Survival and survival have very different meanings to people. One of the more common interpretations is the classic image of a person or persons surviving in the wilderness. In fact, most survival schools and publications focus on this aspect of survival. The term survivalist has often been misrepresented by the media as describing extremist, paranoid, and even potentially dangerous individuals.  The term has also been misappropriated by various political and religious extremist groups. The public is easily misled and confused about what survivalists and peppers are all about. The core value of true survivalism is the concept of self-reliance and self-responsibility under high-stress conditions. Only people and families that can take care of themselves can be able to help care for others. Self-reliance is a core American value and self-reliant families are the foundation of a strong and free society. No one should be ashamed to be a survivalist. The confusion about what a survivalist is usually relates to where and how the philosophy of self-reliance and the methods of survival are applied. With over fifty years of experience in all aspects of survival organizing and training I have identified four different categories of survivalist configuration.

Outdoor & Wilderness Survival

  This is the most commonly understood idea of “survival.”  People often come to survival programs expecting to learn how to build fires and shelters and are confused to find classes on urban survival, nuclear survival, or home preparedness.  Most “survival” school focus on this aspect of survival. Fire making, shelter building, field navigation, signaling for  help, edible plants, primitive trapping, fishing, and hunting are all part of this category. Some groups focus on using only the most primitive (flint and steel) methods, while others use more up to date methods. These skills can be fun to learn and use and may be essential in some situations, particularly for those who work or engage in outdoors recreational activities. Live Free USA started out as an outdoor sports club doing just this kind of training.

Back to Basics & Self-Reliance Survival

  This approach to survival is founded on seeking an off-the gride, back to basics lifestyle as an alternative to dependency on a failing and potentially collapsing civilization. Most practitioners  locate or relocate to rural or even wilderness locations where they build cabins, establish small farms, and use solar and wind power. These methods can be applied to urban and suburban residences, but with severe limitations and risks. Backwoods Home magazine with its canning recipes, goat husbandry, and cabin building tips is an example of this division of the survival matrix.

Disaster Preparedness & Survival

  This is the most universally, applicable, and valuable element of survival.  Disaster comes in all sizes and severity, but no-one is immune from their effects. This is the wing of survivalism that developed to concepts of the Bug Out Bag, Survival cache, and many other civilian based survival programs. This aspect covers storms, evacuations, medical emergencies, street crime, home fires, grid failure and many other disaster threats.  The term “prepper” is often applied to those who focus on general disaster preparedness. The increase in the severity and frequency of disasters combined with the declining budgets and capabilities of government response agencies should make this aspect of survival preparedness well accepted and supported by the civilian population. Live Free USA supported a variety of Civil Defense programs back in the 60’s,70’s and 80’s and continues to advocate and educate for public preparedness.

Collapse & Chaos Survival  

 There is no such thing a “Dooms Day Survivalist” but there are worst case survivalists. No one wants ‘dooms day” but no one can deny that the world is getting more dangerous and unstable every day.  Conventional war is spreading while nuclear war is far more likely than a few decades ago.  China is waging economic and technological war against America every day that can only lead to disaster in the near future. Drones and hypersonic missiles open every American city to the same hazards that Isreal, Gaza, Russia, and the Ukraine face now.  War time, war zone and even combat zone survival are once again a key element in survival preparedness and education. Back in the 1970’s through the 1980’s Live Free programs trained for these nuclear and “Red Dawn” scenarios.  Such training is needed even more today but is less acceptable to the public and media.

What Kind of Survivalist Are You?

  While each of us may identify with a different category of survivalists we all share common philosophical values and concerns. While we prepare to survive even the worst case situations, we also accept responsibility for our family, neighbors, and communities.  Real survivalists are just responsible citizens doing their duty.   Considering the developing world conditions and grave threats to life and freedom, survivalist may be the only hope for the future.

I spent the morning of December 21^st watching the new movie from faith based Angel Studios, “Homestead.” Based on the book “Black Autum” by Jeff Kirkman and Jason Ross, it details the characters response to a combined nuclear and cyber-attack on America. The movie tells the story of Ian Ross and his Mutual Assistance Group and their retreat property, “Homestead.” Be forewarned, there will be spoilers.

In this article I want to dig into some of the questions that the story raises for survivalists/preppers, but a few words about the movie are in order. As a movie fan, I appreciate good writing, good direction, and good acting. For the most part I find that studios of this nature do not have any of these. That is not the case here.

