Editor’s Introductory Note: This essay describes a SurvivalBlog reader’s thoughts on the nature of survival and the meme of survivalism, from the perspective of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana. This was celebrated just one week ago. Rosh Hashana is a holiday, but a serious one. It is a time of introspection and renewal of faith. L’Shana Tovah Tiketevu! – JWR
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What does it mean to ‘survive?. There are different levels of survival for human beings. And even those ‘levels’ are subtle–based on how we perceive notions of survival. For more than 15 years I’ve oscillated between binges of reading survival information and blogs, and then at times ignoring it as my attention to the ‘survival’ community waxed and waned. Obviously, the levels at which survival can be perceived are influenced by our perception biases. Each individual experiences different biases at different times, moods, periods of their life, with respect to the different groups they belong to, and even with respect to the very medium of communication they are using to think and express their sentiments. Someone in the woods talking to a buddy about survivalism is likely to talk and think in very different terms than that same person, 12 hours later, when they are reading and then typing on the Internet.
From a young age, I was exposed to much ‘survival’ literature as it related to real-life stories about my grandparents fleeing Europe, as well as the stories of those who didn’t ‘make it out’. I also grew up on the communalist survival stories of how those who survived the war, then went on to thrive by continuing to fight and build their own worlds. These stories of my own personal bubble were a type of survivalism, but there are so many bubbles– theworld can be seen as a composite of nested bubbles, some expansive, some distinct, others even vaguely defined, some too remote to be seen, but above all, unknowingly interconnected.
While these bubbles are frothing about, ‘survivalism’ as a meme proliferates most deeply when breaks into the mainstream rather than when it resides on the periphery. This occurs when it discusses the realities facing people now as their economy stagnates, when it discusses what happens now as people increasingly disconnect from their fellow man, lose their human connections, their religion, their ability to form and maintain stable family and community relationships, their ability to read a book rather than watch a video, their ability to pay their bills, their ability to prioritize the surplus they actually have, their ability to kiss and hug a loved one without grasping for their cellphone. What if survivalism begins in discussing whether the next political drama in a democracy isn’t relevant, but also isn’t worth worrying about, and that ‘politics’ truly are only relevant locally and start with oneself, one’s community, and one’s immediate environs?
The Meme of Survivalism
Practically speaking, the ‘meme’ of survivalism has some limiting realities in that, survivalism means something very different for people who want to live in cities or in dense population areas, versus people who don’t. But rather than bifurcate the two world views, ‘survivalism’ becomes relevant when it asks the more difficult and bigger questions of how will city, suburban, exurban, and rural folk work and live together in a world with degrading fundamentals. And consider a world with totalitarian technologically-based government whose single-minded drive to acquire and record information is becoming more effective and cheaper and faster to mature than the speed at which governments themselves are running out of money.
What does survivalism look like in a world where persistent narratives of powerlessness and victim creation are used to successfully divide and conquer the female from the male, the old from the young, the addicted from the sober, the healthy from the sick, the elevated from the anonymous, the public from the private, the human from the underhuman. Survivalism, truly looks a lot like genuine humanitarianism, in my humble opinion, rather than an outsider’s caricature of a prepper’s guide to homesteading in Duck Dynasty and The Walking Dead.
I’m trying to say that survivalism, as it is perceived through accessible networked media, can be much more than an insurance-based mindset for happens when things ‘go wrong’ and what to then ‘do about it’. Survivalism can be a progressive mindset for how to shape the world as so much of it seems to be slowly heading down an unpleasant path.
An Approach to Life
There are plenty of modern philosophers and writers that discuss the problems of maintaining the right approach to life for people in all walks of life, given escalating nature of struggle and tension in daily life. To me, survivalism is genuinely to be discussed as an extension of this ethos. Like Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, survivalism, can apply in each moment to each decision in our present world, without even thinking about resorting to scenario-ism , fat tails, and Black Swans. Survivalism can be found in Benjamin’s Franklin’s motto to ‘mind your business’ as well as in the writings of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes.
The reason I bring this up is because of something I’ve always been interested in, which is ‘mental health’. I’m from New York and from a family of New Yorkers. I’ve seen plenty of crazy in my life. I’ve seen it kill people in my own family as well. It’s traumatized me in my youth, and it’s also been something I’ve helped others with and it’s been a fascinating topic for me. I’ve grown up around a lot of doctors as well, and yet my contrarian mindset, mixed with my love for biology and studying medicine has led me to a very conservative estimation that pathologizing mental health has played a large role in compromising people’s mental health.
