Daydreams of Survival Gear
If you’re like me, you’ve probably stared at a wishlist of survival gear and imagined how much better off you’d be if you owned each item on the list. We are hard-wired for survival, so it’s no surprise that we have a penchant for collecting items that could save us in a bad situation.
Not that long ago, having the best tools meant gaining a competitive edge over prey, or an enemy. As responsible citizens in a more comfortable era of human history, we haven’t lost this instinct to stock up. However, you need to ask yourself: is all of your survival gear giving you a false sense of security that could lead to your downfall in a crisis?
Are You Ready for a Crisis?
I’ve always thought that the measure of crisis readiness in a person could be summed up with a thought experiment. If you dropped that individual into a crisis scenario in a foreign country with limited equipment and supplies, how would they fare? Would they be self-sufficient, capable, and able to upgrade their bad situation?
The most obvious example of an individual who thrives in this kind of scenario comes from Hollywood. Jason Bourne starts off The Bourne Identity with just the clothes on his back and not even a memory of his past to guide him. However, he has retained a deep set of skills that allow him to navigate multiple foreign countries while evading and defeating trained assassins.
While most of us will (thankfully) never be in a Jason Bourne scenario, we can all stand to learn something from his character.
The Piece of Kit Between Your Ears
Buying survival gear is the easy button of crisis readiness. With each purchase, we feel a little better about an uncertain future. But we often fail to realize that simply having that new piece of survival gear doesn’t make us more prepared as individuals.
I spent years carrying a tourniquet in my med kit without feeling completely confident that I would know exactly when and how to use it in an emergency. Just having it made me feel like I had done something to prepare for a crisis. In reality, the only purpose of my tourniquet was to hand it to someone who knew what they were doing.
As responsible citizens and protectors, it is our duty to make sure that we have the appropriate skills, along with the mental readiness, to navigate crises. This is especially true for those of us with families. In a crisis, your spouse and children will be looking to you to make quick decisions with good judgment and a calm demeanor.
Fight, Flight, or Freeze
There’s an old British Army adage that says “Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance” (a.k.a. PPPPPP). This point is clear – in a crisis situation, people do not rise to the level of the challenge. They fall to the level of their training.
We all like to think that we will react decisively in an emergency, but when a crisis happens, we are hit with a hardwired fight-or-flight reaction. This physiological mechanism improves some abilities (i.e. strength and blood clotting) while reducing others (i.e. field of view, cognitive thinking, fine motor skills). Many people simply freeze when faced with an unexpected crisis.
Two ways to reduce the negative effects of the fight-or-flight mechanism are “scripting” and stress inoculation.
Scripting is the process of mentally rehearsing crisis scenarios and creating plans for how you will react. For example, if a fire breaks out in your house tonight, how will you get your family out safely?
In order to effectively practice scripting, you have to know what kind of crises you’re preparing for. What kind of natural and man-made disasters are most likely in your area? What if you had to quickly evacuate your home due to a crisis?
Thinking through scenarios and making plans ahead of time is the key to successful action when it counts.
Stress inoculation is the practice of artificially exposing yourself to stress so that in a real crisis, the negative aspects of your fight-or-flight response are diminished. In the military, this is often achieved through simulated combat scenarios.
In the civilian world, stress inoculation can be achieved in a competitive environment where you feel pressure to perform in front of peers.
If you’re feeling adventurous, you could try a martial art, sport, or a fast-moving recreational game like paintball. Any of these activities will elevate your heart rate, create artificial stress, and force you to think fast under pressure.
Becoming Skilled
Becoming a skilled citizen has never been easier than it is today. This is especially good news if you’re preparing on a limited budget. There are many skills you can learn for free, or for a small cost. You can watch videos, take online courses, and read books
You’ll often find that for every high-speed gadget on the market, there is a low-tech alternative. How else would people have survived for tens of thousands of years without twenty-first century technology?
While crisis readiness is not bushcraft, and going “off-grid” is a worst-case scenario, there are many situations where you could find yourself living without modern conveniences or gadgets. Knowing how to survive without them will be essential.
If you’re starting from scratch, consider placing medical training high on your list of skills to acquire. This would include both first aid and stop-the-bleed training. Other skills include navigation without the use of a GPS, as well as cooking without kitchen appliances.
Parting Thoughts
Reaching a basic level of crisis readiness doesn’t require an investment of thousands of dollars in the latest gear. Focus on mindset and skills first, and buy only the most critical gear and supplies. From there, you can gradually add to your survival stockpile as your budget allows.
With this mentality, it will be easier to avoid clever marketing and fear tactics that seek to drive purchases. Remember that the best crisis readiness tool you have is between your ears.
