It can't just be me.. Can it?

[Lone Wolf]

It can't just be me who is expecting a civil war at some time soon?
Its not that I fantasize about it or want it to happen but! I can't help but think it would be silly not to expect it.
So my question is, do you think there will be civil war and are you prepping?

[Tony1948]

Against who????????????? Wolf.

[jacob karhu]

Against penguins :war:

[OakAshandThorn]

Against ZOMBIES :guns: :zombie-fighting:
lol Jacob, that was a good one :p

[xWillo]

I wouldn't be surprised if something happened in the near future. Don't know about civil war but the worlds going fubar.

[Bernie]

No, I don't expect it or foresee it. Maybe I live in a bubble with the people around me. I don't see much friction in my life, though I have heard of it in some areas where communities have formed that don't integrate or tolerate those who don't conform to their ideals and beliefs. I doubt it'd lead to actual war though. At worst I could imagine very localised skirmishes.

[Magicdave]

I think, in general, society is too afraid of change. The uncertainty of what would follow and the fear of being in control of our own lives (I don't mean every individual), and wellbeing is justified. It has been too many generations since most of us really had to.

Kind of like the "Grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" fear.

It's kind of a strange one. I think the government would need to remove the benefits system before they had any worries. Here in the UK someone on benefits has a better life than the average, or even above average, person in some parts of the world.

[xWillo]

The way the situation on the ground in eastern Ukraine is evolving, such as if the US provides the Ukrainians with 'Defensive Weapons' I can see that escalating exponentially. Probably won't become a threat though. However its probably worth keeping on eye on developments.
As for home grown threats, I can't see any major civil war, but I am expecting more 'Lone-Wolf' Attacks like the Charlie Hebdo, Copenhagen shootings..It's a Sad world.
That's why I like to get away to the woods!

[midas]

NOW???Should I change my name to Oliver Cromwell.??Tho I'd want to be a Royalist.
Got a head start live on a civil war battle field.Adwalton Moor.June 1643.

[Ashley Cawley]

Heard on the radio today that Russian jets were spotted off the coast of Cornwall in the past couple of days and were escorted off by RAF Jets! Not a civil engagement like first mentioned but hey, daft fear mongering and Russia no doubt flexing their muscle testing reactions with their latest on-going exploits. I don't get too involved in politics or foreign affairs, all I know is there is far too much war and fighting in the world for us to be considered a civilised species yet! :confused2:

[FishyFolk]

Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish air forces have to deal with russian fighters and bombers every day...it's back to cold war status up here. Lots of allied troops, including Brittish training in Norway now, and we are glad to have them :-)

[xWillo]

And they're just the sorties we hear about. There will be many they want to keep underwraps to downplay the situation.
A lot in the papers recently about how NATO / EU has underestimated the situation.
Then again I think its mostly about Russians wanting their status as a global player back, just to rattle the sabre and remind the West they are still alive and kicking.

Edit - No-one knows however what Putin and the kremlin have in their playbook. Hopefully we won't find out...

[OakAshandThorn]

*sigh* Well, I wasn't going to mention this, but now I see that it may have some importance considering what has been going on with Russia as of recent, so here we go...

When I was a cadet in high school, towards the end of senior year, I remember that we had a guest speaker come and talk to us about the Cold War of which we were studying. For his sake, I'll refrain from using his name here. He was from Romania, and served with the USSR during those times as a radio/comm talker in what would later become Ukraine. After he described the end of the war (or stand-off, I guess), he touched on the subject of how Ukraine came to be after gaining their independence in the early '90s from Russia. He said that the newly formed Ukrainian government hid and or deactivated remaining nuclear weapons that were left behind after the collapse of the USSR, and that Russia has been on edge with Ukraine ever since, since those nukes were never accounted for.

Now then, I haven't been keeping up with the news lately, mostly because it's always depressing, but what he said seems to be true...nukes that just disappeared like that would certainly stoke the Russian hornet nest.

[trovilcl]

This stuff is crazy...........the stuff with the Ukraine is nuts. I dont understand whats going on with Russia. I know though when i was in Greece they were on the brink of a civil war, due to the influence of NATO forces. There were riots and all kinds of stuff happening while i was there. Several times the security level was really high for the thought of the rioters attacking the base. There was a HMS ship with us as well when they started rioting and we would get Coms with them constantly about what was going on. Yeah guys the world as we know it is hanging on by a thread. I just hope you guys have some way of defending yourselves if somthing happens.

