An Article by Rusty Shackleford and Raccoon
This article will be the first of a series we are excited to introduce, the focus of these articles is something not usually covered here, rather than just discussing or encouraging the inevitable collapse; we will discuss how you can ensure you survive and excel in such a scenario. While we will provide you with links to pertinent information, many large libraries of such things already exist. Instead, we will be focusing on the DOCTRINE and MINDSET of how you should go about preparing yourself. We assume most of our readership is learned in firearms, survival, tactics, and prepping; we are seeking to take these elements and refine them into something more cohesive rather than the often erroneous and misconstrued school of thought promoted by many survivalist forums.
This first article is intended to establish the foundation of your capabilities. Without these basic elements, most other acquisitions or investments will be wasted. Without a network of people, valuable skills, physical fitness, and the appropriate mindset, you will not make it.
Interpersonal Network:
One of the most important things in any competitive scenario is a team. Whether it be a sport, a video-game, or the great evolutionary struggle at nature’s core, you will need friends. The concept of a lone wolf operator is useful in many scenarios, but a survival situation following a major societal collapse is not one of them. You need a network of people you can fully trust, that have a vested interest in your survival whether it be out of love or mutual benefit. These people also need to be on a somewhat similar level of preparedness to you.
Friends and family are very important. Many National Socialists have understandably bad relationships with their families over political reasons. We do not have personal insight into your life, but know this: blood bonds are the stronger than any friendship, even many insufferably differences in thought can be overcome through this natural love. Your family will typically be your most reliable allies in life and this is especially true when shit gets real. Many of us here have seen great leaps in mindset in our loved ones given the clear downward trend of society in recent years, even those the most mule like people can shift your way if things are hard enough. They also don’t necessarily need to conform fully to your ideology, but rather enough to where they’d be willing to protect and work with you when necessary.
You also need to have friends. The internet has provided the easiest means ever to network with or rather, meet your local nazis. You should have convinced most close friends of your views by now (or again, enough to at the very least have them in a prepared mindset). These friends need to be in on your plans and coordinate with you in them.
The last important thing to mention is all of your allies need to be equally prepared. You may have many friends, but if you’re the only one of them making efforts to prepare then they may not remain your friends for long. Much effort should be spent on making sure there is lots of coordination, coordination in things like skills, equipment, stockpiles, location. Some of these will be expanded upon in later entries to this series.
Skills:
Skills are something not touched upon by many in the “shit hits the fan” circles. Having all the other things mentioned in this article along with gear and guns will get you far, but to truly be ready you should have valuable skills. We’ve mentioned in prior articles that our young readers need to set themselves up to be “dox proof” by working more blue collar trade jobs that aren’t centralized as their white collar are. This translates to this very well, as many of these jobs (welders, carpenters, other craftsmen) are what would be desirable in a collapse scenario. A good standard to apply is “how useful would this job be on an isolated colony? “. A spreadsheet filler or a human resources agent would not find themselves in a good position.
Unfortunately, many of us have already set ourselves up for these modern jobs. The answer is to develop these skills in your free time. Everything from gardening to amateur blacksmithing can be valuable skills in situations where all industrialized systems are destroyed. The frontiersmen of the old west were not typically specialists, but jack-of-all-tradesmen who could do everything from building their cabin to growing and hunting food. You should always be in the process of learning something new and expanding your playbook of thought.
Fitness:
A strong body is the first step towards a strong mind, both of which are needed to survive and thrive in any hostile environment. The body is something that must be actively maintained in order for it to preform at its best and this is done through diet and exercise. While it is not discouraged, it must be pointed out that you don’t need to be a body builder to survive, as you will never have the abundance of calories to maintain such a body type (There is a reason your average soldier is pretty lean).
What should be focused on is stamina and becoming comfortable carrying lots of weight on your person, such skills as would be gained and built up through doing long treks or ruck marches . Hiking for many miles is something that is highly encouraged as it is likely that you will at some point be needing to ruck it out for many miles to get to a more ideal location or to gather supplies, or any of many other reasons you might have to get to point B from A on foot, with much of your gear and rifle.
There are many great physical feats which do not necessarily translate well to the high cardio, varied challenges of a survival situation which should be mitigated.
There are also less thought of forms of fitness. Taking up a combat sport would be advisable for obvious reasons (remember, “being buff doesn’t make you tuff” there are plenty people who are built, but can’t fight). Knowing and being proficient in other things such as swimming, rockclimbing, etc. are also not bad ideas. The point is to have practical real world applications for your fitness, not just being fit for the sake of being fit.
There may be times where you have to climb trees, carry heavy equipment/gear long distances, drag a wounded comrade, spend hours digging holes, running from things and towards things. All of these things will be able to be accomplished with much more efficiency and ease if you have already established a baseline level of fitness. Your life will depend on it.
Mindset:
The proper mindset to have is one of the most important but least talked about aspects of survival. The mindset, school of thought, modus operandi, or whatever you want to call it , is what will drive and guide the decisions you make when it comes to survival in every aspect. From how you to prepare, to what you do, and where you go, and on and on, all of this stems from the seeds of the mindset and outlook you have, so let’s hope you have a good mindset.
We suggest reading this Collapse article to understand what collapse will and won’t be like. Something to keep in mind and this really needs to be drilled into people: YOU ARE NOT A MILITARY, AND YOU CERTAINLY ARE NOT SOME SPECIAL FORCES OPERATOR. You do not, not ever will have the logistical might that makes such things possible. While a Special Forces Operator may have all this cool gear and gadgets and gizmos, he also is always guaranteed; close air support, drone recon, medivac, resupplies if needed, helicopter infiltration and exfiltration, and on and on. Basically things you don’t have and are only made possible by a huge logistical giant, not what you and your small network are capable of. So with that in mind you want to keep it light, highly mobile, versatile, and able to operate on a stand-alone basis – that is, without any logistical dependencies, such as any modern army has. However, in modern warfare there is a recent example in the Vietnam War that may be a good exception to this. That was the LRRP (Long-range Reconnaissance Patrol). They were small groups of well-armed recon teams that went VERY deep into enemy territory, what they did not have the pillaged and killed for, they were incredibly versatile and had no logistical support. This is the closest you will come to operating like any military force, study their methods. Be flexible, not rigid, this way you can bend around your problems rather than allowing them to snap you in half.