Survival Priorities

Which one is the most important?

The main priority is about survival. Second priority is to get ahead.
I will not censure or censor your opinion. However, if you are wise, at least in this world, you have to play the survival game with politic. I agree that politicians should have many more "important" jobs to do besides survival, but please do a reality check when you offer your opinion.

I am really looking for advices, not comments. I welcome your comments, but please post them later, not when the question is still open.
I love the word "integrity."

1. Know who your constituents are and remember YOU work for THEM not for yourself
2. Know the difference between compromising and selling out
3. Maintain integrity when all around you are losing theirs
4. Know when to say "NO."
5. Know when to keep your mouth shut
6. Know when to open your mouth and speak up
7. Do not become so enamored with power you'd sell your soul for it
8. Study history and the repeated mistakes and failings of men
9. Keep learning and embrace change because yesterday's ideas are just that
10. Remember that humility is way more powerful than arrogant confidence because it never clouds your vision

2006-07-08 21:30:16 by

Taken from our Woodsmaster volume 2 DVD.Learn about how you lose heat in a wilderness survival situation. This is part one of a series on survival ...

My girlfriend did this team building excercise where you had to rate 15 items by their importance for survival in the wilderness of Newfoundand Canada in October. The students then were graded on the difference between their ratings and the ratings of a survival expert. Here are the expert's ratings:
1. waterproof matches
2.hand axe
3. heavy duty canvas
4. sleeping bag
5. gallon maple syrup
6. braided nylon rope
7. snowshoes
8. inner tube
9. shaving kit and mirror
10. flashlight
11.bacardi rum
12.alarm clock
13.compass
14.celestial navigation book
15.water purification tablets
Some of the students disagreed with fire being the number one priority. Any opinions? There were more details about the situation and a map included but it would be too lengthy to include here. I just don't think that you must have fire.
I think I would always put the sleeping bag and tarp first and second. I might even take the axe before the matches. You cannot warm yourself externally. You can only slow down heat loss. Body heat must come from metabolization of calories. Eating and excercising is the only way to make body heat. After that, you just need to insulate yourself and stay dry.
I think that alot of survival training comes from a military standpoint. They are taking defense into account. Build a stronghold, defend it, and wait for support troops.
The fire seems like more of a mental thing and a way to pass time. I guess if I knew there were polar bears around, I might make matches number one, but then there might not be any wood to burn in polar bear habitat, right? Anyone with experience?

I may be cheating here, but I have used this activity a number of times in my career. As I recall, there were two reasons for the fire, one you were stranded in Canada or Norther MN in the middle of winter and second, the smoke could be seen by rescue planes. So, yes I believe fire would be important for getting rescued.

2007-01-25 18:55:04 by paddlesurfelipe

Price: $37.50 $15.95

Ergonomic textured rubber grip maximizes comfort and reduces slippage
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BIOLOGY...
help please

Species, by far. Just ask your mother.

2010-02-06 10:56:14 by stargazer

Price: $1.20

This is long, I know. Thanks in advance for your patience.

Much of our behavior is driven by nature and environment. Consider mental disorders, which are undesirable difference in how our brain responds to outside stimuli. Take chronic depression for example: How do you know you or someone else suffers from that disorder? Because their reactions (whether internal or external) to outside stimuli fall within the range described by the description of that disorder. This implies a non-disordered, normal range of prescribed reaction to stimuli. As in, a 'normal' person reacts within a certain range, while an 'abnormal' (no insult intended) person reacts within a different, often overlapping range.

Many mental disorders are inborn, or a predisposition towards them is, implying that the 'normal range' is as well. So, our reactions to outside stimuli depend on the stimulus itself and on our inborn 'reaction range'. Environment, of course, also plays a part. Most people will not pursue a course of action that is objectionable to their culture or upbringing, unless of course, other priorities override environment i.e. stealing in order to eat. Humans are rational creatures. Our priorities may not always be ordered as they should (by 'should', I mean to imply a cultural or environmental 'approved' list of priorities, like country over self, or employment over entertainment), but we do make rational decisions based on those priorities, whatever they may be.

Now, my cat for example, also has a normal and abnormal 'reaction range' prescribed by her instincts and environment. Her sense of self-preservation makes her desire food. If she were wild, she would hunt. Her environment, however, is different. She is a pet, so when she wants food she whines. If she suddenly had to fend for herself, she could. But is that free will? Can her actions (switching to hunting) be considered voluntary when they are necessary for survival? What if we consider what we all know, that she will definitely make the choice to hunt. If the other option is impossible, is her choice voluntary?

When I react to my environment (a description that any decision can be reduced to), what would lead me to believe that my choices are any more voluntary than hers? I find myself unable to think of any decision a human being makes in the course of their life that can not be reduced to environment and that inborn 'reaction range', coupled with rational pursuit of priorities (which, are also dictated by environment and inborn traits).

That is, save one. Humans make one decision that animals never do: to suicide. That action goes against our natural inclination to survive and even against most environments (most societies consider it cowardly). Is that all there is to free will? Self-destruction or self-preservation? Keep in mind that self-destructive impulses are not confined to suicide. Staying out too late at the bar and coming to work hung over is self-destructive (and rational, since you pursued your immediate desire to be drunk while sacrificing a longer term desire to be employed).


I know this is really long and I hope I've made myself understood. Just bear with me for a little longer: Why do you suppose humans have the ability to make a self-destructive choice, but other animals do not?

Here's my theory. Some cultures do not have a word for 'zero'. Thus, they do not have the concept. 'Nothing' doesn't occur in nature. But, 'I' does. Humans have a concept of self, and necessarily 'not self'. We also have an advanced concept of death. I f we can comprehend both 'self' and 'death', it follows that we can comprehend 'death of self'. Is that what gives us our unique ability to act contrary to instinct? And, can free will truly be reduced to that one choice, between self-destruction and self-preservation?

Thanks for reading all this. What are your thoughts??
I DID trim it down. I couldn't shorten it more without sacrificing understanding. It only really takes a minute to read.

I think that it is because over our history we have been literally forced out of our proper place (the equilibrium if you want).

We we're supposed to stay like animals and hunt and survive and that's about it. But because we now live in cities and are forced to take different course of action to obtain what we want (a car, a job etc) instead of doing what nature intended us to do, which is to simply take it by force, we have also lost our ability to 'go with the flow' of nature, like other animals.

Over time I think our brains have adapted to this style of existence and it has had a strange effect on the race and how we differ from other creatures.

To sum it up, I think that the main reason we have such free-will is because we have been forced to at times ignore free-will, then realize it, then harness its power like never before.

It brings to mind the old saying "You don't know what you have got, until its gone". Then when you get it back you understand it a hell of alot more

2009-03-25 06:47:02 by 3.14159265

I'm doing survival as my topic in English and one of my homework assignments is to list 10 necessary survival tools (from highest to lowest priority) and then give a reason after each saying why they are necessary.

I know its so lame. :P

So the answer with the most tools listed will get 10 points! And if there are 2 answers with the same amount of tools listed then ill choose the p[person who did it first!

Thanks a lot if u could help me!

1.)I'm
2.)not
3.)going
4.)to
5.)do
6.)your
7.)homework
8.)for
9.)you

Oops, I couldn't think of 10...

2007-07-28 00:10:21 by Nik``Braaa