This article was originally published by Daisy Luther at The Organic Prepper
Did you ever wonder, deep down in that secret place where you question yourself, how you would behave in an all-out SHTF catastrophe? Would you take charge like some kind of superhero? Would you hide the entire time, terrified of being discovered? Would you actually be able to put into practice all the skills you’ve learned for all this time, just for that moment?
We can all guess how we’d respond, but until we’re in the situation, none of us actually knows what we’d be like when the SHTF. The one thing I learned from Selco’s newest compilation of stories is that there are many different ways to survive, and not all of them are noble or heroic. In horrific situations, people do what they must to live through it. Sometimes they do what they’ve wanted to do all along, and sometimes they accept their fate as the only alternative to death.
The following scenarios are taken from Selco’s new book, SHTF Survival Stories, Volume 2. If you read his book, SHTF Survival Stories, Volume 1, you’ll know that he doesn’t pull any punches when he tells you about the grim reality of a longterm survival situation and this book is no different.
People hide.
In one story, Selco talks about a person he knew who became a member of a gang to survive the SHTF. The man shared the fact that he never slept in the same place two nights in a row.
When we moved through the city, we learned quickly in those days, adapt or die. We saw many people die.
We always changed location, every day or night a different location. We lived on the move. Enemy groups want to know a bit of the territory before they strike so we did not give them chance to spy out our location. The next night we would be somewhere else. Every night.
When I needed shelter, cover, a place to hide or sleep I always chose the second floor in a house…
…A lot of time we moved from house to house with a plank of wood (think of something like in pirate movies to enter ships). We just placed that wood on windows of one house and on the balcony or any opening on other neighboring house and walk or crawl to that other house…Nobody wants to be on the street in no man’s land. (source)
He goes on to explain how they chose their hiding places. The surprising thing to me was that it seems like a gang member would be less fearful, and still, he spent his nights on the floor of abandoned buildings. But after reading many of these stories, it seems as though avoiding notice was the MO for many, many survivors.
People do things they would never have done before.
Selco wrote about a guy who played the guitar at weddings before the SHTF. After he was thrown in prison and beaten, his captors learned of his talent.
In one occasion he mentioned to those who imprisoned him that he is good with guitar playing. From that day, he become something like their member, he played for them while they drank and beat and tortured other folks.
It was hard for him to focus while other people suffered but he played encouraging songs that made some men beat others in frenzy… (source)
He survived by playing the guitar to entertain men who were torturing his neighbors.
He grew so desperate that he – a simple musician who was anything but a fighter – undertook a daring escape from the country as soon as he got the opportunity, like something from a suspenseful action movie.
People accept things that would not have been okay before.
In one experience, Selco ran into a former colleague. He was shocked when he was offered her “services” by the man running the group with whom he had business.
But what was more shocking was this.
She was not a prisoner, well not obviously, but you also need to understand that if she left that group she and her family would lose protection and steady income of goods. And kids needed to eat something.
I do not know what husband thought about all that (he was a bit of weak guy before SHTF) but rumors were that he agreed with it, in order to survive everything.
So, it lasted like that for months. And they survived.
So, is that good or bad? It’s nothing. It’s survival. Blame her husband? No… becaus e they survived. If he would have become the fighter he might have died and with him, his family. (source)
In ordinary times, this would not have been an option. In SHTF times, the woman made some choices that nobody should have to endure. And her husband accepted things that truly were not okay. They wanted to survive and they did what they had to do.
People get creative.
Some people avoided doing terrible things by getting creative and giving the illusion that they were protected and dangerous. In one example, a man who survived alone – a feat that not many accomplished – because of one of his first actions when things started to go bad.
He was a lawyer before SHTF, he never fired a shot from any weapon, and violence was completely strange to him. When SHTF in the chaos he found himself on the street, looking at how a bunch of folks were breaking in malls and shops, taking whatever is useful.
