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Survival: Are We Aware Enough?, by S.S.
There is a common theme in most of the dystopian, post-apocolyptic, zombie, killer virus, alien invasion novels that goes unnoticed by many reviewers and readers alike. Perusal of the vast survivalist and prepper websites out there shows few articles or references made to this theme. Yet, it remains the most fundamental aspect of survival– self-awareness. I mean that no matter how many gadgets, survival kits, food kits, and weapons you have, if you are not mindful of how you will react to fear, sadness, loneliness, and loss, your survival is threatened.
Sam Sisavath has written a wonderfully entertaining book on a version of the zombie apocalypse that carries throughout it one theme– “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.” I take from this not only to have the right tools for survival but to increase your self-awareness. Unfortunately, in the good ole’ USA, survival preparation has fallen victim to commercialism, and so we seek out the “stuff” to protect ourselves. However, no amount of weaponry or supplies will matter, should you be unprepared to evaluate situations, formulate a plan, and be aware of what may go wrong, and it doesn’t end there. One’s awareness has to focus internally, on what you will think and feel in times that are scary and threatening to you and your loved ones.
Awareness comes in many forms. Awareness of one’s surroundings, including physical, situational, and political, is perhaps what is taught most in many survivalist courses and books. These are critical to dealing with threats, both minor and major. What is often missed in teaching awareness is how we will emotionally react to these threats. We are so lucky in 2015 in the U.S. to have relatively significant means by which to live and prosper. Compared to most countries, our ability to eat, sleep, find resources, and thrive is very easy, even for people at lower income levels. So, I ask these questions to you: What part of your life will be most affected if the power grid fails? What will you miss most about your life should a nuclear accident occur? Is it the Internet? Is it your favorite burger? These are small questions, and they may not seem important relative to whether you have sufficient iodine tablets for water purification, but this leads me to the most important aspect of awareness– self-awareness.
Please forgive the remainder of this essay, as I will delve into more philosophy than tactics. However, I feel that this hits at the fundamental problem with a survivalist philosophy. Self-awareness is the most underestimated aspect of life. We live in a world where our motivations and desires derive from many different sources. This is based largely on how we were raised. Many of us turn to religion for answers regarding what we should seek from our lives and how we should judge our own and others’ actions. Some of us find those answers in different philosophical traditions. Some of us rely more on our own intuition. How ever we have formed our life philosophy and how we make decisions, both large and small, relies on that philosophy to carry us.
Source: http://survivalblog.com/survival-are-we-aware-enough-by-s-s/