Why is this relevant to Surivalism and how we think about it? In the future world that I foresee, one with more of the same poverty of the spirit and soul that we suffer from now, in that world where those who have been more survivalist minded for decades are now more resilient resourceful and successful than those who have been unprepared. I see a world where city folk and unprepared folks suffer a rapid increase in stress induced ‘mental health’ problems.
Outside the City Bubbles
I foresee a world where ‘survivalism’ as an ethos can either be more successful in building bridges amongst humanity, and helping provide mental health solutions, helping city dwellers and suburban people away from their bubbles to see other ways of living, ways that provide them meaningful work and purpose and reasons to live rather than reasons to lay idle and dormant.
I see a world where survivalism is a guide for action and activity that draws people out of their bubbles, bubbles of stress and psychological introversion towards greater activity–both physical and mental.
In many ways, if you take the truly long view of millennia and centuries, the fat tail and Black Swan is that we even exist, the gift then comes with the burden of maintaining survivalism as the every day mindset of how do we live now rather than–as some may describe it–fantasizing about how we may live in the future after some pointed set of disasters that may yet never come.
I look at the meme of suvivalism and I frequently have my doubts. What if things at the macro level are a lot more stable than typical survivalists would have you believe. By this I mean: What if we will likely have a more stable governance, both at the national and international level, than one might expect given the historical reliability of cycles of political instability collapse and war? The Surveillance State, Mutually Assured Destruction, Unconventional hydrocarbon sourcing, Antibiotics and fertilizer and a few other (un)pleasant realities of our modern world have been, and will likely continue to be, stable anchors for our next 20 years.
And still, our society appears is a massive tanker ship that is headed in one direction. That direction is a direction of poverty, tremendous poverty at the ordinary level. That poverty, inevitably, is coming because certain things cannot be changed easily. Demographic changes guarantee a shortage of young people to work. Changes to our debt and international currency systems guarantee stagflation for decades. Changes to our legal system and government bureaucracy guarantee ratcheting levels of financial corruption in both the entitlements and the discretionary spending sectors of our government(s).
Between The Scylla and Charbdyis of Stability and Poverty, I am predicting that we as a society will actually become more holistically survivalist. Kids will work more. Obesity rates will plummet amongst those unable to afford prepared and processed foods (as they did during the Great Depression). Men will begin baking more bread. Women will begin sewing more for necessity rather than for pleasure. In cities, people will walk more. In the suburbs people will rediscover bicycling for purpose rather than merely for pleasure. The lights will be shut off more. Air conditioning will be metered more.
There is so much ‘slack’ in the system that adjustment will be made by necessity of ‘survival’ in the basic simple economic sense. And this too will happen in the suburban and rural modalities of existence.
Will Survivalism Embrace Connectivity?
This too, is another facet of ‘survivalism’ that we are seeing. Our future world, no matter how poor and destitute, is like to stay highly connected through the means of telecommunications. Whether this is by design, circumstance, conspiracy, control regime, or simple success of capitalism of the free market——connectivity is going to be a big part of how the future of ‘survivalism’ succeeds. Will survivalism be memed into existence by an insurgent population fighting against a degenerate totalitarian culture? Will survivalism embrace connectivity?
Survivalism isn’t just the Amish, or the Mennonites, or the preppers, or the Hassids, or the whoever. But it isn’t, their absence, either. Survivalism is an ethos rooted in diverse human soils, that takes from many groups that live and thrive now using various strategies that simplify their lives and their existence in the pursuit of making them richer!
Survivalism, therefore needs to begin contending with how to make life richer given the simultaneously trends of poverty increasing, while cheap technological distractions and potentially subversive modalities likely proliferate.
Well stated “Big Picture” summary of our world situation.
Shana tova Ze’ev!
Yes, I too grew up in NY and with an awareness of just how bad things could get and how quickly a “civilized” country could rapidly descend into madness. Growing up seeing the concentration camp tattoos on the arms of people that I knew made this very real to me. And finally realizing why we had such a small family as everyone who didn’t make it out was lost to us forever.
That said, my interest in preparedness is not geared towards just providing for my own family. I believe that the more that a community prepares and the stronger their bonds are to each other, the better off we will all be no matter what happens. So I guess my take on it all is not to find a way to obtain an isolated homestead which I will surround with razor wire and protect with thousands of rounds of stored ammo. I do believe we need each other and we are all only as safe and prepared as our neighbors are.