In 5 minutes, he was in a local museum with some young people who were breaking stuff and taking whatever useful things they could. He said, “When I saw local policeman completely drunk trying to take on German uniform and helmet for fun, I realized that we are starting to live in interesting time.”
He took the machine gun from a glass box, together with some bullets strips and went home.
Ten days later some punks tried to loot his home armed with knives and screwdrivers:
“I put those bullet strips on me, took a machine gun, stand in front of them…(source)
And that was the beginning of what would become a fascinating story of survival. The machine gun was a museum piece – totally inoperable – but still, the lawyer became powerful during SHTF without ever firing a shot. He did so by using his brain creatively and pulling off bluff after bluff.
People become the dark person they always wanted to be.
Not everyone was a good person who found themselves in a bad situation. Some of the people survived by tapping into the darkness that was there inside them the entire time. One man that Selco knew before everything happened was a factory worker. He was the kind of guy who you had coffee with or drank a beer with, nice enough, and unremarkable.
Until the SHTF.
Then he became a guy who forced people to run through the area where snipers were shooting people, then followed that with shooting at them himself. He was powerful and the people around him did the things he told them, and in return, he protected and fed them.
There is nothing deep and philosophical in that guy’s behavior and mindset. He was just a normal guy who turned bad because he loved power and was in a world without rules where he could play.
He lived on the bad side and lived a fast and evil life. He liked that SHTF situation.
But SHTF did not create that guy. He was there all the time. His real character just waited for SHTF to come out and play…(source)
According to Selco, this was not at all uncommon. He wrote, chillingly:
Now, this guy was not alone. When the SHTF, a whole bunch of weird and sick folks emerged. The point is that you never know what kind of people are living around you, or even with you.
And to make things worse, as I said, this guy was something like “normal” guy before SHTF.
Besides those normal guys who turned bad, there is a whole army of scum and criminals who are just waiting for SHTF to happen, so they can go out and be something like small dictators. (source)
I don’t know about you, but there are people I know who I could easily see turning out like the guy Selco described above. Today they’re “normal” but there’s sort of an “edge” to them that you can discern. If they were put into a situation with no rules, how would they behave? It’s something to watch for, certainly.
The important thing is to know what to expect when the SHTF.
While there’s no way to predict how you’ll act if you’re ever in a situation in which all hell breaks loose like Selco was, it’s vital to know what to expect. Understanding human nature is one thing. Understanding human nature under pressure is entirely different.
I strongly suggest this book by Selco as part of your personal SHTF preparedness to get a glimpse at human nature in action.
And I also suggest you resist the urge to judge these people. Of course, I’m not talking about the crazy sadists – I’m talking about the ones who lost their dignity in order to live through a terrible time. It’s easy to say, “I’d never do that” or “I’d rather die” but until you’re in the situation, hard and fast statements are all talk.
As Selco writes:
The truth is this: You never know how far you are going to go with some things in order to survive. There is no way to know that before SHTF.
I know who I want to be if I’m ever in a terrible situation. But I also know that in desperation, there are sacrifices and horrible decisions that must be made. When I read these stories, with almost all of them, I can imagine how the person got to the place where they ended up.
I sincerely hope no one reading this ever has to travel through such darkness.
But if you do, knowing what to expect could change everything.
***
Selco survived the Balkan war of the 90s in a city under siege, without electricity, running water, or food distribution. In his online works, he gives an inside view of the reality of survival under the harshest conditions. He reviews what works and what doesn’t, tells you the hard lessons he learned, and shares how he prepares today. He never stopped learning about survival and preparedness since the war. Regardless what happens, chances are you will never experience extreme situations like Selco did. But you have the chance to learn from him and how he faced death for months. Real survival is not romantic or idealistic. It is brutal, hard and unfair. Let Selco take you into that world. Read more of Selco’s articles here: https://shtfschool.com/blog/ And take advantage of a deep and profound insight into his knowledge and advice by signing up for the outstanding and unrivaled online course. More details here: https://shtfschool.com/survival-boot-camp/
Please feel free to share any information from this article in part or in full, giving credit to the author and including a link to The Organic Prepper and the following bio.
