Beyond the Apocalypse; Surviving in the next Dark Age, page 6

Originally posted by whatukno
Ah yes, you can prepare for SIT X all you like but unless you have a long term strategy beyond survival in the upcoming new dark ages your preparedness is all for naught. What happens when you use up the supplies you stored in your BOB? What happens when you run out of ammo? Can you take wheat and make bread? Can you distill your own Biofuels? Can you make your own penicillin? Do you know how to forge steel? Do you know how to rebuild your own civilization?

These questions must be asked because without the necessary knowledge one can only prepare so much. The aftermath of the end of our civilization isn’t necessarily the end of humanity. Humanity will survive, the question is, who knows enough about survival in order to survive the end of this age and the beginning of the new dark age?

So what’s your answer? Do you know?

Let us break down the questions posed here and see what we can collectively learn for ourselves, and collectively know what to do after TSHTF.

1. What happens when you use up the supplies you stored in your BOB?

Well you’re simply going to have to resupply aren’t you? Well what happens if a company doesn’t exist to produce the necessary supply that you’re looking for, or worse you don’t have the barter medium in order to pay for that supply? Can you make your own?

2. What happens when you run out of ammo?

Well again, you’re going to have to resupply aren’t you? Do you know how to reload cartridges? Do you know how to make Black Powder? Do you know how to repair, replace parts on your firearm? And when worse comes to worse do you know how to wield a sword? Sword? Really? A sword, do you know how to effectively wield a sword to its full effect against a target? Do you know how to create a bow and arrow? A lance, A spear?

3. Can you take wheat and make bread?

Can you identify plants that are edible from those that will kill you? Do you know how to purify water for drinking? Do you know how to field dress an animal? Do you know what parts you can use to make sinew? Can you tan a hide? Can you make soap from an animal?

4. Can you distill your own Biofuels?

Do you know how to make grain alcohol to use as a fuel? Do you know how to make a generator out of a lawnmower engine? Can you make a small hydroelectric dam? Do you know how to make a light bulb?

5. Can you make your own penicillin?

Do you know how to culture basic penicillin? Can you derive medicine from plants? Do you know how to set a broken bone? Do you know and understand advanced first aid?

6. Do you know how to forge steel?

Or more easily, do you know how to recycle steel into weapons, tools, armor, and the myriad of other conveniences that this base alloy provides?

7. Do you know how to rebuild your own civilization?

Do you know how to make a basic shelter, an advanced shelter, a house? Do you know how to dig a well? Raise livestock? Grow food?

What happens when you the knowledgeable are confronted with roving gangs of people so desperate to survive they are willing to steal and kill in order to attain that goal? Do you know how to turn them from foe to friend? Do you know how to organize a simple workforce for the benefit of the whole?

Civilizations decay, and rot away, what always is left are the people that make up that civilization. After a collapse of a civilization, there is always a dark age, this is shown throughout history and it will happen again. The question is, are you prepared? Many of you know enough to survive in the wilderness if situation X occurs. The question is surviving enough?

Of course I don't have all the answers, I don't know everything perhaps though as members we can answer these questions for each other and in doing so help each other when the whole enchilada breaks down.