[rik_uk3]

It can't just be me who is expecting a civil war at some time soon?
Its not that I fantasize about it or want it to happen but! I can't help but think it would be silly not to expect it.
So my question is, do you think there will be civil war and are you prepping?

It may be what you wish for bigpaul lol, no trolling here please, your already banned on several other forums, don't start your nonsense here please. :happy-clapping:

[Humakt]

It can't just be me who is expecting a civil war at some time soon?

Depends. Do you mean a civil war here in the UK? If so then I expect you're not the only one but I suspect a good many of those who do probaby have support workers.


Its not that I fantasize about it or want it to happen...

Oh, but I bet you do really.


but! I can't help but think it would be silly not to expect it.

Yes it would. It's silly not to expect things that may happen. But to expect things to happen when there's no realistic chance, given the current circumstances, is silly.


So my question is, do you think there will be civil war and are you prepping?

No, and no.
It's threads like this that make an embarrassment and ridicule of bushcrafting and bushcrafters.

[Blundstoned Love]

I think you're right - deffo Civil War sometime soon - possibly Tuesday week.

*adjusts tin foil hat*

Seriously tho' - man you have to de-stress if those sort of thoughts are at the front of your mind. The world is pretty crazy at the moment (and the media isn't helping), but get yourself some time in the natural world and get the static out of your head.

[BirchFire]

The way the world is at the moment I think it is prudent to make sure you have emergency supplies and that's including excess of food and water! But if you think the world is a happy place and nothing is going to happen that will effect you in person then I hope your right.
Liking the outdoors means I've got some kit for bugging out already - lol even a med kit that never gets used but good to have. I think of it as a kind of insurance as you'll be sorry without it!

[Woody]

Zombie threads!!! Mental...

Got to love Jacob's reply ...Post #3😄😄😄

[Greenbear]

Not sure about a civil war, but certainly an increase in terrorism related events that sadly may (and I sincerely hope I am wrong on this) lead to persecution or worse a race war :(

[FishyFolk]

Come to think of it...the really nice thing about NB is the total non existance of threads like this...can't we just close it and be do away with it?

[crazydave]

Although more survival than bushcraft I think threads like this have their place as especially here in the UK we have two weeks worth of supermarket food at normal consumption rates. Any global disruption will hit here and hit hard so we would have to bunker down and hope the lights and internet stay on to prevent total meltdown. I was in gloucester during the floods when the entire city lost water and the county was nearly evacuated due to possible loss of power as well.

I don't class having a month or twos worth of calories in the house prepping just common sense, after that if the govt hadn't come up with a plan then we are buggred anyway. we couldn't feed ourselves in 1917 so have no chance in 2017, we would have to socialise the whole economy and introduce compulsory euthanasia.

My brother in his early 40s has suddenly discovered infowars and conspiracy theories and is doing my head in with it. I knew most of it and more besides having read to much milder alternative news and truth sites for the past 20 years but I grew up with it and have always 'prepped' and planned for the worst for want of a better word for it.

what I do find interesting is the morphing over the years to the term zombies to satisfy the need for political correctness as it's allowed to say you will kill zombie trespassers but not people. many of the forums that discuss such things ban the suggestions that you will break any laws such as moving into walmart and living there with the doors locked to outsiders as of course that is theft. although if there is no law and order just who is to say what is theft or not.

I'm not sure what I would 'prefer' zombie outbreak, Nuclear war, alien invasion or a global man flu pandemic, just so long as it's not triffids.

My guess is though that the US economy will finally fail as it sold all its gold and being unable to peg to a gold standard they will take everyone else down with them. For over 100 years it has been the number one exporter of false flag terrorism so they will find someone else to blame for it.

So the question is should it all fall apart could you and your family survive on the contents of your house. being generous and allowing for a four hours of electricity rationing a day to keep the freezers cold for a few days at least (no gas - all diverted to power generation) and how do you think the public would act if the govt failed to feed the people, it was ugly enough in gloucester when the water was rationed, free but rationed and they struggled to get enough at first. I supplied half my street with rainwater for general use and we made sure the old folks got their share of bottled water but we were not the norm.

