What is a mutual assistance group (MAG)? At it’s core, it’s a group of like minded people who form together under an agreement to assistance one another in the event of some form of disaster. As I will explain in further depth in the next part, going it alone in a time of crisis is foolhardy, bordering on suicidal. It is almost impossible for an individual to survive by themselves, let alone thrive and live well. So forming a group is wise in order to increase the survivability of each individual.
This group is based around a common belief that our current situation could get bad, very bad, and that outside support cannot be relied upon.
Put simply its a group who pool their resources and skills in order to increase the survivability of the members.
Generally speaking these are people within proximity to you, and usually will include family and friends that you can’t live without. More formally though it will include people who share the belief that things can potentially get worse than they are now, and are willing to act towards that inevitability.
Consider all the skills you may need to survive long term outside (or bereft) of the current system. Do you know how to source, clean and purify water? How to grow, hunt, harvest and preserve food? How to render medical aid beyond first aid? How to set up defence strategies? How to repair a vehicle? How to fix communications equipment? How to navigate? How to safely build a structure? How to weld together metal? How to forge?
I could continue but I’m sure you get the point. For one individual to have all the required skills to thrive is burdensome at best.
Form a group in which you can meet up regularly, practice and cross pollinate skills and knowledge, start coordinating plans and preparations, start working on a property or fall back location, and start practicing techniques, tactics and procedures so that if (and when) a disaster strikes, you already have your ducks in row.
In my Grandparents day do you know what they called a prepper? Nothing. They called people who didn’t prep fools. Having stored up food and preparation, as well as a community or group around you in case of an emergency or disaster is just common sense. And yet for the decades preceding this one, it has been viewed as a fringe behaviour.
Of all the shitty things that are happening at the moment, one silver lining is that people are starting to pay attention to how fragile our systems really are. Within Australia, I often tell people that we live within a bubble (or several bubbles in fact), and for the first time in a long time Aussie are starting to see what it might look like if that bubble burst. For some this means running headlong into an ever controlling system, for others it means taking stock of themselves and taking responsibility for their own safety.
More and more I’m finding myself in conversations that a few years ago I would’ve been (and was) laughed at for. But finally ‘prepping’ is shifting into the norm.
These conversations can be the genesis of forming a MAG.
Firstly I want to dispel a fallacy about survival. There is a notion (and perhaps an innate tendency) to want to shut off and ‘go it alone’ when the shit hits the fan. Romantic ideas of a sole wander on the wastelands, a lone wolf bunkered down in some retreat fighting off the zombie hoard, are just that, romantic, entertaining but ultimately lies. Don’t get me wrong, I love those stories but the truth of the matter is much more mathematical. It is really hard to survive by yourself. Loneliness aside, just the caloric and water needs for an individual would have you working most of everyday just to get by. Add on to this shelter, fire, and any other number of ‘things’ that you need and you can start to see that division of labour is a pretty good deal.
So this is why we need a Group.
With one person, you need to expend a lot energy to get energy (in the form of kilojoules from food). But with two people, you share the burden. With 5 people, you can easily spread jobs and tasks to those who are more adept. With 10-15 people you can have people hunting, people cooking, people on guard, people gardening, people repairing and people relaxing, all simultaneously.
And this is just in a subsistence example.
Within your MAG you should strive to increase your skills and knowledge. If you have someone who is an expert in something (or just knows more than the others) then they can teach or train others within the group on this subject (think ex military or LE, doctors or medical workers, tradies, gardeners, hunters). We build redundancy and resiliency into our MAG.
We strongly encourage you to go out and start/build/enhance your own MAG. This means that we can start collecting the things and practicing the skills we need for an emergency situation, from short term to long term. We can figure out things like skills we have and skills we require, and start to learn them now. We can start to pool our resources to secure land, food storage, water, security items, etc. We can start to work together, practice together and move towards a life of greater self sustainability, regardless of whether there is a collapse or not.
So start to listen to these conversations with an idea towards starting or enhancing your group (Nowadays I look at everyone and wonder ‘how will these person be in the collapse?’)
So what are the first steps to creating a Mutual Assistance Group?
Well first, you need to ‘find your tribe’. As I pointed out in the last post, right now there is more awareness around the need to prepare for an uncertain future. Listen to the conversations that you are having with people and test the waters on whether the person may be open to something like this. I advise caution at this stage, as many people will reject the idea of ‘prepping’ and may even become hostile. We also need to maintain OpSec (Operational Security: The security of important information that could compromise us or others at a later date). Letting many people or letting the ‘wrong’ person know that you have preps could spell disaster at a later date.
In the formation stage, I recommend having trusted individuals in your group only, and vetting others in through a vote.
Once you start to coalesce into a group, you need to have a meeting (or ideally regular or semi-regular meetings) to coordinate your plans. You need to see what resources you have (land, resources, skills, knowledge, time) and what you are deficient in (vulnerabilities). Once you have that information you can start figuring out what your ultimate goal is. This is usually an extension of what you believe the likely disaster is that you will face. A group that is planning on nuclear Armageddon will plan and prepare very differently to one that is planning for societal collapse through financial system collapse. There is an art and a science to bringing into resolution what it is that you are planning for and will cover this in another post, but for now it’s ok to just say ‘general societal collapse’ or ‘dictatorship take over by the Gladys, Andrews and McGowen overlords’.
Not everyone has to have the exact same idea of this either, but there are certain things that will will cause friction in the future, so its best to identify these now and perhaps go your seperate ways (e.g. if one person wants to build concrete bunkers filled with bullets and beans or one person wants to start a hippy commune, these two will eventually tear apart).
Once you’ve got the direction, it’s time to get to work. Start regular meet ups, preferably at one of the properties that you are intending to use so that you can start working on the land. Starting a garden (or mini farm) can take months to get going, so start early and have it producing as soon as possible. Assess what each individual can afford to prep for and constantly check in with each other about how each person is doing. Help each other out with information, hints and tips on what’s worked/what hasn’t worked. Organise training days to cross reference information and get basic skills like first aid, gardening, food prep and self defence. Have working bees at your property location to start setting up infrastructure to sustain your group long term.
Remember the PACE plan in all this. It’s not enough to say ‘we have a doctor’ or ‘everyone buy this radio and stick in your pack’. What if your doctor is injured, killed or cannot make it to your location? What if your radios are complex and some people don’t know how they function. Practice skills, share knowledge, test equipment. Remember that the best laid plans don’t survive the first bullet, so put your plans to the test and learn from any mistakes that come up.
IN SUM
- Find like minded people
- Meet and discuss goals, Strengths and Vulnerabilities
- Start prepping individually based on goals
- Meet up regularly to train, talk, test and share.
- Practice scenarios and test out preps and equipment
Encourage people around you to be better prepared for a SHTF scenario. It is each individuals responsibility to take care of their own survival, but if we work as a group towards the same goal we can increase our survivability exponentially.
Semper Paratus
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