Daisy is a coffee-swigging, gun-toting, homeschooling blogger who writes about current events, preparedness, frugality, and the pursuit of liberty on her websites, The Organic Prepper and DaisyLuther.com She is the author of 4 books and the co-founder of Preppers University, where she teaches intensive preparedness courses in a live online classroom setting. You can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter,.
“What Will YOU Be Like When the SHTF?”
Probably a bigger asshole than I am now?
“…Probably a bigger asshole than I am now?”…”My parents said I could be anything, so I became an asshole”…
Kudos Daisy.
I’d wager it will more likely be a slow fizzle to gulag, rather than real SHTF here. In any case, if you have read all of Selco’s works, they are highly recommended, worth every penny.
After experiencing “the edge”, it’s easy to understand how amorality helps one embrace the suck.
Ha ha ha, this vid says it all!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrgpZ0fUixs
Well I’d rather be an ASSHOLE than a WHOLE ASS.
Like wise I’d rather be a smartass than a dumbass lol.
My BOL is locked down pretty good.. Remember 2 is 1 and 1 is none.. Get back ups and redundancy. I have 3 spare sets of dual mower blades. Just replaced a camp stove. Went to my shed and grabbed a new stove all the shelf still in the box. Used another gas connector hose as well in my shed. Be prepared. Keep your sheds and supplies stocked like a hardware store. Including extra lumber and plywood 2×4, etc.. Fasteners, zip ties.. You get the point. It would be frustrating in SHTF to run out of something. Get killed trying to pick up a fan belt or windshield wipers in SHTF. Get extra car parts an aplenty of fresh oil filters. I have 5 to 6 extra filters.. And Bullets.. Lots and lots of bullets in all calibers and carry daily. I carry every day on my property. Sometimes open carry. Concealed when out and about.
You all better have your many NO Trespassing signs displayed on your property boundary areas. Go read the trespass laws in your state. The No Trespass Sign is their first warning NOT to trespass. A Bullet is their 2nd warning,,… and you have the right to kill trespassers if they refuse to leave.
See biological altruism.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/altruism-biological/
It’s a small subset of the overall population that willingly sacrifices to better the whole. The same sort typically become pastors but they are found just about everywhere but in tiny numbers. It’s demonstrated in the soldier who risks it all so his buddies can get away or hurls himself on a grenade or takes point through a minefield.
This would favor your own herd or tribe.
I would shoot transgender freaks and sodomites on sight.. and also execute anyone that admits to voting for the communist democrats
Genius, this article is just an extension of that last article by Selco. DowntoEarthThinking.com and Deplorable Neal Jensen made all the best and right comments on that one. I’ll be the same way as them. I don’t even want to rehash any of it. That how I”LL be when TSHTF.
I will be the creative one. From land mines to booby traps to poison treats to sniping to you name it. I don’t have to face anyone to take them out, I can be miles away! People are stupid, they will fall for traps no problemo. Any survivors will be in me and my friends concentration camp. And if I were ever to be captured alive, I play guitar and can do like the guy did in the article lol. If they had a bunch of snowflake libs in captivivty I will play some death metal while they are tortured and beaten to death. And I can make booze for us to party with 😛
Burzum is true quality death metal;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPyOhP1GTRQ
Not bad but monotonous and 1st grade guitar playing. Try this on for size!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiv0zuT2lGA
I haven’t gotten into death metal for years but I liked Exhorder, Slayer, Supultra, Gwar, Entombed. Now it’s pretty much classic rock. Guess I’m gettin old lol.
Thanks JM, here’s one for you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgukizxZ5QM
I just don’t think I could be a bigger asshole. Wife says what’s wrong with you did you take a asshole pill today.
Since I’m not afraid of death, though, I’ll do my best to avoid it, but there are some things people should not tolerate, such as turning their wives, daughters, or sons into sex toys for food and safety. Death would be better. I’d kill my family before I’d let them be tortured like that.
