How far would you go to survive?

Have you seen the movie The Road Warrior? I’d totally go all savage to survive. Self-preservation is the highest law.

I’d do anything to survive. I’d go all Donner Party if I had too. However, if I was with my family, I’d put their survival ahead of mine.

Well the dog food isn’t going to last long, especially if you have dogs. I’m fortuitous in that I could wander down back with a shotgun and hopefully kill a turkey or two. I have been saving water and have a supply that will last some time as long as we don’t waste any, that includes bathing. That is a no no. How would I defend what little I struggled to gain? Same thing I used to gain it.

I’d eat cat food, for sure. And possibly the cats. Well, the one with meat on her bones, anyway. I’m not entirely sure I could, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility. I’d go farther for my kids’ survival than my own, I think. Willing to steal if necessary for their survival, but maybe not for my own. Probably even willing to kill to protect the resources the kids would need.

Luckily, my husband has lots of experience in the woods and used to be a hunter. So long as there are still animals and plants, we’re unlikely to starve to death.

I agree with @woodcutter & @augustlan. Besides those resources, I have the sea to forage. There are still places in the Caribbean with fruit and vegitation near excellent fishing grounds and estuaries packed with shellfish. They are lonely places, but I’m used to that. Potable water is the main problem after my small desalization unit gives out, but between succulants, catching dew, distillation of seawater over a fire, and rainfall, I can probably make it. I’m not sure how hard I would defend my ground against a mother or father trying to feed children, however. I am alone, so I would probably just move on if the area had reached its carrying capacity.

“I was scooping out Willow’s dry dorg food tonight to put into her bowl, and I had an odd thought while I was doing it: “I could eat this… if I had to.”
I first thought by “it” you meant the dog.
I would kill and eat the dog. not a cat though

I’ll just say this, if we are ever trapped on a desert island, kill me. Because by the 3rd day, not only will I be planning to cannibalize you, but I would probably also be thinking about hot to use a torniquet to keep you alive so the meat stays fresh for when I need it.

It is not so much that I would do anything to survive, it is more a case of I would do anything to eat, the survival being coincidental to a certain extent.

If I had to cut my own arm off, or something like that, I don’t really know how far I could go, but if my stomach is issuing the orders, I would more or less do anything.

I’m trained in wilderness survival. I’ll be fine if it comes down to something like that. I’ve thought about it from time to time and every time I come to the same conclusion. If the shit hits the fan, get away from all other humans. It only brings problems. I’ll just go live a life of seclusion out in the middle of the woods.

I’m enjoying the answers. It’s something that a lot of people are giving a lot more thought to these days, I’ve noticed.

@CWOTUS Take a hint from A Boy and His Dog. Don’t eat the dog, eat the girl.

As far as my own efforts, I was, of course, most concerned with my genetic code outliving me, so how far did I go? All the way. Several times. So far, it’s been a remarkable success. I have had 3 kids, and now have 11 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren. So at this point I’d feel little need to eat Spoony THE Cat’s food.

“3 kids, and now have 11 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren”
That is a lot of meat.

I would use my last tank of gas to make it over to some of my roughneck Alaskan friends house.

No water, but lanterns a woodstove, guns, woods, sleds, and ammo. Creative innovative minds.

Well truthfully I haven’t talked to them in a while. I might reserve some gas to make a desperate hitch over to a one horse town.

Join their little commune farm thingie and work my tail off if need be.

At my age I’d probably let Milo eat me rather than the converse.

“I’m fortunate” and not “I’m fortuitous”.

I’ve no survival skills whatsoever, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat another human being. Would probably end up growing beansprouts in a pail and eating those. Or getting myself eaten instead. )’:

I’d eat anything edible, except for my Leica or Pitch, or the family.

I wouldn’t let anyone else eat them either.

I’m on the same page as @uberbatman in regards to surviving off of the wilderness. I know enough, about my surrounding area, to know what is edible (plant/insect wise) in nature. I know how to make a natural shelter, fire and retrieve water. I would take my partner and our beasts into the mountains. I’d be much more afraid of other humans than starving.

I think many people would do better than they realise, as far as survival is concerned. Humans are very adaptable and resilient.

How far would I go to protect us? I really don’t know how far I’d go. It would depend on the situation and what is at stake. I’m not sure I’d get violent, but who knows really…it depends on the circumstances. I would never eat my pets (even if they died). I just couldn’t.

These type of situations are ones my mind has frequented since I was a child.

I’m top of the food chain & nothing is off the menu…although eating my mum out is going to be quite a chore, maybe I should kill her first.

