posted on Feb, 13 2010 @ 01:10 AM
Even in a society-wide collapse, rulers don't just disappear. They morph, but they never just leave town.
Think about it. Imagine a city that can no longer pay its police force. What will those officers do now? They still have the guns and the
bullet-proof vests. They still have the keys to the motor pool, and the city government fuel-depot. Would the police just stand by and let looters
steal their fuel? Heck, the 'officers' even have a jail they can use to hold prisoners in… The definition of "police officer" would probably
change, as they deputize family and friends, and arm their neighbors to make sure THEIR people are safe.
What about violent gangs? If society collapsed, they'd still have the guns and the ammo, the organization to stay in control. Even if their supply
of drugs dries up, they still find themselves armed in a city with closed and deserted stores. What's to keep them from taking over the nearest
walmart, or target, or Lowes? Gang members have families, and they need support structures too, so gang ranks would swell, as they occupy local
stores and pay their members in merchandise. A low level street gang would quickly morph into a more sophisticated entity, perhaps resembling a
medieval fiefdom more than an urban gang.
What about the local hospital? Will the workers there just leave all the medical supplies to the looters? Wont they be tempted to steal it for
themselves, or perhaps to cut a deal with what's left of the police, and pay the local militia to guard the hospital for them? Before you know it,
the local government begins to take on the trappings of a miniature independent state. And what was once a hospital is transformed into a
fortress…
History is replete with examples of EXACTLY this kind of behavior. It happened in the Paris Commune in 1871; After the French central government was
deposed, the people of Paris quickly coalesced into a discernable local government, and even attempted to repel an invasion by the new National French
Republican government.
It happened in Germany in the wake of World War I, and the roving bands of paramilitary Freikorps terrorized much of the nation. No response was ever
found, and so the Friekorps became one locus of power for the fascist movement that began to coalesce around the Strasser brothers, Goebbels, and
Hitler.
Somalia and Afghanistan are current examples. The fashionable term in government circles is to refer to them as "failed states," but this is
exactly the sort of situation that survivalists need to take into account, one in which there is no central authority, and clans of armed thugs or
ex-soldiers attempt to set up their own rival regimes.
Some historians believe that the legend of King Arthur is based on a Roman mercenary warlord who stayed behind after the Emperor in Rome withdrew his
legions from Britannia.
Questions for survivalists:
-How do you prepare for the type of paramilitary units that often run wild in the vacuum of a failed state?
-How will local populations be most vulnerable, and what can we do ahead of time to reduce our own vulnerabilities?
-How could a survivalist profit from the extreme social mobility that follows a social collapse?