When All Hell Breaks Loose (4 page)

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n its purest form, self-reliance is just what it implies. To literally be self-reliant is to be able to rely upon yourself for all of your needs. Typically it's a matter of whom you trust, as you're betting that whatever entity you put in front of the word "reliant" will come through for you and yours when the chips are down. If everyone were truly self-reliant, our global economy would collapse, as everyone would be able to provide for themselves everything that was required. No form of sales, trade, or barter would be needed as all people would be self-contained completely within their self-reliant little worlds. The problem is, life doesn't work that way.

So how about if we were all family-reliant instead? This hearkens back to tribal times, in which all of our ancestors took care of their own. For the most part, small hunting and gathering societies had small, close-knit families. If you had too large a family you would literally eat yourself out of house and home.

The founding families of the pioneer movement in the good old USA were family reliant, pushing out into unfamiliar wilderness with a covered wagon full of kids and some hope. Generations back, having lots of kids meant something as the more hands on deck a family had, the more stuff could get done around the homestead for the survival of all.

Even today, lower-income, close-knit families rely upon each other to weather the storms of city living, and team up to help support the family. Grandma lives in the back room, Uncle Fred lives in the living room, and mom, dad, and the kids sleep in the other room. Each part gives what they can for the benefit of the whole. This is a very common practice in Arizona and other states where immigration from Mexico and other Latin American countries is high. In dozens of countries around the world, the family unit is highly esteemed, and there is no stigma attached to having Uncle Fred living near the sink.

If not family reliant, we could be town or city reliant, putting our faith in the belief that city officials will ultimately bail us out of our misery when a crisis appears. How about being state reliant? Hopefully the governor and his or her underlings in the state's bureaucracy will feel just as strongly about your family (and everyone else's) as you do to fend off the demons of civil distress. We could even ponder for a moment about the virtues of becoming federal government reliant. We could hope and trust that the government, in all its wisdom and power, would see fit to keep us safe and sound, protected from all harm.

If you grew up with one of the good history books in school, instead of the sanitized versions, you would have read how, many decades ago, the U.S. government had a little problem with all those damn Indians hanging around. They would get in the way of mining, mess with settlers, chuck arrows at the military, and generally be a pain in the butt toward our goal of "manifest destiny" for the white man. They were hard to find, too, as they just ran off into the hills or the prairies, seemingly completely self-reliant upon the landscape in which they lived.

A bunch of folks in Washington got together and decided that the best way to get rid of these Indians was to take from them their way of life. Just eliminate the buffalo, and whatever else they needed to live free, and pretty soon those savages would be crawling on their hands and knees for help! The idea worked like a charm, and the blankets contaminated with smallpox didn't hurt the cause either.

Overall, once proud and independent Native American tribes across the nation were reduced to a pitiful, dependent existence, forced to live on disease-infested, starvation-prone reservations that popped up across the country. With their physical independence destroyed, their emotional and mental independence died too in the form of apathy and hopelessness. This type of planned injustice seems to happen anywhere a group of people ultimately feels threatened by another group's independence. Unfortunately, it's still happening the world over.

While all agencies—local, state, and federal—hopefully do the best possible job to safeguard the needs of you and your loved ones, it all boils down to whom you trust the most to get the job done right—and to get it done right the first time. Think about this when you're tempted to pass the buck, and your personal power, to someone else. Ultimately, your safety is not the government's responsibility; it's yours. The emergency response chain is only as strong as the weakest link. Make sure the weakest link is not you.

Like a Rock. . .

As stated above, any chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The hallmark of every successful survival outcome is still proper preparation and, of course, a little bit of luck. The majority of people composing our modern civilization are standing on one leg. They lack stability and balance in times of change. They have become unduly dependent on the illusion of the infrastructure surrounding them. Pull the plug or turn out the lights and all hell breaks loose in their world, for they have no backup plan, nor do the majority care or even consider the need to have a plan.

Our anchor generation, the grandparents and great-grandparents who knew how to grow a garden, store food, and make water safe to drink or where to look for it in the first place, are leaving the planet at an accelerated rate. The majority stood firmly upon two legs, as they were intimately acquainted with the skills and supplies necessary to support their lives and those whom they loved. Whether they lived in an urban or rural location, people had a much keener sense of what it took to "keep their ass alive" in the short- and long-term scheme of things. This wisdom was the product of a full-body experience called "taking responsibility for their lives" and originated from the very core of their being.

My grandparents on both sides of the family were dirt poor. Both lived in rural South Dakota and grew up during the Depression. In their early years, all of my grandparents lived on farms, relying upon nature, good weather, lots of work, and friendly neighbors to get by. My grandfather on my mother's side bailed hay with his tractor until he was eighty-three years old. He quit when his tractor rolled on top of him while negotiating an embankment. I remember him saying that he figured it was a sign he should "retire for a bit."

In my grandparents' time, being prepared was just something you did and was considered good old common sense. Nobody thought you were paranoid for stocking up on vital supplies; in fact, you were expected to do so. Those in need could be a burden to their neighbors after the next tornado, blizzard, or lightning storm rocked the surrounding prairies, causing havoc throughout the state. Nature hasn't changed much, and if anything, She seems a bit more ticked off. Those who are wise still stock plenty of emergency gear when getting to town is not an option, even for the heartiest four-wheel drive.

I grew up around amazing vegetable gardens, fruit trees, root cellars, canned goods, hunting, fishing, and what my family still calls "that good old pioneer spirit." It was a time when simplicity ruled and people helped other people because they wanted to, not because they felt they had to. It is in this spirit that I write this book on urban survival. Self-reliance is a good thing. It founded this and every other country, town, and tribe on the planet. Bothering to relearn some of these forgotten tidbits of common sense will fill you and your family with newfound happiness, independence, and freedom.