Bushcraft and homesteading skills in WW3

[Condex]

I wouldn't feel very safe living in my block of flats, rather obvious target for drones. I have a hybrid car, and that is virtually a mobile power station in the event of power cuts.

It needs to be charged and that will be a problem. Even though a hybrid charges whilst running during combustion mode it is slow and inefficient why to charge. Not to be relied on for back up power in the long term.

 

[HorseGuy]

Question: Is 'a good war' an oxymoron or subjective? xxxxx

All wars are good wars for the banks who fund them and the military industrial complex who supplies them. $$$

Everyone one else though, not so much.

 

[Laurentius]

I think that homesteading skills would be more useful than bushcraft skills in a war although there is some degree of overlap between these two areas in terms of some of the knowledge involved.

You may be interested in these two books 'Make Do and Mend' and 'Eating for Victory' which were compiled by Jill Norman. They contain reprints of all the original official WW2 instruction leaflets that were given out by the British government during the war. Not all of the information is still relevant for today's world but there's still plenty of good knowledge to be found in those old instruction leaflets.

Edit - I've just noticed you already said you have 'Eating for Victory'. Did you know there was the accompanying book 'Make Do an Mend' that goes with it?

I had a friend whose mum did the illustrations for that.

 

[Laurentius]

It needs to be charged and that will be a problem. Even though a hybrid charges whilst running during combustion mode it is slow and inefficient why to charge. Not to be relied on for back up power in the long term.

Better than an ICE and it's standard 12v battery though, either way it will keep your phone charged at least.

 

[demented dale]

All wars are good wars for the banks who fund them and the military industrial complex who supplies them. $$$

Everyone one else though, not so much.

so subjective then xxxx

 

[EdS]

Living this close to Menwith Hill.....none, they'll be pointless‍

 

[HillBill]

What’s it on mate?

Check youtube. Its just been the 30 year anniversary of the end of the conflict. Plenty popping up on there.

 

[Woody girl]

I'm trying hard to think what bushcraft skills would be useful in certain situations., such as the recent terrible bondi beach attack, train stabbings, Christmas Market attacks. Etc. Its becoming much more prevalent, so apart from not going to events, or never leaving our homes..tho even that is no guarantee of safety, I can't think of anything apart from, (presuming you are not a victim) trauma first aid .
We saw a very brave young man in aus this weekend save many lives with nothing.g more than his own bare hands and sheer bravery. What a hero!


I feel this sort of thing is the active front line at present.
If you can read between the lines, you'll know what Im, getting at, but can't discuss here due to long standing pre stammer forum rules.

To go back to a more traditional view of war,
What lessons do we learn from how Ukraine is coping and what skills they use? How much of that is bushcraft? How much other sorts of skills.?

 

[Falstaff]

In slagging off the UN I fear I strayed into politics with my ref to Ukraine, and apologise for that.
In terms of Bondi, maybe hillwalking will keep you fit enough to run a bit faster, but otherwise not a lot of help from bushcraft.
On the other hand, an EDC/get home bag & up to date first aid knowledge, with an IFAK as part of your bag might have been very useful:
a) to help others/yourself with injuries caused by the panic (ballistic wounds probably beyond first aid training??)
b) to either get you home if you've lost gear on the scene, or to tide you over whilst being obliged to stay in the vicinity (i.e. to help, give statements, police restrictions on movements/crowd control.)
I'm going to scribble a separate thread, about failing to have a get home bag when I needed it last week.

 

[Laurentius]

In slagging off the UN I fear I strayed into politics with my ref to Ukraine, and apologise for that.
In terms of Bondi, maybe hillwalking will keep you fit enough to run a bit faster, but otherwise not a lot of help from bushcraft.
On the other hand, an EDC/get home bag & up to date first aid knowledge, with an IFAK as part of your bag might have been very useful:
a) to help others/yourself with injuries caused by the panic (ballistic wounds probably beyond first aid training??)
b) to either get you home if you've lost gear on the scene, or to tide you over whilst being obliged to stay in the vicinity (i.e. to help, give statements, police restrictions on movements/crowd control.)
I'm going to scribble a separate thread, about failing to have a get home bag when I needed it last week.

