by Cody Lundin
The term "urban survival" conjures up a number of images. For some it means surviving man-eating zombies, for others, guns, guns, and more guns or a twisted hybrid story smacking of Mad Max, Armageddon, and/or a collision course with Earth by an asteroid.
Many years ago, I trained a group whose "guidance" at the time warned them of planetary devastation from a direct hit by an asteroid. Their training coincided, strangely enough, with the movies Sudden Impact and Armageddon, whose plots involved this very calamity befalling the Earth. Meeting their needs was a bit tougher than most survival courses, as their intention was to survive an epic pounding of the planet in which more than 90 percent of humans were dead ducks. One enterprising student from this tribe bought a brand new Hummer vehicle for the occasion and had it equipped with extra fuel tanks on the roof. I always wondered how he planned to get the fuel and where he thought he would drive to.
People have very different opinions on what is needed during an urban survival scenario. The Hummer man gave little thought in his planning to water, shelter, food, or anything other than barreling over a scorched-earth wasteland in a 4×4 renowned for getting incredibly crappy gas mileage. And he bought the Hummer after my training, even though I'm most certain I never mentioned the advantages of a Hummer when confronting the end of the world.
This book will focus upon:
1 Identifying and recognizing what human beings truly need, physiologically and psychologically, to live during short- and long-term emergencies.
2 What supplies would be needed by your household should you be unable to resupply your family with material goods from a conventional store.
3 How to improvise many of your needs from local surroundings to increase your family's self-reliance and comfort: physically, mentally, and emotionally.
4 Reinforcing intention number one above, freeing your family from their self-limiting, slavelike mind-set to life's endless "wants," thereby complicating your emergency preparedness plan.
Although I offer basic parameters, exactly what brand of stuff and how much you choose to have on hand is your job. After reading this book, assess your family's differences with the Joneses across the street, across the nation, and the world, and decide what works best for you. Variables such as the geography, terrain, and climate where your home is located will factor in, as will everything else; the number of people in your family, ages, medical problems, mobility issues, your surrounding support network or the lack thereof, access to potable water, and on and on. I'll address as many of these variables as possible but there is no way to cover them all.
There are books in every genre that have the word "complete" in the title; the complete book of cooking, the complete book of golf, or the complete book of survival, and so on. The thought that any book is a complete reference to anything is, of course, nonsense, and nothing more than wishful thinking by the author, marketing "spin" by the publisher, or both. This book, like any other, is not complete in its solving of every little problem that could threaten your family's welfare. Although I'm giving this book my all in containing information that I think is relevant to your survival, reading and preparing your home based on its advice DOES NOT GUARANTEE YOU'LL LIVE. There are two scenarios that offer up the most variables of anything on the planet. One is human nature, and the other is Mother Nature, both of which will rear their heads during your survival ordeal. There is no amount of instruction in any book, video, or DVD that will guarantee you'll live through a life-threatening emergency. If someone is guaranteeing your safety after buying their product or taking their course, they are lying to you. Variables equal the unknown, and the unknown equals fear. The easiest and cheapest way to reduce the variables in your survival plan (or life) is to keep things simple.
Resist the temptation to copy verbatim from this or anyone else's book or opinion on how they feel things should be done. Giving away your power to anyone else infringes upon the hallmark of a self-reliant mind-set, which in the end will have you mentally on your knees feeling like a dependent victim to your current and future situation. This book is simply meant to provide you with solid details and ideas to strengthen your family's resolve and bottom line during an emergency. It is your job to get your butt out into the world and do what you think needs to be done for the welfare and safety of your loved ones. In short, study this information and then dare to think for yourself. Everyone who is able to walk and talk can take part in the preparation as well, so hopefully the challenge won't completely rest within your hands.
4
The FOUNDATION of Your Self-Reliance. . .and TRUST
"You've got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was."
—Irish proverb
In its purest form, self-reliance is just what it implies. To literally be self-reliant is to be able to rely upon yourself for all of your needs. Typically it's a matter of whom you trust, as you're betting that whatever entity you put in front of the word "reliant" will come through for you and yours when the chips are down. If everyone were truly self-reliant, our global economy would collapse, as everyone would be able to provide for themselves everything that was required. No form of sales, trade, or barter would be needed as all people would be self-contained completely within their self-reliant little worlds. The problem is, life doesn't work that way.
So how about if we were all family-reliant instead? This hearkens back to tribal times, in which all of our ancestors took care of their own. For the most part, small hunting and gathering societies had small, close-knit families. If you had too large a family you would literally eat yourself out of house and home.