@ucme You are so naughty, lol.

@Plucky Eye of the tiger baby, or some other big pussy :-p

Total famine? I’m fucked. I’ve already lived longer than I expected to for much of my short life. People like me aren’t supposed to be alive in the first place. I couldn’t make it without insulin, not to mention other exogenous hormones. I am one of those pussies who just needs industrial civilization. Being an anarcho-primitivist is a privilege, or possibly just a delusion.

When I’ve had extremely low blood sugar and am seeing ever-enlarging patches of white and am about to pass out, I have determined in survival mode that I absolutely would beat down another human for candy or sugar if I needed it. Having blood sugar of 30 or lower feels like you haven’t eaten in 3 days. Those fuckers don’t need the sugar, but it would keep me from croaking on the sidewalk in front of them.

I’ll try to remember to have candy on my person (and in plain sight!) if we ever meet, @bookish1.

@CWOTUS: Thank you, keep the lifesavers where I can see them ;)

Same as @woodcutter here. In my area we have a lot of natural resources such as fresh water springs, caves, lots of wild edibles (we also watch Dual Survivor- lol) and have weapons to protect ourselves.

That being said, if it gets desperate, I’m willing to go peacefully or lay in the cookpot, that life doesn’t sound like much fun. :) Always save a bullet for yourself.

@CWOTUS “in a near total and prolonged disaster”?? You mean like in the book The Road? I just watched that movie last weekend and I think some people have been a little optimistic about what “near total and prolonged disaster” would mean for the human race. Cormac Mccarthy was not. Foraging for food is all fine and good if the environment hasn’t been destroyed by some sort of nuclear winter. In such a situation I am not sure whether or not I would want to survive. I know one thing, if my imminent death was going to involve rape, torture or excruciating pain I would choose suicide. I also have an abiding aversion to cannabalism. It boils down to whether or not you have a philosophy of survival at all costs or an ethical boundary which you will not cross. Holding onto that boundary against all pressures to just survive is what make you the human or beast that you are. It’s like the boy kept saying to his father in The Road, “We’re still the good guys aren’t we?” and “We wouldn’t eat people, would we?” Yes, his father says to question 1. No his father says to question 2. Interestingly the mother in the book commits suicide because she cannot face the world as it is and the end as it is likely to arrive. She chooses to end it and wants to take her son with her. The father refuses and chooses life at all costs. He does teach his son how to commit suicide with the gun they have though…should anything horrible be unavoidably about to happen.

Barring such an extreme case I know I would eats bugs, dog food or whatever to survive. Ha, ha, that would be easy. Potable water is crucial. If there is one piece of survival gear we should all have it’s a water purifier.

Yes, @Earthgirl. I read The Road a couple of years ago and found parts of it to be almost laughable, the way the deux ex machina saves the protagonist and his family more than once in such unimaginably lucky ways. But along those lines, yes. I have no romantic illusions about “how good this will be for the human race”, but I do think from time to time that these things are inevitable. After all, these things have happened in various parts of the world many times in my own lifetime, and I’m not so far removed from WWII, where it happened on a near-global scale. So it’s a question worth asking and pondering.

I also had in mind Laura Hillenbrand’s excellent Unbroken, the true story of three men in a life raft floating halfway across the Pacific – toward the Japanese-held Marshall Islands in WWII. And that was just the first half of the book. The final chapters are about the survival of two men, one in particular (who was still alive, last time I checked a few months ago), who survived the personal enmity of a particularly brutal prison camp commandant in conditions that make mere mortals like myself wonder, “Could I do that? Could I do even half of that?”

I don’t really want to find out! But they’re questions worth the asking, I think.

@CWOTUS oh yes, its a great question. I never said it wasn’t. I really don’t know what I would do. I once read a Holocaust memoir that said that the biggest gap between human beings was that of the starving from the non starving. Hunger like that is something you have to experience to understand and to believe. Until then it is all conjecture.

