What Fallout can teach us about civil defense.

I was a history major as an undergrad and for my senior thesis I wrote about historic civil defense practices against thermonuclear war. My inspiration: the Fallout franchise of course! ... Well actually that was the final deciding factor in it all. There were a number of influences through out my life leading up to my decision on my thesis.

But I have decided to ask a very important question today: What can Fallout teach us about civil defense?

I would argue that civil defense in relation to thermonuclear war is practically dead in this country. Since the end of shelter surveys in 1993 after the official end of the Cold War, people have been very passive about preparing for nuclear disaster. Only since the disaster at the Fukushima-Daichi power plant in Japan has anyone really paid attention to this issue in the last ten years. Although people have been paying attention to the exclusion zone around Chernobyl quite recently but that's besides the point... 

 By the way ^THAT'S the exclusion zone. It's currently a thriving refuge for wildlife, especially my beloved wolves.

Anyway, what can Fallout teach us about civil defense.

1. Be prepared.

Now yes I know that the vaults were not meant to really SAVE anyone. They were more or less meant to be social experiments, but those that did not cause their occupants to go absolutely fucking insane with killing sprees did end up saving their inhabitants from the initial blast and the years of high yield radiation caused by the massive amounts of fallout spreading across the nation and the world.

Recently the state of Pennsylvania has been running commercials telling its residents to be prepared at all times for natural disasters. As a long time resident of the state, I know first hand how much of a problem flooding can cause in the state. But, for most of my life, I have lived within the danger zone of Three Mile Island. As I got older, I started to worry a bit about the possibility of TMI going Chernobyl. I kept asking in school about what we were supposed to do if that happened. I never got a straight answer. My mother joked that if it went we would never know because it would come so fast.

As a senior in college, I was finally able to get my hands on my former school district's disaster plans for TMI. They did not instill a lot of confidence in me. "Inadequate" doesn't even begin to describe these "plans." The "plans" suggested that teachers close all doors and windows and then wait for further instructions. Translation: "We don't know what to do. Good luck."

I thought for sure that the schools had been equipped with special shelters for the children. If this was historically the case, I was never able to find out. Honestly, I tried to dig at them, but the district office was bothered by my digging, so I stopped.

So when I started playing Fallout, I realized how important it was to be prepared for the possibility of nuclear disaster. Let's build a vault!

2. Learn how to protect yourself from people who want to kill you and take your stuff.

I introduced my boyfriend to Fallout 3 about six months ago. At first he refused to shoot anyone who was shooting at him. "As long as I don't confront them and cause conflict the whole thing will resolve itself" was kind of the gist of what he told me.

Me: -_-

Boyfriend: What? Am I doing it wrong?

Me: People are SHOOTING at you. You also have a gun. Don't you think you should kill them? They're not going to be like "hey this guy is not shooting back. Maybe he's cool. Let's leave him alone and be friends."

Boyfriend: Well why not?

Me: *grabs controller* Gimme that! I'll show you how it's done. *kills all the raiders* There. That's how you do it. When people shoot at you, you shoot back and kill them before they kill you.

Boyfriend: ........ I am slightly bothered by this.

Me: This is the whole game. Get used to it.

Now I am not saying that this is a good idea for everyday life. In real life you have to wait until someone shoots at you before you are justified in shooting back. And in the case of nuclear apocalypse... Well there will no longer be any order in the world, so do what you have to to survive.

3. Water is precious.

Almost the entire focus of Fallout 3 was clean water for all. And some of the first things that you read in old civil defense pamphlets are about having enough water on hand in a shelter. I remember during the Y2K panic, people were hoarding bottled water like crazy. Well, I honestly see no reason against hoarding clean water. Our bodies are primarily made of water, so in an unfortunate disaster where our water supplies have been compromised, water will be a bargaining chip for other goods and services. If you have the water, all the more power to you. If you want to hoard water, that's great! One up to you in surviving the apocalypse.

Not too long ago, however, I asked the question of whether or not there are currently water filtration systems on the market that would be efficient tools in purifying irradiated water sources. Evidently, a Reverse Osmosis system would be effective, but this depends on how heavy the radiation is. Also, I don't think your Brita water filter is going to be able to handle this stuff.

So the lesson here: hoard water.

If you have any other suggestions for lessons that Fallout can teach us about civil defense, do not hesitate to post them in the comments section!