One disadvantage of living in the cotton wool society we live in now is that our bodies as well as our minds become weak. Living in a socialist state means we don’t have the balls to fight for what is right and wait for someone else to do it for us. We are a bunch of wimps.
It isn’t just our minds either. Our bodies are much weaker and although some of us are making decisions that we are not sheep. We will be dangerous to wolves we cannot control our bodies in the same way. We have adapted over the last hundred years or so and many things that may have caused our great grandfathers to be sick will kill us. We have removed the bugs and bad food so our bodies have not learnt to handle common bugs and we can not handle what was a minor bug over a hundred years ago. That is progress.
One big example is water. We used to drink water from rivers, containers and puddles just like animals. Sometimes the water was bad, an animal had died upstream or something, and we died. Sometimes we just got sick. Now all our water is treated. There is two multi billion pound industries supplying water from the ground. One our local water supplies and the bottled water companies. Our bodies now have not built up the antibodies necessary to fight dirty water and now even we, as preppers, have filters and water treatment facilities in our supplies.
The same with food, before we ate what we could find uncooked. Our bodies built up resilience and again, some died from eating food that was too bad but we were able to process meat as well as vegetables uncooked. Now we would become ill if we ate uncooked meat. Our bodies rely on cooking to destroy pathogens in the food.
Now I’m not advocating we go back to that. It is impractical for us to do so. However, we must remember that for after an event. We may be forced into things we would not normally do and fatalities will occur. We are much much weaker than our forefathers.
Just like some of us allow our children to play in the earth and we don’t disinfect them everytime they get a scratch or seem to be coming down with something after an event we will be forced into allowing them to eat grubs and other things we avoid now. We will try and avoid it but we cannot control every event despite our planning.
The big question is should we consider building up our immune system and gaining antibodies now? The plus side is obvious after an event we would improve our survival chances. We would not be so reliant on treating food and water. The downside is we could become very ill, even fatally ill, attempting to build up these immunities and there may never be an event. You will have suffered, perhaps even died, for nothing.
Myself, it is a step too far and I wouldn’t risk any of my families lives on this. Eventually, our supplies may run out, our cooking or treatment facilities may not work and we may be forced into drinking untreated water or eating uncooked food. Then we will just have to hope our immune systems will adapt quickly enough.
Some risks you just can’t mitigate against. The costs are too much.
I have always been taken with the phrase “you could eat off her floor”. First off who eats off floors? Well maybe a infant crawler they put everything in their mouths.
But anyway I often wondered why one was so clean. To impress? For Company? Puttin’ on the dog?
I know and have known several that are of this mindset. I do think they were busier keeping such sterile conditions in their house. But were they any healthier? I know they weren’t any happier. Now I tend to push it in the other direction. I clean when I can’t stand it any longer. I do keep the kitchen, cooking, eating arena clean but not sterile. All canning and storing of food is handled with clean surroundings and containers. The floor not so much, when it gets so bad it will pull my socks off I think about mopping.
Hey, if all the glasses are dirty and company comes, their arms ain’t broke they can wash their own to use. That’s why you stupidly say “make yourself at home”. But when they leave make sure you soak theirs in bleach water, no telling what they drug in.
No, you can’t go back to yesterday, but seems yesterday is fixing to kick us in the BUTT so we had better try and get used to a few bugs now so we can contend with the others later. Work at it now and you will be better off.
you have to build up an immunity to something, if you cover it in chemicals and clean everything to an enth degree then you will NEVER build up any immunity, “eat a peck of dirt before you die” used to be a well known saying. as a kid i used to play outside, in the rivers, in the dirt and never caught any nasty diseases now people wrap their kids in cotton wool and dont let them outside the door.
bp, I too used to live and play around our ‘local’ fields and river, swimming fishing and camping in bashas etc, if we were thirsty it came out of the river, hungry it was what we foraged until time to go home. Now days I would be hard pushed to drink out of our river unless it really was an emergency, the food was not sterile and I am sure it built up a resistance in us. Saying that, when I about 6 yrs old I actually caught tetenus from a cut and was crippled for 18 months and nearly died, the outset is I am now immune to the disease and the Blood banks are pleased when I give Blood, at least something good came out of it.
the worst i ever did was fall out of a tree and break my arm, never caught anything from being outside in the fresh air.
Although in general I agree that we as a race are likely to hsave less antibodies than our forefathers to certain disease sources it is also true that we are far better informed than they were. As such weare not ignorant of the benefits of basic hygiene andevenin the aftermath of a large scalew disaster we would know more than our ancestors did regarding safe ways to clean, prepare and cook food. I am confident that I would be able to source reasonable water and prepare it safely before drinking it. As to food even grubs and insects can be safely eaten provided they are prepared carefully. Soaking slugs and snails in a couple of ahanges of clean water before eating them will flush toxins from their systems and the same goes for most shellfish. Foraging for wild food today does lead to more chance of illness than in te past but this is mainly due to human factors like polution in thew food chain rater than a lack of immunity. Our ancestors would not have had to avoid sewerageoutlets whilst fishing or gathering shellfish. They would not have needed to worry about roadside plants being full of car exhaust waste and the dangerous chemical spray residues from pesticides. Luckily we do know and are able to take precautions before eating. I would say the biggest issue in safety of food and water after a major event is getting sufficent from a seriously depleted reserve of wild sources.With the massive over population of this country and the strain on natural rescources it is likely that there would be a great deal of compettition for food and water after a collapse in normal society. Learning to find food/water supplies may well become territorial. Look at hunter gatherer societies through the ages and we can see the tribal systems developing and conflicts over territory occurring in every part of the globe. If our society were to decsend to that level after a collapse clans/tribes could bethe result.
I spend as much time as possible outdoors and as I ramble along I munch on clover leaves,Shepherd’s purse, etc. I eat out at meal times and have a brew up. Last year was the first year that I didn’t manage to camp. I will try to camp this year. I know a wonderful camp site in Bute within an Alder Wood. I am thinking that Preppers might join me some time after a get-together in Glasgow. At present cannot decide on dates, as my sister in Portsmouth is in Hospital and will have to go into a home when she leaves. Old Age is a curse. Kenneth Eames.
Sorry to hear about that Ken. We will arrange a Glasgow meet some time this year.
Northumbriman,
Welcome. I agree we are much better informed now than we were but I think that is negated by the fact that as we are wrapped in cotton wool all the methods we have learnt will be forgotten for most people and coupled with lack of preventory medicines means we will have to rely on our natural cotton wool wrapping. Our immunities.
For most the cotton wool Will certainly result in illness and possibly death from diseases but for a reasonably knowledgeable prepper there should be little to worry about. Hygiene and good food Prep habits and a knowledge of simple first aid and cottage medicine should get them by. I would use Africa as an example. We are bombarded with images of children and adults in the third world who are killed or made seriously ill by dirty water. They have never had clean water sources yet still lack immunity to common disease’s. Thousands of people died daily in this country due to illness and poor sanitation before we had a basic understanding of bacteria and pre penicillin. I have kids who have eaten outdoors, drunk water from streams, swum in rivers and lakes with no health issues at all. The same kids can go to a take away and end up with dihorea just Cos some idiot in the kitchen skipped washing their hands.
My wife was hospitalised for a week last year with food poisoning yet we regularly eat outdoors while camping and picnicking. Its all down to hygiene and sanitation.