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Self-Sufficiency in Style 

Self-Sufficiency v Survivalism

Are Self-Sufficiency and Survivalism different things?

Hitting a perceived threat head on, or avoiding it??

At first glance, they are very different.

Survivalism seems mostly, although not completely, confined to the US, whereas Sufficiency embraces all the English speaking countries.

Survivalism makes constant reference to both politics and history, using both to suggest cause for immediate alarm, whereas Self-Sufficiency, in most cases, represents a withdrawal from day to day pressures rather than a reaction and confrontation.

Survivalism sees Armageddon as being imminent, whereas Sufficiency usually seems to avoid noticing any problem.

Survivalism can seem hard, brash and violent, when Sufficiency seems almost pathetically gentle and non threatening.

There is no doubt that Empires, States and Societies do struggle and sometimes collapse suddenly and violently, either from external attack or from tensions within.

Against the background of human history, political and religious disputes are far more likely to cause chaos than the forces of nature - at least on the national scale.

To suggest that man is usually nastier than nature does not seem to be an extreme philosophy, even if the expression of any perceived danger can be bigoted and unpleasant.

History tells us that all civilisations eventually crumble, usually in war.

A world changing event almost within living memory.

Within the English speaking world, the largest terrorist attack was on the twin towers - and the last great internal dispute, with massive loss of life within an Anglophone country, was the American Civil War.

In a large country with wilderness, survivalism is a rational response to national emergency. In a small one, or in a big city, it is unlikely to be of much value.

So if Self-Sufficiency is a response to a long term threat, if it is a response to any threat; Survivalism is a response to a potentially  immediate and dramatic danger.

So any difference between the two themes is one of the nature, scale and urgency of the threat and the landscape upon which it is played out.

The Survivalist tends to emphasise storing usable and consumable items for a specific period of threat.

The Self-Sufficiency home tends to collect skills and to modify their immediate environment over a much longer time-scale and without the regard for an immediate sudden disaster necessary as motivation.

A little nearby wilderness helps survivalists.

But the two do come together:

The Survivalist does recognise a longer period of threat and the desirability of preparing accordingly with renewable supplies.

The Self-Sufficient home will often, as part of the routine, develop, even coincidentally, lifestyles that encompass Survivalist goals.

Just make sure it is a female goat!

The simple act of milking a cow or goat illustrates the point perfectly.

Many an army unit during the last war got milk in their coffee or tea, because a farm boy in their ranks had the simple skill of being able to capture and milk a passing cow or goat.

Today, few in the ranks would be able to recognise the male from the female of the species, let alone be able to secure any milk.

Self-Sufficiency would likely outscore Survivalism on the ability to provide milk in a prolonged emergency.

Chernobyl happened, far far away in the remote USSR, but very quickly in today's well connected world we knew that it was a major disaster likely to contaminate the land over a wide area.

The East of England was very unlikely to be troubled at such a vast distance - and against the prevailing westerly wind.

Nevertheless, as a precaution we kept the goats in their stables for a few days.

It later transpired that our care was unnecessary. As we expected, we were not contaminated by radioactive fall-out.

But our caution was well founded, a massive weather system took a swirl of air from far away Chernobyl, sluiced it around Scandinavia, before allowing rain to dump some fall-out to the west of us, over a small part of the Welsh mountains. They still have contamination in this area - and tests - with restrictions that are still in force.

So, it is not just having the skill to milk the goat, but actually having a goat to milk, housing, information about an imminent threat and the resources and wit to take appropriate action.

The Survivalist can be compared to a hunter-gatherer, someone with the forethought to have planned and prepared for famine and change, possibly for a limited time.

It is tempting to believe that the desire for a more independent life-style causes the Survivalist to search for the rationale rather than the reverse.

The Self-Sufficiency enthusiast is for the longer term; preparing and providing for a self-sustainable life encompassing emergency planning as a natural part of the system.

Crops fail and animals become ill, just as governments misjudge and sometimes fall.

Pests, human and otherwise, attack both food supplies and plants.

Disease can arrive as a natural predator or by the hand of man.

You don't need politics to see the dangers.

You can reach articles on a similar theme on Running for Cover or The Effects of Terrorism  or you can read about planning for emergencies in  When the lights go out.

...Self-Sufficiency v Survivalism

- both at Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner.