Abraham Maslow, psychologist and author of Motivation and Personality in the 50’s, came up with a basic model of motivating needs for human beings, commonly called Malsow’s hierarchy of needs. Although it lacks nuance it does form a good basic model for thinking about what drives us, and what we need to look after or prioritise in our lives.
The levels of the pyramid suggest that we have to secure the foundational levels of our physiological needs and our security needs before progressing up to relational, self-esteem and self-actualisation (the general theory being that most humans strive towards their full potential, and not securing the needs of lowers levels inhibits this).
It is these lower two we primarily concern ourselves with in a mutual assistance group/prepping mindset. Having shelter, water, food, heat and security are some of the absolute basics of survival. Creating a MAG and prepping is all about taking responsibility and forethought into these spheres, knowing that if things got dire enough we could not expect these to be handed to us by extrinsic sources.
Cross reference this list with the survival rule of 3’s, an easy way to prioritise your survival needs in a wilderness situation. The adage goes that a human being can survive 3 hours without appropriate shelter, 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food.
So this is how I think about prioritising and checking off all the planning and preparation required in an emergent crisis situation. I try to touch on all levels, from immediate, small level and personal, to widespread (global) and long term. So here’s what mine looks like.
Gad’s Survival Hierarchy of needs:
You can survive in an emergency situation:
- 3 seconds without situational awareness - Be aware of your surrounds and the unfolding situation at all times when in a threat space. Collect as much information as possible. Have the ability to move (immediately: make sure your body is fit and capable. Long term: vehicles), shoot (immediately: self defence or reaction, EDC weapons. Long term: firearms and defensive positions) and communicate (immediate: collecting pertinent information with your senses and how you position yourself. Long term: communication redundancies, UHF radios, Sat Phones, signal mirrors etc).
- 3 minutes without blood and air moving around the right parts of the body - know first aid at a minimum. Know remote area or advanced first aid as a upgrade. Have extensive and appropriate well-stocked medical kits and carry emergency life saving equipment in your EDC
- 3 hours without shelter - Immediate: choose your clothing wisely so that it best protects you from the elements without compromising rule 1 (movement). Consider other forms of shelter you may require (long term: tarps, sleeping bags, bivi bags - sleep is an often overlooked but very much required need).
- 3 days without water - Always have some water stored in your grab bag/car (immediate). Stockpile water at home and have a way to treat and purify water (long term).
- 3 weeks without food - Have shelf stable, high calorie foods like protein bars on hand (immediate) and practice intermittent fasting. Stockpile and store food at home and start growing, foraging and hunting your own food now (long term). I would also add in here hygiene, as after three weeks of chronic poor hygiene health issues can start to become serious.
- 3 months without people - although we can last a lot longer without human contact, I through this one in to get people to start making community connections now to better support all the above needs.
This, I feel, touches off on the major things we need to think about in an emergency. Anything beyond this I start to shift towards being a force multiplier (mobility, communications, advanced navigation, etc). Let me know if there’s anything you agree/disagree with or other thing you would add in the comments.
Semper Paratus
Comentarios