Poor Man Survival
Self Reliance tools for
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A Digest of Urban
Survival Resources
The Brutal Truth
About What Really Happens When a Society Collapses He Was Just an Ordinary
Family Man, Living His Life… and Then the Unimaginable Happened
It doesn’t
matter how prepared you are. In a true sh*t-hits-the-fan (SHTF) scenario —
where there’s been, say, a catastrophic attack on the power grid or where a
massively destructive and disruptive civil war has broken out — being thrust
into a life of rugged self-sufficiency would not be fun or romantic. Fending
for yourself and your loved ones would be a living hell. If you doubt this, I
would encourage you to pick up Selco Begovic’s 2019 book, The Dark Secrets of
SHTF Survival: The Brutal Truth About Violence, Death and Mayhem You Must Know
to Survive.
I’ve just finished it. It’s a quick read. As
you can probably tell from the title, it’s not exactly a “nice” book. But in
it, you’ll learn what life is really like when society completely falls apart.
You see, Selco was just an ordinary guy living with his family in “a regular
city in a nice country in Europe” when, in the early 1990s, civil war erupted
around him. This, we know today, as the war in the Balkans that eventually led
to the breakup of Yugoslavia. As Selco tells it, his city quickly came under
siege. There was no escape. And so began a horrific ordeal in which he and
others were forced to survive in the harshest conditions imaginable — for over
a year. His story is the stuff of nightmares. And it’s all true.
Tremors
Before the Collapse In the months leading up to SHTF, Selco writes how the
media fanned the flames of discord in his country. Differences amongst
antagonistic groups were stressed. Tensions were escalated. Conflict seemed all
but unavoidable. “The media manipulated people,” he recalls. “[The media]
increased the fear and hate.” In his own city, things began to deteriorate.
There was scattered violence. All kinds of rumors. Then tanks and military
units appeared.
Selco
describes being “mesmerized” by what he was seeing unfold. “It was like being
in a movie,” he writes. He even described this part as “exciting.” That quickly
changed. “Pretty soon we all were like, ‘F**k, people are getting killed for
real here’” — but by then they’d lost their chance to escape. Calling it his
“big mistake,” Selco says that “one day it was simply too late to leave.” “It is
important to believe that [this kind of an event] can actually happen,” Selco
cautions. “Because after I saw all the signs, I just said to myself, ‘Oh, it
cannot happen here. Somebody somehow is gonna solve everything.’” Supplies and
Safety in Numbers As panic set in, goods flew off the shelf. Then the looting
began. Yet most people were still unaware of what was taking place. Selco
observes: I have seen people running from a mall with items that, in a few
days, would become the most ridiculous items to possess... in the middle of a
collapse.
Things like a TV or a laundry machine… The
majority of people could not imagine what was coming, so they couldn’t fathom
that a bag full of AA batteries was gonna be worth more than 50 laundry
machines. With his city under siege and rampant violence, destruction and
looting underway, several of Selco’s friends and a handful of relatives moved
in with him and his family for safety in numbers. From this point on, it was
everyone for themselves. What Daily Life Is Like When SHTF Their sole objective
became survival. “Just start to imagine every ‘supply’ you take for granted
(fuel, electricity, water, stores, emergency services, etc.) being taken away
and not knowing when it will ever come back,” writes Selco. Their days and
nights became a desperate, ongoing struggle to obtain the necessities of life.
They scavenged from wherever they could. “People do not understand how much
hard work is needed [to do all this],” says Selco.
He describes how everything in your life
changes. Nothing is normal anymore. From when and where you sleep to your
schedule, your bathroom habits, having to adjust to constant fatigue, thirst
and concern about where your next meal will come from — everything. On the
topic of food, Selco writes that “we ate when we had the chance… [including]
things that most people wouldn’t think of as food. All that being said, Selco
notes that: Even in a survival situation, you need to still care about a few
little things to keep your dignity, to keep your spirits up, to not lose
yourself. If you stop caring about everything, it is like a disease that eats
you.” But as bad as all this is, there’s still one more key part to the story.
The part that makes it truly terrifying — the ever-present threat of violence
and death. Why You Need to Own a Weapon Selco writes about how when the SHTF,
it didn’t take long for gangs to form. Some joined a gang for safety and to
obtain resources.
But others
came together for far darker, more sinister reasons. This lawless, chaotic
environment, simply put, gave people the opportunity to be evil. Targeted
killings, torture, terror, rape — this all took place. Selco doesn’t linger on
this stuff any more than he has to. He says he’s not trying to be shocking by
talking about it. Rather, he wants to educate people about the realities of
urban warfare and what a societywide collapse is actually like. “It is a needed
but depressing realization that people, even regular folks, can become so
cruel, so fast,” laments Selco. The Dark Secrets of SHTF Survival is an
instructive and practical book. You will learn a lot of specific advice that
can only come from someone who’s experienced such an event firsthand. But the
book is also a disturbing account of human nature when the paper-thin veneer of
civilization is stripped away.
