This is one of a series of posts on some commonly held prepping beliefs, and reasons why they may be wrong and possibly dangerous to you and your loved ones.

Their Myth Reasoning (not me talking/writing) – A rarely-discussed but obvious undercurrent in survival circles is the general idea that somehow a serious survival situation will be great for those who have prepared adequately, and likely be good for the world in general. A number of justifications are given for this view: 1) It will have a cleansing effect, it will be a neat little “reset” button for society, 2) people’s priorities will improve by necessity, 3) etc. Although this issue is not discussed often, there is an obvious hoping-it-will-happen theme to the attitudes of many survivalists. Why? Because for those who have prepared, somehow things will be better than they were before SHTF. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The bottom line is that if you survive a worldwide collapse, you haven’t earned immortality – you’ve just earned the opportunity to die a later death. A death that will likely be violent but will almost be guaranteed to be painful and lingering. And it isn’t just your death that will be slow and painful – you’ll also have the experience of watching your friends and family go the same way. Culturally, we are now so many generations removed from primitive medical care that we’ve almost completely forgotten what life will be like without a professionally-staffed, well-equipped, electrified, sanitized, and heated hospital to go to when we have any sort of illness. You think appendicitis is bad with anesthesia, antibiotics, and a trained surgeon? It sure is – but now try it without any of those things. It doesn’t stop at medical care – in our culture, we have come to take for granted general security, food availability, reliable utilities, sanitation, the rule of law, human rights, access to information, and on and on. By definition, none of these things will be available in TEOTWAWKI. And if you think living in a world where none of these things exist is going to be anything other than misery, you haven’t thought very hard about what it will be like.

My Opinion – I agree. I have lived for extended periods of time in very primitive conditions and IT AIN’T FUN!!!! If you think trying to survive day-to-day from sickness, hordes, gangs, criminals, and just plain hard work, hunger and thirst, then you need a reality check. Think about how hard it could potentially be just to find enough water to drink for the day. Have you ever HAD to hunt for your meat? How about field dressing that elk or cow? How about butchering it into usable chunks of meat? Have you ever watched someone die because you can’t get them even minimal medical attention? Was it a family member?

Sure, in post-SHTF there would be moments of joy, happiness, and pleasure. But they would be minor & few compared to today but monumental in context. Yes, people in the military who are in combat grow closer together most of the time. But they also see their buddy’s arms, and legs blown off as well. That takes a huge spiritual and mental toll. Those folks in combat grow closer together to survive.

There is a reason why just 150 – 200 years ago the average life span was in the 30’s & 40’s. And then about 1000 years ago it was in the 20’s with ½ of children dying before puberty. Look around you at the people taking advanced medication or medical treatments; they will die and die rather quickly and in some cases not so pleasantly.

Post-SHTF won’t be a party, no picnics and dirty beyond belief. Prepare for SHTF but I would suggest you not romanticize it and hope for it.

How can you ease the pain? “Community!” Find and become part of a solid, conservative, Christian community. The only thing that will really ease the situation and have a hope for off-setting a true depressing SHTF scenario is a community of good people, with lots of various skills, working together. Then…you can have the hope to move from surviving to thriving.

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