Reflections : ‘You can’t just go around killing people in front of your house to protect your food.’
Near his home in the Santa Monica Mountains, Ron Hood built a four-bedroom underground fallout shelter complete with power, food and water. He also included a board game called Diplomacy, in case he wants to plot global strategy during an extended stay. Hood teaches basic wilderness survival at California State University, Northridge.
Survival is an attitude. One of the ways to make that a realistic attitude is to actively seek knowledge, to actually go out and learn things. To become a little bit less of a specialist.
I learned to become a locksmith so I can pick locks. I learned security skills. I learned how to cook, hunt and prepare game animals. I can fix my car, my radio, my television set. I can write and I’m certified in advanced first aid. I can make it. I can survive because I know things. Knowledge is the most important of all resources and the easiest to acquire.
People need to protect and defend themselves. That’s what survivalism is. To have the resources available to sustain yourself through a period of turmoil, an earthquake, floods, or economic disaster. You need the very basic resources, food, shelter, protection and medicine.
The survivalist movement has changed quite a lot. There used to be more gun involvement. My attitude is, I’ll protect my things and my people, but the first thing I’ll use is psychology. Put a sign on your door that reads “Quarantine, CHOLERA.” That is the first thing to do in a disaster. Most people won’t bother somebody who has cholera.
Should a person kill to protect his food supply? If some people come to my door I’ll just grab them, bring them in and share the food. I have enough for a few more people, and they can help me protect the supplies. You can’t just go around killing people in front of your house to protect your food. The taking of life isn’t as easy as people fictionalize it, it’s not that much fun. It’s not like the movies at all. It’s smelly. It’s gory. It’s nasty.
The first thing you need to get people motivated is to have a disaster. In the Midwest they’re survival-oriented because they have tornadoes.
The only place you find people going, “What in the hell is survival all about?” is here on the West Coast where nothing happens to us. It’s sunshine day in and day out. We all sit around under parasols and sip daiquiris.
Here we sit, 60 miles from the San Andreas Fault. Almost any time that sucker could cut loose. What happens to Los Angeles? We have a three-day supply of water in our reservoirs. Every one of our water sources crosses the San Andreas Fault. Great! So we’re going to have to survive on the water supply we’ve got. Which isn’t much.
If every individual had a two-week supply of food and water there wouldn’t be much of a problem. So the quake scares the hell out of people, kills a few of them outright and a few of them later, but the fact is that there won’t be any real serious problem if everybody has a survival orientation, has food and water and has some medical training.
You should plan on a half gallon of water per person per day. That’s a minimum; some people suggest two gallons per person per day. The easiest way to buy a two-week supply of food is called “copy can” food. When you buy a can of tamales, buy two and write the date on one can and put it in your survival box. I use a steamer trunk. You should use each can after six months and replace it with a new dated can.
When you’re talking about something as terrifying as a nuclear holocaust or an earthquake it’s really difficult for a person to conceive of these things because their mind rebels from the horror. I’ve preserved my sanity by making it funny. Also for teaching, there is no better vehicle than humor. There’s a lot of stuff that’s just funny by its nature. Can you imagine two weeks without toilet paper? And aspirins. You know you’ll have a headache in an emergency like this. “Oh my God, my house fell down, give me an aspirin.”
