Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick
February 1, 2012
U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far”, and established a foreign diplomacy ideology nicknamed ‘Big Stick diplomacy’.
The meaning of the phrase advises a tactic of caution and non-aggression, backed up by the ability to do violence if required. Similar to the phrase, ‘the iron fist in the velvet glove’, the idea was to begin gently, but hold a decisive weapon in reserve.
As I was sitting here this evening contemplating a quick post, my wife watching Jeopardy on TV (I admit to enjoying the Jeopardy challenge too), I heard a reference to the famous phrase ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick’. It got me to thinking about similarities to preparedness in general. Let me explain…
How often have you heard others in conversation bragging about this or that, all the while boisterous or bloviating on and on? Does this type of behavior bother you? Well it shouldn’t…
Here’s why. If you have all your ducks in a row, so to speak, there is absolutely no need to brag or boisterously bloviate. In fact, to do so will only paint a target on your back for others to notice, who may trip you up in some way out of jealousy or vindictive pleasure. It happens.
Speak softly. Live under the radar. Don’t paint a target on your back. All the while you’re building your defenses so as to build a personal castle around you and your family, living without fear or dependence as much as reasonably possible.
Carry a big stick. Although the original proverb referred to a stick as a weapon, you could look at it as your overall defense strategy against the modern systems of dependence. For example, having a 6 month storage of food and consumable supplies, and 6 months worth of saved cash to maintain your current standard of living, would certainly create a ‘speak easy’ emotion of calm and reassurance.
The big stick could be having no debt. With no debt, you are truly free (to an extent). Having no debt is a weapon to be used against the system which is trying its best to enslave you.
The big stick is the accumulation of all your preparedness plans, your reserves, knowledge, know-how, all of which could be used if need be. Having and carrying the big stick will inspire a peaceful self-gratifying feeling for most.
The thing that I like about the phrase, is that it represents a civil ideal of self reliance. A quiet, but powerful calm. It’s something to strive for.
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Trust Your Instinct, Your Internal Voice
December 27, 2011
You know that ‘voice’ in the back of your head? You should listen to it… In other words, you should trust your instinct, your internal knowledge, your feeling, your sense, your intuition. Humans know the power of a nagging suspicion. Believe your inner feelings when you get uncomfortable about a person or situation.
Recognizing, trusting, and acting upon your internal voice is a form of self-communication that will keep you ahead of the pack while making better and quicker decisions than the rest.
While some decisions are better made with a long analysis and thought process, there are many that are better made with quick thinking and reaction. A UCL (University College London) study found that you are more likely to perform well if you do not think too hard and instead trust your instincts. The research shows that in some cases, instinctive snap decisions are more reliable than decisions taken using higher-level cognitive processes.
A study in the Journal of Consumer Research concluded that people who deliberate about decisions make less accurate judgments than people who trust their instincts. In five separate studies, the researchers found that better judgments can often be made without deliberation.
As you gain more life experience, you build up a reservoir of subconscious subliminal instincts. When called upon, more often than not, your instincts will be right – or close to right.
A problem that many people have is that they do not listen to that voice. Some have issues with their confidence, and they allow their instincts to be clouded with doubt.
When it comes to survival preparedness, making the right decision is key. Your decision response time could make the difference between success and failure – being first or being last – getting out of a dangerous situation or being caught in the middle of it with everyone else.
Next time you have to step off into the unknown, tune into the voice of your intuition. It speaks to you from the purest place, knows the truth of who you are and can lead you to the answer that’s right for you.
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What Kind of Survivalist are You?
October 8, 2011
Generally speaking, there is mostly only one stereotype for a ‘survivalist’ or ‘prepper’ out there in the mainstream. Most of the general public think of a survivalist or prepper as one or some of the following…
A gun ‘nut’
Someone who hates the government and is ready to do ‘battle’
Someone who desires to be alone or to only be with their ‘own kind’
Someone who believes the end-of-the-world is eminent
A hoarder of food and supplies
A delusional crackpot
A religious extremest
A misfit of society
As in all walks of life, there are all types of folks. Sure, there are those that fit into one or some of the categorical stereotypes. I have lived long enough to learn that there are an amazing number of differing mindsets.
People are a product of many influences… their parents, their upbringing, their own life experiences of both good and bad, their jobs, their friends, their enemies, their exposure to the marketing machine of ‘the system’, their conviction to their own beliefs, on and on… The point being that someone cannot or should not be stereotyped because of one or a few traits that others may see in them. The real ‘them’ may be quite different from what you may think.
Having said that, what I’m getting at is that there is not one stereotype of a survivalist or prepper. Sure, you could say that many share similar ideals, but every survivalist or prepper is different in their own way.
For example, there are those in the survivalist / prepper community that are hard core. They are really into firearms, ‘don’t tread on me’, vocal about their liberties, ready to survive in the woods with buried stashes of food, etc. That’s all fine and good. No quarrels here… However these are not necessarily ‘the’ qualifying traits of a survivalist, at least in my opinion.