Ani,
like you I grew up in a community that had similar experiences , many of the older generation experienced those horrors up close and personal, I never knew until my mothers death in 2017 when going through old letters that my own family suffered the same . My grandfather ( of French Canadian Extraction and had Relatives in Alsace France) served in the US government in the 1930’s as a G-man (FBI) and was recruited in the the then Nascent Agency Called the OSS (Office of Strategic Services ) those heartbreaking letters home after Germany fell. The letters told of him searching for family members in Displaced Person Camps and any other resources he had due to his position , the letters range from June of 1945 to March of 1947. as the letters go on its descriptions of Destruction and the shear amount of people ( Millions) from all over Europe held in these camps waiting to go home, You can see the panic and despair in the writings , its heart breaking.
No one in my family who stayed behind in Europe Survived .
The Article Above is a Very Good read and exceptional advice on how to endure such hardship , how can you help others if you are not prepared yourself !
We as the Children of Survivors owe it to those who bore Testament to the cruelty of those who brought it against their fellow citizens and to never forget the ones who no longer have a voice. For me personally the words “Never Again” is not an empty slogan or just words , it is a way of life and ultimate survival.
This is the Time to reflect on such history and personal thoughts to improve our own lives to the potential that our creator wants us to become .
I have 50 relatives who no longer exist in this world , out of a family that size only 5 of us are living. I consider us lucky ( or Devine mercy) to not have experienced the above first hand and will always remember those who did, I strive each day to improve myself and help others .
G’mar Hatima Tova
Nightbreaker
What an awesome article. Really enjoyed it. To the author, have you considered that survivalism is a discourse in response to the distance between connectivity and not?
That perhaps survivalism (as it is most commonly practiced), is an ideological influence as a means to reinforce and raise loyalty toward a particular system of organization? In this way, it ensures that the cycles are maintained and in doing so, eliminates other alternatives?
Again, really enjoyed this piece.
Finally, a fellow Jew who is waking-up as we did as a Jewish family!
This says it all about America in your article…
“This occurs when it discusses the realities facing people now as their economy stagnates, when it discusses what happens now as people increasingly disconnect from their fellow man, lose their human connections, their religion, their ability to form and maintain stable family and community relationships”
The LEFT, with their anti-Jewish/antichrist principled edicts of feminism (allowing women to have no authority from her husband and the government/tax money as her husband which has caused severe divorce, abortion, lawsuits for equality), marriage for Sodomites, children encouraged to uphold anti-ethical values, society with no respect for authority/law enforcement, a chipping away of the US Constitution (Jehovah given rights)–first/second Amendments now; the rest later, socialism (Venezuela chaos), the attack on the wealthy innovators of society, language police, microaggressions, constant racism promotion where none exists, impeaching a President over nonsense, educating children by Marxists professors then pitching the taxpayer pick up the $1-trillion dollar tab, harassment/physical violence against any voting group other than the LEFT, and the list goes on and on.
Sorry for the long diatribe, but excited to see Jewish folks waking up as this is no longer the America I grew up in. If we act now, we can save this tragedy about to happen: gutting of American bandwidth orchestrated by the LEFT. Remember the words of John Adams… This country is not for the anti-Jew/antichrist principled…
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other…”
The only way out of this tragedy is to separate LEFTist from state… instead of to separate Church from state–the state governments that the Christian/Jewish Church founded to begin with.
Shalom
“then went on to thrive by continuing to fight and build their own worlds”
This article is heady stuff. I should probably read it a few times before commenting but I just can’t help myself.
I too believe the boundaries of our own worlds expand and contract based upon circumstances. One of my takeaways.
Relative to my back yard, mother earth is a large planet. There are large cultural differences in the regions of our country. Most differences contribute to our country.
Dialects, restaurant menus, how we worship, in general good stuff.
WW2 forced the greatest generation to put aside differences that separated us. Our back yard expanded accordingly. We joined forces and pushed back against evil.
I have a dear friend who passed away 4 years ago. A week before he passed I asked Tim what is most important to him. He told me he loved and prayed for all of humanity. The treasures that he stored in heaven are his family and friends.
When we talk about riches this is where my heart goes.
Even with cancer killing his body, he was not bitter. His faith never waivered.
In my opinion, much of the new technology and cable news is created to tranquilize the masses. I learn much more when I interact face to face.
Thank you for the thought provoking article.