All of the aspects of this movie are on par with the best prestige television productions. It is not quite up to the standards of a good theater movie, but it is far better than some of the movies that I have spent money to sit in a theater and be bored by. I generally find that the message of most Christion faith films to be heavy handed, but that is not the case here.

Homestead tells the story of the collapse of American society following a combined terror attack on the US consisting of a nuclear event just offshore from Los Angeles and a cyber-attack that renders the East Coast without power. These events cause a collapse of the US government and a nationwide panic.

The Homestead is the survival retreat built by Ian Ross (Neal McDonough) and several families designed to keep them safe should an event like this happen. The other lead is Jeff Erickson (Bailey Chase), retired Navy Seal who has been hired to put together a security team for the property. The Ross family has built a place, and a system meant to support the people who will be living there with power, water, and food supplies as well as a small arsenal of firearms for protection. It is basically the dream set-up for survivalists.

The meat of the story is the practical and moral questions that are raised by the movie. These questions are important ones that need to be answered when making survival plans, before the world as we know it ends. First, at what point are we justified in using deadly force to defend ourselves. Second, should we lock down and keep friends and family who did not prepare or should we risk running low to save them.

The question of when to use force in self- or group-defense is a complicated one. Despite what one might think, a post-collapse situation makes the use of force even more complicated. In today’s environment the courts will sort out a defense situation. The defensive shooter should be cleared of any charges if they are justified in using force. In a post-collapse situation, where there are no courts to sort it out. In the movie there is a situation where people from outside accidentally wonder into Homestead property while hunting. A lack of a proper means of communications end with one of the hunters being killed by one of the Homestead members.

In the story, the person in question has to live with the results of his actions. It is correctly called an accident, but in the end, children are left without a father, and a wife is without a husband when they most need him. This is a situation that can be avoided through proper communication with the community around the property. It could also be avoided by placing those with more experience in perimeter security and crisis management.

The further consequences would likely come from the friends and family. They would most likely view it as an unjust killing and seek redress. I a world without courts, that redress might come in the form of an assault the property and more needless deaths.

The solution? Clear lines of communications before and after the event and well defined rules of engagement. Building a relationship with the surrounding community will allow group to define what the community can and cannot expect. It will give you a chance to encourage them to prepare for themselves and their family so that they can survive without outside help.

How incursions into the property are handled require very well defined rules of engagement and are an absolute necessity. How you communicate with intruders will define how the encounter ends. What you are aiming for is a peaceful resolution in the worst situation and not a violent encounter. If the group is very lucky, it may lead to new allies.

This takes us to a second major situation. What do you do with the friends and family at the gate. In the movie, when the country starts to collapse, friends of the Homestead family and people from the surrounding community start to line up at the gate looking for help. This is a real world question that all survivalists will face in a collapse.

Most people today, especially in America, are under the impression that the worst will never happen. As long as they have their video games, junk food, and televised sports, they continue to live their lives like it will never end. When it does, they will look to the prepared for help. How do we respond to this?

It comes down to two choices. Do you run them off or do you bring them in to add their skills to the community. Wandering into spoiler territory here, the movie suggests the latter. The Christian thing to do, it suggests, is to be charitable and bring them in. It is a boon in the end because some of these folks have skills that are lacking in the community, and they solve some important problems.

The movie is fiction, but it is close to what can be expected in a real collapse. Taking people in will reduce your supplies and can be detrimental to the survival of the members of community. On the other hand, if the people that you bring in have skills that will be important to the community, then they might improve the groups chances. This becomes a question of practicality versus morality and where a group falls between the two will have a profound effect on a community.

These are the most important issues in the situation the movie presents, but they do touch on others. One character suffers from a mental illness, I suspect Bi-Polar Disorder, but it is never clearly defined,  that requires regular medication. How would this be handled? In the short term a stash of meds provided in a legal manner will keep the person in good health. After they run out a plan will be needed to properly handle the symptoms.

Then there is local government. A plot point is the local bureaucrat attempts who exerts his power to confiscate the supplies and weapons of the Homestead for “the good of the community.” As the story of Homestead is continuing with a series on the Angel Studios streaming service, I think that this will become a bigger plot point.

The questions that come to my mind is at what point has the Government truly collapsed? When does a local bureaucrat become a warlord bent on control? What will happen if the community comes into armed conflict with local government, win, and society makes a comeback? This last question is one brought to my mind for the first time by the movie. It seems that survivalists, me included, make their plans around a permanent collapse. In reality, a society will be rebuilt from the collapsed one, but it is just a likely that our society will rebuild itself. If it does, there may be legal issues to deal with if these kind of situations happen.

