Adaptability

It is not the strongest of the species that survives; nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. – Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882)

No matter what the event is, no matter when it occurs the people who tend to survive are those with the mindset of adaptability. It doesn’t matter if you live in a village in Wales or a executive flat in London City if you are not able to adapt to the changes in your environment you are less likely to survive. Of course some have less to adapt to than others and that is also critical. If you already live on a working farm then there is less culture shock than if you live in a flat in Central London. Know your situation and be honest.

Adaptability is more important than actually having food and water stored away as well. Depending on course on the event but all things being equal someone unprepared but able and willing to adapt will do better in the medium to long term than someone who has prepared but is unwilling or slow to adapt. Who would you rather be with, Me with two years worth of preps or Ray Mears with just his knife?

Stores are there to actually make the transitions easier and aid progress. They are there to cover temporary blips in supply and to keep you going. Adaptable or not you will survive with stores. The true test is if the event leads to the exhaustion of those stores. How are your hunting skills, your gardening skills and your shelter skills? All these will need to be in place before you run out of stores.

Many of us prepare by putting aside stores and setting up a home somewhere but we don’t seriously consider the changes necessary to adapt to a new life. I keep on pointing out how difficult it will be for the survivor’s children to start to climb back up the ladder. It is going to take significant planning and preparation in that area for us just to stand still. Much, much more for us to progress and that is providing that it is not too long before we start on the road to recovery.

Anyone that thinks otherwise is doomed if a real event takes place.

I don’t actually believe that you just get adaptability. It is taught to you by experience and it has to be added to your thought process by others. I think that you can set up the environment that encourages it and make yourself and others consider options for each situation. It takes work and we have all seen those that can come in look at something and say ‘What about trying this’ and you look and it is a great solution then think that it is obvious and question why you didn’t think of it. It is a mindset and difficult to learn when older but not impossible.

Personally, I’m mixing my soft skills such as living off the land with hard preps such as putting aside gear for use. Having a good supply of food and other preps already, not all I would like but I want to maintain a balance in my preparations. I’m also well prepared to adapt where necessary and looking at doing some of that now with the introduction of composting toilets for example. Not quite ready, and hope never to be, for eating beans at every meal. However, we do try different meals to ensure that there are no issues with some of the items. Thanks to Ken and his articles we are also looking at our medicines, won’t be getting rid of them but looking at supplementing them with natural ones where we can. Will try some when the opportunity presents. Don’t get fixated on what you know now or what it should be like. Adapt and live.

Those that are adaptable will adjust after an event, live off whatever and get on. Those that do not naturally adapt need to start looking at it now. Don’t look at two years worth of preps and say you don’t need to bother you will and the sooner you do so the easier it will be and your supplies will be of great help there. Although some will shake off the culture shock and get on with life we as a species have become a bunch of wimps so I’m sure many will stay at home looking at the blank TV screen and simply die waiting for someone to come and make it all better for them. Make sure you are not one of those.

I believe very strongly that our mindset must be clear. We must be prepared to adapt as necessary to live. Every society in history has adapted and fought its way to its peak followed by stagnation as they have made themselves comfortable on the backs of their predecessors and then were overtaken by the next heathen group who were willing to fight for their cause. We can see this happening today in Western society.

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. – George Santayana (1863 – 1952)

If we do falter though. Cockroaches seem to be very adaptable. I wonder if in 100 million years a descendant of the cockroach will step on the moon and look at the site in the Sea of Tranquillity and scratch its carapace in wonder.