Too ethereal, too esoteric. Survival simply means surviving until the threat to survival is over. Outlasting through either skill, planning or forethought or all of the above. Much depends on luck/chance but most depends on preplanning and preplanning includes everything including getting out of dodge before the SHTF.
I disagree. There is absolutely politics in the word “survival.” Nothing about it is simple.
In that case you are referring to a “people” or a country or all humans. The author wasn’t really talking about “survival” in the way we all think of it, i.e. “will I survive” or “will I and my family survive”. The article basically considers survival of a nation or a people to be a success even if YOU die. I (and you) cannot make my country survive or make my state, county, city or neighborhood survive. I can only do it for myself and “maybe” a few others. IMHO if the SHTF and I do not survive it but everyone else does “I” don’t consider that a “success”.
I cant speak for the author. Survival means “to return.” Return to what? A specific way of living and organizing life. In contrast, the way we normally think of survival is to continue living in the face of a hardship. But, that is a simple understanding. The way survival is practiced today is to buy your way to safety. Some of us take it further with learning skills. But there is always that consumer aspect to the modern use of the word. In addition, there is (and has long been) an individual component to survivalism.
Because if you think about many of the things survivalists learn, the skills and material items they have, if those groups organized on a large scale, then you have an army. Since there is a monopoly on violence by the state, we get the emphasis of individualism and media narratives that focus on binaries.
I’ll stop here, but to go back to my point, survivalism is anything but simple. Good stuff, though, OneGuy. 🙂
What a beautiful thoughtful piece. Our family read this and we shall discuss it at dinner. Thank you for sharing this.
I so appreciate your thoughts and words, brother. Reading them I was reflecting on something I read today.
This just in: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-life-changing-magic-of-making-do/?fbclid=IwAR3hkmoe_JcwmDDAkvp6tFLnJugZ7fFHPnpekFPQx8vwpDGj-q25dDiVzLQ
“We urgently need to bring to our communities the limitless capacity to love, serve, and create for and with each other. We urgently need to bring the neighbor back into our hoods, not only in our inner cities but also in our suburbs, our gated communities, on Main Street and Wall Street, and on Ivy League campuses.”
― Grace Lee Boggs, The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century
Both the article and quote express in slightly different ways what you were saying: Survivalism can be a progressive mindset for how to shape the world as so much of it seems to be slowly heading down an unpleasant path.
We have many choices on how we shape the world, most seem insignificant. And yet, they make an impact, one that we may never fully appreciate.
Carry on
zeev here, the writer of the piece.
thanks for you comments !
It was a pleasure to get feedback.
muddy kid, i especially appreciated your thoughts. oneguy—i know this was a bit ethereal. I think when it comes down to it , i felt i had nothing to offer above and beyond the many thousands of articles that already discuss the concrete realities of ‘survivalism’ when it comes to the mundane realities of food, medicine, transportation, heating, housing. what i was trying to point towards is the complexity of the ‘spirit’ of survivalism because in a society and world as complex and multilayered as our own, one that , on top of everything, has to contend with a large and opaque government, it is a sisyphian task to begin even thinking about what the spirit(s) of survivalism are.
what i’m saying , at the simple level, is survivalism thrives when it is seen as multi textured rather than as a characture that television would have people see. that notion in general is really that television and consumption of IDEAS as entertainment (infotainment) actually cheapens the spirit of many a cultural meme or zeitgeist, and reduces it to peggs for pegholes.
survivalism [spirit] is the ultimate thing that cannot be oversimplified. it is both social, individualist, communalist, but also anti-communistic, people build walls and fences in their minds about what the spirit is, but we all knwo it when we see it. and one of the fundamental characteristics is thoughtfullness and simplicity of lifestyle, surefootness and confidence in ones self responsibility, but also ones needs to be responsible for others who are part of your team.
and then what i’m saying is, in many ways, we are all a bit survivalist except for the very few people who are truly stuck int he bubble of self destructive consumptiveness, and that , my own personal philosophy of hope, is encouraged by the fact, that people CAN AND WILL easily and without much heartache be able to do with a lot less of our modern convenicneces as things suffer, and may actually become better off for it.
i don’t advocate for poverty, but having less cnventional wealth can sometimes encourage a flourishing of the spirit. in particular, i think if all of new workers lost their ability to get dry cleaning done tomorrow, the world might be richer for it.
i mean, i respect dry cleaning and all, but seriously? dry cleaning? i don’t pay for that except on ocassion for a suit. and even then, i can iron a damn suit, it’s not going to fall apart.
not to mention dry cleaning is , like golf , incredibly environmentally destructive on a systemic level. which, we don’t have to regulate. the economics of tough times is a very elegant feedback loop . ( not that i’m against golf!…per se. )
Zeev,
I agree with you in your attitude about golf courses. When I think about “just in time” produce delivery and compare that to the enormous amount of food that could be raised on the land devoted to the pursuit of a little white ball, I get hot under the collar.
