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The Idiocy of Space
Capsule Survivalism
©1976
From “The Survivor; Volume 1”
I
guess you’ve seen the ads for freeze-dried foods. Many show a young man, a
woman, a couple of kids and usually a dog. A couple of semi-automatic rifles are
in evidence; a Coleman lantern and all the paraphernalia of a
ready-to-batten-down fallout shelter. You are supposed to believe these nerds
are going to go into something like a state of suspended animation while the
rest of the world dies miserably.
Sure,
they have a generator for light and VHS. But if you examine such ads, you’ll
notice there is virtually nothing to do. Just breath in and out. Eat Mountain
House freeze dried foods, drink canned water, use a chemical toilet and wait and
wait and wait. But wait for what? Until their betters put the world back
together again?
I’ve
seen this attitude in so many people who claim to be survivalists that I think
it is about time to put survivalism in its proper perspective. First,
survivalism is not a business catering to the anxieties of neurotics. From the
ads you see in so-called survival-oriented publications you might get the
impression that all the paranoids and nervous Nellys are lining up to be fleeced
by gloom-and-doom con-artists. Such publications feature various ads for the
complete equipping of your own underground nuthouse.
What
most people don’t realize is that if you need a fallout shelter, you’re doomed,
anyway. The bulk of solid fallout will fall from thirty to forty miles downwind
of ground-zero. Residual fallout may cover hundreds of square miles further
downwind, polluting grass, and consequently, the livestock who eat it, as
demonstrated by Chernobyl. Even smaller particles will rise to the stratosphere
and you may get cancer in twenty years.
Even
so, our species will recover, with little incidence of mutation, as shown by
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
But
most of those who have gone underground will die. First, those in the suburbs
downwind from Ground-Zero will emerge to radiation and/or pestilence. Second,
those in upwind suburbs will have to contend with irate neighbors. A neighbor
locked out of your shelter will stop up your vents with malice aforethought. If
you do live to emerge after a couple of weeks or a month, crazed survivors will
tear you apart. At best, you will just be another refugee.
But
say there is no war. What with the global population bomb ticking inexorably,
it’s only a matter of time, and not much time at that.
WORLD
POPULATION
1850 – 1 billion
1930 – 2 billion
1975 – 4 billion
1988 – 5 billion
(Read
Paul Ehrlich’s “The Population Bomb”)
Our
present burgeoning population is pushing 6 billion. With our waste products
translated into pollution we have a potential Love Canal in and around every
city and town The Greenhouse Effect is already changing the world’s weather
patterns. It and other human waste, chemical, garbage, sewage, etc., will grow,
along with the population. Soon, the air will not be fit to breathe, most
outside vegetation will not be fit to eat and most water will not be fit to
drink. Our species has simply out- bred the carrying capacity of our environment
and our socioeconomic systems.
So
it’s only a matter of time, and a short time at that, until there will be a
horrendous culling of Earth’s Homosapiens. This will happen even without a
nuclear war. Since Chernobyl, with its massive radioactive pollution of entire
countries, has happily shaken the confidence of a lot of leaders that a nuclear
war is both survivable and livable. The destruction would be so massive, even
indirectly, there would be no winners and no government; no socioeconomic system
would survive.
So
there may not be a nuclear war after all. So civilizations may not go out with a
bang but a whimper. And a stench and a wracking cough, I might add.
So
what happens to the space capsule survivalists, then? As the system
deteriorates, battening down won’t do much good. Urban and suburban areas will
be unlivable. Riotous looters will trash every home regardless of how many are
shot during the death dance of the urbanites.
But
say you have sense enough to realize that our more populous areas will become
death traps. So you have a bugout vehicle all ready, especially in the event of
a Red Alert. You may have a closet full of “survival gear” ready to
unload into your cab-over camper. Would you also have enough dangerously stored
gasoline to get out to your destination? Don’t expect to buy gas on the road.
And don’t even expect to get far unless your vehicle can drive around all the
stalled and/or wrecked vehicles and maneuver well off the road.
Aside
from the shelter stupids and the bugouters, there are the hosts of overgrown Boy
Scouts aping the military. In the event of a Russian invasion, the last thing we
need is a bunch of infantile, fantasizing, camo-clad pseudo soldiers.
But
the survival hucksters continue their barrage of ads for outfitting even more
Purdys (the jerk who gunned down the kids in Stockton). They have so glamorized
all of the tinny, junky, ammo-wasteful semi-automatics to the point where our
citizens are becoming less well-armed.
The
only guns you need are the basic and the practical. This would be a .38 revolver
for the bedroom, a shotgun for close action and a bolt-action, 4 power
scope-mounted 30-06 for reaching out. All these can be bought cheaply at a pawn
shop. If they’re in good condition when you buy them and you go to a range and
practice using them, your efficiency as a militia man will make you a genuine
asset to any defense force.
