I thought of this while mucking out the arena (hey, face-to-face with mountains of manure, there’s not much else to do but think):
What would you be able to contribute if society as we know it fell down and went boom? What could you do to be a valuable member of a non-technological society?
I couldn’t get the power back on, or keep the water running, that’s for sure. What I could do is:
1. Any kind of animal husbandry. I grew up in cattle-ranch country, and I’ve had horses all my life, I was in 4-H as a kid and I could probably raise most animals fairly successfully.
2. I could do rough veterinary work – emergency care for humans also, if it came to that and there wasn’t a doctor around. I could stitch wounds, castrate livestock, trim hooves (courtesy of my farrier-trampling psycho mare), etc. Again, courtesy of growing up in an area where people do a lot of their own minor vet work on their animals, and also my time as a veterinary tech. I could birth a baby…can’t be that much different from a foal.
3. I can gut and skin a deer, as well as catch and gut fish.
That would be it…but I think I wouldn’t be totally useless if my computer became a pile of rusting junk. What about you?
Who else is love? me scripsit anno 2005
I could provide food berries and wild leaves, I have gutted fish and that did not worry me, a larger animal may make me a bit squeamish at first but if I was hungry I’d do it. I’d be confident about finding water/shelter. I could make wine, I can build a fire and I am happy around most animals.
I can cook and do basic gardening. I own solar cooking kit which can be turned into refrigeration kit at night. When at home in North America, I know a large range of edible wild foods. I can repair things and I am very very good at making things into other things (as in, taking two items of refuse and making something different and useful). That would only be a useful talent in an area of limited resources. If most of humanity has died off for some reason, then there are more resources for fewer people, so Does Not Apply.
However, as an asthmatic I am susceptible to respiratory disease and I would probably die as soon as all the inhalers and antibiotics lying around expired.
It just struck me as really interesting this morning – kind of like the Heinlein books I loved as a kid. How would I, and the people I know, react to being thrust into a non-technological, agricultural society? Could I pull my weight?
Making wine would be a very valuable skill. :)
Knowing what are edible wild foods would be extremely valuable – I’d poison myself for sure. And you’re right about the inhalers – Phil is an asthmatic and I don’t think he’d survive very well without inhalers and his other meds. :(
That is weird. I’ve had that thought myself. Quite a few times in fact, I think about this. Did you see ‘Last Train’ or something like that? It was basically some people on a train car who were frozen in time and when they came to, it was an apocolyptical world. Very freaky.
I am a first aider. I can do all the basics – make fire, gut and prepare meat from animals (cow, rabbit, chickens, fish, pigs), cook, store food, sow and keep a vegetable garden and chickens, and sew.
I think I should also include things that I have which would help – for instance, I have a survival guide written by Ray Mears. :) I know how to drive a car, motorcycle, 4 wheeler, canal boat (you never know what could come in handy).
Anyway, maybe I should learn to knit. That would be a brilliant skill especially when winter came round. That reminds me – I know how to spin wool into yarn. I know how to make a drop spindle as well. Yay! Actually, I know how to knit basics, but that wouldn’t do. It’s been years… I should learn that this year. I have plenty of friends who know how to. Oh, I can make footwear as well. (There’s tonnes of things I learned from my reenactment years… that I bet I’ve not even added here.)
I know how to set up a defendable camp. I know quite a few booby traps for people and animals and also traps for catching animals (for food or whatever).
Great thoughts. Thanks for sharing. I think it’s really cool you think of these kinda things too. :)
Wow – you’d obviously survive quite well! The setting-up-traps thing is very interesting. I’ve never seen Last Train; this was just something that came to me. Seriously, you never know…it’s not impossible that something could happen to lay waste to the world as we know it. I think there are a lot of people that would be lay around whingeing that “someone” ought to do “something”, and the others would surprise themselves with how much they are actually capable of.