hate to be a killjoy

Tons of reasons, and many have nothing to do with the "end of the world".
First and foremost, because I spend days at a time in an untamed wilderness while taking care of 2 young children, because the berries taste better from the deepest bogs, but unfortunately the bears think so too. The hours spent on a lonesome road before you reach civilization, which is not much more than a gas pump and an outhouse sometimes. Because there is nothing more peaceful than a quiet forest, which you know you are never alone in. Because the sunset looks so much better from the top of a mountain. Because we prefer the warmth of the crackling fire instead of forced air heat.

It sounds like you have killed your own joy in your inability to enjoy what the natural world has to offer us. It takes work and attention and some skill, but it is no way a burden to live closer to the land that has always provided for us. The bush has lessons for us that we can never find in the modern hectic world that we have built up around ourselves.

Originally posted by badgerprints
Read a few books about how the average person survives in North Korea.

Nothing to do with this thread really so I apologize but if you want to read a harrowing story about a Political Prison Escapee from N. Korea read Escape from Camp 14 just finished it the other day.

Quick read, only a couple hundred pages - will open your eyes about how brain washed the N. Koreans are.

Good book. Forget the Author's name already - sorry.

Good question OP. I think most people here don't quite understand what you are talkling about. Bushcraft is surviving out in nature(for an extended length of time) with nothing more than the clothes on your back and perhaps a fire starter and knife. Getting through something like hurricane Katrina is basic survival. Bushcraft is important because the knowledge helps build confidence and that leads to a positive attitude. If you look at alot of survival stories, you'll see that those people will say that their confidence and attitude is what kept them alive.

I have similar questions asked about why i live like i do. bush craft is not only for survival or emergency situations, its also a self sufficiency thing. some people wish to memorize every player on a sports team, and some like to know 10 ways to start a fire. some people play video games, some people make atlatls. and if the shat does hit the fan, i will take bush craft over jersey numbers any day.

Well bush craft is more like a last resort. But it's just fun, that's all. And I think it gives you a sense of confidence. Like especially if you were so proficient that you know you could survive hell or high water.

I think it really depends on what you call "bushcraft" skills. Does that include making a shelter out of raw materials, starting a fire without matches/lighter, and hunting or fishing for your food? None of those skills are necessary today but they are still taught to Boy Scouts and the military to this day.

Originally posted by thov420
I think it really depends on what you call "bushcraft" skills. Does that include making a shelter out of raw materials, starting a fire without matches/lighter, and hunting or fishing for your food? None of those skills are necessary today but they are still taught to Boy Scouts and the military to this day.

Yes to all the above.
Skills that are being lost.
Do you have what it takes,if say,all that is known to you is taken away and you are left with only you and your environment?
Not a man-made environment,but as nature intended,so to speak.

I used to teach various forms of Survival...Winter, Jungle, Ocean...etc. People today in the event that there was no electricity or fuel or food available would not survive long in a standard new England Winter.

Most people if lost in the woods in a New England Winter would last only 18 to 28 hours. Sad. Split Infinity

Originally posted by pellian
But exactly why are you learning bushcraft? do you really think that we will be put back into the stone age? Do you really think that overnight that the world will have devolved 200 years?

When I read this question, I think about those who have been unfortunate enough to break an ankle on a hike while alone, get stuck in a severe snowstorm on the long drive back home, or just plain had engine trouble while flying their Cessna in Alaska and had to crash land on a river bank.

For those people, their world devolved 200 years. Those that had bushcraft skills were surely grateful to have them, I'd imagine, yes?

No worries about being a killjoy, you're not the first to come along and bring us such a cold hard dose of reality. Enjoy your safe and sound world, now!

True wisdom dictates that any sort of calamity will never happen. why do you think that is?

reply to post by pellian


I am not sure why that would be considered true wisdom. I would say true wisdom would be like " prepare for the worst, but hope for the best".