There are those that consider themselves survivalists in the sense that they are determined to survive the uncertainties of today relative to the modern world that they live in. In other words, they may not have trained to survive in the woods foraging for edible wild plants, or they may not own a firearm, but they may be honing their own unique adaptability skills, building a base of food and supplies for emergency, and becoming more informed about the risks of the world they live in.
You may stereotype the last example to be more of a ‘prepper’ than a survivalist, but I disagree with that notion. Someone who is preparing or has prepared for risk and uncertainty is doing so to survive the things that may be thrown at them.
The media that I’ve seen in the mainstream, when portraying survivalists, or exemplifying them in TV shows, or interviewing them in real life, is nearly always tilted towards the extreme. This leads others to think that what they are seeing or hearing is ‘the’ typical survivalist. Well, either I’m a one-of-a-kind survivalist while all others are hard core, or the media has purposefully sought out the hard core while ignoring the numbers of preppers who ‘fit in’ with society and are privately building a base of self support and self sufficiency as they recognize that they are ultimately responsible for their own lives.
So, I encourage you to not stereotype the definition of ‘survivalist’ to the extreme. Instead, consider that there are many that are simply taking charge of their own lives and preparing themselves for uncertainty.
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General Motors, Tracking and Selling Your Movements
September 21, 2011
General Motors ‘OnStar’ GPS-Navigation systems have been available in new vehicles for a number of years now. Many of you already know what they are, that is, a mapping-tracking-emergency response system built into the vehicle. A big difference however between this GPS navigation-tracking system and an over-the-counter GPS that you might purchase separately or elsewhere is the ‘big brother’ that is watching you while you drive while driving with OnStar.
Don’t get me wrong, the emergency response aspect of OnStar is and has been life saving. I am not in any way disregarding the good that has come of it. However I am pointing out the potential abuse and ongoing encroachment of our free movements within the overall system enabled by modern technology. For example, a recent report, GM’s OnStar now spying on your car for profit, illustrates how the power of today’s technological advancements, while providing fantastic capabilities and conveniences, are continuing to further entrap and snare us in a system of knowing our every move – mostly for the sake of selective targeting and profit optimization.
“Now, OnStar says that it has the right to collect and sell personal, yet supposedly anonymous information on your vehicle, including speed, location, seat belt usage and other information.” reports autoblog.com.
How do you feel about Government-Motors knowing where you’ve been, when you went there, the stops you made along the way, how fast you got there, how long you stayed, etc…? While the advantages of having an externally monitored GPS tracking system can be a very good thing if you’ve become snarled in an emergency situation and need help that you cannot call for yourself, the opportunity for abuse is immense.
Given the fact that maximum profit and greed are of the utmost priority in today’s world of ‘not being satisfied with anything less than maximum’, then one should not be surprised to discover that a system like OnStar would sell your data. Maybe your insurance company will soon discover that you often drive faster than the posted speed limit, or that you drive more than the 10,000 miles per year that you claim on your car insurance. Or maybe they’ll notice that you left the bar late one night, so, you surely must have been under-the-influence… hey, after a pattern is established, they could set up a trap to snare you the next time… See where I’m going? Sure, it’s taking this all to an extreme, but this is the world we live in, or soon will be.
It’s really not a whole lot different from you submitting your supermarket card when you buy groceries in order to get your ‘discount’. The reason you get a discount is because the information about the things that you buy are sold to others. Again, sure, supposedly this data is anonymous, but to be honest, I don’t believe that in every case. Soon enough your health insurance rates may depend on the types of foods that you purchase, while at the same time one day you may not be able to purchase foods unless you submit your ‘card’. It’s not that far away. IMO.
While some may believe that these things will lead to a utopian world, where everything is balanced and perfectly fair, in reality it will be a world of slavery and ultimate control, one where you’ve been stripped of your liberties and freedoms.
In summary, I thought that this one example of OnStar selling your movements, is yet another step towards that world.
Update: (I read the following statement on another blog…)
I’m a police officer. The On Star customer who canceled his subscription is not enough. As long as the device is in the car, it can be remotely turned on. They (On Star) can locate your car at any time and listen in on what you are saying in the car and you will have no idea the device has been activated. We the police, can simple present exigent circumstances not even reasonable suspicion, or probable cause to request this information.
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What are Survival Skills?
August 26, 2011
Survival skills are the combined knowledge and abilities of methods and techniques that will be used in situations where modern conveniences and infrastructures don’t exist or have been damaged.
Survival skills are typically thought of in the context of wilderness survival. The term is a very broad and general one, and applies to many ‘levels’ of survival, from the simple ability to cook your own food, make your own bread, shut off the electricity-gas-water to your home, successfully build a fire, build your own shelter, purify drinking water, all the way to identifying outdoor wild edible plants, trapping, hunting, evasion, field dressing game, building a fence, preserving foods, growing a successful garden, and on and on.
The underlying theme is the general ability to be self-sufficient.
Everyone has their own unique interests and abilities, and really, no one person can know it all. People will gravitate towards the skill set that they find natural or enjoyable for them. However, it is also a very good thing to challenge yourself and get outside of your comfort zone. People usually need to be pushed to get into that zone, but these same somewhat stubborn people (I’m one of them) will often find it very rewarding after having conquered a new skill.
