Category: Survival Mindset

Propaganda and My Prepping – Part 3, by St. Funogas

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(Continued from  Part 2. This concludes the article.) The other big problem I soon discovered with the Thank a Vet program is that it propagates the myth that our military keeps us free. Think back to our childhoods: riding our bikes down to the gravel pit with our Stevens Crackshot .22’s across our backs with a sling, then walking into the little grocery store afterwards to buy some penny candy and nobody calling the police or thinking anything of it. We rode on the floor in the back of the station wagon, or in the front passenger seat of the …


Propaganda and My Prepping – Part 2, by St. Funogas

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(Continued from Part 2.) Propaganda can also be very damaging to us as individuals, and especially to us as a nation. Advertising = propaganda is ultimately about controlling us. Controlling us so we’ll quit littering, or controlling us so we’ll hand over our money and buy their products instead of the competition’s, or controlling us so we won’t object when they take away more of our freedoms either in the form of raising our taxes again or by passing more laws pushing us towards a more Orwellian future that awaits us. The term Military Industrial Complex (MIC) was popularized by …


Propaganda and My Prepping – Part 1, by St. Funogas

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(Part 1, of three parts.) Author’s Introductory Note: I normally enjoy interacting with commenters after JWR posts one of my articles but I will state in advance that I will not be debating any of the topics discussed herein. My apologies for that. My sincere desire is that you will read this, avoid knee-jerk reactions, and ponder what I’ve said before you respond. I’m sure some of it has never crossed your mind before. So I hope that instead of forming an immediate opinion, you’d instead ruminate on this for a while and let it simmer over a cinnamon roll …


Reaching Out to Others May Save Our Lives, by Ani

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Whenever I’d get upset about not understanding why someone was doing what they were doing or thought the way they did, a friend always used to remind me that “not everyone thinks like you do”. That adage sounds simple on the surface but I’ve realized that it is a profound truth and of critical importance to us preppers. At the time that I’m writing this we are immersed in the COVID-19 pandemic. I watched this coming, from the earliest days when the first reports of some strange new Coronavirus associated with the market in Wuhan was briefly noted online. That …


Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), by Pudge

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What are standard (or standing) operating procedures (SOPs), and why should you have them? According to the U.S. Army, a SOP is “a clearly written set of instructions for methods detailing procedures for carrying out a routine or recurring task or study.” Now what does this really mean and how can I actually apply this to both my daily life and also high stress situations? First, a quick background so that you can understand why this topic is so important to me. I’m an active duty Army Special Forces officer (O-3) with extensive experience around the world. I make my …


How To Zero Your Preps, by G.W.D.

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I’m sure by now most readers have had the opportunity to zero their rifle(s). (If you haven’t, please stop reading and do so now) When doing so, one of the first questions one must answer is, ”At what range should I zero?” Typically, we don’t know exactly at what range we will use our rifle, but we decide where to zero it based on two things, 1) What is the range of distances we want to be effective?, and 2) how far can we miss and still be effective? The answers to these two questions allow us to make some …


Avoiding Prepping Tunnel Vision – Part 1, by T.Z.

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Both news media and social media have the ability to quickly spread information all throughout the world. When news of a disaster reaches preppers, we like to quickly find solutions to mitigate risk to ourselves and our loved ones. However, in their zeal to find solutions, many preppers get tunnel vision. They only focus on one or two kinds of disasters, failing to consider the unanticipated consequences that a disaster might have. It is interesting to note that many preppers stockpile food, water, and ammunition, yet underprepare for the second and third order effects of the disaster. In this essay …


Prepping and Survival as a Mindset, by F.B.

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People — being people — have all kinds of reactions to “prepping.” Some get it. Some think they get it. And some consider themselves too sophisticated to “prep” because that implies the system will fracture; so to them preppers are “extremists of doom.” I’m not a prepper; I’m just a Dad responsible for a family. And once you wrap your mind around that, you’re already down that slippery slope of being a “prepper.” Prepping Begins in the Brain I have life insurance, like any middle class salary man. I pay for it every month. I don’t think I’ll die in …


The Simplicity that Prepared Us – Part 2, by John S.

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(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) COLD-HEARTED US DIPLOMATS and FRIENDLY FOREIGN ENVOYS It was a shock to me that our own diplomats (some, not all) hate missionaries and Christian humanitarians. I found this out, directly. My sister is a diplomat at the defunct Department of State (DOS). I was aghast that she joined such a liberal, hate filled left wing organization! The lengthy, dangerous lines at US Embassies in Africa was a big reason we returned back to America. People were stabbed in line there in Nairobi, in 2016. There’s no priority for US citizens, because your …


The Simplicity that Prepared Us – Part 1, by John S.

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We grew up in the woods of northwestern Montana. Life was tough. We were five kids and shared each others clothes, while growing up. Mom and dad worked a hard, simple routine. We didn’t have ski passes, adornments, and excesses. We had the bare minimum. We got mocked a lot, by the social climbers in school, church and work. Wealthy people stood out in our small Montana village. I didn’t understand the value of hardship growing up, until decades later. As a child, I complained at times, not comprehending the valuable life skills our struggling parents displayed to us, daily. …


Consider Horde Mentality in Your Planning – Part 2, by Ani

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(Contined from Part 1. This concludes the article.) If it were spring or summer, I would also expect many refugees to head to what they perceive of as a good place to pitch a tent and set up “camp” such as farm fields, your “back forty”, the woods behind your house, any stretch of land that appears “unoccupied” etc. I know for sure that many urban/suburban people don’t view rural land as being “owned” in the same way they do their apartments or front lawn/back yard. They also see this as being way more than anyone needs. So why not …


Consider Horde Mentality in Your Planning – Part 1, by Ani

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As a prepper for many years, I’ve put some consideration into trying to understand the mentality of the “hordes” who might be forced to leave their cities and heavily populated suburbs, in the event of a major disaster. I think that while we may not know how things are going to unfold or what sort of disaster might provoke people into leaving and essentially becoming refugees, we can consider some of the more likely to occur scenarios. Doing this will let us examine how well-situated we are in our own homes, the risks that we might be most susceptible to, …


Safety Versus Security, by Michael Z. Williamson

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I have a few brief observations: Your typical citizen is a pushover who’s all-in on living in a police state to be “safe.” Example 1: A while back, I had an Australian woman perusing the wares in my booth. She looked at a reproduction rapier. “Very nice. But we wouldn’t be allowed to own something like that. Keeps us safe, though.”* “Oh, are random rapier duels in the street something you worried about in Sydney?” You could almost see her neurons engage. *Swords are not, in fact, banned in Aus. But that she assumed they were proves my point again. …


A Prepping Reality Check – Part 1, by Mama Bear

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(How-To Think, Plan and Make Decisions in Preparation for When the SHTF) Let’s have a reality check for all preppers, survivalists, and conspiracy theorists. How serious are you about being ready for TEOTWAWKI? I read many articles on the blogs about guns, food storage, politics, etc. But one thing that I read very lttle of is anything on the issue of decision making, attitude, commitment and how to think about surviving the coming TEOTWAWKI. All the guns and food storage in the world will be of no benefit to you or your family unless accompanied by decision making, priorities, survival …


Seven Steps to Survival, by Allen A.

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Back in the day, when my hair was a different colour, the Seven Steps to Survival was part of the survival course that I taught.  This article will discuss those steps and how I applied them in a recent survival event that I found myself in. RECOGNITION Simple as it may sound the first step to surviving is to identify and accept that you have a problem and that it is serious.  Denial of your situation or the refusal to accept how serious it is can get you killed or injured.  Without acknowledging the nature and seriousness of the situation …