Why ‘Modern Survival Blog’?

I wrote this article not long after I started this blog in January 2010. I thought that some of you may be interested in what inspired me to do so back then, which is still valid today.

 
Modern Survival Blog is just one of many survival preparedness related blogs on the web today, and I am happy to see so many others who are aware and involved in varying degrees of a preparedness lifestyle.

The reason I am doing this comes from a combination of life events that have led me to this point. Having worked various careers within ‘the system’ since the ’80’s (showing my age), I am presently working outside the system and have a bit of time to dedicate to maintaining this blog.

Why a survival blog? Good question. It really just happened naturally. Of my many interests, survival preparedness is one that I have gravitated to, and it fits with my concerns of the world we live in today.

I would say that I first realized something wasn’t quite right with our present economic system back during 2005 – 2006 when real estate prices had become noticeably outrageous, crazy, and through the roof. It was so obvious to me that people’s paychecks could not, and were not, keeping up with the skyrocketing prices of home real estate. It had become a major bubble. Something had to give… Everyone seemingly could qualify and get a loan, even with no money down.

This was the time when I really started digging for clues beyond just the main stream. I was amazed at what I was learning and seeing of the world around us. The more I dug, the more concerned I became about the fragile nature of the financial system that we live in, and its debt-based dependance on growth. It was also glaringly evident as to how so many ‘systems’ had already been tweaked, leveraged, and maximized to squeeze out every last bit of profit. How much more could there be?

I could see how our modern lifestyle had become so dependent upon distribution chains, any of which could break and result in severe consequences. I realized that the majority of people assume that these systems will never fail, and they never stop to think about the possible consequences. They are not prepared, and that could be bad… for me.

Having lived and worked most of my life near or within major population centers, the dependencies were obvious to me, as they are necessary to support the population of tens of thousands, and millions of people living in small geographical regions. I began to see these dependent systems for what they are… risks… ‘just-in-time’ distribution channels. I also realize that about half the world population lives in urban areas / cities that depend entirely upon these systems for their survival.

Another contributing factor in my life has been my experience with the typical corporate machine, the one that constantly pressures and expects their workers to work more, do more, produce more, and even give their ‘life’ to the company so as to improve the next quarterly earnings report. I am NOT anti-Capitalism, but I do recognize when some of it is overridden with excessive greed instead of a more balanced way of life. I believe this is pretty widespread, at least here in the US. When this pressure gets bad enough, one asks them-self what is more important, trading all of one’s time for the good of the corporate machine and the paycheck? Or is there another way that leaves more time for one’s self…

It has amazed me how many people seemingly accept and even embrace the notion of trading their entire life and time, for the fatter paycheck, which is simply leveraged into higher loans for bigger homes and fancier cars. It is all an illusion. Most of them do not own those things, and in fact are in debt to their eyeballs while pretending to be wealthy.

Maybe it is something to do with my present stage of life and I am looking at things differently than I once did when I was younger. In any event, my interest in the Internet as an alternative medium of information exchange, coupled with my belief that adapting to a more self-sufficient and preparedness minded lifestyle will be important or necessary in our future, has inspired me to create Modern Survival Blog in January, 2010.

I decided to use the phrase, ‘Modern Survival‘, which would orient more towards survival topics that are practical and usable today in our modern world, in order to prepare and adapt to harder or more difficult times that may come tomorrow.

As this blog evolves, I hope that we can provide a range of topics and categories that will provide some of you with useful preparedness information, and/or bring situational awareness of the risks that we face, as well as an alternative approach to living a more self-sufficient lifestyle while we make our way through modern times.