Category: Survival Mindset

Loaves, Fishes, Tree Bark, Seeds, and Knowledge – Part 1, by The Chemical Engineer

JWR’s Introductory Note:  At just over 20,000 words, this is perhaps the longest single-topic contributed article ever serialized in SurvivalBlog. I consider it an important piece to ponder.  Please read all eight parts before sending your comments. I will post most of them in the Snippets column on October 29th. — I want to start with a brief but sincere thank you to all the article writers I have learned from here at SurvivalBlog.com. Your efforts have made a difference for me and many others. I hope my contribution can have a similar benefit to others. Thank you. Let me …


The Social and Psychological Cost of Preparedness, by A.C.

This is one topic that rarely gets any attention in the preparedness community, and I want to break it down all the way from the “prepper stigma” to the arguments and counterpoints we can make when confronted with the “tinfoil hat” comments by non-preppers in our lives. The act of preparing for an emergency is almost universally portrayed in popular culture as a solitary, dramatic, and often paranoid pursuit. Hollywood tends to show only the aftermath, illustrating the lone survivor who only needs their preps, but the reality of the emotional and social journey toward self-sufficiency is frequently ignored. While …


Involving Children in Emergency Preparedness, by A.C.

The following is a summary of a Stakeholder Prepping Podcast. — Something that a lot of us overlook is the idea that preparedness is fundamentally a whole-family-unit endeavor. The effectiveness of any emergency plan hinges not on the dedication of a single individual, but on the cooperation and understanding of the entire family. When emergencies or disruptive events occur, a family unit operates at its most resilient when every member, including children, is an active participant rather than a passive bystander. The core challenge for parents is shifting the family’s mindset away from visualizing doomsday scenarios and toward fostering confidence, …


The Three Stages of TEOTWAWKI – Part 3, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 2.  This concludes the article.) STAGE 2: SURVIVAL MODE The survival phase is the intermediate period between the very short-term emergency phase and the time when things finally settle down to the New Normal phase. Once everyone is finally gathered together at the homestead, defenses set up, the freezer contents are canned, freeze dried, smoked, or those blueberries made into cobbler as a comfort food during those first few stressful days, and once we’ve got meals back to some sort of a schedule, chores divvied out, watch times established, and water and propane conservation rules tacked to …


The Three Stages of TEOTWAWKI – Part 2, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 1.) CLASSES OF PREPPERS Truly prepared preppers – These preppers took things seriously, even if the chance of a SHTF event wasn’t highly probable. They weighed the probabilities against the consequences of not being prepared and chose to prepare. For many, the self-reliance skills learned, knowledge gained, and talents developed while prepping made it worth it, SHTF or not. The psychological benefit of being ready for anything is also a big plus. The most prepared preppers will have a written plan to employ as soon as they realize that today’s The Day. They’ve done simulations and practice …


The Three Stages of TEOTWAWKI – Part 1, by St. Funogas

This article discusses some of the thoughts I’ve had about the different stages of post-SHTF life while writing my upcoming article, “A Realistic Top-10 Prepping List.” Consider this a preface to that article. Everything presented here is my opinion of course. As I’ve prepped and worked towards living a self-reliant lifestyle, I’ve thought a lot about things over the years. Many of my conclusions are based on history, ideas presented in some of the post-apocalyptic novels and movies, reading daily SurvivalBlog articles for the past seven years, and concerns about my current situation if the Schumer hits the fan next …


Neighbors, Friends and Enemies, by SaraSue

I think this is an important topic, and I’ve been struggling with it.  Who is my friend and who is my enemy, and why is it important to designate people as such?  Should I?  On the face of it, it’s about my safety and that of my family.  If I can identify friend or foe, I can more easily identify threats and make plans to mitigate them.  Maybe not easily, but at least I would know at some level what I’m dealing with.  I realize that my experiences are far different than those living in the suburbs or in a …


The Meme of Crushroom: A Key Retreat Architecture Element (Updated)

JWR’s Introductory Note:  This is an update and expansion of an article that I wrote for SurvivalBlog back in 2009. I’ve corrected the article’s dead links and added some important details. — One bit of retreat architecture that I’ve often recommended to my consulting clients who are designing (or retrofitting) retreats is the inclusion of a protruding entryway foyer, that I call a crushroom. Passing this advice along to you gives me the chance to employ one of my horrible puns: The Meme of Crushroom. A crushroom is a controllable confined space, typically an entry foyer, that can be covered …


JIT Training for Trusted Friends, Family, and Neighbors, by Dr. Bob

This article will provide some thoughts on how to address a few common problems seen in the preparedness community. The first problem involves the difficulty finding like-minded people to form a community before the Stuff Hits The Fan (SHTF). The second problem is how to engage friends, family, and neighbors so that they take actions to prepare their families prior to SHTF. These problems are related and center on the realization that many people are bound by their current life circumstances and are unwilling or unable to consider that the current paradigm is in danger and, secondly, many of those …


A Three-Year Window or a Three-Month Window?

As an observer of contemporary politics, economics, and emerging threats, I have come to the conclusion that the last three years of Donald John Trump’s second term as President may provide a potential window of opportunity. If we were now living under a Harris-Walz Administration, we would surely be out of time to prepare. I have my doubts about Trump’s sincerity when he talks about scaling back the size and power of government. Alarmingly, the gains of the DOGE project were wiped out by the huge deficit spending included in the recent  “Big, Beautiful Bill”.  But I don’t consider DJT …



Prayer as Medicine, by Jennifer Rader

Some of the best things in life are free. The same holds true in medicine. A caring heart, a listening ear, a good laugh—these don’t cost a dime, and most everyone agrees that they work. Prayer, on the other hand, gets a bit controversial. While a significant number of studies with prayer and healing have been conducted, the results have been somewhat mixed. This can be attributed to the way the study was designed, how prayer is defined and practiced, and to the placebo effect.


Fully Practicing Your Preps, by A.C.

In our world of unpredictable emergencies, from natural disasters to personal crises, a common saying always holds true; “You don’t rise to the occasion, you revert to the level of your training.” This isn’t just my cynical view of human nature; it’s a powerful call to action, especially to us self-described preppers. It emphasizes that true readiness isn’t about spontaneous heroism or “hoping for the best”.  Instead, it’s actually about the deliberate, often unglamorous work of turning preparation into an ingrained, automatic response. When the “stuff” hits the fan,  our carefully laid plans are only as good as our ability …


The “Come as You Are” Collapse–Have the Right Tools and Skills

Introductory Note From JWR: This article is an update and small expansion to a succinct post that I made back in February, 2008. When the Second World War broke out in September, 1939, the United States had nearly two full years to ramp up military training and production before decisively confronting the Axis powers. In the mid-1970s, looking at the recent experience of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, the Pentagon’s strategic planners came to the realization that the next major war that the US military would wage would not be like the Second World War. There would not be the luxury …


A 2025 Assessment: The Emerging Artificial Intelligence Threat

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has been alarmingly rapid since 2022. Before then, AI was considered little more than a plaything or a novelty.  But now it is transforming businesses, wiping out entire categories of office jobs, and threatening human liberty. The first practical release of the Claude AI code-writing tool just by itself has completely transformed the global software industry. I’m talking about a Buggy Whips level of industry transformation. As a personal illustration, I should mention that my youngest son is now in his third year at a university here in The American Redoubt, studying for a …