Unlike most post-apocalyptic movies, this is not only based on real world possibilities, but also on a series of books by Jeff Kirkham, a Green Beret who founded Readyman survival tool company with 29 years of experience, and Jason Ross, a serial entrepreneur who has spent his life learning survival skills. They took this experience, built a real world scenario, and applied their knowledge to the solutions used in the movie.

Every once in a while, I come across a bit of fiction that has a little bit of truth in it, but it is very seldom that it causes me to think this deeply into the questions that it raises. Dean Ing’s “Pulling Through” comes to mind because the second half of the book provides instructions on building the tools used in the fiction. “Homestead” does not delve into skills or techniques, but it raises some important questions that should cause viewers to think more deeply. It is also my hope that unprepared people who go to see an action movie will give what they see some thought and start to be a more ready.

The movie is a good piece of fiction that I enjoyed. The Christian part of the message is not heavy handed and takes a moral position that I think most people will understand. If you are putting together a preparedness plan, watching this movie should give you food for thought while enjoying a pretty good movie.

This article was originally published on Ready Magazine and is published here with permission. All images are courtesy of Angel Studios.

Under the circumstances I have directed Doctor Bond to prepare immediately for inoculation in this quarter, and request that you will without delay inoculate all Continental Troop.

George Washington, 1777

Vaccinations and the controversies surrounding it date back to the American Revolution. Smallpox had ravaged the world population for centuries before 1776. When first infected, a smallpox victim would experience a brief period of mild symptoms, such as night sweats and a bounding pulse, and would then show no signs during the twelve day incubation period. Then, suddenly, the victim would experience severe chills, back pain, and fever, followed by the eruption of red dots. The lesions would swell into bumps and the bumps would become blisters, then fluid filed pustules. Ulcers and sores would develop in the throat and around the eyes and lips. Severe headaches would add to the victims torment. The ulcerated skin would give off a great stench. If the victim survived, Two weeks of suffering, the blisters would harden to scabs and the fever would abate. About ten percent of previously healthy people died, and a much higher percentage of those with what we would now call “underling conditions”.

Survivors of smallpox usually carried the “pockmark” scars with them for life. Smallpox inadvertently transmitted from traders killed about ninety percent of the Native Americans who had no “herd immunity” at all. The disease was especially prevalent in cities and among armies where the populations were in close contact. It was understood that it spread from person to person, and isolation was often initiated. People wore masks to avoid the smell, but had no concept of respiratory protection. Small pox usually killed more solders than combat throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

In 1776, the patriot army assembled in norther New York was being rendered incapable of resisting the impending British invasion, due to spreading smallpox infections. Although true vaccination against smallpox, using the more benign cowpox virus, was not introduced until 1796, a crude form of vaccination was in use using the live smallpox pathogen. This process was known as inoculation or violation. The process involved insertion of puss from an infected person’s sores, into a small slit in the arm of a healthy person. This process had several drawbacks. The person would still experience a milder form of the disease and be incapacitated for up to two weeks. The person could still pass the full-blown infection to others and would have to be isolated. Still, the patient was safe from future infection and the horrors of its effects. The patriot army could not afford to have any number of its troops incapacitated by the inoculation process with the summer campaign season upon them, so all they could do was practice hygiene and isolation until the winter when military activates stopped. George Washington initiated an inoculation program at Morristown (1777) and Valley Forge during the winters of 1777-1778 that significantly reduced deaths from the diseases. Historian John Ellis stated that “a compelling case can be made that his swift response to the smallpox epidemic and policy of inoculation was the most important strategic decision of his (Washington’s) military career”. Later it was discovered that cowpox infection imparted immunity from smallpox, and the disease was wiped out.

When I got my smallpox and chicken pox vaccinations back in 1943, it was not done by needle injection. My arm was scrapped to create a small abrasion onto which the dead virus/vaccine was placed. Older folks usually have a small scar on their right arm from this procedure.

Conclusion

Vaccines are nothing new and are have proven effective for centuries. Vaccinations have always caused some “side effects”, but were usually preferred over the risks of the full-blown disease. Obviously our ancestors were a lot tougher than we are, when we whine about a needle or few days of side effect illnesses. Controversy about vaccination is nothing new. There were religious and political issues in 1776, as there are now as respect for individual freedom and basic health issues created confusion. It is important to note that the very effective and safe vaccines for Smallpox, Chickenpox, Diphtheria, and other diseases that have been virtually wiped out, were, developed with primitive nineteenth century technology, and far less testing and oversite than the ones for
Covid19.