Dear Jim:
See this piece on Survival Preparedness as: "The
Ultimate "Contrarian" Investment
for 2007 -- Be Prepared" The author knows a lot about economics
(excellent web site), but one can certainly critique his "Batman
in the Boondocks" or "mobile
refugee" survival strategy. Regards, - OSOM
JWR Replies: I'm dismayed to see such strategies
proposed again and again, usually by folks who have never actually
attempted to fill--much less actually shoulder--their "everything
that I'll need"
backpack.
It is incredibly naive to think that anyone can "head
for the hills"
with just what you can carry, and survive for an extended period. Note
that his overly simplistic "carry heirloom seeds and blue poly
tarp"
approach does not take into account anything about tools needed to
cultivate what he'll
grow,
containers
he'll
need
to store
what he grows or gathers, and tools/pots/pans that he'll need to
process/grind and cook what he hunts, gathers, or grows. Nor does
it address basics like cages
for small livestock,
or fencing to protect gardens. How can you expect to carry all
that on
your back? Unless someone is incredibly fortunate, the odds are that
any "mobile" retreating
approach will very quickly reduce them to the category of "refugee" at
best, or to room temperature, at worst. The history of the previous
century --particularly its two world wars and
its countless
civil wars--taught us that life is, as Hobbes put it, "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" for
refugees. The last thing that you want to be is a refugee.
By definition, going mobile means foregoing the "deep larder" advantage
of a fixed retreat. It would be foolish to give that up. Ditto for
the often touted "RV land-mobile retreating" approach. As
I've stated before: In a full scale WTSHTF situation, mobility
for the sake of mobility in essence only gives you the opportunity
to wander into ambush after ambush. I go into further
detail about the fallacies of mobile retreating strategies (backpack,
vehicular,
and sailboat) in in my book "Rawles
on Retreats and Relocation." In the same book I also describe
some commonsense
fixed
location retreat alternatives
All of the preceding is not to say that you shouldn't own a Get Out of Dodge ("GOOD") backpack. You should have one, especially if you don't live year round at your intended retreat. (The pack is only intended for a very short period, to get you to your retreat, in the event that for whatever reason a vehicle is not available.) You should dread ever having to use that pack when forced to abandon your well-stocked retreat and taking off on foot to fend for yourself.
