Survival Guides

Until I bought the zombie survival guide, I was not really interested in survivalism. If you have never seen this book before, it is a real treat. It spoofs real survival guides by positing a hypothetical situation where zombies attack. It talks about the best way to fight against zombies, the best type of shelter to get while you are struggling against the zombie attack, and many other similar zombie survival tips.

Although this book was, of course, a joke, it got me more interesting in survival guides and survivalism in general. Apparently, the survivalist industry represents millions and millions of dollars in transactions every year. There are survival training courses, survival guides, and all kinds of worst-case scenario outdoor gear.

The interesting thing is that a lot of this knowledge is pretty practical. I never really thought about it, but if civilization suddenly collapsed say through a devastating attack on the nation's power infrastructure, or a deadly debilitating plague I wouldn't be able to survive on my own. I would not know how to get to a safe area, how to build my own shelter, how to acquire food, or even how to defend myself from other less scrupulous survivors.

This is where survival guides come in. Survival training does not require you to believe a certain set of principles. Some survivalists believe in the great right-wing conspiracy, while others believe that the Communists are still at the door. Others are not even particularly political. The common denominator is that all of them are dedicated to learning simple techniques in order to survive a catastrophe. To me, this seems like the most useful and pure of life skills - the skill to stay alive.

I actually went on a survival training course a few months ago. It was one of the most amazing weeks of my life. It was a course in surviving in the Oregon wilderness, and it taught us a lot about finding food in areas that seem barren. There are many different native species of plants and animals that can be easily prepared and eaten if you know what you are doing. Since Oregon is the area I live in, I figured that this was the best survivalist training I could get. I met some amazing people there, and actually managed to have a good time. Best of all, I know that if I ever have to live on my own in the woods I can do it. There's something about this knowledge that really gives me confidence.