Survival UK Forums

You know that feeling we all have...

The one that we all seem to have that somethings up, or somethings about to happen...

What do you think it is?

I have a personal opinion that even though the world in sh1t state order that nothings really afoot or about to happen.

Don't quote me on that though, because I'm still keeping my eye's peeled just in case...

Discounting the "normal" stuff like tsunamis, earthquakes etc...

I mean teotwawki type events.

I think what we have is natural selection.

If you believe in Mr Darwin and his works that is.

We all know that over the centuries certain species thrive whilst others die out.

Maybe that gut feeling we all have is survival instinct.

Maybe that feeling is what keeps us alive and will enable us to survive and thrive no matter what comes our way.

I often survive killer events on at least a weekly basis I'm sure if you think about it you do as well.

For example, the other week I was just pulling up to a give way in my car, looked right and left as you do... there was a cement mixer truck coming down the road from my right indicating to turn left down the road I was about to pull out from.

I was going to pull out but at the last second had a gut feeling not too.

That gut feeling proved to be right because that fully laden cement truck carried on flying past that junction.

Had I pulled out it would have hit the drivers side at at least 40 mph.

Toast for definite I think... well jam over the front of his truck anyway.

Now apart from that event there's been many, many others, where similar terminal results could have be had for me should I not of had a niggling worry or a overwhelming dread take over me.

Spooky? I think not, I think that's what common sense or survival instinct is.

I think that's why our ancestors moved to the side when that mammoth was speeding their way, whilst ugg from next door tried to stop it with dire consequences... or decided not to carry poison arrows because they were clumsy and just knew they'd poke themselves with one.

What S.D. is referring to as common sense is what I think is survival instinct.

Without common sense or survival instinct, why would I have paused at that junction...

I wouldn't have.... BOOM!!!

Without my direct intervention of braking, the tens of teenagers or old people or really just people nowadays who cross the road in front of my car without looking would be dead.

I'm sure every one of us that drives, has had that experience multiple times.

I look when I'm crossing the road.

I teach my 5 year old how to cross the road.

I taught my boys to stop using the phone before crossing the road.

How many do you see not doing that simple thing every day?

Do the parents that fail to teach their kids have no common sense or no survival instinct?

Without modern society's molly coddling, how many would die on a daily basis by doing just ordinary stupid stuff like crossing the road?

How many would die swimming in reservoirs with powerful pumps in the bottom, wondering why they get dragged down...

So what I'm thinking is this, is that annoying niggly feeling we have just common sense or survival instinct warning us that the worlds getting worse so prepare more, get ready... just in case.

I know over the past years, months, weeks etc ... my niggle's getting worse, I'm really feeling quite uneasy.

Is that just me?

Is something about to go down?

Is that nature saying to me get ready, be prepared because I'm going to unleash something soon?

Or is that evolution at work?

Whilst we prepare, millions/billions don't.

When the world kicks off species die, humans apparently dwindled down to a few thousand during the last world blitz on our species.

Did those left have common sense whilst the others that died didn't?

Will we as preppers be the last of our species?

I dont see anything happening soon,part of me realy hopes something happens soon, no more mundane living hand to mouth, struggling to pay bills, but the more normal part of me hopes nothing happens and I wont have to live off my surplys.

The thing is that most realy bad things happen quiet suddenly, not often do they creep up on you,.. because as bad things creep up, so you get used to a new situation,..if two year ago we suddenly woke up to the way things are in the country today, it would have been such a shock, a devistaing blow to us all,.... but as it is we see no difference this morning because this is the normal as it is now.

I am sure there are bad times ahead, but those same bad times are already here,.. but the bad times will slowly get worse, and as they do we will deal with it I am sure,.......as we always have

The realy bad stuff will come suddenly, that solar EMP taking out the grid, the terrorist attack on Doonray,..these things will more likely come out of the blue

I don't think the human race has much of a survival instinct any more. I was watching The Walking Dead (I'm not a zombie-person. I had the series recommended to me by a guy I used to work with in Bristol, and it's addictive!) with my wife the other day, and she made a comment that really stuck me. She asked me "How many people do you think would have the will to wake up and do what they do every day?"