Carry on
Off topic, but somewhat aligned. My son owns an Archery shop and has a shirt that states, “Hunters Haven, it’s like a golf pro shop, but for men.”
Survivalism is like a great hobby, but it might very well save your life, and many of your loved one’s.
Another man and I started The Christian Emergency Preparedness Network some years back with the intent of joining the local churches in community preparedness with emphasis on creating contacts based on the value of a connected communications system amongst like-minded Christians, and promoting preparedness from the pulpit.
I approached ten churches, not one pastor would agree to have that talk from the pulpit. I saw the division based on race and the last president, yet could not get the leading black churches to consider it either. Trying to head off the potential conflict that would become racist by design. I was sorely disappointed as I thought uniting the Christian churches was the most logical way to reach tens of millions and get them to unite and prepare wisely. That’s much of your message, and hope someone else might try this in their neck of the woods. Even if it was within one denomination for starters, it could spread. The church is the most logical avenue to the greatest success. I urge people here to approach their pastor to speak from the pulpit.
Good article, thanks.
as for the church thing, not off topic at all. religion can be highly survivalistic in many different ways. both at the actual congregation level, philosophical individual level, multi-congregational inter-church level.
i look at the new fake religions like ‘singularity worship’ also known as ‘transhumanism’ as nothing more than born again materialism in new clothing worshipping ‘baal’ or whatever other balogna golden calves are out there. Wortship artificial intelligence , which is just worshiping the extension of man’s intellects as it is expressed throguh our tools , tools such as computers and medicine—is just another dead end, and a dangerous one at the systemic level. usually a form of worship encouraged by those attempting to decieve others astray.
the issue, one that i’m fascinated by is that now that we live in a technological age where are tools are understanding are better than ever at explaining away and often solving problems we’ve had and still have for millenia or more—–how do we contend with our new notions of god. i think it’ sthe same old god, but we have a new problem of how to reintroduce god into a world where we think we are infinitely connected through the internet, rather than through universal consciousness (god, or whatever you want to call the spirit) …..it’s a real problem. i think the biggest spiritual problem of our age—same old problem,just we are more materialistic than ever as medicine actually works better than ever and our tools work more effectively than ever to predict and explain our world .
god has been put in a corner. and man does so at his peril. the survivalist spirit, i think , must reckon with these issues both at the individual level, the family level, the congregation level, the community level, the regional level, and the state level. and sure , if you’re really expansive in your definition…then at the species and ‘global’ level. …but that’s a whole lot of levels!
plus, i like archery. always had a steady hand, so keep up the good archerying.
i will leave you with the most impressive archery video on youtube. forget survivalism, you used to be able to conquer the whole world with arrows!
enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEG-ly9tQGk
there’s lots , lots lots lots to think and discuss there.
religion can be , in general, a force for good if you ask me. I rebelled against a religious grade schooling experience having come from a fairly secular background but being highly educated from my youth in morning till evening parochial and secular studies. i rebelled early, got it over with, went to a secular public high school in new york, and over my 20s and 30s learned the value of religion and community from the perspective of an adult , rather than a somewhat rebellious and impetuous kid . that said, the critical thinking person will almost always have a hard time with being forcefed religion at a young age. it’s a healthy and usually necessary process. not for everyone, but healthy part of the personality mix of society.
i wonder if jesus wasn’t rebelling against religion in his 40 days in the desert. It seems he started his own way of thinking which helped a lot of people. if the bibles of various faiths have meaning, which i believe they all must and unquestionably do, with the very act of reading and believing in it, then i think most religion’s are due their respect as expressions of survivalism spirit , giving meaning to the world makes you want to live in it and recreate it despite so many seeming zombie individuals and so many seeming good people engaging in bad habbits, as well as institutions corrupted perhaps by a few evil or doomed puppeteeers.
i really like ‘pirkey avot’ ‘chapters of the fathers’ . perhaps one of the more out of place texts of the jewish cannon. part of the old testament, and applicable to many peoples, even secular ones who may worship power and materialism for its own sake.
it’s definitely worth reading as much as any survivalist guide to aphorisms and sayings.