I know people do make the decision to surrender, but as Caesar said “A coward dies many deaths, a lion dies but one”.
A better idea might be to arm all of them and use your ammo to kill THEM. If all else failed they could kill whoever came for them? If you were able to kill your family surely you would be able to kill more of THEM first? I hate it when all the turds don’t go down the toilet with the first flush….
Oh and relik, it’s about time you got out of bed. Damn, yer worse than I am!
rellik. I know this in my heart and soul…there are worse things than death!
I will be similar to how I am now. The grey man. The person no one sees or notices unless I want them to see me.
Daisy is correct when she says, “none of us actually knows what we’d be like when the SHTF”. All I can do is pray…
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.
Amen.
That isn’t working out too well for europeans as they are trespassed in the most vile ways. Forgive them? You gotta be kidding right? Delivered from evil? They are doormats, being trampled to death while waiting for the “saviour”?
How about:
Oh my father the creator of life, thank you for this beautiful home, and for the ability to defend ourselves with guns, to drive out evil people and dispose those responsible, give us the wisdom to be in balance with earth, and to promote justice and fairness, and keep them naggers off my lawn!
Genius, the Lord’s Prayer does not imply/require being a pacifist. A trespass is a slight not a grievous harm.
It means, that I pray that I am not tested like those people were in Selco’s stories. I pray the United States doesn’t travel the path the Balkan’s were. I do NOT believe that I can defeat evil and Communism/Collectivism is evil.
Yes, I pray that I am delivered from evil! Only a fool would want to walk the path Selco had to walk. I have no/zero desire to be Job. But if I have to walk that path I will live and die by my moral beliefs and I am ultimately answerable to my God.
I clerked for a Judge when I was young and he taught me that nice don’t mean weak. He was a good man and a tough son of a b*tch. The world is not a total pile of sh*t because good men have opposed evil thought-out history.
Yes but the trespass they commit is gangrape? Not a grievious harm?
I hope you never suffer what selco did either. Communism/collectivism is only a fraction of what evil is.
Yes you will answer to god, the universal law of karma.
Turning the other cheek and allowing crimes against you is not justice. What about an eye for an eye? Do you understand that by forgiving you are ALLOWING more of the same? In fact you are setting a precidence for it.
Law is Law and in natural law there is no get out of jail free card. You WILL ammend for it one way or another. The world is not a pile of shit as you said but most people ARE. Does your god have no common sense or logic? I believe in what I was born with… natural law. I don’t follow man written, clouded, spoken in riddles and stories stuff made to control populations. I am smarter than that and true to myself and what I know in my heart to be right. I don’t need a book or some instructions made for me by some ruler or anyone else. Of course good men oppose evil, it is right. We all are held to our actions in the end. But fighting evil when it kicks your door in is a virtue no matter what you have to do to accomplish it. Slaughtering evil people is the right you were born with. I am a very nice person… until you wrong me….
Well spoken comment, Genius. Some people who profess knowledge and belief of their chosen holy texts cherry pick the parts they want and ignore the rest of the relevant parts. This represents the tolerance of perversions and crimes rather than stand up in opposition to them, but here is my take. If people want to tolerate these things by copping out religiously to taking a stand, then God bless them and their world of chaos and hell they helped to create. they deserve to live in it and be fearful because of it. You cannot implant spine into people who choose to not want one.
This is the blatant hypocrisy of the religious who say “Well, I will be/am saved, because of my belief, so sorry for the rest of you losers, Ive got mine”
Oh really? And how would your God feel about that level of selfishness and arrogance of your “saving” when that is also NOT his message. Where did Jesus that without parsing and cherry picking his entire message in the text again?
Hypocrisy has a name, and he spake it as ” I am saved already”.
Genius, I am not really crazy about Metal but I saw this recently and love it. What do you think?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0RV0kgdqJU
Ha thats good! A twist on a song I like a lot. They didn’t ruin it they made it different. I can dig it!
