration of your question, yes, catastrophic events are survivable.

I was stationed in Bosnia and Kosovo. After years of genocidal war, there were survivors and they put their lives back together even after years of starvation, concentration camps, genocide of thousands at a time, (Sebrenica), loss of family and the collapse of the country of Yugoslavia as they knew it.

Most of the aid from other nations came in the form of weapons to continue the killing. Food, power, water, all were in short supply. Medical care almost non existent.
Entire cities were under siege for years. Snipers shot at anything that moved. Artillery coming in daily. So many killed they ran out of places to bury them, so they used the Olympic stadium and roadside ditches.

I saw first-hand how civilization can disintegrate overnight.

But I also saw that there were people that lived through it. They turned small yards into gardens, kept chickens in the house. They dug wells in their basements. Many lived in tunnels under the cities, in basements and lower levels of collapsed buildings.
They didn't surrender because that would mean being machine gunned or put in a camp to die slowly.

Humans are infinitely cruel and adaptable. They can survive the most horrific situations. The Serbs, Croats and Bosnians slaughtered each other wholesale, but when the shooting died down, they emerged from their shelters and started to rebuild.

Is it possible to survive a cataclysm like your country coming apart at the seams?

Yes. It may not be the world you knew, but if you're alive you can start over if you have the will to do it.
Having skills and stores just makes it easier.

[guidoLaMoto]

Originally Posted by bigpaul

when I talk about collapse I mean total societal collapse. not some minor event.

So am I. Even in some huge event like sudden, total nuclear war, some areas will be more affected than others at first and there will be gradations of "collapse" radiating out from many central basins of "total" collapse. They're not aiming too many missiles at the Sahara Desert or the Amazon Rain Forest or even here in central WI.


Life in areas now enjoying traditional subsistence farming or hunter/gatherer lifestyles will go on as if nothing happened-- at least until nuclear winter sets in or they're overwhelmed by refugees from industrialized areas.


What's important to realize is that only preppers will survive, but not nearly all preppers will survive.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by guidoLaMoto

...
Life in areas now enjoying traditional subsistence farming or hunter/gatherer lifestyles will go on as if nothing happened-- at least until nuclear winter sets in or they're overwhelmed by refugees from industrialized areas.


What's important to realize is that only preppers will survive, but not nearly all preppers will survive.

I agree