Luke
McGrath is managing editor of The Laissez Faire Letter.
SIDEBAR
The
socialists infecting our Congress remind me of the 1930s…
This fall of
the mainstream and rise of fringe elements is straight out of 1930s
Germany. That period saw the stunning
rise of extreme parties both on the right and the left. In 1928 elections, the Nazi Party came in 9th
with only 2.6% of the vote. The
Communists did four times better, with 10.6%.
Just two years later, after the 1929 stock market collapse, the Nazis
won 18.3% and became Germany’s second most popular party.
The
Communists were third, with 13.1%. In
1932, the Nazis won nearly 40% of the vote.
The move to
the extreme Left by Democrats reminds me of how little people seem to learn
from history-no one in the Democratic Party seems willing or able to halt the
rise of so-called Progressives in their party [they’re now dominated by extreme
ideas which will create an even bigger Nanny State while eroding more of our
rights, especially gun ownership.
This domestic terror group might be termed the ‘Brown Shirts’ of the
Democrat-Socialist Party…those were the criminal goons the Nazis used to impose
their will on its enemies.
Antifa goons threw chemical weapons at Ng, a
conservative journalist, by mixing quick-drying cement with milkshakes which
causes chemical burns if it makes contact with the skin. Seattle cops just
stood by, doing nothing.
Here are my
ideas for new bill [s] to improve government…
>Since term limits never
seems to gain any traction perhaps we should entertain the idea of zero pay for
elected officials after their third term in office…give them their office,
expenses, health insurance while in office and a living allowance only=much
like our Founding Fathers and see how many decide to remain in office.
>Perhaps
we need to resurrect a new version of ‘war’ bonds, perhaps calling them “government
bailout bonds” to help pay off our national debt and/or to help pay for our
massive deficits and proposed new spending projects since fewer foreign nations
are buying our debt!
>An idea I've suggested before: Eliminate ALL
city/state & Federal taxes on the 1st $25K of income for all people. 41% of
citizens pay no Federal tax, many city/state taxes are killers for many. Tax
laws that encourage more US manufacturing/jobs & elimination of red tape
would help too.
More
Updates:
Food, water, and shelter are the three essential
requirements for survival after an apocalyptic disaster. Of the three, though,
it is food that will be the most difficult to acquire.
Making sure you have enough food to
survive after the supermarkets are permanently closed requires a multi-faceted
approach. While stockpiling canned food and other foods with a long shelf-life
is a great idea, food stockpiles can only last for so long. In order to be
prepared for long-term survival, you need to explore other options as well.
One of the best ways to ensure you
have food for the long-term is to build a survival seed bank. In this article,
we’ll take a closer look at what survival seed banks are, the benefits that
they offer, and how you can build one for yourself...
Collecting rainwater for drinking purposes may seem
simple enough, but there are many ways it can go wrong – some of which can
actually be quite dangerous. If you would like to start collecting rainwater in
a way that is both safe and effective, make sure that you avoid these common
rainwater collection mistakes.
Mistake #1: Using the Wrong
Container - While there are plenty of containers that are capable of holding
water, not all of them are suitable for collecting and storing drinking water.
Some containers may leach dangerous chemicals into your water, while others are
not opaque enough to block out the sunlight - which could encourage algae
growth.
Dark colored plastic barrels are
ideal for collecting rainwater, but many other containers will work so long as
they are large enough, opaque enough, and not coated with any chemicals that
could leach into your water...
Free enterprise, limited
government, individual freedom!
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You Can’t Buy Life
Insurance After You’re Dead-Prepare NOW for Emergencies…
Finally, grab
an emergency solar/battery radio weather radio!
Back in stock!
RTIC Double Wall Vacuum Insulated Food
Container Stainless Steel, 25oz Cold/Hot
We have a few RTIC brand cooling food canisters in stock. These
canisters are just as good as Yetis…Limited quantity [also available in 17 0z.
size]
High
Density Pocket-Sized Solar Generator Keeps Your Family Alive-Bonuses
Get your own personal, “mobile” solar backup
power generating system:
A Smoking Frog Feature, Shallow Planet Production
3 comments:
This article & its resources are spot-on!
Excellent piece. The bit about antifa thugs is perfect; they need to be labeled for what they are: domestic terrorists.
Always a useful/pleasure to read!
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