# The End of the World



## qwertyportne (Nov 26, 2014)

_It is not the strongest nor the most intelligent who survive 
but those who best manage change_. ~Charles Darwin​
Every natural or man-made disaster foreshadows the possibility that the-end-of-the-world-could be just around the corner -- an asteroid collides with the earth, a nuclear power plant melts down or a world-wide exchange of atomic weapons brings death, destruction and nuclear winter. Even small, local emergencies can temporarily bring the end of the world -- an earthquake, a forest fire or losing your job.

Most of us have enough food, water and supplies in our homes to survive a short-term emergency without water and power, our televisions or the Internet.  But if a fire, earthquake, tornado, hurricane or flood compels your family to evacuate their home, do you know where to go, how to get there, and what to bring with you?

If you are like most Americans, you don't.  And whether you stay put or evacuate, do you know how things work and how to fix them if they stop working?  Are you sleep-walking into tomorrow?  Will you shrivel up and die without gas, groceries and gadgets?

There is a time in the life of every problem when it is big enough to see but small enough to fix, and not being prepared for emergencies is a problem you can solve, now.

GET three things BEFORE disaster strikes: Supplies, Skills and a DIY Mindset.

DO three things AFTER disaster strikes: Get Home, Stay Put and Network

Supplies -- three days without water and 30 days without food. Don't eat if you can't drink; it will dehydrate you. Store lots of water and set some aside to flush your toilet. Buy food that doesn't require refrigeration and buy it in bulk. Store some ready-to-eat food as well. Get a small camping stove so you can heat water and cook food.

Skills -- get beyond just storing stuff. Know how to turn off your utilities, make fire and fix things. Get in shape: hard times favor fit people who think and behave at their best.

Mindset -- get in touch with your determination to survive and your willingness to protect and defend your family. You will no longer be able to go to the store for groceries, get water from a faucet or call the plumber. Develop a "Do-It-Yourself" mindset.

Get Home -- know alternate routes to your home and have a get-home bag to support your trip, driving or hiking.

Stay Put -- your home IS your bug-out place. Life as a refugee? No!

Network --join a group of like-minded people to pool your resources and survival skills. Do this to transition from the independence of escaping the disaster itself and the resultant moochers and militants to the interdependence of people who are no longer prepping but surviving.

Emergency situations are likely to get worse before they get better.  So don't stress yourself with dark imaginings.  Fear is often born of fatigue, frustration and loneliness.  And survivor's guilt can make you want to be dead too. But unless you put a round in your head, your body is not going to shrivel up and die. Your body will insist on eating, sleeping, waking up and getting on with life.

So survival isn't just in our heads -- it's in these bodies of ours too. When things get ugly, your head and your body must be on the same team. So get busy with the job of surviving. Put pictures of loved ones in your wallet or purse and look at them often.  Make a notebook of sayings, poems and stories that reflect your values and beliefs.  Gather the family around a campfire, a candle or a flashlight and take turns reading them to one another. 

Strive to be at peace with yourself and others, for despite the hard times ahead, this blue-green planet wandering among the stars is the only home we know.  And it, like you and I, has survived more than one collision to establish its path around the sun. 

So the next time a disaster collides with life as you know it, be prepared to deal with it as a survivor, not as a victim.


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## Seedy M. (Nov 26, 2014)

Good advice for a short term emergency. I would add to have blankets and such for when there is no heat, if you're in such a situation.
I'm most fortunate. Most of those things, should any of them happen, would not affect most of my friends or myself. I live a good bit of the time among the Indios in the comarca. In the interior there is a good chance they would have no indication anything had gone wrong. We already have the water, food and fire. The climate means we wouldn't need blankets or such unless we're in the mountains - where we already have what we need.
It's we primitive savages who are prepared totally for the folly of "civilization."


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## qwertyportne (Nov 27, 2014)

Seedy M. said:


> It's we primitive savages who are prepared totally for the folly of "civilization."



Exactly, and not just for short-term emergencies. The general public tends to think of people who are preparing for the end of the world as paranoid, gun-toting nuts -- strange people who never learned how to fit in with normal people. For long-term disasters, those who are not prepared will be the strange ones who don't fit in with those who are prepared -- the new normal.


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## escorial (Nov 27, 2014)

odd piece in respect of the authors voice...some parts i found amusing..enjoyed


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## Winston (Nov 29, 2014)

This could be an intro for my "Ponder The Unthinkable" installments.  Good general points.

I would, however, differ on the fact you think that most people have enough food and water.  In a pandemic scenario, you may be cooped-up for weeks.  That "three day" BS that Homeland Security expouses is next to worthless.  When it's happening, to you, it's always worse than you thought it would be.  

@Seedy:  Yeah.  Self / Community sufficency is the key.  Not magical MREs dropping from The Goodship FEMA.


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## qwertyportne (Nov 30, 2014)

I wrote "Most of us have enough food, water and supplies in our homes to survive a _*short-term*_ emergency without water and power..." and then went on to describe ways to prepare for and deal with _*long-term*_ emergencies, pandemic or otherwise. In that case, yeah, three days isn't a valid mindset. Networking is a valid mindset. Like you said, those who sit on their duffs waiting for top-down solutions instead of a bottom-up approach to survival probably won't.  

I'm currently writing a novel about a global disaster. In some ways, it's an extrapolation of this article. I'd be interested in hearing more about your "Ponder the Unthinkable" project. Is that a book you are writing? Or...?


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## Mike_550 (Dec 4, 2014)

Harrowing thoughts. Not sure of the authors intended tone here.


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## Phil Istine (Dec 14, 2014)

This was a strange one for me because I was raised in a (quasi?)-cult that predicted imminent apocalypse - and still does as far as I know.  The only way of surviving was to obey the leaders and be a sycophant to the "right" brand of god.
I'm cured now though.  I obey the asteroids instead


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