The founding families of the pioneer movement in the good old USA were family reliant, pushing out into unfamiliar wilderness with a covered wagon full of kids and some hope. Generations back, having lots of kids meant something as the more hands on deck a family had, the more stuff could get done around the homestead for the survival of all.
Even today, lower-income, close-knit families rely upon each other to weather the storms of city living, and team up to help support the family. Grandma lives in the back room, Uncle Fred lives in the living room, and mom, dad, and the kids sleep in the other room. Each part gives what they can for the benefit of the whole. This is a very common practice in Arizona and other states where immigration from Mexico and other Latin American countries is high. In dozens of countries around the world, the family unit is highly esteemed, and there is no stigma attached to having Uncle Fred living near the sink.
If not family reliant, we could be town or city reliant, putting our faith in the belief that city officials will ultimately bail us out of our misery when a crisis appears. How about being state reliant? Hopefully the governor and his or her underlings in the state's bureaucracy will feel just as strongly about your family (and everyone else's) as you do to fend off the demons of civil distress. We could even ponder for a moment about the virtues of becoming federal government reliant. We could hope and trust that the government, in all its wisdom and power, would see fit to keep us safe and sound, protected from all harm.
If you grew up with one of the good history books in school, instead of the sanitized versions, you would have read how, many decades ago, the U.S. government had a little problem with all those damn Indians hanging around. They would get in the way of mining, mess with settlers, chuck arrows at the military, and generally be a pain in the butt toward our goal of "manifest destiny" for the white man. They were hard to find, too, as they just ran off into the hills or the prairies, seemingly completely self-reliant upon the landscape in which they lived.
* * *
PARASITES AND TRUE PARASITES: A
METAPHORICAL
LOVE STORY
Para site (par' ? sit') n. 1. one who lives at others' expense without making any useful return
In the wild world of nature, the Earth is filled with various types of parasites. Each living kingdom has its share, from plants, to fish, to insects, animals, and humans. The very
nature of a parasite's lifestyle revolves around the concept of it being dependent on external circumstances to live. Some parasites are more adaptive than others and when their host dies, they drop off, migrate, search, or simply wait until another host appears. Although they are parasitic, they retain some semblance of the will to live and expend a certain amount of energy to feed once again. These organisms are called parasites. Other parasites, when their host dies, they die too. These organisms are called true parasites for they can't survive without their host.
In our twenty-first-century world, most modern human beings fall under one of these two categories. Our "host" might be government welfare, an uninspiring yet financially rich lover or spouse, the "security" of the big corporate job, controlling parents or family members, the gifted credit card (for emergencies only, of course), or a number of other modern-day methods of being "kept," guaranteed to slowly rob you of your personal power, motivation, character, and ultimate self-worth.
Be easy on yourself. We can't help but be parasitic to a certain extent. However, for survival purposes, the old adage "don't put all of your eggs into one basket" still rings true. Strive to become more conscious about who your hosts are and gently work for greater freedom. This sidebar is not meant to have you secretly scheming or brooding about your current situation, socially, financially, or otherwise. It's simply meant as a reminder to be conscious as to who or what seems (and I do mean seems) to govern your world.
* * *
A bunch of folks in Washington got together and decided that the best way to get rid of these Indians was to take from them their way of life. Just eliminate the buffalo, and whatever else they needed to live free, and pretty soon those savages would be crawling on their hands and knees for help! The idea worked like a charm, and the blankets contaminated with smallpox didn't hurt the cause either.
Overall, once proud and independent Native American tribes across the nation were reduced to a pitiful, dependent existence, forced to live on disease-infested, starvation-prone reservations that popped up across the country. With their physical independence destroyed, their emotional and mental independence died too in the form of apathy and hopelessness. This type of planned injustice seems to happen anywhere a group of people ultimately feels threatened by another group's independence. Unfortunately, it's still happening the world over.
While all agencies—local, state, and federal—hopefully do the best possible job to safeguard the needs of you and your loved ones, it all boils down to whom you trust the most to get the job done right—and to get it done right the first time. Think about this when you're tempted to pass the buck, and your personal power, to someone else. Ultimately, your safety is not the government's responsibility; it's yours. The emergency response chain is only as strong as the weakest link. Make sure the weakest link is not you.
Like a Rock. . .
As stated above, any chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The hallmark of every successful survival outcome is still proper preparation and, of course, a little bit of luck. The majority of people composing our modern civilization are standing on one leg. They lack stability and balance in times of change. They have become unduly dependent on the illusion of the infrastructure surrounding them. Pull the plug or turn out the lights and all hell breaks loose in their world, for they have no backup plan, nor do the majority care or even consider the need to have a plan.