It is just a matter of TIME before an ELE occurs on Earth. Now Humans may have the Tech to say...move an Asteroid or nudge a Comet out of a path that would impact Earth. The things we have NO ABILITY TO DEAL WITH ARE...Super Volcanic Eruption such as the Yellow Stone Volcano that erupts every 675,000 years or so and we are in the plus or minus period of that event.

We have no ability to survive another Star going SUPERNOVA as even a Star that is a Thousand Light Years from Earth could easily detonate and wipe out all Life on Earth 1000 years after detonation.

Wandering Black Holes which are relatively small in comparison to say the Black Hole in Cygnus called Cygnus X-1...could easily swallow this planet.

Global Warming and the Massive Storms and possible Ice Age that follows could kill off BILLIONS of people on Earth.

This one scares me...the complete failure of Earths Magnetic Field...which is the only thing that protects the Planet from being STERILIZED by Solar and Cosmic Rays....this is what happened to MARS which most likely had LIFE with it's once huge Oceans.

Unusual Solar Activity such as Massive Solar Flares as well as possible Coronal Discharge which would burn the Planet to ashes in 8 Minutes.

I do not worry about Nuclear War as the U.S. has a very good AMB system and soon to have a completed Direct Energy Missile Shield. The MONSTER that the U.S. Military has become has made Nuclear War unlikely.

Tectonic Plate Subduction...California will not slide into the ocean as the Pacific tectonic plane is being forced under the North American Continent. Still...Tsunamis as well as massive Earth Quakes could kill Millions.

Like George Carlin said...Everyone is screaming SAVE THE PLANET! The Planet is not going anywhere...we are! The Planet is a self correcting system...Human are not. Split Infinity

Originally posted by pellian
True wisdom dictates that any sort of calamity will never happen. why do you think that is?

I don't think that is, at all.

Take March 11th 2011, Japan for example. Was that not a sudden, unexpected calamity?
You can't be serious.

Or take into consideration the Scouts rule 1 Always be prepared.

That's what I live by.

reply to post by thov420


those skills are very necessary for todays life. if we do not keep up on those skills, what do you think is going to happen in a few generations past. nobody will know nothing about survival. A survival situation can come up anywhere at anytime. it is better to be safe than sorry. If everyone was required to know survival skills, there would be a lot less deaths. but i am not saying that is good because we have a population problem. but i digress. so if anyone thinks that survival skills are not needed, then i hope to you good luck when your stuck in the woods.

reply to post by pellian


You never know when the ability to start a fire might come in handy.

...and it was a blast learning how to do it, too. It's not as easy as those guys on TV make it look...

A bow drill and a little patience and voila, fire. Don't have to worry about dry matches.

Knowing how to build a temporary shelter might come in handy when/if you're rendered homeless by a hurricane/earthquake etc... A dry place to sleep, and a fire to warm it...priceless.

Knowing how to sterilize water is useful, too. Did you know there are methods of doing it that don't require boiling? I didn't. I'm sure you can think of times when that might be useful, no?

Knowing how to set a snare/trap...useful knowledge to have when the local supermarket(s) have been looted, or destroyed by cataclysm/riot...

Gardening, too.

Any number of useful skills to have, without recourse to global stone ageism required.

reply to post by kdog1982

Do you have what it takes,if say,all that is known to you is taken away and you are left with only you and your environment?

I remember a lot of the skills taught to me from the BSA. Skills most people nowadays don't have at all. If the SHTF a lot of people are going to be crap outta luck.

I think I do have what it takes because the knowledge in my head can't be taken away from me. I learned so much stuff I can't list it all here. The knowledge in my head doesn't take up any space and weighs nothing, but it will be the most valuable in a SHTF scenario, or even a vehicle breakdown/stranded situation as stated by others above.

Because survival can be, and often is, a situation of one.

Your car goes over an embankment and no one sees. You get lost hiking (easier then you think)

Your plane goes down in the middle of nowhere.

WE CAN defeat emp with no problems .

The enemy can do so as well but for us to bother announcing it we likely have quite a powerful version of emp.

We have enough propulsion knowledge to constuct a craft of equal or lesser critical mass to nudge the astoroid through non nuclear means though it would take alot of attention as it should.