I'd say, very little.

It is a purely hypothetical situation, but one that opened a great questioning line.

An article I read a while ago said the human species was one of the only ones that didn't have a natural selection process. It wasn't survival along Darwinian systems, it was just survival. That instinct is mostly bred out of us. We no longer need to be vigilant of lions, tigers, wolves, bears, poisonous plants (okay, some idiots are still on the mushrooms and natural selection weeds them from the gene pool) and things like that. We're so diluted, genetically, that the survival gene must be so weak in all of us.

I think that most people wouldn't have the survival-DEMAND in them. Instinct and a demand to survive are different. The will to live is the demand. Many people simply curl up and protect themselves in bad situations, when they really need to take action.

The idea of the survival instinct is brilliant. But I feel that we as a species greatly lack that. The minority, of which we could be some, may still have that. As a whole, it's more a fear of death than a demand to survive.

most people will NOT survive any large event, they dont have the skills or knowledge, we have more people now more than ever before who cant/wont cook even if given the ingredients, if it cant be microwaved in 3 minutes they dont want to wait for it, when the power goes off-for good-those people are just not going to survive, ok they may be around for a while -zombie like- but within a couple of weeks they will be gone.

You can tell by their eyes...

I think we can look at survival in two different ways,... first we have the people who suddenly come to realise that their lives are in danger and will automaticly try to defend themselves, and then become so down hearted that life becomes a hardship they cant deal with,...and slowly give up,... these are normal people who live good comfortable lives at the top end of our social group

The others are the people who either have a harder life or who have a different way of thinking about things, preppers of course come into this group,.. I suspect that none of us here are that well off that we want for nothing and never think of a time without

So the likes of us, get used to thinking about survival, so when the time comes its not a shock, and we are far better able to deal with it because we have laid down plans

a lot of us have had lives where we never had much to start with, and unlike those who have everything we never had much to lose and it isnt such a jolt, people who have the most to lose will SUFFER the most in "the crash", this income bracket is the ones who will not have the will to live(without their creature comforts and their" lifestyle") and these are where you will start to see the suicides start.

Scythe,

When we first herded together for survival we started to lose that survival instinct. We sub contracted out hunting and farming and all the other things and specialised. That would be fine but then we got soft hearted and decided to keep alive people who would never have survived. Even then it was OK because we paid for that ourselves and kept it in the family. Now we have people having children and passing on genetic malfunctions that can only survive with funding from others, they will never contribute to society. I feel sorry for them because when the wheels come off and they need to start walking or die they just will be unable to leave the bus. We have diluted our gene pool after millions of years of evolution and it is not going to be pretty.

(7 January 2013, 15:53)Skean Dhude Wrote: [ -> ]Scythe,

When we first herded together for survival we started to lose that survival instinct. We sub contracted out hunting and farming and all the other things and specialised. That would be fine but then we got soft hearted and decided to keep alive people who would never have survived. Even then it was OK because we paid for that ourselves and kept it in the family. Now we have people having children and passing on genetic malfunctions that can only survive with funding from others, they will never contribute to society. I feel sorry for them because when the wheels come off and they need to start walking or die they just will be unable to leave the bus. We have diluted our gene pool after millions of years of evolution and it is not going to be pretty.

I completely agree.

Never in history has life been so 'cushy' where anyone is able to survive. People with a low physical ability, people of low intelligence, low strength, low capability, low adaptability, are currently able to thrive in society. Previously, some societies rejected the mentally defunct people. People less 'hardy' were killed off by the cold and other such things.

Only now, in society, are people with little to know purpose, been able to thrive! Since the 1900's the human race has had the largest expansion of genetically defunct people living in society. Eugenics is a very touchy subject, and I'm not going to say it's the right thing, but modern society provides so much for the population, that instead of helping those that provide benefit, that have purpose, we harbour ANYONE! We no longer have that heavy winter to kill off the weaker of the flock.

It's not a good thing for genetics to be diluted to the point where the average IQ is the same as a pizza.

The only form of population control currently available is war. Other than that, the odd natural disaster is a good help. We are over populated and under clever! Not under educated, as we have LOADS of education available. It's just that society is not clever enough to see the benefits of that education.