Mary Spender is a British artist but looks like a typical girl next door from Kentucky especially from the Louisville and Lexington regions.
I can do without the video of the dude but they did a surprisingly good job!
Along the same line, Neil Young re-arranged a bunch of classic American folk songs on his album “Americana”. Very good job.
i’m no fuken genius, but i LIKE IT!
SWEET! and spot the f*k on!
I always wondered why anyone would think that the Lord would lead them into temptation? Excuse me?
yeah, i went to confession the other day, and the priest said “what sins are you confessing, my son?”….so, i’m like “YOU FIRST!”.
If survival is your goal, hide out somewhere safe with sufficient preps. There will be a large die-off of people. If you are inclined to help your fellow-man, emerge and give what help you can. In the initial days, there will be too much panic and killing. If the Government “takes charge”, it is a whole different scenario since they’ll make things much, much worse.
Look in the mirror and ask, “Who does Jesus want me to be?”
There is your answer.
He must increase, but I must decrease.
John 3:30
Any answer that is selfish is WRONG.
Gee…I wonder who inspired the more intense focus on these things on SHTFPlan..Oh wait….Suddenly the who focus on paying attention to human psychology seemed logical in light of the huge gaping black hole of understanding about it…I’m glad Daisy Luther took the time to visit it deeper and that she pointed to Selcos personal documenting and retelling his experience with it.
how many will actually take it to heart and actually ruminate on it before that reality is visited on us SOON (for those paying attention to relevant current events)….
When you “think” you know someone, you really really don’t know jack…SHTF/WROL….Everything you thought you knew, is meaningless. If you don’t have situational awareness and let go of your assumptions and brain washed cognitive dissonance, you will not make it a week.
Most people who think they are good in a crisis, arem’t
And most people who think they will be good in one, won’t be.
Particularly so the ones that like to brag about it. If things go bad, stay as far away from them as you can if you want to come out on top. And most certainly don’t let them be behind you in the dark.
sex and preppin’…..we all THINK we are good at it!
I think that proud assholes, during an emergency, will be subject to sabotage, friendly fire, and stonings, from within their own in-group.
Stay low for at least a month and by then many will die or get killed off due to lack of food and violence. Organized gangs will start off with an advantage being organized armed and violent already. a single man against such odds has little chance. You will be attacked for any reason including just for fun. Organizing a support group in advance makes sense. You need a tribe yourself. True story two ships were wreaked on the opposite side of an island during the same storm. One crew worked together and they lost weight but survived. the other crew fell apart every man for himself and some died while most were not far from death when rescued. Form a tribe and live
The Confessions Of Bernhard Goetz (the subway vigilante documentary)
On YouTube
Very interesting look into the human mind under stress.
_
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1144&v=fB4GWL6TH5k
Mexican version of Rambo. Gets his ass kidnapped. Sounds about right!
The movie version of Rambo also got kidnapped.
If you are mentally or physically fit, someone will usually want to put you to work for their cause, and they will take credit for what you do.
SHTF was against their social undesirables.
The truth ,The Whole Truth and Nothing But The Truth So Help me GOD . This is the mind set for SHTF. Sure there are the simple truths about the rule of threes, the rule of water food weapons. But to be free requires to be able to belive That help from God Will give you the wisdom to to except SHTF and the Strength to OVERCOME .Pray for peace prepare for WAR . IT IS COMING MY FELLOW AMERICANS,it is a MAD WORLD.Last but not least my fellow Americans there is only One American document to study ,it is our first american mission Statement,our first American Prayer ,it lists a Super Natural power,THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. Fly THE red white and blue American flag ,and under it the Gadsden flag ,hell on earth will know no cowards here for We Americans are not FEW WE ARE MANY.
When SHTF I’m going to crack open a can of ravioli because canned goods are the only thing I have in my life.
My wife left me because I spent our life savings on canned goods and silver, please help.