Survivors' Club

I think that everyone knows about the 80/20 rule, the principle that 20 percent of something always are responsible for 80 percent of the results (Pareto's Principle.) This applies to work, wealth, elections, almost everything that happens. I had recently heard the fact that faced with a true disaster (tornado, volcano, flood, war) 80 percent of people go into denial as a defense mechanism, because we don't want to have something bad happen, and that the other 20 percent splits into two groups. The first group of the 20 percent sees what is coming and makes correct and logical decisions and responds in a way that they survive. The second half of the 20 percent sees what is coming and actively and almost angrily denies it to the point of accusing the "survivors" of creating the situation or worse taking advantage of it to hurt the 80 percent who are in deer-in-the-headlights mode. Much of the loss of life in the aftermath of some catastrophe is the result of the tension and fighting between the two active groups, normally precipitated by the Angry Deniers.

Think of a tsunami. Some people see the warning signs and starting heading inland, telling others as they go to get away from the water. The deniers start accusing them of scaring people and might even confront them physically. Most of the people like sheep begin to stare at the water as it moves out, collects and rushes back in and over them and do not begin moving until swept away.

I know that I am a survivor. I have dealt with many tragedies in my life and always knew what to do and when. When I stood in the door of the storm shelter in February of 2008 watching a mile and half wide wall of black, roaring destruction bearing down on us, with debris flying at me, I remember thinking "This is not going to end well." It didn't. I never doubted for a second my decision for the first and only time in my life going to the shelter and was already planning what would need to be done when we came out again.

The first rule of survival is "know yourself." Are you a survivor? Or a denier? Or are you waiting to see what the survivors do?