I thought to myself recently on a trip to London what I could do in the event of a train attack, and the answer is not much, best thing in fact the only thing would be to try and put some object between you and the attacker such as luggage or even an overcoat you had taken off. As for Bondi, well just pray you never find yourself in such a situation, though for all the devastating effect they are still rare events. I could have been blown up by a terrorist bomb back in the 70s. I wasn't.

 

[GreyCat]

I thought to myself recently on a trip to London what I could do in the event of a train attack, and the answer is not much, best thing in fact the only thing would be to try and put some object between you and the attacker such as luggage or even an overcoat you had taken off. As for Bondi, well just pray you never find yourself in such a situation, though for all the devastating effect they are still rare events. I could have been blown up by a terrorist bomb back in the 70s. I wasn't.

Indeed. The attacks hit the headlines precisely because they are rare (as well as terrible). It's difficult to "Run, Hide, Tell" on a moving train. I suppose the difference was in the 1970's that the IRA typically phoned a warning so the damage was mainly property (not always of course as the Brighton Hotel attack showed). Whereas the current lot seem bent on killing people- often including themselves.

Perhaps more likely is an attack on (or failure of) critical infrastructure leaving you stranded away from home, e.g. a regional power outage means trains cannot run, fuel stations don't work- and the mobile network becomes reserved for the emergency services. That's much more likely IMO, especially given the interest of bad actors in undersea cables (according the news), and the aging grid infrastructure as was shown by the transformer fire which caused issues at Heathrow.

Also, it takes a surprisingly small thing to bring key parts of transport infrastructure to a stand- snowstorms on m-ways, WW2 ordinance unearthed on a construction site right next to the railway (yes, really), person on a M-way overbridge threatening to jump off- all these have in the recent past caused significant challenges and some people stuck for many hours.

That's where taking on board the Scout motto "Be Prepared" is useful, and perhaps shades into bushcraft. A bit of self reliance... I always take way more stuff than I need on a trip because I have stuff to cope with the more likely "what ifs" (a facet of my autistic brain I'm, afraid).

GC

 

[Woody girl]

Sat evening , I'm told, the next town over..(wiviliscombe about 15 miles away) hunting shooting fishing shop was raided. Can't as yet ascertain any details, but they do/did have guns in the shop.
Still trying to find details, but its all gone very quiet on this incident.

Yet another attack on hannika celebrations in Amsterdam Sunday.

First Saturday people
Then Sunday people
Then everyone else.

Conventional ww3? No, it's already here, and it's medi evil.
We need to face facts.
Bushcraft skills and faks are just not enough. We can't just keep pretending these are isolated,non terrorist incidents, and I'm not being political, or racist, its real life.
I've just spent a weekend with a couple of friends from Birmingham, they live in a better off area, one is a nurse, another works in an office. We had a long talk over lunch on Sunday. I can't put what they were saying on here, but its very scary.
Self protection skills are no 1 needed.

 

[Herman30]

We can't just keep pretending these are isolated,non terrorist incidents,

You are right. They are modern crusades againt christian world.

 

[gibson 175]

On a more cheerful note if we do have power black outs and cars can't run because civilisation has collapsed because of whatever messs ups we have made. at least we don't have to listen to any boy band music or listen to blasting crap music coming out of people's cars. Nothing to entertain us!!! We might have to talk to each other. Or god forbid.....walk somewhere!

 

[GreyCat]

I think that the biggest mistake we make in the "West" is to believe that other people think like us.

That's not necessarily the case. The Western cultural mind-view ("self evident" things like "human rights"and getting rid of cultural acceptance of slavery) was actually the outcome of 2000 years of development along a particular path- "Dominion" by Tom Holland explores how that culture developed, and also points out how anomalous it is in wider historical terms.

Other parts of the world followed different paths, e.g. the Confucian model in China/east Asia where the collective, filian piety, harmony in society and a strong state is preferred over individual "rights." In other parts of the world, tribe and clan is everything, and "good" is "what is right for the clan and sod everyone else."

Without making any judgement on what is better/worse, there's clearly going to be trouble if you (for example) put someone raised in a clan environment into a typical Western setup without either effort to assimilate the person, or efforts by the person to assimilate- and of course vice-versa. (There are several examples I can think of, but I don't want to stray into politics).

The culture we are raised in shapes us; humans are an intensely social species. Our cultural upbringing defines our morals and mores, and is only overcome with effort- which also needs motivation. Some will make that transition well, others make it but always feel torn, others don't make it and instead will rebel against it. The key thing is to acknowledge that- not pretend it's not happening. (And we cannot assume tolerance of another culture is universal- just because it's an element of our culture).