Our anchor generation, the grandparents and great-grandparents who knew how to grow a garden, store food, and make water safe to drink or where to look for it in the first place, are leaving the planet at an accelerated rate. The majority stood firmly upon two legs, as they were intimately acquainted with the skills and supplies necessary to support their lives and those whom they loved. Whether they lived in an urban or rural location, people had a much keener sense of what it took to "keep their ass alive" in the short- and long-term scheme of things. This wisdom was the product of a full-body experience called "taking responsibility for their lives" and originated from the very core of their being.
My grandparents on both sides of the family were dirt poor. Both lived in rural South Dakota and grew up during the Depression. In their early years, all of my grandparents lived on farms, relying upon nature, good weather, lots of work, and friendly neighbors to get by. My grandfather on my mother's side bailed hay with his tractor until he was eighty-three years old. He quit when his tractor rolled on top of him while negotiating an embankment. I remember him saying that he figured it was a sign he should "retire for a bit."
In my grandparents' time, being prepared was just something you did and was considered good old common sense. Nobody thought you were paranoid for stocking up on vital supplies; in fact, you were expected to do so. Those in need could be a burden to their neighbors after the next tornado, blizzard, or lightning storm rocked the surrounding prairies, causing havoc throughout the state. Nature hasn't changed much, and if anything, She seems a bit more ticked off. Those who are wise still stock plenty of emergency gear when getting to town is not an option, even for the heartiest four-wheel drive.
I grew up around amazing vegetable gardens, fruit trees, root cellars, canned goods, hunting, fishing, and what my family still calls "that good old pioneer spirit." It was a time when simplicity ruled and people helped other people because they wanted to, not because they felt they had to. It is in this spirit that I write this book on urban survival. Self-reliance is a good thing. It founded this and every other country, town, and tribe on the planet. Bothering to relearn some of these forgotten tidbits of common sense will fill you and your family with newfound happiness, independence, and freedom.
* * *
THE ANT
AND THE GRASSHOPPER
"A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle."
—Kahlil Gibran
I've included this classic Aesop fable, albeit slightly modified, for reasons that should be obvious. Are you an ant, or a grasshopper? If you purchased this book, there's no doubt that you possess strong ant tendencies. Remember, however, that you're not a true ant until you put these pages into action.
Are you an ant wannabe? Do you constantly talk about the brown stuff hitting the fan, but do little or nothing to address your talk, preferring instead to crank up your headphones and dance?
Due to the nature of my profession, I know plenty of ant wannabes. They wail and gripe about Armageddon, the Hopi Indian prophecies, the end of the Mayan calendar, the return of Jesus, Elvis, or the mother ship, Y3K, the New World Order, black holes, plague epidemics, depleting ozone, judgment day, earth changes, killer asteroids, and exploding, dying, or newly created suns. After they have talked at me, ant wannabes typically end their monologue with a coy look and the phrase, "Well, when the end comes, I know where I'm headed. . .haw-haw." Where they're really headed is straight into my stew pot, so I hope their unwanted visit brings them prefattened.
Ant wannabes, be warned, your less-than-positive actions are contributing to the mass hysteria of the planet. Please shut up, calm down, and do something useful with your time instead of needlessly scaring others. In addition, nothing could be more obnoxiously insulting and arrogant than assuming you will be welcome to take shelter and eat the food of anyone who has bothered to prepare as they saw fit while you spewed negative words and did nothing. Helping those who have been trying to be self-reliant and found themselves caught in a tight spot by a twist of fate is another thing altogether. When the talking stops, people show you who they are and what they feel is important by where they devote their action, time, and money.
If you're a dyed-in-the-wool grasshopper, but a friendly ant gave you this book, and you're even skimming the pages herein, congratulations! You may be cultivating ant qualities, even if by the motivation of curiosity alone.
* * *
* * *
THE ANT
AND THE GRASSHOPPER
In a field one summer day a Grasshopper was hopping about
, chirping and singing to his heart's content as he listened to his headphones. An Ant passed by, bearing with great toil a sack of whole wheat, a jar of honey, a container of powdered milk and a shaker of salt he was taking to the nest.
"Why not come and chat with me," said the Grasshopper, "instead of toiling and moiling in that way?"
"I am helping to lay up food for the winter," said the Ant, "and recommend you do the same, bub."
"Why bother about winter?" said the Grasshopper. "We have plenty of food at present."
But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came, the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing the food supplies from the stores they had collected in the summer.
