A totally new scenario I have never seen before.

reply to post by 3nLiGhT3n

I would pillage rape and plunder, and become an immoral renegade.. To hell with your peaceful, sharing communities! Survival of the fit only the strong survive!
Lol

There's always one, eh?

Thing is, those "peaceful" sharing communities are also going to be ARMED, and you'll have 20 guns to your one (regardless of how many you have, you are only firing ONE at a time, and from ONE field of fire). Meanwhile, those in the community are firing at you from hardened positions, with more ammo stores than one person can carry. Good luck.

Unless you are a complete Jack of all trades (including medical), even a small wound or grazing bullet wound could end you as a loner.

Not to mention, lets say you pillage, and find 5 boxes of .22 ammo, when you use a 9mm. Well, you could carry around that dead weight, or go somewhere (like one of these armed communities) and trade your 5 boxes for a box of 9mm ammo you can use, some home-canned stews, and canteens full of water. Which option is more attractive to you mighty warrior?

reply to post by JJTHEFETT


I think this is far too simplistic a proposition. I think the same thing when I see people planning for all kinds of scenarios, there are a thousand and one variables that are not taken into account.

Is it a political crisis or does it have a political aspect to it?
Is the military on the side of the people?
Has there been an invasion of some kind?
Have food supplies just been stalled or ended completely?

I would need to know what the cause is, what the scenario is, to be able to make that kind of decision. If anyone here can make such a decision based on such a simplistic suggestion without any specifics then I would suggest they wouldn't last a week in a real emergency

reply to post by Rocker2013


That's why you have to plan in a GENERAL sense. There are simply too many unknowns. I seriously doubt we will even see a SHTF event in my lifetime, but I'd rather feel prepared for it, than not. Also, my preps will remain for my stepkids to take advantage of, and their kids, etc., etc.

It happens all the time. Think of all the hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts, floods that happen.

If you're not involved directly by a natural disaster, then you're just lucky.

reply to post by Wildbob77


A little different though, than a true SHTF event when society itself crumbles for a time. Pretty much Hurricane Katrina is about the last time we saw it here in the US, and that was really localized, but still, all too real for those folks. So it can happen.

reply to post by JJTHEFETT


Let me ask you, then.
How many should I prep for?

10?
1000?
360 million?

I've prepped for my family.
Even some of of my family that think I'm a nutjob, got them covered, too,

I would really like a response.
What number of people is it my civic duty to prep for?

I await your response.

reply to post by 3nLiGhT3n

I would pillage rape and plunder, and become an immoral renegade.. To hell with your peaceful, sharing communities! Survival of the fit only the strong survive! Lol

Probably not for very long

reply to post by Oaktree


Basically, I'm prepping for my family and survival group first...then (with their help), doing all I can to generate excess, and other trade items and services. I don't want to just survive such a scenario. I'd like to contribute to getting us back on track, and I'd like to actually have something to do in such a world.

I couldn't agree more....

Funny that even in everyday life we run into scenarios like this. Someone playing a gitar or panhandling, and instead of helping out even with a buck or two we quickly walk by and ignore the chance to help.

And then if the shtf the same thing would happen. meanwhile I got news for you, we're all gonna die at some point. It doesn't matter how much food you have stored up. Infact once word gets out that you have food you'll have a 1000 zombie like people breaking down your door for it. How are you gonna stop them all? Or if you're in your bunker isolated for a long time you got food but now you start going mad as you start getting cabin fever.

All that's gonna matter in the end is "did you leand a helping hand or were you a greedy bastard who deserves all they have in store"

reply to post by Gazrok


I feel the same, and do my best to prep for the immediate community.
When loss of power is a possibility, I fill up my gas cans for the neighborhood.
I do not have a generator, but some of my neighbors do, and they appreciate the gas reserves.
The more snow blowers we can keep running, the quicker we get our driveways and street cleared.

However, there is a limit as to the number of people that can plug into a generator, and I couldn't possibly clear all of the snow in the county, much less afford the gas involved in that undertaking.

reply to post by Oaktree


Exactly. It's more of a do what you can, for as many as you can kind of thing, but focusing of course, on your loved ones first. That's really all we can expect of ourselves and anyone else for that matter.

But, when a group of people have a "little extra" and then pool that together, that's when big things happen.

It is natural for people to think in terms of familial survival first. It seems to be hard-wired into our brains. But there is more to survival than surviving... I believe in thriving.

Growing up, my family was pretty poor. If we wanted something, we either grew it or made it. There was enough money to have electricity and weekly trips to town for essentials, but the house I grew up in was built primarily from wood obtained from a torn-down department store that was remodeling... the barn was built by hand from poles cut in the mountain... our first tractor was made from scrap metal and junk parts, powered by a rebuilt Briggs & Stratton motor. Yet, there was always enough.

I never remember a time when company couldn't be easily invited to dinner. There was always enough table scraps to feed two dogs, and enough leftover harvest from the garden to share with neighbors. We never worried about where our next meal was coming from. If we wanted something badly enough (like our first TV that Dad wanted desperately), we simply cut back on something else so we could have it.

I have more money now than we did back then, but we don't always have extra food. At least, we didn't until I started thinking the same way we thought back then. Food is everywhere... it grows free from seed. We have blackberries growing wild, raspberries, plums, apples, pears, vegetables, taters, spices, pecans, black walnuts, water chestnuts, melons... all just sitting there producing food for us.

If, in a SHTF scenario, someone comes to my front door hungry, they will leave will fed. If, however, someone comes into my garden and wants to just take... they will not leave. It's a simple concept: I prepared, I sacrificed, I worked to create what we have, and if you didn't, you will at least respect that I did. If someone cannot respect that, they better just keep on moving. And that doesn't just go for some future situation... it goes now.

Maybe I just woke up to the reality of humanity before others have... but we as a species are a selfish, greedy, wasteful bunch who will regularly doom ourselves if allowed to do so. I trust a coyote around a chicken pen more than I do a person walking across my field; the coyote will take enough to eat, while the person is liable to burn the whole field just because he doesn't want anyone else to have it. So I will be, I am, indeed cautious when people are concerned. But that doesn't mean I won't help them all I can. It just means I will be, I am, very picky about making sure the ones I help are the ones who won't stab me in the back afterward.

Great question; hope this answered it.

TheRedneck

reply to post by TheRedneck


Great answer.... We think very much alike in these things.

Goes for me too, now or in some future event. In fact, we even had a family over last Thanksgiving, because we asked what they were doing for the holiday, and they said they couldn't afford to do anything.