[Humakt]

No, I don't think we do need threads like this.
This is a Bushcraft forum, not a Survivalist forum.

There is a MASSIVE difference.

Bushcraft is a past-time where middle-aged males (mostly) go and sit in the woods for a few hours, maybe do a bit of carving, have a brew up and a bit of innocent escapism for a little while.

Survivalism is a past-time where middle-aged males (mostly) go and sit on their computers feeding paranoia and conspiracy to each other to justify their gun/knife/weapon collection.

There is no cross over.

If survival is what you want to discuss, in case your local Morrisons run out of bread, then you may find this forum more use to you:
http://www.survivalistboards.com/

[rik_uk3]

Agree 100% Humakt.

[crazydave]

No, I don't think we do need threads like this.
This is a Bushcraft forum, not a Survivalist forum.

There is a MASSIVE difference.

Bushcraft is a past-time where middle-aged males (mostly) go and sit in the woods for a few hours, maybe do a bit of carving, have a brew up and a bit of innocent escapism for a little while.

Survivalism is a past-time where middle-aged males (mostly) go and sit on their computers feeding paranoia and conspiracy to each other to justify their gun/knife/weapon collection.

There is no cross over.

If survival is what you want to discuss, in case your local Morrisons run out of bread, then you may find this forum more use to you:
http://www.survivalistboards.com/

sigh is that the best result a quick google could get you (you should have suggested the ludlow survivors group - closest thing to survivalists this side of the pond I've found, (bit too obsessed with bird flu though and their top secret bug out location) - standard reply I should have expected I guess. It just shows up your lack of understanding in the subject and a prissyness to protect something so much it dies in the process, the internet is littered with half dead bushcraft forums who refuse to chat about anything else but the glory days of saint raymond and how we wish he would make just one more series. most born again bushcrafters I tend to meet fail to grasp that you learn to survive before you really learn bushcraft, you learn survival because bushcraft can and does go wrong but survival gives you understanding of how it works why it works and how to bypass it when it goes wrong. it's very easy to die even in the UK Spent a few nights chatting with Mors Kochanski about it a few years ago now, his publisher made him call his book bushcraft because survival had gone all SAS on the same subject. McGee had the same problem competing with the SAS type 80s vibe at the time and felt rather robbed when ray mears started his gig and nicked the format off les hiddins. even the old scout handbook was packed full of 'bushcraft' tips. I probably bought the raymond mears survival handbook long before 99.9% of bushcrafters has ever heard of him and before he got the tracks tv slots.

learning survival does not make you a survivalist - I don't think we ever found a name for it because the public splurge only lasted a few years with no internet to back it up. survival forums and survivalist forums are totally different places. survivalist forums are prepping, survival forums are more make do and mend or at least they were until the gun nuts started going on about bug out bags and load outs.

I did my first course at 14 at the wait for it - ninpara survival school near whitby which forced the basics into you the hard way and you do not forget it. Though I went past the living in the mud chewing on bracken fiddlers phase and into the realms of making natural oils from nuts, foraging, trapping, hedgerow farming, knife and tool making, tanning shelters and so on. In the military you learn that the much maligned survival tin so scorned by modern bushcrafters is just a repair kit for you and your stuff in the smallest possible format. Survival as I taught the kids is camping without kit and improvising the situation to normalise it and improve your mental well being - first you take away their tent.

Bushcraft is nothing without survival. the skills you pick up and utilise are repairing your axe, fixing your torch/phone/car, sewing up your torn ventile smock, rolling around in the snow to dry out your sodden swandri or socks or staving off hunger while making a crutch because you slipped and sprained your knee. its the improvise, adapt, improve and overcome that most bushcrafters fail to pick up on.

those same skills get you out of trouble when things go wrong in civvy street too, the mindset stops you panicking after a traffic accident, knife slip, power cut, flood, blizzard or riot. as they say failure to prepare is preparing to fail so having a decent store of portable food and spare batteries is not being a survivalist but sensible. too many bushcrafters have all the gear and no idea, the ones that do you find also do some small scale prepping and some more extreme than others.