I
feel strongly about this as I’m really turned off at gun shows by camo-clad
adolescents skulking around trying to look fierce. This type usually wears a
T-shirt saying “Kill ’em all, let God sort ’em out”. Our military
personnel should be honored, not lampooned.
As
far as military equipment is concerned, I don’t see a place for it in your
survival preparations. Genuine military surplus clothing is good because it is
sturdy and relatively cheap. If you must have it, patronize your local surplus
store or gun show where you can try it on and examine it to make sure it is real
military surplus.
The
most objectionable kind preying on survivalists are mail order military out-
fitters. Looking through one of their numerous catalogs would be comic if it
weren’t such a ripoff of adolescents fantasizing manhood.
The
first thing that struck me when I got a mailbox full of them was the outrageous
prices for even the totally unnecessary. One item was a “Reference Book
Safe” for $39.95! It was a dictionary with its pages cut out about an inch
from the sides, forming a hollow for valuables. Rather than a dictionary which a
guest might reach for, it should be an obscure kind of book no one would refer
to. Anyone could duplicate such a safe in a few minutes with a razor knife. I
can’t imagine anyone so stupid as to buy such a joke, and for $39.95 at that.
If
you are so immature as to feel the need to buy military or camping equipment for
emergencies, go first to your local surplus store or to Sears or Wards. You
would be surprised at the wide selection of the same or equal quality goods as
are in those catalogs, and for much lower prices. This also goes for the
“survival” catalogs. A good hardware or discount store has all you
will need in the survival line. So patronize your local stores and save money on
what you can examine first-hand, plus the savings in postage.
If
you’re aware of the crisis approaching our planet, save your money and don’t be
influenced by anyone preying on your fears. You can’t buy survival. Don’t be
played for a sucker.
What
you’re going to need to survive is a location about a hundred miles from any
sizable city. War or no war, temporary survivors will spread out like locusts.
Best to be in a small town out of their range.
Thus,
you’ll need a house, preferably with about a half acre, a basement and within
the town limits. The basement is a necessity in case of a nuclear war. A follow
up on Chernobyl pointed out that the radiation outside was 40 times that within
a structure. A basement would be that much more protective.
Another
thing about buying is that, aside from a fire extinguisher, medications and
tools, you should never buy for emergencies.
By
its very nature, an emergency is something not anticipated. We don’t really know
what will happen in the next couple of years. Maybe nothing. So you shouldn’t
loot your bank account for a lot of things you won’t need soon. But in light of
what might happen, here’s a rule of thumb.
Consider
what you have, what you use all the time and simply buy more. Now, in
anticipation of hard times, adapt your present life style to a more conservative
one. Stop buying what you will have to process later. Don’t buy bread. Buy
grains, grind them and bake your own bread. Don’t buy milk by the gallon. Buy it
by the large box, dried and storable and learn to use it. It’s ever so much
cheaper and just as good.
Whenever
tempted to buy processed foods, think. Can you process them yourself, cheaper
and with simple ingredients? Then do it!
Buy
tools, not to store away but to learn to use, now. You will gain valuable skills
for an uncertain future.
Food
is a big item. Learn sprouting. Read “You Can Survive The Nuclear
Winter”, pages 266-273 of THE SURVIVOR Vol. 1. Modify that greenhouse to
occupy the whole sunny side of your house. Have a side door from your house
leading to it. Instead of two sides, as illustrated in the first edition, have
but one side and tuck the top of the other side under the eaves of that side of
the house. The greenhouse will grow fallout-free vegetables.
Maybe
you know nothing about growing things. Learn. Start out by raising African
violets or something else commercial to pay for that greenhouse. As you learn,
you’ll understand hydroponics (THE SURVIVOR, Vol. 2, pages 594-650). Such a
greenhouse would quickly pay for itself by saved energy costs. It would shade
your house from the worst summer heat on that side and so save on air
conditioning costs. In the winter it would collect heat from the sun and heat
the sunny side, thus saving heating bills.
Being
a food producer your greenhouse would be an asset to the neighbors. They would
even protect you from potential looters.
Don’t
make “survival” purchases yet. First invest in knowledge. Buy all my
books, of course. Also a complete set of back issues of THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS
would be a treasure. Get a set of THE FOXFIRE BOOKS. Also, scrounge second-hand
book stores for back issues of ORGANIC GARDENING AND FARMING. All these are not
only valuable but interesting. Don’t forget books on greenhouses.
So
don’t be a nerd with the suicidal space-capsule survivalist mentality. Become
what you’ll need to be. I don’t think you’ll have a chance of surviving unless
you make yourself worthy of survival. This means not only learning
self-sufficiency but having something to pass on to the next generation.