@Earthgirl: That makes me think of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

@bookish1 Excellent point about medicine. I’d die without it, too. It would take me a little longer than you, but would probably happen before I starved to death. Now I feel very vulnerable. Thanks. ~

@Earthgirl I’ve seen the movie, The Road, but haven’t read the book. I’ve thought about what it might be like if all/most vegetation were wiped out as well. In that case, for food, I would gather as much canned/non-perishable foods as possible (and water of course). I’d take my loved ones and try to find an unoccupied cave with water in it (making sure to notice high/low tides). We’d use whatever clothing/blankets/natural cover we could find/carry (since caves can be get very cold). Much would depend on what killed the vegetation. I would just hope we could find a good group of people to stick with (if not, it’s cave time for sure). We’d go from there…figuring out what comes next. It’s not much of a survival plan but, really, everything would depend on the type of disaster.
As for raping, torture and pillaging… Yeah, I’d much rather avoid that part. We would certainly have a suicide plan in place. It’s odd because my partner and I have actually talked about this on occasion. Neither of us would have the mentality/belief of surviving at all costs. There are just certain things we could/would not do (an ethical boundary as you stated).
It’s easy to romanticize topics such as this. Why wouldn’t we? The awful truth is so much more frightening. However, it IS really important to look at that grim side of it all. It is useful to think of possible scenarios and plans of trying to survive them. Even if one can not think of a plan for every possible outcome, a little goes a long way sometimes.

@augustlan, I shall save you from this depressing scenario! Here, have a bagel!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J42CLa5iATM&list=UUqYf0XacrXizu9KI1kgqq3g

I believe with my training and background that I could survive most extreme circumstances. The biggest question for me would be is it worth it. I might just do myself in, and pray to God for forgiveness.

@Paradox25 That’s exactly what I meant. I have read The Road, Unbroken and many other books that lead me to believe my struggle would probably be for naught so why fight to live?

You could ask yourself that any day of the week even now, @KNOWITALL. Your life – however you opt to live it given your current surroundings, whatever they are – is presented that way to you every day.

And another way of looking at “my life” is… in the end it’s all for naught, anyway, even if I live as an empress for a hundred years. That’s not a reason to give up on it, though, is it?

Yes, but it’s much easier for me to live comfortably with food, shelter, etc…taking my ‘norms’ away would lead quite a few people to suicide or ‘giving up’ I’m quite sure. Anytime you take someone out of their comfort zone, things get, umm uncomfortable.

Survival will become a macabre game of sorts. When it gets that far it becomes a situation of not much to lose and any tiny gain or break would be a huge achievement. I have been in dire situations before in my life when I did things I never believed I would do or be in a situation to do it. Although everything turned out fine enough, those little tastes of the big suck makes me dread the thought even more, of it happening again. Times like that make one a bit more resilient but it is by no means something anyone would hope for because well, it sucks big time. So it really still makes perfect sense to fight on to live

@KNOWITALL :)

This is just supposition in a dire situation, I have no desire to end my life in any way. :)

I’m just saying, if it came down to eating my husband or my dog to survive, I have a bullet for all three of us to go together, and I’m comfortable with that.

but why the dog :(

@woodcutter I wouldn’t want to leave my dog to fend for herself. Especially when she’s most likely to be hunted/captured for food by starving humans or other animals. On top of that, who knows how they’d treat her before chowing down. She’s a domestic animal. It wouldn’t be right.

Dogs are a lot more resourceful than people are in a pinch. As long as they are in decent physical shape they have a good chance of making it. They may not have the life they were used to but they can overcome it all and do ok. It’s worth a shot.

People here are forgetting that dogs aren’t just pets, they are valuable assets. They can assist in hunting, finding water, kill pests, serve as beasts of burden in a pinch, serve point on recon and cover much territory quickly, are excellent early warning systems, and will often defend their masters and territory with their lives. I wouldn’t put them on the menu too quickly or kill them out of mercy. That would be a waste of a valuable resource.

…And they are the only animal on earth that I know of that most freely demonstrates unconditional love. This is invaluable when one is alone and trying to survive.

As long as I know how to love I know I will get by…..

It’s problematic to assume that our rational mind can reliably predict such behavior, because the survival instinct is extremely strong. So how far would I go? I don’t know. Probably very far.

If the survival instinct was not the way it is, right now we wouldn’t be here. We never would have made it past Neanderthal stage, or got to that stage to begin with.

@woodcutter We didn’t ever make it to Neanderthal stage. We slaughtered them. We were and still are a separate sub-species.

@ETpro I saw a recent program on Nova about the scientists who have claimed that we interbred with Neanderthals and that some people have identifiable Neanderthal DNA.

@Earthgirl you outed me here, crap!

@Earthgirl Yep. About 1%. @woodcutter Not to worry. We all do.

@woodcutter don’t worry….we’ll keep it just between us jellies. Besides, seems Neanderthals were more advanced than they are often given credit for.
@Etpro they now think we probably didn’t interbreed or even exist together in the same time and place. They think we had a common ancestor in Africa and diverged from there.

I’m proud of my Neanderthal heritage then. Might explain why I’ve always been hot natured.