There are even sub-cultures within the dominant one; in the Western culture, the "official" mores may not be in 100% of the population..... for example, in some parts of Western society, the "casual use of violence" (as an ex-magistrate once described it to me) is normalised as a response to offence. Of course, what constitutes offence is yet another cultural variable.....

Societies need a common shared narrative and set of values to hold them together- plus a mandate that outsiders conform to them, whether they like it or not. Those values can be "enforced" formally or informally- but enforced they must be to maintain harmony. The alternative is ghettos of different cultures, balkanised areas with conflicting values and possible violent clashes. T'was ever thus I'm afraid. As for appraising how far we might be down that rabbithole- that depends both on where one lives and one's view of the world around them I guess.

GC

 

[Woody girl]

Less than 10 mins after my last post, I learned
USA has just foiled a massive bomb attack planned for Xmas in LA.
Guys this is getting very serious. I realise, most of us don't want to see it. We have to take our heads out of the sand.
Suggest grape alarms in ladies Xmas stockings would be a good call to start off. Never hear them mentioned nowadays, even on the prepper channels. I'd be happy to get one, and I live rural.
I've begun this morning to very painfully and rustily perform my katas again ... I've learned I'm longer a brown belt!
Starting from scratch as far as memory serves, it's gonna be hard work! Wish I'd kept it up.

 

[Wildgoose]

You are right. They are modern crusades againt christian world.

Quotes like this will see the end to this thread

 

[TeeDee]

I think that the biggest mistake we make in the "West" is to believe that other people think like us.

That's not necessarily the case. The Western cultural mind-view ("self evident" things like "human rights"and getting rid of cultural acceptance of slavery) was actually the outcome of 2000 years of development along a particular path- "Dominion" by Tom Holland explores how that culture developed, and also points out how anomalous it is in wider historical terms.

Other parts of the world followed different paths, e.g. the Confucian model in China/east Asia where the collective, filian piety, harmony in society and a strong state is preferred over individual "rights." In other parts of the world, tribe and clan is everything, and "good" is "what is right for the clan and sod everyone else."

Without making any judgement on what is better/worse, there's clearly going to be trouble if you (for example) put someone raised in a clan environment into a typical Western setup without either effort to assimilate the person, or efforts by the person to assimilate- and of course vice-versa. (There are several examples I can think of, but I don't want to stray into politics).

The culture we are raised in shapes us; humans are an intensely social species. Our cultural upbringing defines our morals and mores, and is only overcome with effort- which also needs motivation. Some will make that transition well, others make it but always feel torn, others don't make it and instead will rebel against it. The key thing is to acknowledge that- not pretend it's not happening. (And we cannot assume tolerance of another culture is universal- just because it's an element of our culture).

There are even sub-cultures within the dominant one; in the Western culture, the "official" mores may not be in 100% of the population..... for example, in some parts of Western society, the "casual use of violence" (as an ex-magistrate once described it to me) is normalised as a response to offence. Of course, what constitutes offence is yet another cultural variable.....

Societies need a common shared narrative and set of values to hold them together- plus a mandate that outsiders conform to them, whether they like it or not. Those values can be "enforced" formally or informally- but enforced they must be to maintain harmony. The alternative is ghettos of different cultures, balkanised areas with conflicting values and possible violent clashes. T'was ever thus I'm afraid. As for appraising how far we might be down that rabbithole- that depends both on where one lives and one's view of the world around them I guess.

GC

Touching back to something earlier - and I think it is quite important is what one considers is 'Good' Or Evil' - Not necessarily classing things a G or B war because I feel that is too emotionally charged and the perspective is lost.
( But , and I guess Nietzsche would there is no 'Good' and no 'Evil' - just moral differing perspectives )

Second emboldened comment - We do have a shared value of narratives that underpin alot of our Western societies values. Its kind of fallen out of popularity when compared to others of the same nature but it still underpins a large amount of what we consider to be a developed society.

 

[gibson 175]

post deleted

 

[Chris]

Whilst threats are real, and often always have been, I can’t help but think some people need to spend less time on social media. Algorithms are deliberately trying to scare you.

The world is not as bad as this thread is beginning to suggest. Take a break from doom scrolling. You are being manipulated.