The thought of being able to survive and make it on your own, is just that… a thought. In reality, it would be highly unlikely that even the best could succeed for long. OK, maybe the best could… but you know what I mean. We will always need support from others. After all, this is how we built ‘civilization’.
Having survival skills will allow you peace-of-mind. They will also allow you to enjoy the outdoors to a further extent than others (except for the foolish). They will enable you to adapt to situations without panicking and enable better decisions during times of crisis. Survival skills are a valuable commodity during times of disaster.
Having survival skills, even if not ‘required’ in real life, will make you a different person, one who knows that they do not need to fully rely on the system.
Survival skills also include those that aren’t necessarily primitive. Having an open mind, a logical mind, a mind with experiences, will enable you to adapt. Adapting, or adapting successfully, is probably the greatest skill of all. It’s a very general term, but the ability to do, go, change, or make something else with the resources that you currently have, is a great asset.
So, in summary, to have survival skills doesn’t require that you necessarily learn how to go off and live by yourself in the woods. You might say that ‘modern survival skills’ could be defined a little differently – having the skills to work outside of the system while still functioning in the modern world.
Start small. Examine what it is that you are ‘chained to’, the things that are holding you down. Figure out ways to break the chains. Become slightly more self sufficient by growing some of your own food – even if it is only seasonal. Learn some of the basics like how to read a map and navigate without a GPS receiver. Learn how to ‘can’ and preserve foods (it’s pretty easy). How about stepping out of the ‘comfort zone’ and considering working for yourself instead of ‘the company’. Think about the skills that you have now, at your current job. Are they something that you could do on your own? Maybe you have other skills that could be utilized in a side business for yourself – something you enjoy, part time on the weekends. That’s where it starts…
Survival skills… think, ‘self sufficient’, and go from there.
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Risk Management and Good Judgement
August 12, 2011
An injury that doesn’t happen needs no treatment. An emergency that doesn’t occur requires no response. An illness that doesn’t develop demands no remedy. The best way to stay safe in the outdoors is to avoid getting into trouble in the first place. That requires planning, training, leadership, good judgment, and accepting responsibility—in short, risk management. We manage risk in almost every aspect of our lives. (Boy Scouts of America Fieldbook)
Modern Survival ideology to a large extent, is risk management, or at a very minimum – risk awareness.
“At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.”
(Benjamin Franklin)
Good judgement may be the most important trait to successful risk management. The problem is, to an extent, good judgement does not come naturally and is not equally distributed to all human beings.
Good judgement is a learned thing. Will Rogers once said, “Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.”
Good judgement comes from life experience, the knowledge gained from good decisions and bad, and the common-sense that is applied or learned from the situation.
When experiencing, observing or examining the world around us, both local happenings and those afar, many of us are subconsciously judging the events that we see, or read about, and are filing them away in our memory banks, ultimately to be added together with all of our other experiences to form a judgement, opinion, instinct, or decision.
The key is to ‘be aware’ that your experiences and interpretations of them, are adding together to form ‘your judgement’. Be aware that if you are in your 20′s or 30′s, that someone who is in their 40′s or 50′s probably will have better overall judgement.
The old saying, “Respect your elders”… that’s what it means.
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1 Million Visits to Modern Survival Blog!
June 2, 2011
This past week we have crossed a huge milestone here at Modern Survival Blog, when someone out there was number 1,000,000 to have visited us! The ‘us’ is basically me with the support of my wife Lauren, who has also helped with ideas and some occasional posts.
When I started this blog early in 2010, I wasn’t sure where it would go or if people would be interested, or even if I would continue the effort for very long. Having had recently exited the big ‘corporate’ way of life, with no particular interest to re-enter (I could write numerous posts on reasons why), I began the blog as a mixture of hobby, therapy, and an outlet to express and experiment with some of my interests and core beliefs. I was having fun (and still am).
Throughout 2010 there were times when I came close to moving on to other things, but I stuck with it because I enjoyed it. I had set a goal during 2010 that when readership was high enough, I would approach sponsors that were relevant to our theme and begin selling advertising space with the hope that perhaps the site could grow to a point where I could actually contemplate focusing all my efforts such that this would become my ‘job’ so to speak, and bring in enough revenue to cover expenses and contribute to the budget.
I was very happy to connect with some of the top sponsors in this niche, and am happy to have them advertising on our site. I know that it is benefiting you the reader as well as our sponsors.
I also decided to provide advertising space to Google, and although some folks may have their own issues with a giant like them, I must say that for the most part their algorithms do a fairly decent job at connecting relevant ads to the ‘content’ of the text of any given M.S.B. page. The idea here is to provide you the reader with relevant advertising that may truly interest you, as well as provide us with revenue to keep this site going. When you click, it helps us.
So at the end of the day, I’m trying to say that we appreciate that you have visited Modern Survival Blog, we hope that you will or have bookmarked us, and we encourage you to also explore our sponsor web sites – which in turn keeps this site on-the-air.
I hope that Modern Survival Blog continues to provide you interesting or helpful information while we remain focused on the general notion of survival preparedness and current event risk awareness, while also dabbling in the area of geophysical earth and space phenomenon.
-thanks a million
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