You meet two types those who know how to do it the hard way but choose to enjoy the ease of sitting around a fire under a parachute drinking beer and chatting because it reminds them of day with mates when they served or whatever. and those who regard it as some form of hardcore camping. I find it most amusing when you see the camper vans set up with a hammock and tarp next to it or the 4x4 to carry all their minimalist back to nature kit into the woods. (it's more like glamping when they are all down merthyr mawr) and you spent so much time ruining your environment you lose the very thing you were looking for.

When I did jungle training we did the course with the local natives, bamboo saws, fire drills the works. while we were sweating away on the basics of fire by friction the little indian fella stands up and lights his fag with a clipper. train hard fight easy.

I suppose its a bit like the jesus was a jew not a christian debate, Ray Mears taught survival long before he worked out he could triple his prices and halve his workload by calling it bushcraft, you get out of it what you want at the end of the day. I've chatted with many instructors over the years to see how they run courses and most will charge a middle aged man 700 quid to sit under a tarp spoon whittling and string making because they don't want to learn anything else from it. I also find it amusing the sheer variety of names bushcrafters try to invent to escape being called bushcrafters, I understand the problem those of us interested in survival are stuck with the US gun toting snake chewing image rather than the jeramiah johnson one we really want (oh wait hang on - damn) and bushcrafters are stuck with the image of being overweight balding knife obsessive spoon whittlers :)

I've taught at big scout events where every instructor has a handmade knife, floppy hat and possibles bag try to teach 100+ scouts survival skills without a coherent plan or decent knowledge of anything but their chosen base - lighting a fire, building a shelter, collecting water, finding food are good things to learn as bushcraft skills but the plan of action to implement them gets left by the wayside. similar to camping or expedition skills when I used to run expeditions or teach recruits on cadre, you have to show them the order to camp in to maximise their efficient use of time and energy, very few do it naturally. The island has just finished again - as usual they failed to learn what they had been taught and struggled to survive because they failed in the basics, once they settled in then they did develop their bushcraft skills improvising aplenty but they still starved themselves because nobody was doing ediblity tests, building fish traps, bird snares night lines etc... makes you wonder what they were taught in their 12 day primer.

I suppose the simplest example is the fire drill, or canoe capsize routine. you are developing the muscle memory to aid in survival for when it goes wrong.

Fishy up in norway will be teaching his lad to stay alive first, spoon whittle second. You don't mess around with semantics up there even in summer.

nothing wrong with being middle aged and too lazy to learn anything else while having the money to buy all the gear but the guys I know who live and breathe bushcrafting spend a lot of time and money doing some very extreme courses far away from parachutes, hammocks (and moderating bcuk). in fact they are on survival courses - or extreme bushcrafting I suppose you would call it. and if you are to proud to learn it then carry a small manual in your pocket just in case you ever need it.

Probably the best response to the question why are we not allowed to be called survivalists anymore is Political Correctness - something else it has ruined.

so if you don't want my input that's fine, your loss so delete my account and I'll drift off elsewhere. the american survival forums do have a lot more proper bushcraft stuff in them though, once you get past the guns pages. zombie squad can be quite good fun though once you work out the rules.

the US approach to what to do in the event of shtf - wait for the local bushcrafters to starve to death cos they spent all their money on fancy gear then go make proper use of it, it should still be good, it's hardly been used.

[Humakt]

what I do find interesting is the morphing over the years to the term zombies to satisfy the need for political correctness as it's allowed to say you will kill zombie trespassers but not people.

And that's what it's really about, eh, Dave?
You really want to tell us about the people (not zombies!) you want to kill, don't you?
You brought the topic up, after all. It must be something on your mind.

Go on, then.

Get it out of your system.

Go on. Tell us about the people you want to kill. I presume it's going to be the gubermint coming to take away your rights. Or will it be those damn libruls. Or maybe the Iraqistanis wanting to take us over with their sharia law. Something like that, eh?
Or maybe it's some other demographic you don't like. Whoever it is you want to be able to say you can kill just tell us and get it over with.

And after you've done that, tell us why you thought that was an appropriate subject for a bushcraft forum.

[rik_uk3]

Mors it a good man, met him at the Bushmoot.

I was with Ludlow survivors for a while, a nice bunch and I arranged a Winter camp for a few. Half went home as it was too 'hard core' lol

This is not a prepper forum Dave.